The13th AÑO: 4
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NÚMERO 37
UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA
CLUSTERSUN WE HAVE VERY HIGH EXPECTATIONS
[ Interview with Clustersun by BenjamÃn York ]
WE HAVE VERY HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Italy has, for many years, become an inexhaustible source of bands. Among the most outstanding sounds this country has brought is shoegaze. We have already featured several bands on our pages, but now it is the turn of this beautiful band from Catania, which, in addition to a soccer team that usually hosts Argentine players, brings us Clustersun, with their wonderful sonority. For starters I would like you to tell me how the band formed and where your name came from? Everything started in 2013 just as a mutual enjoyment between four longtime friends and shoegaze/ psych/wave addicted that love jamming at super loud volumes. After a few weeks spent drenching melodies with fuzz and reverb we had yet a bunch of song drafts and started thinking to giving a name to our project. One of these first drafts was called “Cluster Sun”, mainly because it had a section reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s instrumental track “Cluster One” (changing the title that way was a joke and a tribute at the same time), so when we talked of the band’s name all of us agreed that this one could perfectly work, but written as one word: it has a kind of trippy, spacey vibe and we instantly thought could represents really well the music and the aesthetics we intended to deliver. In 2014, you released "Out of your ego", which aroused great interest in the heart of the shoegaze scene. What was it like for you to experience these first steps and the feedback in relation to your debut album? We were lucky enough to be noticed by Paolo Messere of Seahorse Recordings very soon, thanks to our first self produced single “Be Vegetal”. So, after just a few months from the beginning of the band’s life, Paolo brought us in studio for recording “Out Of Your Ego” with sound engineer Giuseppe Barbera. Watching our songs taking shape in studio was so much exciting, but the best was yet to come. When the album came out, in April 2014, the reactions were amazing, both in Italy and worldwide, and on the wave of lead single “Hipgnosis” we gained great appreciation in the shoegaze scene. We also had the chance to support the album with a tour that led us in the US, playing in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia and other cities on the Eastern part of the States, thanks
to the help of Dave Allison of Custom Made Music label: that was easy one of the best experiences in our entire life. In the three years after that, Clustersun participated in several compilations and tributes. What do you think about this debut album today? Would it change anything – something that today listens badly to what was recorded on this album? Three years later we still think “Out Of Your Ego” was a strong debut and a faithful representation of how our band sounded in 2014. The songs were all born at rehearsals with a focus on ethereal and cold atmospheres but in these years, and especially playing a lot live, we developed a way more muscular sound, emphasizing at max the dynamic range. Listening to it today we feel there’s maybe a lack of power, grit and dirt; elements that are instead very much on the spotlight in the new album “Surfacing To Breathe”. But this is something that shows the evolution in the band’s artistic path, and in the end we like that the two albums have a different sound approach to the same genre. Now about this three-year transition. How long did it take to write the new songs? How has the Italian shoegaze scene developed in that time? The new songs came out in a very spontaneous way and also in quite a short time, rehearsing between one gig and another. That explains the more “on steroid” attitude of the new stuff. We always write music starting from free jams, and when we come up with interesting riffs, sounds, parts then the song is structured around this pristine elements with the equal contribution of all of us. Almost all songs were yet written in 2015 and at least half of them were regularly performed live since then. That helped a lot in developing the final versions of the songs before the recording sessions. A great source of inspiration in these three years was also offered by the growth of the entire Italian shoegaze/psych/dreampop/wave scene, with so many great bands that are conquering international acclaim, both by critics and audience. Despite that, Italian press and music fans seem not to pay the deserved attention to artists delivering unconventional sounds, and that’s a big disappointment.
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Finally we have reached the second album "Surfacing To Breathe", which, by the way, I think is much more beautiful than the debut album. It shows a great growth. How do you feel about this second album? Glad you liked it! Indeed we are so proud and happy of how it came out and feel it’s a huge step forward compared to the debut, more solid and in your face. We tried to raise the sonic bar delivering a more complex and layered mixture of shoegazey reverberations, massive walls of sound and psychedelic soundscapes. There’s a cosmic/space-y dark vibe that surronds all the 8 songs, matched with a dreamlike sense of melancholy and emotional fragility coming from the lyrics. The great goal for us was having Alessio Pindinelli (also guitar and vocals in La Casa Al Mare) and Fabio Galeone mixing “Surfacing To Breathe” at Wax Recording Studio in Rome: their work in giving shape to our sonic ideas was simply outstanding (Alessio also co-produced
the album with us). We’re also very proud because the recording session were directed by our synth man Piergiorgio Campione at his own Studio12 in Catania: so we had a total control over the tracks and great room for experimentation. The mastering provided by Carl Saff in Chicago was just the icing on the cake: he finalized the album with a super loud, full and deep sound. Another blessing was the collaboration with Ilaria Facci, internationally acclaimed italian photographer based in London, for the album’s artwork. We are totally in love with her art and with her: she’s passionate, inspiring and big-hearted. In the end we couldn’t be happier of the new album and the feedbacks coming after the release of the first single “Raw Nerve” and its stunning videoclip by Samir Kharrat and Adriano Spadaro of Visualazer, are yet simply overwhelming. We have very high expectations on “Surfacing To Breathe”, for sure.
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Can you tell us something about each track? A Track By Track narrative. Raw Nerve It’s the new album’s lead single and manifesto. Pure wall of sound with a menacing bass line, thunderous drums, hyper dense synths, stormy guitars and washed out dreamy vocals. Antagonize Me Psych-gaze anthem for paranoids. It talks about inner fears and shows another full onslaught of fuzz&reverb: perfect track to blast your neighborhood. Lonely Moon Written with Slowdive in heart and mind, it’s an immersive, soft and densesongk that embraces you gently. The Whirling Dervish A psych suite featuring a tiny tribute to one of our earliest influences, Pink Floyd. It’s a journey with plenty of variations in tempo and dynamic range. Don't Let the Weight Of Your Soul Drag You Down Instrumental track intended to give a sort of ascensional feeling, as it keeps growing in intensity, layers and volume from the beginning to the end. Surfacing To Breathe The title track is a dark-psych suite on steroids with a trippy middle section that create a suspended and lysergic atmosphere before exploding in a glorious finale. Emotional Painkiller For lovers of new wave and 80’s style infectious bass riff: this is definitely our “catchy” tune. Event Horizon The album ends with this powerful and obscure song, introduced by an epic and heavily effected drum pattern; it talks about the sense of powerlessness and distance.
Thinking about your band’s unique sound – how much have your grown as a band and as musicians? Feel like in these years we experienced a creative expansion both in terms of sound and songwriting, and also a greater self awareness. Playing live and always listening to new and old music gives us inspiration, more influences and helps to push our limits further. Now that the album is coming out, you will surely be gigging live. Will you play all the songs on the album?
Yea, now can’t wait to come out and play “Surfacing To Breathe” live! All the new songs will definitely be performed, alongside 3-4 favorites from the debut album. What other plans do you have this year? We are planning a tour to support the album with gigs in Italy and Europe and we should come back to play in the US in 2018. We’ll also come out with a 2 more singles before the end of the year. Thank you for answering our questions.
The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA