The13th AÑO: 4
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NÚMERO 37
UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA
SYSTEM CORPORATION ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR HARD DRIVES!
[ Interview with Scott Newth from System Corporation by BenjamÃn York ]
ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR HARD DRIVES!
Sometimes it happens that we have the opportunity to interview a very new prospective band. This is one of these cases, where they are so new, in fact, that they have only released their debut single. While it may sound absurd to know a band for a single song, we liked it so much that we wanted to speak with System Corporation and not wait until they become famous – we know that that will happen eventually if they continue to put out music of the quality that we hear on this first single "Dismal Universal Hiss". In following with the spirit of Revista The 13th, now we present you our interview with New Zealand newcomers System Corporation. Before starting, we would like to thank you for this opportunity. I have read about you and I know several of the answers to questions below, but our readers will be learning about you for the first time. For introduction sake, let’s start with the band’s beginning. How did the band begin? How did you come up with your band name? It began when Phil and I were flatting in Stockholm. Phil played me a few demos he had, and I had a few songs of my own, so we decided to collaborate, and it began from there. The name came from a conversation with a friend of ours. He was explaining how the Swedish System Bolaget works, and he said that it loosely translated into System Corporation, so we took the name from there. The irony in the name is that System Bolaget sounds very corporate, but is actually a government-controlled entity. Who are the members of System Corporation? What else can you tell me about yourselves? Ben Cole (Drums & Percussion): I am currently lengthening my tendons and going for bigger lungs. Scott Newth (Vocals, Production, Bass): I guess I am a music producer. If that is what you call manipulating people into taking their music in a certain direction. Andrew Newth: (Guitars, Keys) Player of guitars and guitar pedals but also likes keys and the crazy noises they make. Kent Newth: (Guitars) I make crazy keyboard noises too, but with guitars and pedals. Philip Somervell: (Guitars) Writer of many different song ideas, and casual observer to what ever
happens next. How do you usually compose your songs? Well for me there are many ways. Phil might give me a demo and I work on Vocals for that, and cut it up and arrange it. Or I might work on a song with Andrew and Kent and we build it all together. Or I might write an entire song and use that, but as a bass player, I need those guitar players to help me a lot. Phil is prolific and he has a lot of musical ideas that he gets down. Some are complex songs with multiple parts and some are one or two ideas. He also writes what he thinks might be vocal melodies, but I tend to leave those as musical melodies and come up with something else that he hadn’t thought of. Andrew writes on both guitar and keys, and we haven’t really developed that line as much on this album as we will in the future. How would you describe your own music? I guess like most people, our music is a giant mash up of all our influences. But with five people contributing to the outcome, we end up somewhere that isn’t a direct reflection of any one of those influences. When the album is out I think you’ll find a range of different songs and ideas and treatments, without ever aiming to be any one musical style. Why do you think people should listen to System Corporation? I’m not sure. Initially you should listen to it to see if you like it. Then, once deciding, you should listen to it for enjoyment, or never again. But I think you need to listen to it now, and then listen again tomorrow. Then wait two days, and then listen again. After the third listen, and only then, should you make your decision. This is true of all songs. As far as System Corporation goes, I think we are excited about the album when it comes out, and we hope people listen to it as there is a lot going on musically. It has a lot of variation. Who would you count among your influences? At the moment, between the five of us: Sonic Youth, OMD, Joy Division, Ty Segal, Thee Oh Sees, Band Of Horses, Alt-J, Fat White Family, Grizzly Bear, Bailterspace, The Marked Men, Shovels & Rope,
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Fleet Foxes, The Sonics, Pond, Kurt Vile, Savages, Built To Spill. Honestly the list goes on and on. We all like different things. Do we sound like any one of those acts? Not really. How does the band sound live? Are you already playing shows? We don’t have plans to play live at this stage, as we all live in different cities, and we all play in other bands, that play live. We are concentrating on recording for now, and we will see what happens. Tell us about the first album "Fiction Dept.". How will it sound and when will you release this? Has it already been recorded? What stage is it in? It has all been recorded, but not mixed. As people record different parts in different places, there is a lot of compiling to do. We also had a massive setback due to a hard drive failure, and a lot of lost audio, all of which we managed to recover, over a long and complicated period of time. We haven’t set a date as such. Our producer is pretty lazy. I think it will sound surprising. There are some very guitar heavy tracks like Dismal Universal Hiss on this record. But we also have some electronic influenced songs on there, and a couple of real pop songs.
Today the possibilities of self-management are varied. How are you managing to become better known via press and radio or otherwise? Well I think a lot of bands manage themselves these days. But you have to divide up your jobs and outsource some to other people or organizations. So a big part of managing System Corporation, was finding like-minded people who can help us achieve what we want. Our only goal is to be heard. So the first two things we decided to focus on, was publishing, and PR. We can’t do our own publishing; you need a Publisher with all their recourses to do that for you. You could do our own PR, but the best thing we did was find a PR company, that believed they could promote us. PR People are specialists, so you need to find one that can reach the people you are trying to reach. They have all the connections and recourses in place, not to mention reputation. There is no way we could reach out, like our PR company has. If you are self-managed, you still need a PR company to help you, especially when you are a brand new band like we are. We wouldn’t even be talking to you right now, if it weren’t for our independent PR people (Shameless Promotion PR in this case). We knew this of course from past experiences with our other bands.
What do you think of music piracy and the current situation with online streaming vs. music on physical media like vinyl, CD or cassette? As Ben Cole said, “I like buying vinyl but if someone can get something for free I'm hardly surprised if they do. If you can give the chance to pay for something easily many people will”. You can’t fight it. We have the song for sale digitally, but why would you buy it if you already have access to it on Spotify or Apple Music? I’m one of those people who like to buy a record and play the whole thing, and look at the artwork and read the liner notes. You can’t download vinyl. Yet … Every single one of us still buy physical copies of music. We all have turntables at home, and at least 4 out 5 of them still work. What are your plans for the rest of 2017? I have to finish the album. There is still a bit of work to do to get the final few songs finished. I am working with a few acts on their projects so it’s a juggle of time. Ben has another album on the way with his band The Joint Chiefs, so he is busy mixing that. Andrew and Phil are still writing. Andrew has a solo project under construction. No one knows what Kent does really… He’s very mysterious.
Where can you find everything web and social net for System Corporation? We are all over the place. Search System Corporation in Spotify and iTunes, or Amazon. Or buy our single directly from us at https://systemcorporation.bandcamp.com. Please sign up for more release information over at http://systemcorporation.co/. And we are on https://www.facebook.com/SystemCorporation/ & Twitter @System_Corp and we have a couple of Instagram accounts if you search Systemcorp (informal) or systemcorporation (deadly serious announcements). Finally, is there anything you’d like to share with our readers? Do you mean an anecdote, or some wise words of wisdom? All I can say is that it has taken us a very long time to get this song finally out. Always backup your hard drives! Thank you for this interview. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us Benjamín. We can’t wait to send you a few more songs a bit later on.
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The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA