The Suicide of Western Culture… Do you like hood music?

Interview: The Suicide of Western Culture

Published on September 3rd, 2012 | Jonny Abrams

The Suicide of Western Culture are set to release a second album of chiming electronic loveliness, so Rocksucker fired some questions over to the duo in order to find out a little bit more about how they operate…

What’s the line-up of the band? How did you meet, and how long has the band been going for?

We are a couple of friends from Terrassa, an industrial city in the outskirts of Barcelona. We met some years ago when we were playing in rock bands. Later on we got introduced into electronic music, buying a sampler and other basic stuff… We met again a couple of years ago through the internet and although each one of us followed different paths we shared our musical aims… So everything got smooth: we met in a room with a lot of sales gear and instruments and we started composing songs influenced by cinema scores and ’90s post-rock.

How would you describe your music, if pushed?

Something really visceral and emotive, but easy at the same time. We compose our songs really fast and with few sounds: we are not a baroque kind of band…

Where are you based, and what do you use to record with?

We basically record in any place… Our gear is very easy-to-use: small keyboards, guitar pedals, samplers… We could finish a song in a hotel room or somewhere else…

Are you signed to a label? If so, how did you come to their attention?

We are part of a Spanish electronic label but with a great international renown called Irregular (a sublabel of Regular label). They contacted us by chance: they got our first album as a demo and they released it just like that (no overdubbings or additional production). The album got a very good reception inside and outside Spain, which let us sign for big booking agencies as well as playing in big festivals all over Europe (The Great Escape in Brighton, C/O Pop in Cologne, Le Fest in Tunis…) and even US (SXSW Festival).

Is there a full album in the works? If so, what can you tell us about it? (Feel free to be as abstract as you like…)

We are currently mixing our new album, which will probably be released at the end of September. We are following the same path as in our first album: instead of looking for great singles we feel more comfortable with a conceptual album. It’s a more holistic view.

Where can we hear your music online?

You can listen and get our music in all the main musical digital platforms and of course on Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/irregularlabel

Which have been your most exciting gigs and/or overall moments so far?

There have been many… Maybe Berlin or Brighton were really powerful gigs, as well as the experience of travelling to Texas for the SXSW Festival: we were really astonished by the enormous dimension of this festival!

Got any more coming up? (Gigs, that is…)

We will be soon playing in some festivals in LA, Barcelona, Vienna and Paris. And hopefully we would come back soon to UK (we are very fond of it!): we only could enjoy a few hours after our last gig in Brighton and we had a really good time!

Are there any obscure and/or up-and-coming acts that you’d like to recommend or give a shout-out to?

September 1st we will be playing at FYF Festival (LA), which supports new bands and projects.
It’s always good to search and discover any band that tomorrow will be on everybody’s lips.

Finally, if you were forced to spend the rest of your days in solitary confinement, but were allowed to bring the entire works of five different artists along to tide you over, whose would you choose?

Boards of Canada, Pink Floyd, Mogwai, Nick Drake, The Walker Brothers.

TSOWC, thank you.

The Suicide of Western Culture

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Artists: the suicide of western culture

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.