Shapeless Zine Interview

Posted in Italian at Shapeless Zine.

- Hi guys! First of all my compliments for your demoCD, it moved me deeply. Can you tell us something about its creation? Are you completely satisfied about it?

Thank you very much! Johannes Stole and I are long time friends and we share many of the same favorite artists, so we wanted to start a new band and create something fresh and unique. We built a little home studio, and being our first demo we decided to experiment a lot and do the whole thing ourselves. When it comes to the songs we are very satisfied with the demo. We also feel that the production is strong enough to mediate the vibe we were looking for, but that the programmed drums obviously limit the overall listening impression. With a programmed drum track you will just not get the right feeling for this kind of music, so we are looking forward to working with real drummer on the next recordings. The concept that was introduced lyrically on the demo will also be brought to a conclusion on the finished album, so the songs on the demo might make more sense when heard in relation to the new songs.

- Is there something particular you want to add to our review?

We've had a lot of fantastic reviews, but it's always special when someone understands what we're really trying do to and your review was great in that respect. It means a lot when people take the time to dig beneath the surface level of your music, especially since we worked very hard on these songs.

- Did you catch the interest of any label with "Circles Of Butterflies"?

Yes, we did catch an interest, but nothing concrete has come out of it yet. Honestly, we are not thinking much about the label situation right now, as we have pretty much decided to make the first record ourselves and then get it distributed through a suitable label.

- Which are your main personal interests and inspirations?

Music, literature, politics and associating with different kinds of people.

- Do you create your music in some particular circumstances? How do you create your songs?

I write most of the basic material for Pedestrians of Blue. I give Johannes my ideas through rough demos with tentative guitar parts, melody lines, drum parts and a lyrically theme. Then he presents his suggestions and we usually make some needy changes. In the arranging process we work closely together and I think this is the stage where the music truly come to life.

- Can you tell us something about the Norwegian musical scene? Are there good bands you want to point out and suggest us?

I can't think of any new bands, but I like older bands like TNT, Conception, Stage Dolls and even A-ha. Jorn Lande is one of my favorite singers. Pretty much everything he does is worth listening to. And there's another great Norwegian singer called Roy Khan who is in the band Kamelot.

- Suppose you have the chance to film a videoclip: which song would you choose, and how would you structure this videoclip?

We havent given this much thought, but I think we would have chosen a new song called "The Garden" that has got a theme and vibe that would be interesting to work out visually. There would be elements of a garden, rain, wine and apples in a moody and surreal setting. We'll be recording a demo of this song shortly.

- If someone stops you and says "Italy", then which is the first thing you think about?

Rome, pizza, Rhapsody, Silvio Berlusconi, renaissance, Venice, cultural plurality, Sandro Altobelli... But more important, and I don't know why, but Italy seems to be the country where our demo has been best received!

This question is for every different member of the band: which is your dream you would like to become reality?

To make a decent living by playing our favorite music.

- Which are your future plans?

Finishing writing and recording our first album. Then we hope to play as many shows as possible in support of it.

- We are at the end of the interview... I want to thank you for all the emotions that I felt listening to your music, and I hope to see you live here in Italy. Ok, now you can say what you want to the readers of Shapeless Zine!

You're welcome. Look out for our album that hopefully will be finished soon and we hope to be able to play in Italy some time!