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3. What bands do you
hear before play music this way?
We all have different musical taste within the band, so I don't
think it's easy to name all our musical influences. We're all big fans
of bands like Hot water music (especially their older stuff), Small
Brown Bike, Planes Mistaken for Stars, Grade, Alkaline Trio... and also
of older hard rock bands. Some of us are more into emo, like Sensefield
and Jimmy eat world and stuff like that, while others are also into
heavier bands like Snapcase or Botch or Converge... so, that's our musical
background, I guess.
4. I remember that...
when I do the review of your CD in my last issue I talk about great
songs but no very original style... What do you think when people (I'm
not the first, sure!) says these things?
Every band has their influences, no matter how original they claim
to be. We also have our influences and we're still growing as a band.
We're developing a personal style with every new song we make and we're
really not ripping off other bands so... In my opinion, making music
is being creative with your influences, because all melodies already
exist, you know. The style we play is indeed getting big at the moment...
but it's the type of music we love, so we don't really care about trends
or stuff like that. Thanks for saying you
like our songs, by the way. We put a lot of effort into writing songs
and rewriting them till we're happy with every note and every word.
5. Of course there's
a lot of bands in the same case of you...To be original it's a propose?,
or you don't care about?
As I said before, we try to be as original and creative as possible.
But most of all we want to play the music that we love, and if that
music sounds a bit like Hot water music, or Grade, we don't really care
because we love these bands and we're playing what we want to play...
We're not trying to sound like any particular band, we're doing what
feels best.
6. About lyrics..
the first song...i think is really cool... what can you say about the
positive spirit of your words?... isn't a way to break the habit of
thinking that bands with a sound like you ever they have sad lyrics?
Well yeah, "An attempt to make moments last" is certainly
a song that has a positive vibe to it. Our older songs were all really
negative and depressed and I wanted to try something different for a
change. I think the whole CD has a positive vibe, that's also why we
chose "An attempt..." as the title for the album. It sounds
hopeful, you know. It's a way of saying: "hey, don't let the world
get you down, because that's only gonna keep you in line". Whining
about all the things you don't like in this world, isn't going to change
a thing. We have to look at the good things that have come out of this
scene, all the efforts made by so many people. An attempt to make moments
last is about how much this scene, this community can mean to every
individual person being part of it. It's about how hardcore/punk changed
my life and how it still touches so many people all over the world.
Don't you think it's amazing, that you are a Spanish guy, having somewhat
the same taste of music and the same ideas as me, and we're doing this
interview, while I've never seen you in my life... It's all about communication
you know, and about keeping it small and away from the corporate world.
I've had people of different nationalities whom I had just met, sleep
over at my house and I've slept at other peoples homes too... don't
you think that's amazing, seeing we live in this cold and bitter world
where a lot of people don't even know their neighbours or are just afraid
of each other. Every now and then, those great things about our community
just deserve to be mentioned... that's what "An attempt..."
is about.
We knew we were going to be labelled an emo band, you know. Because
every style of melodic hardcore is labelled emo these days. But what
a lot of people don't think about is that emotional music shouldn't
only cover negative emotions... We also wanted positive emotions to
come forward in the songs and I think we succeeded. I try not to limit
myself when I write lyrics, so they can cover a wide variety of topics.
I've written lyrics about being in love, about heartache, about friendship,
about music and the hardcore scene but also about socio-political subjects
like refugees or capitalism...
7. When I saw you
in Vort'n'vis Fest your show really shocked me... intense and with a
lot of feeling... but people seems like frozen with you... what's the
problem or what were the problem with people there?... style, hour,
you aren't very popular or what?
First of all, it was the first time we played in that part of Belgium,
and it's pretty far away from where we live, so a lot of people didn't
really know our music. The bands playing before us were a lot more popular
there, so they got a lot more attention. It was also really hot, so
it wasn't easy to get people to dance... I think these were the major
causes. It was certainly not our best show, and I thought the stage
was to big too, but hey, these kinds of things happen. The Vort 'n'
vis Fest is also a festival with an audience that for the largest part
consists of real diehard hardcore people, so maybe our music was a bit
to soft or to emo or something, I don't know.
8. Do you care when
people isn't really exciting in your shows... because I think that your
feeling was cool these day...
Of course it's nicer to see people dance and sing along when you're
playing. But it doesn't always go that way... I notice that in Belgium
more and more shows are becoming really passive. It's getting really
hard to get people to dance. I don't know why... Maybe hardcore kids
these days are too concerned with looking cool and are afraid to dance
because it might not be good for their image. It's a sad thing. Shows
are always a lot nicer when everyone is just going nuts, you know. I
don't mean violent dancing or windmilling or anything, but just dancing
and singing. That's the way I like it. When we get on stage we always
try to give the best we got, and always go all out, but it's really
hard sometimes, when people are just standing there motionless. But
on the other side, sometimes I go off stage and people haven't been
dancing that much and I'm thinking like: "damn, they didn't like
us..." and then people come up to us to congratulate us for the
show and they say all these nice things. Shows are just different these
days. People like watching instead of acting, it's the TV-culture, you
know...
9. As band what do
you think about the importance of lyrics, music, feelings, transmission
of ideas in the music... finally isn't to have a good time the more
important thing?
To me the lyrics are very important (I'm the singer), because they
reflect my emotions and ideas. They are very personal and I'm always
really happy when I see people singing along or when people tell they
like our lyrics or they could find something of themselves in them.
I think for the music it's the same thing. The melodies are also expressions
of certain emotions and we put a lot of effort in the songs. So it's
always nice to know that you were able to touch people with them...
We're not really a band that has one fixed set of ideas which we want
to carry out. We're all individuals with our own opinions and the thing
that keeps us together most of all is our love for music. We like creating
and we like performing, but we're not really a political band with a
message... it's more of a creative outlet and everybody is free to interpret
our music like it fits them. Having a good time is of course also really
important. We're a group of friends, sharing the same passion for music
and that's what drives us as a band... We don't have a fixed goal or
message but we're on the same wave, and we'll see where it takes us.
10. When you play
concerts... in your shows do you sell CD's?... what do you think about
all this controversy about music in the internet, illegal recordings,
and all this kind of things? What's the way in yourcountry... boys don't
buy CD's but they recording in the internet?
We do sell CD's at our shows. But it's not something that's going
to make us rich. It's just a way of getting our music out there and
earning back a part of the money we had to spend to be able to record
the album. All the money we make by selling CD's or merchandise or by
playing a show goes directly back into the band. And still we can't
afford enough studio time... I guess that's why the production of our
albums isn't all that fantastic... Being a small band like we are, we're
actually glad our music is on the internet, because otherwise a lot
of people would've never heard of us. It gives us the opportunity to
spread our music. Most of the bands that are really against music on
the internet are bigger bands who are afraid that their record sales
are going to be affected, not smaller bands because they're not making
that much money out of record sales. I can understand why people download
from the internet, CD prices are just too high these days. And I also
think that if you really like a band, you're going to buy the CD, just
to have the real thing, with a booklet with lyrics and all... Music
to me is about creating something and about reaching people with it
and affecting them. Spreading music over the internet only serves that
goal. Music shouldn't be about making money, it shouldn't be a product
to be bought or sold. Download our CD if you want to, or steal it from
some big chain store for all I care. We just want our music to be able
to reach and touch as much people as possible.
11. Well... there's
no more questions, only say something about touring with the band and
if we could see you in a Spanish tour.
We don't have any plans for a tour abroad in the near future. We're
probably going to do some small weekend tours to France, Germany, England.
But we haven't really considered coming to Spain yet. We're going to
see what the possibilities are. We all have jobs or go to school, so
it's almost impossible to tour for a longer period of time. We went
to Italy in February this year and we had to cancel more than half of
the tour because our van broke down and we didn't have any money to
rent a new one. It's just really expensive for us to travel that far
and we need money now to pay for de recordings of our upcoming release.
But I'm sure we'll make it to Spain in the future... maybe somewhere
at the end of next year or something. I don't know. If anybody is interested
in arranging some shows for us in Spain, just contact us and we'll see
if we can get something going...
For more info about Cast-down you can go to www.cast-down.be or e-mail
us at castdownrock@hotmail.com
Thanx for the interview!
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