The malcontent
 

EoIpso: Your music and lyrics sound very malcontent, a lot of dissonant structures and repetitive phrases inside, what makes you feel like that?

Daniel: Well, I wouldn't really say that our music is "malcontent" generally, but I guess that feeling comes through on our CD "Spasm" as it's a more uneasy album. We were both in shitty jobs at the time, I didn't sleep for about a month and a lot of the lyrical themes on that album are about feeling trapped and you're bashing your head against a wall. As for the repetition and dissonance in the songs, I believe that's more to do with songwriting style, rather than mood. We have done other songs which also have those qualities but have come across as uplifting and elevating, rather than dark or uneasy.

Sometimes dissonance and repetition (especially repetition) can be a joyful thing in music. For example, one of our newer songs is based around a very repetitive loop of a bassline which gradually builds up and when we've played it live I've found it quite uplifting, to get completely locked into playing the same phrase over and over again thus building up the intensity of the song. When this goes well it can be quite transcendental and invigorating to play. But I see what you mean about "Spasm", it has definitely a feeling of unease coming through. What makes us feel like that? It's just being human isn't it? I think everyone feels like that sometimes. Our new material explores other emotional states. We are not, by any means, unhappy people. We are really quite friendly and pleasant!

EoIpso: Nothing to be argued about. What's the story behind "Initially", the first track on "Spasm"? It's a sound collage, so is it meant to be the intro to track number two, or does it carry a subliminal message?

Daniel: No, "Initially" doesn't carry a subliminal message. It's just a recording of some wind-chimes that we thought sounded good at the time. As we had finished recording "Spasm", we thought it would be good to have a sound that punctuates the beginning of the record as you begin to listen to it. The chimes were recorded on my dictaphone, when I was staying with some friends. I suppose it should have gone on the end of the album because it was the last thing to be recorded, but it was a more pleasant way to start the album. Also I like the idea of swapping things over like that: having things, which are actually the ending, but instead putting them at the beginning. It is just a single recording in its own right and contains no subliminal messages. We're not trying to make people go supermarket shopping, or anything like that!

EoIpso: Your guitar playing style and sound reminded me a bit of Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), do you like his music? Did you or Maria have any formal training?

Daniel: I think that's probably more Maria's guitar playing, if I'm thinking of the same songs you are thinking of. She would definitely find that a compliment! We certainly like Thurston Moore's music, although I wouldn't say that Sonic Youth has influenced us songwriting-wise. But we do like them a lot. Formal training? I had Jazz guitar lessons when I was younger but apart from that no. We've never really employed traditional thinking into our music: in a strange sort of way I feel more like a non-musician as I tend to think of the finished thing as a whole picture, rather than thinking how I am going to play a particular instrument. Maria has had some Classical training and studied folk music as well, but we both tend to think of a song as whole and the feeling it gives as the most important thing.

> Drum donkeys
 


Maria, probably inspired by Thurston Moore
 

LEISUR::HIVE
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< Disposable music
= The malcontent
> Drum donkeys
> The missing "e"