UP, FREDRIK HÖRSTRÖM
Domingo, 30 de Diciembre de 2007
Like so many other bands Lethargy was formed after a meeting in a club. Mayte Cruz, vocals, synthesizers and programming, met Julio Tome, programming, production and synthesizers and they discovered that they shared some ideas and that they both wanted to make innovative electronic music.
Mayte tells me that they try very hard to create music that sounds like what they feel inside and to channel their thoughts through their lyrics and to include the knowledge earned in life. Lethargy recently released their debut album "In-Macula", read the review here, and I asked Mayte what inspired them during the making of In-Macula:
- The inspiration comes from things that we live, things around us…sometimes it depends on the moment that you are just living; if you feel high or if you feel blue. But nevertheless, if we take a look around, there are many things that can inspire a new song.
What would you say is the main reason you make music?
- I suppose that the reason for anyone who makes music is the necessity to express the ideas and the qualities that you have inside to the rest of the world. In my case I have grown with the music very close to me all my life, because my mother is a singer, I even had a record shop some years ago. Julio used to work as a DJ in some many different clubs in the north of Spain, but he moved to Madrid to be involved in the electronic scene of the capital. Both of us used to have synthesizers, sequencers…When we created lethargy in 1998 we started joining our energy, ideas and knowledge with a very big understanding from the beginning.
So your music is a natural development of your life?
- Yes, it is a very important part of our lives. We spend a lot of time in music, we also work sometimes in Madrid as DJ:s, we also like to work together with musician friends in a home studio making experiments until late at night.
How come you call yourself Lethargy?
- There is not a special reason why we chose this name. We like the sound and the meaning of the word but the real motive of the name is a night without sleeping in which we made a brain-storm with a list full of names for the project, and Lethargy was the Julio's favourite, so I let him choose that name. Now we think that is a good name for us, because in winter we come into a kind of lethargy (we sleep a lot).
Tell me about your past projects?
- I used to sing with a band, Vicious Soul, but it was closer to rock style, you know Pixies, Sonic Youth, that kind of stuff. I also used to collaborate with Spanish music-producers in vinyl discs for DJ:s, I'm still doing it sometimes. Julio started with the music very young, age 16, in the north of Spain, he used to play the saxophone in a band and years later he started to be interested in the electronic music.
Could you comment on your influences?
- All the music we have listened to forms a big part of our lives and it is composed of so many different styles of music. It could be because all the good music that arrived to our ears during the past years influenced in our likes or in our sounds, but we try very hard to have our own style. We also find inspiration in other art forms than music, Edgar Allan Poe, Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Douglas Coupland, Salvador Dali are all sources of inspiration.
- The music is just how we are. The feelings that we transmit to the sounds come directly from our experiences and from everything that is around our lives, it’s a way to say what we think, but with beautiful words.
Would you like to tell us your future plans? Have you got any new work in process?
- We feel very good at this moment, we are living our illusion. We also have started working on production for other bands; we have made remixes for Neikka RPM, Glis, Technology and Aiboforcen.
- Right now we are working on our remix album with international bands and we are also doing a cover of a song by The Cure for a tribute album that the German label Equinoxe is preparing for this year. We have also already started with our new album, that we would like to have as a new release for next year. We hope to reach more people with our new album, and start to play live sets in the rest of Europe. We keep working really hard on our music in order to find a place in the international scene.
Would you like to add anything else?
- Thanks to you for the interview and your support. Loads of love to the readers. See you soon!!!
