What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.
Hudson: My father used to play the guitar at home when I was very little, so music was always around. I had my first band around 10 or so, it was actually a virtual band that lived only in comics that I drew. The first band that really hooked me up was Titãs (they were a very big post-punk/pop band in the 80’s here in Brazil)
Martha: I was always very introspective and music was an escape from the “real world”. My first contact with music was through cartoon bands like Josie & the Pussycats, Jabberjaw and Jem and the Holograms. I got my first guitar in my 15th birthday and after that my life was never the same.
Provide us with some info about your latest release…
Since we took a break from our previous bands (TRONN and Set-setters), we talked a lot about the different things we wanted to do and didn’t fit into these other projects. We gathered all our influences and the bands we were listening at the time and started to write some musical sketches.
By that time, we were listening to bands like Xiu Xiu, Firewater, Elysian Fields, Explosions in the Sky, etc. Besides that, there were always some post-punk playing like Siouxsie, Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, Nick Cave…Our interest in Eastern music, Arabic, Indian and others came from Dead Can Dance that is one of our biggest references.
So, from all of this inspiration and talk, came out this mix of Post-punk with a 90’s alt-rock, lots of experimentation and eastern music references.
Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?
For me, Hudson, Dead Can Dance’s Spiritchaser was an eye/ear opener. J.G. Thirwel is another guy that I fully admire. All of his projects are great and heavily influence the way I write and produce music. Apart from them, I guess Massive Attack, Elysian Fields and Siouxsie are big inspirations.
Non musically speaking, everything that has an ironic vision of the society is interesting to us. We love sarcasm, people that don’t take themselves and the world too seriously. We like to say that we’re “social networks misanthropes”! We’re also big fans of surrealism.
In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?
Well, I think our songs are very rich, there are lots of things happening and doesn’t matter what your musical taste is, there will always be something in it that’s going to please you! 🙂
We’re also very proud that we could experiment a lot, pushing the boundaries of the so called goth/post-punk style without being trapped in the old cliches. Nothing against it, we love the genre, but we think that other people already did it better than us.
The eastern elements punctuating the music also make our music sound fresh, and that’s definitely a differential.
Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…
Hudson:
Albums: Foetus (Love), Neurosis (Eye of the every storm), Dead Can Dance (Spiritchaser), Napalm Death (Scum), Mr. Bungle (California)
Books: The Castle (Kafka), Chants of Maldoror (Lautreamont), Theses Groucho Marxism (Bob Black)
Movies: Stalker (Tarkovski), Eraserhead (David Lynch), 2001 (Kubrick)
Martha:
Albums: London Calling (The Clash), Black Generation (Richard Hell & The Voidoids), Los Angeles (X)
Books: Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë), Nausea (Sartre), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Movies: The Exterminating Angel (Buñuel), Cries and Whispers (Bergman), Life of Brian (Monty Python)
Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?
We’d say we prefer the studio because we can create, experiment and get totally obsessive over the smallest details. At the same time, our biggest hobby is going to see live bands and suck the energy out of the gig so we can keep young.
Also, we haven’t played live with The Lautreamonts yet. Our first gig will be in december, so who knows?
Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?
Hudson: In 2004, I was playing with my former band TRONN in Switzerland. It was in a very big venue (bands like Neubauten and the Melvins played there). There were a couple of hundred people in the audience, but they weren’t exactly fans of the chaotic industrial/hardcore/metal I was playing at the time. So, we started the show with a packed audience and ended it with only 2 people!
Also, after the show, I signed the guestbook of the place and on the other page there signs of Mike Patton (one of my heroes), because Fantomas had just played the week before.
Martha: I remember playing with my old punk band Nauzia and our payment was in coins. We left the place very happy and with a bag full of “money”
Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?
“Who We Were” because it’s the one of the most interesting and rich songs of the EP. It took big time to produce and even more to mix so each element had its own place. It was a very complex arrangement to do due to the quantity of instruments used. And I think it’s the one the best translate the mood of the band.
Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?
We’re very focused on our show. We’ll play live as a duo, so we have to rearrange the songs to fit that way live. There’s so many things playing at the same time and we need to make it simple to work well in a live situation.
We’re putting a lot of effort into it. Not only musically but visually as well, we’re doing video projections and a light show. We want it to be as pleasant for us as for the audience.
We’re planning some local gigs first, then touring in Brazil and Europe next year.
There’s also a remix version of our debut be being finalized now.
Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…
We’re going to cheat and use a funny Twitter meme that made us laugh these days. “What 5 items someone would put in a salt circle to summon you?”
Martha: a pair of boots, nasal drops, hair bleach, sunglasses and Corn Flakes
Hudson: beer, music, curry, a band t-shirt and a pair of converses
Curated by: Konstantinos Kourkounakis
Recommended listening:
Connect with The Lautreamonts:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pg/thelautreamont
Official website http://thelautreamonts.com
Bandcamp page https://thelautreamonts.bandcamp.com