Interview with Crystal Fighters
As featured on: My Social List
While the US music scene has been an ever revolving door of 80′s revival, London based band Crystal Fighters have been forging their own unique path and quietly taking over. They emerged with their first album, Star of Love, in 2010, and it is a beautiful exploration of a variety of genres, everything from electro-pop to folk to dance. The group is set to release their sophomore album Cave Rave on May 28th, and I had a chance to talk with lead singer Sebastian Pringle about it.
The group got together in London after member Laure Stockley discovered a plethora of memoirs, poetry, and ideas for an opera in her grandfather’s house in Basque country in Spain. There were references to traditional Basque musical instruments which sparked an intense fascination with Basque music and culture and inspired not only the group’s name, but their debut album as well. “We used his ideas for our music, and also the dramatic and emotional background of his life. It inspired us to write more and to make music that referenced all of these things. We wanted it to be more personal and emotional,” says Sebastian.
Cave Rave definitely takes elements of what we heard in Star of Love, in particular the folk, but it’s also evident that their sound really grew and matured. For this new album the group isolated themselves completely in the Basque country. Sebastian says the reason behind this was to rediscover the culture, the music, and to see if they could be inspired once again by Basque to write new material. They would play with local musicians and write and record everything that came to them in that time.
Sebastian describes the experience, “We rented a cottage in the country and it was there that we got into the idea of Cave Rave. At that point we could have really been anywhere in the world, in any time period, just trying to create music. It was kind of something cave men would have done when they felt inspired or wanted to remember some euphoric period, which is what music is all about. We wanted to create music for the sake of it, for the love of it.”
You can definitely hear that in singles “You and I” and “Wave”, which are some of my favorite tracks from the album.
The group was getting ready to start on their world tour, and we had a quick chance to chat about their favorite places to play. Basque country in Spain, obviously, made the top of the list but Sebastian says they were nervous to play at first not knowing how the locals would react to their music. They were easily accepted. New York also made the top of their list, and they'll be headlining a show at Webster Hall on June 19th with Alpine opening.
Keeping in line with the inspiration behind Cave Rave, I decided a "Would You Rather" question was only appropriate. So, I asked Sebastian "would you rather go back in time and meet your ancestors, or travel into the future and meet your great great great grandchildren?" His answer: "I think I'd rather go back in time to meet my ancestors and see what kind of crazy adventures I could get into. I don't think I'd be much use in the future."
Don't forget to pick up their album, which you can download of on their site. Also, grab tickets for their Webster Hall show, they are on sale now.
**Big thanks to Sebastian for taking the time to chat with me and Jordan and Emily from Atlantic Records for setting everything up.**
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