SXSW Interviews: Electric Eye
SXSW is officially started, and as we get ready to head out and hit up as much as we can, we’ve got one more interview for you. This round comes from Electric Eye, one of the many acts boarding a plane to make the long trek and try to impress us all. Read what Oystein had to say below.
ATH:For a lot of bands, this is their first time coming to SXSW, Austin, or even the United States. What are you anticipating for your arrival into our town? Anything youre really hoping to do while youre here?
Oystein: Electric Eye have performed at SXSW before, two years ago. Also I’ve been here twice for the Austin Psych Fest so I am getting to know the city a little, this being my 4th time visiting. I know SXSW is really hectic and intense with so many bands and shows literallyall over the place, but it’s also great fun and loads of cool people and great music. So we really look forward to get over there and party for a week. Austin never disappoints!
ATH:For most SXSW sets, you get 30 minutes to leave a lasting impression. What’s your plan of attack? You have a set list mapped out yet?
Oystein: Yeah, the 30 minutes of compact coolness, rehearsed shout-outs, etc. are not really our favorite way of doing things. Most of our songs last between 5 and 10 minutes, so that gives us maybe 4 songs before we are cut off. But we get that with so many shows you have to make it compact. Our plan of attack will be to play as fast, furious and wild as we can. Hopefully people will like it.
ATH:The festival caters to music fans, but food and booze are an important aspect of the fans and the bands. What’s your band’s food and beverage of choice?
Oystein: We are suckers for that juicy Texan BBQ. Brisket and an ice cold Margarita would do the trick.
ATH:Describe the music community where you come from? Does everyone work together? Is there lots of competition?
Oystein: Bergen, on the west coast of Norway is a small town of 250.000 people. But we have a really small but cool music scene. Some of the original Norwegian black metal guys are now working as mentors for younger bands. You’ll also see musicians from widely different genres play together and everyone being in at least 5 different bands. That makes you keep an open mind for experimenting and is really awesome, because we are helping each other out.
ATH:What are a few bands we might not know about, being in the States, that should be on everyones musical radar?
Oystein: From Norway you should check out The Megaphonic Thrift, really noisy psychedelic shogaze and The Low Frequency in Stereo, groovy, instrumental surf-post-rock with a jazzy touch. Both bands are our friends and should be on everyone’s radar, all over the world.
ATH:Let’s say your band has been booked an official showcase at a pop up venue somewhere in the middle of 6th street (where a lot of shows are set up). The lineup features thrash metal, hip-hop, spoken word, and you. The sound is horrible, the lineup is not your style, and the crowd seems angry at the world. How would your band deal with such a situation?
Oystein: Oh my. We’ve done this, last time we were here. That’s the least cool thing in the world and it feels so wrong. No one is happy, not the bands, not the crowd, not the sound tech, not the venue, so what’s the point really? This is not what playing or listening to music should be about and could lead me into hours of talking about what’s wrong with events like SXSW and similar mass music conventions.
But how would we deal with the situation? Probably just finish our set and get the hell out of there and swear never to do this again. That’s what we did last time, anyway. Haha
ATH:What’s your favorite album to come out in the last year? What’s playing in the tour bus/van?
Oystein: One of the coolest thing that came out last year was the new album of Swedish psych-folk rockers Dungen. Fantastic stuff. In the tour bus we are mostly listening to older stuff like The Grateful Dead, Alice Coltrane, Kvartetten som Sprngdes and JJ. Cale. Smooth, groovy stuff.
ATH:The digital age is upon us, like it or not. What are your band’s thoughts on streaming services like spotify, pandora, etc.? Blow em all up? Or embrace the future?
Oystein: No, we are all about embracing the future. At home I like to listen to my vinyls and I love the way they sound, how they look and how they make me feel. But we’re not purists. On the road for example, Spotify are a fantastic way of listening to music. It’s all about the music, not the format.
ATH:Clearly coming over to the States to play shows is something a lot of bands are excited about, but what are some other life or musical highlights for you this year? Wed like to get to know you.
Oystein: We released our second album one month ago, which is a big deal for us. We had been working on that album fo a long time, and are really happy and proud about how it turned out. After SXSW we are going to Japan for the first time. Thats a big deal for us!
In life, we all finally turned 30 which feels great! Haha.
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