SXSW Interviews: Colatura
The ATH team has this ever growing level of excitement building inside of us that seems to build as each week goes by and SXSW draws ever near. We are making our lists, starting to map things out a bit, and making plans on seeing many old friends from back in the “normal times”. As per usual, we are trying to get you as excited as we are so we hope these pre-interviews are helping expose you to some new bands coming into town. Today I am excited to share my latest interview with Brooklyn based trio Colatura. You can check out their interview and some music after the jump.
Questions were answered by the band together unless noted on the response. Answers came from band members Jennica, Digo, and Meredith.
ATH: What’s the name of the band/group? Where are you from?
C: We are Colatura from Brooklyn, NY
ATH: Describe your groups sound.
C: We combine surf rock, shoegaze, dream pop, and Twee with pop leaning melodies and group vocals.
ATH: What was your most recent release? Any planned releases for 2022?
Yeah! We just released our latest single “Scars” on February 17th and have our debut album And Then We’ll Be Happy coming out on April 22nd.
ATH: Everyone’s been focused on the negative aspects of the last few years? What are a few good things that came about for you as an individual or the band as a whole during the last two pandemic-stricken years?
Jennica: It really gave us time to grow close and invest time in this project. You kind of had to pick who was going to be your ride or die early in the pandemic. So we decided we would all be pod buddies and we got to isolate in upstate New York together and write music for our first album.
ATH: Why play SXSW? Whats the draw for the band? What about this festival will bring you to Austin?
Digo: Honestly the luxury of getting to play any kind of festival right now is pretty cool, but SXSW has a rich tradition of being the stepping off point for a lot of new bands, so we are excited to get to play in front of industry and press people but also since it will be our first time playing outside New York just getting to connect with fans from that area is going to be awesome. The thing we are most excited about is getting to see some of our favorite bands, because at the end of the day we are just really big music nerds.
ATH: Lets say your band has booked an official showcase at a pop up venue somewhere in the middle of 6th street. The lineup features thrash metal, hip-hop, spoken word, and you. The sound is horrible, the lineup is not your style, and the crowd is growing ancy. How would your band deal with such a situation?
Digo: Haha love this question😂. Honestly if it was a pop up venue on 6th street I would probably assume that was going to be the case going into it lol, but we’ve all been doing this long enough that it would be pretty hard to phase us. Sometimes we enjoy situations like that because it really pushes you to be like okay Im going to go out there and rock it like it’s a sold out show with all of our fans and if they don’t give us any love that’s on them. We can be proud because we showed up and did our thing, that’s all we have control of.
Meredith: Especially when we follow a heavy band, I like to try to tell people how to get in the right mindset. Like we’re gonna play some slow jams so just relax and chill out. As an audience member i like it when the band kind of sets the stage like that so I know what to expect and how to zone into the music.
ATH: There are tons of bands coming into town, but if you could create your own perfect festival, who would you have playing? Would it have a sick name? Where would it take place?
Digo: Oh that’s easy it would take place in the New York City subway system. It would be called Dance Train. Each subway line would feature a different genre of music and each train car would be a different band in that genre and you could hop on and off checking out bands as you pleased. It’s New York so if you need to go the bathroom you can just pee on the platform no problem. All the headliners would be transit themed bands so obviously Train, System of the Down, Jefferson Airplane, The Cars, Black Motorcycle Rebel Club & Jay-Z.
ATH: What has everyone in the band been listening to, or, what plays in the tour van/car/bus?
Jennica: We really dig the new Snail Mail album, and then honestly we just listen to a lot of our friends music like Sea Lemon, Ok Cowgirl, Forever Honey and Sooner.
Meredith: But sometimes tbh I get tired of the particular sound of the genre that our music is in so when were driving around I’ll put on something super outside our genre, like Anderson Paak or Dijon. And since I’m usually the band driver I get to choose 🙂
ATH: There’s been a lot of discussion about Spotify and streaming and all that these last few monthswhere does the band stand? Whats your solution?
Digo: Coming in hard with these questions:). Honestly the internet is a great tool to get heard and reach fans that was pretty hard to a decade ago. I think the problem is having any one entity (be that Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc) in control of what gets seen and what gets moderated – that’s too much power to place in the hands of people that have less than altruistic intentions. But let’s not act like there was a golden age of music where everyone got paid fairly and there was open access to all markets because that’s never happened. For solutions we try and stay positive and hope that the evolution towards a sort of web 4.0 will bring a more democratized attitude towards monetizing and monitoring art. Something that shifts power to the user and creator and away from one cooperate entity. Something that sits in the intersection of Napster and patreon.
ATH: The band gets to create their own food truck to take on the road. Whats it called, and what are you serving?
Jennica: Well obviously since Colatura is an Italian condiment (anchovy sauce) it would have to be all things served with Colatura. Since we’d bring it with us on tour, I guess we’d call it ColaTours.
Thanks again to the band for these fun and insightful responses! Check out their latest single “Scars” below and also consider a pre-order of their new albumAnd Then I’ll Be Happy.