65daysofstatic - No Man's Sky: Music For An Infinite Universe (2016). Entrevista a Paul Wolinski

Fundados en Sheffield en 2001, al principio como trío (luego han tenido varios cambios de componentes, hasta llegar al cuarteto actual), 65daysofstatic es una formación instrumental que se mueve por el post-rock de manera muy persuasiva, con un estilo que al  principio de su carrera discográfica, allá por 2004, cuando publicaron su LP de debut, "The Fall Of Math", fue acertadamente descrito como "la banda sonora de una nueva dimensión donde el rock, el dance y la electrónica son iguales".

65DAYSOFSTATIC

No Man's Sky: Music For An Infinite Universe (2016)

Desde el principio establecieron con claridad esa pauta, que luego han ido evolucionando, absorbentes y expansivos. Aquel primer álbum también recibió en Drowned Of Sound la siguiente descripción, que complementa a la anterior: "Puede retener las dinámicas, la tensión y esa tirantez y explosividad climática de sus influencias, pero aun así logra sonar como una de las más urgentes y directas grabaciones del año". Su discografía consta de seis álbumes de estudio y uno en directo, nueve EPs y singles y dos bandas sonoras. La última de estas ha salido en junio con el título de "No Man's Sky: Music For An Infinite Universe" y recoge el soundtrack que han compuesto para "No Man's Sky", el nuevo videojuego de Hello Games para PlayStation®4, que está previsto que se ponga a la venta en agosto.

65daysofstatic vendrán con su disco flamante "No Man's Sky: Music For An Infinite Universe" bajo el brazo (se ha publicado en junio), una obra que recoge la banda sonora que han compuesto para "No Man's Sky", el nuevo videojuego de Hello Games para PlayStation®4, publicado en agosto.

LAS FECHAS

24/10. Barcelona. Razzmatazz 2 (Aniversario Razzmatazz)

25/10. Madrid. But   

28/10. Vigo. Museo Marco   

29/10. Zaragoza. Las Armas (Zaragoza Feliz Feliz Week)

Nuestro compañero Josechu Egido ha hablado con Paul Wolinski.

THE INTERVIEW

The songs of 65DAYSOFSTATIC sounds like an elegant Electronic Rock where I can detect Post-rock, Math rock and the dense Pop from the 80’s. A mix of styles that results on the personal sound of your music. But, what are really your musical influences?

All kinds of things. But what are these reference points useful for? If I say New Order, maybe a reader might nod their head and say ‘ah yes, I too like New Order’. Or ‘yes, I can hear that in 65’s melodramatic synth chords’. But then what?

I am glad you detect all the things you mention in your question, because they are not what I detect at all. But this does not mean you are incorrect.

In the totality of the experience of listening to music, the music itself is only a small part of it. The listener and all their influences and the mood they are in and the amount of coffee they’ve drunk that day and their knowledge of other music and pop culture and ability (or not) to detect influences in the music they are listening to of older songs… all this changes how the listener hears the song.

Personally, honestly, I hate almost everything that calls itself post rock and, if anything, I am influenced by this music to try and make 65 not sound like that. But that doesn’t make a difference if you, the listener, are a fan of a set of musical styles you have declared ‘post rock’ in your head, and these are styles that overlap with my own, even if for me they are serving very different functions.

So isn’t all this mystery, ambiguity and creating your own meaning better than me telling you about how often I used to listen to Music For a Jilted Generation to learn techniques for programming beats with MIDI?

This year will mark 15 years since you founded your band in 2001. What is the difference between the music of 65DAYSOFSTATIC today and your music 15 years ago?

It is literally different music.

What's your inspiration when making your songs?

See the first answer. Everything is.

Are you completed your expectations with your last album “No Man's Sky: Music For An Infinite Universe”? What do you expect from this album?

We don’t know what to expect from this album. It is being released in a relatively unusual way, in a relatively unusual context. All we could do was make sure it was the best thing we could make within the parameters we were set. We are happy with the record, and we are happy with the way the soundtrack works within the video game it was written for. Beyond that, it is out of our control.

What do we will see and enjoy in your live concerts?

It will be very noisy.

This is not your first time in Spain. What do you think about the Spanish crowd? What do expect from them?

So far, Spanish crowds have been really enthusiastic toward 65daysofstatic. We expect every crowd to meet ahead of time and prepare choreographed dance moves to all of our songs. Anything less than this and we will be disappointed.

What are your plans for this current year 2016 and next 2017? We assume that you will touring around clubs and festivals. Can you advance anything to us? Any important event?

As many shows as we can afford to do. We are still not burdened with huge commercial success, so even something as obvious as touring can be very difficult for a band our size. We hope to tour until summer of 2017 and then do a big run of festivals, but it can be hard to get on festivals if you don’t sell many records. We will have to wait and see.

65DAYSOFSTATIC

Debutante (2014)

Do you think the digital world will end with music as we know it today? What do you think is the future of music?

Good question. I believe we have reached the end of history for pop music as we have learnt to understand it, but as long as money can still be rinsed out of it, it isn’t going anywhere. The plus side is that mainstream pop music will become as ‘forward thinking’ as anything that might declare itself ‘underground’.  There is no underground any more. And there is no ‘forward’. If bands or artists are still making music in the shape of songs and albums, even if they sell it digitally or stream it instead of making physical copies, then they are still in the dinosaur crowd. We will all eventually go extinct. The future of music isn’t in this direction.

What is your best memory about music?

It’s a bit purple and red and sounds like wind on fire.

How is a normal day in the life of a member of 65DAYSOFSTATIC?

It’s great.

What do you think about the current economic and social situation in Spain, Europe and in the World in general?

It’s a bit of a mess isn’t it? I don’t know if it feels the same from within Spain, but from the the outside it looks like there’s some small cause for hope. The 15M protests were astonishing and Podemos is a welcome symbol of not-giving-up. I’ve read Pablo Iglesias and been impressed with their position. Trying to transcend the left-right political spectrum strikes me as a pragmatic, constructive move. The radical left is forever cast as one extreme, with fascism on the other. This isn’t helpful. It’s opens up a ‘moderate centre’, which is inhabited by neoliberalism and paves the way toward privatisation, hedge fund bonuses and war. So to falsely align this ‘centre’ way with the ‘sensible public’ in the middle, with the fringe groups ringing them, is clearly false. A party genuinely for the people needs to not to be cast as ‘far left’. Because it is for the big, true centre, the proletariat. Anyways, from what I understand, this is what Podemos are all about and good for them. I have heard great things about Ada Colau the Barcelona mayor too, although cannot remember the specifics now.

Europe is fucked though. It’s like we have all forgotten why there was a European Union in the first place. What happened to Greece was a tragedy. A Europe beholden to the central banks is no great saviour and was driving us all toward the same cliff it pushed Greece off. But Brexit was no way to deal with that. Maybe we’re now not all falling off exactly the same cliff, but we’re all falling nevertheless.

There is no particularly hopeful final paragraph to these thoughts this morning.