Sleuth is a band indie-pop Vancourver who recounted beauty, nature, literature and carefree in Heaven Knows, Love Goes On! album (streaming on Bandcamp).
Nice guitars, fresh flowers and embroidered dreams, create an atmosphere of other times, but always current.
JCGE music blog interviewed them with much love and the band was so kind that answered to all the curiosity.

• How your first album –  Brave Knew Nothing –  differs from your second work, Heaven Knows, Love Goes On! ? What kind of evolution took your music? And what has influenced this evolution?

The Lion in Love: The first release, Brave Knew Nothing, consisted of a lot material that I wrote mostly by myself with a couple exceptions like “Unceremonious Splendour” which was a collaborative effort, whereas the newest single was more of a fun experiment to give away just before Christmas. We plan to release something in the next year and I’m not sure what has influenced a change, besides perhaps the change in production methods and the addition of a new band member, Leon. The first release was produced by Jherek Bischoff and the stuff we’re working on, including Heaven Knows, Love Goes On!, have been recorded in a number of different locations in houses and apartments lent to us on my mobile set-up. So, if anything I find the limitations of our equipment mixed with the luxury of time (some tracks had up to twenty our more vocal takes to choose from, which is very different from how most studio work goes) to really hash out the songs will be the greatest contributing factors to the production. I should also mention that “Love Goes On!” is a cover of The Go-Betweens, so obviously their songwriting had a strong hand in the result of our version. I don’t personally hear a hardness in the new tracks. I think any hardness people are hearing from our music is probably more of the Black Tambourine variety.

• It ‘s true that you have created your first album immersed in a forest? If yes, what was, in the nature, important to create your own songs? How much nature has influenced your sound? What influences a lot your music?

The songs were already written in my hometown of Port Coquitlam, which is actually a suburb near a forested area, however, the production with Jherek was in a forest in Poulsbo, Washington. I think the peacefulness of the area did affect my mindset during the recording process without distractions, but it was also underscored by Julian’s allergies and my developing a cold during part of the vocal sessions. I remember wanting to do a vocal take outside just to get some of the sounds of outside in the recording, but it rained so obviously we didn’t want to take out microphones in the rain, once again emphasizing how we’re all at nature’s mercy.
I think our influences are very specific to each of us. We don’t all share the same musical taste, but we do share an appreciation for catchy melodies and strong rhythms. Julian and I personally share the most musical similarities from Galaxie 500 to The Smiths, Orange Juice, Felt, McCarthy, The Beat Happening. Of course we listen to other music outside of that, but I like to align us more with those sorts of groups.

• I read in your biography that you arel very influenced by books and movies. The cover of your first album takes the image of a beautiful film, Jules et Jim. Why did you choose this image? What has instilled this movie in you? And how much this movie represent your band?

Most of my writing comes from somewhere else. I read a book, or I see a film and something might trigger a thought, but it is very associative thinking and not always direct. I think around the time we settled on the Jules et Jim cover we were a trio still and I had just read the book (after seeing the Truffaut adaptation a number of years earlier). I think that moment in the movie captures a youthful exuberance and a sense of potential that I hoped the music also captured.

• What are your literary reference points?

This is a difficult question for me because I have to try and think back to where I was when something was written, often it’s simply a word in a book and its context that triggers a set of lyrics, as I said earlier. The most concrete examples I can think of are from songs not yet released, but “Rules for Hearts” is named after a Young Adult novel by Sara Ryan, and “A Point of View” was partly influenced by “The Passion” by Jeanette Winterson, but then it was also influenced by “Friday Mourning” by Morrissey. Like all art, I want our music to talk about the history of music through certain tropes, but become new again and claimed as our own. I especially like high and low art forms combined together after all, pop music is still viewed by many as low art. As such I like to think that there are a lot of lies in lyrics that reveal new and purer truths, and I’m a great fan of satire.

• What kind of feelings and sensations would want to instill with your music?

Camaraderie, a good laugh, a dash of humanity and some sincerity.

• What are your future projects?

We would like to release the twenty or so songs we’ve been finishing over the past year.

Thansk a lot for your answers and for your amazing music!

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• Hi guys, thanks a lot for this chat! We start with an easy question: your name, Trick Mammoth, is very original: can you explain the genesis and meaning?

Sure, I came up with the name Trick Mammoth two or three years ago. It started just as a demo project for myself. The name sort of spawned out of splicing random words together. The name Trick Mammoth sounded interesting to my seventeen year old self.

• What are the best features of your music? how you define it? for what kind of moments is suitable? 

The best features of our music? Oh girl, okay. I guess having two lead vocalists has always been a feature I’ve enjoyed in general, so having two vocalists in Trick Mammoth is something I really like. I guess I would define us just as pop music at the moment, kind of flowery. Suitable for hopefully a range of casual, meaningless, beautiful, moments. Also sad, unfortunate moments I guess, haha yeah.

• Who are the artists that inspired you? 

Currently we are listening to a lot of UK and American alternative music during the 80’s and 90’s. A lot of The Smiths, The Cure, Built To Spill, Elliott Smith, Modest Mouse. Some 60’s pop like The Beatles, The Zombies, The Velvet Underground. I don’t know, we listen to a lot of music. I guess anything has the potential to inspire you in some small way at least.

• I read in your presentation that you love sushi, tea and books; which novels or poems influence your music? What are your favorite writers and poets? 

I’m a fan of slam poetry. For this album I was reading quite a bit of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I like Gregory Orr a lot and also Franz Wright (I hope I spelt that correctly).

• Which novel or poem could better represent your music?

I’m not sure. It’s hard to say. I think songs are strange as they aim to capture a particular feeling or moment in such a small space of time. Yet songs can evoke so much, usually something much bigger than a feeling or a moment. It relies a lot on the listener for their own personal investment and uses that as part of the experience. It’s amazing when you think about it.

• What are your future plans? Do you have any live  in program in Italy?

The album will be officially released on January 31^st through Fishrider and Occultation and then another EP will be released very shortly after. There is also a single being released through the Waiyawa singles club, which should be out by the middle of the year. We will tour in 2014 and I do hope we find our way to Italy.

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Il suo EP, WAS, piace così tanto a questo blog che non ha saputo resistere e ha importunato Giulio affinché rilasciasse un’ intervista.

• Ciao Giulio, grazie per questa intervista! Il tuo EP, WAS, è di certo uno dei lavori più amati di questo blog; per tale motivo sono molto contenta di poter approfondire la conoscenza del tuo progetto musicale. Go DuGong è un nome eccentrico che fa riferimento ad un animale – il dugongo- bruttino e goffo: nell’ intervista pubblicata  su Rockit, affermi che la scelta del nome è dovuta proprio al fattore estetico oltre che sonoro. A questo punto vorrei domandarti: cosa, per te, è la bellezza? E, nella musica, quando reputi una canzone, tua o di altri artisti, bella?


Su Rockit scherzavo, in realtà il dugongo è un animale bellissimo. Adesso non insistiamo con sta storia sennò poi si sparge la voce e tutti pensano che sono brutto

Comunque per rispondere alla tua domanda, la bellezza per me è qualcosa che solletica i sensi e conferisce una sensazione di piacere… alla vista, all’udito, ecc…Anche quando ascolto una canzone è così. Anche se quando si parla di musica, per quanto mi riguarda, si va più in profondità. Una canzone può avvolgermi completamente e andare dritta al cuore…e poi te la ricordi per sempre.

• La musica elettronica è in genere snobbata da molti cultori della musica “impegnata”, un po’ per posa, un po’ per reale disinteresse. In che modo li convinceresti costoro che il suddetto genere musicale non è da sottovalutare? Cosa diresti a chi si rifiuta categoricamente anche solo di ascoltare un pezzo di musica elettronica per convincerlo a dare una possibilità?

Non credo che la musica elettronica sia snobbata, anzi forse mai come in questo momento è apprezzata e riconosciuta. Forse c’è qualcuno che pensa che premere dei bottoni non sia come suonare una chitarra o una batteria. Chi la pensa così credo abbia una visione un po’ arcaica e limitata della musica. Qualsiasi cosa che emetta un suono è da considerarsi come un possibile “strumento”.

• Ricordi il momento in cui hai desiderato cimentarti anche tu nella composizione musicale? Quando è accaduto? Quale è stato l’input? 

Ho cominciato a 16 anni con un amiga 600. Stufo dei videogiochi ho cominciato ad usare Pro Tracker che è un sequencer dell’età della pietra. Mi ricordo che volevo fare delle basi hip hop ma mi uscivano cose completamente diverse. Non è cambiato molto da allora….ahahahah. Da quei giorni non ho mai smesso di fare musica passando attraverso vari generi musicali, dall’elettronica al post rock fino ad arrivare all’indie rock. Il mio vero amore però sono sempre state le macchine e la musica elettronica quindi da un paio di anni sono ritornato alle origini. Di sicuro l’aver visto alcuni live set del genere e la scoperta di alcuni nuovi controller e software sono stati un grosso stimolo per la nascita di questo progetto.

• Il tipo di musica che proponi è esattamente quella che ti eri prefissato all’ inizio del tuo percorso musicale? Il risultato raggiunto col tuo ep – bellissimo – WAS, è quello sperato? 

No, sono partito con un’idea abbastanza diversa da quello che faccio ora. Quando ho cominciato a fare pezzi come Go Dugong è come se avessi ricominciato tutto da capo. Ho cominciato un percorso che è destinato ad evolversi e a cambiare e chissà dove porterà. WAS sono pezzi che avevo in archivio da un po’di tempo che quasi non volevo far uscire perché sono abbastanza diversi da quello che sto suonando ultimamente. Alla fine alcuni amici che lo hanno ascoltato mi hanno convinto e ho deciso di regalarlo in free download, un po’ come chiudere un capitolo. “Was” è quello che ero… spero di farvi sentire presto il materiale su cui sto lavorando che è un pochino diverso da quello ascoltato fino ad ora.

• Supponi che il tuo EP possa essere migliorato? Ed in che modo intendi procedere?

Credo che il suono possa ancora migliorare, si. Per questo serve studio, pratica e magari qualche soldino per comprarmi dell’attrezzatura più professionale.

• Cosa consiglieresti a chi vuole intraprendere un percorso musicale? (come iniziare, cosa studiare, da cosa lasciarsi ispirare, come prendere confidenza con gli strumenti del mestiere).

Consiglierei di essere più aperti possibili e di non porsi limiti. E’possibile fare musica con qualsiasi strumento, e non è nemmeno fondamentale la tecnica. Le belle idee sono il grosso del lavoro. E’fondamentale la curiosità, ascoltare tanta musica e tanta musica diversa.

• Che emozioni vorresti suscitare in chi ascolta la tua musica?

E’ difficile rispondere a questa domanda perché dipende dal pezzo e dipende dal mood che ho quando compongo. A volte mi vengono pezzi più ballabili e “facili” mentre altre volte preferisco cose più “smooth” e avvolgenti. Raramente faccio pezzi tristi o cupi. Di solito prediligo atmosfere dal sapore più “agrodolce” o qualcosa più simile a generi come il soul e il funk.

• Qual è il più grande obiettivo che ti sei prefissato riguardo la tua carriera musicale?

I miei obiettivi cambiano con il passare del tempo. Quando ho cominciato avevo piccoli grandi obiettivi che penso di aver raggiunto totalmente o in parte. Il mio obiettivo attuale è quello di riuscire ad espandere il mio pubblico anche al di fuori dell’Italia con la possibilità di fare più concerti all’estero. Spero di raggiungere questo traguardo e prefissarmene degli altri in futuro.

• Quale fattore reputi realmente importante nella composizione musicale (talento, preparazione, capacità di individuare mode)? E da cosa ti fai guidare?

Ovviamente il talento è fondamentale, poi credo ci voglia tanta ricerca sia nelle cose nuove per cercare di capire in anticipo in quali direzioni si muove la musica, sia nelle cose vecchie. Credo sia fondamentale e di grande ispirazione conoscere la storia e da dove certi suoni sono partiti.

Grazie Giulio per questa chiacchierata! Attendiamo con entusiasmo e curiosità il tuo prossimo lavoro!

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The Japanese Gum band is really loved by this blog. Of their High Dreams, I also wrote a short review here, but  I was very curious to do some questions, so I’ve interviewed them (with an enthusiasm that seems similar to fans  of the Beatles time).

•  Hi Guys! Your name, Japanese Gum , makes clear reference to Japan , how you are connected to this country? how they influence your music?

The reference to Japan is almost random. When we decided the name of the band, we were in our old rehearsal room in a break and talking about the Kyoto Protocol. Everything born in that situation, but we sincerely can’t remember the exact thing about this. Generally I can say that we are definitely attracted and charmed by exotic cultures, from the african to the oriental one.

•  Your albums have been produced by foreign labels : Why this choice? is probably due to a different response of the Italian market than foreign market about your music?

Hard to tell. Actually nowadays Italy is warmer about some kind of psychedelic/experimental/electronic things, so I think it’s not a bad moment here. We released two albums (one E.P. and one Remix/B-Sides/Versions) for two great italian independent labels, Marsiglia Records and Chew-Z. Some years ago we used to do massive label research all over the world, and for the first album we received a good proposal from the japanese label Friend Of Mine. For us it has been cool to work with them. When we finished “High Dreams” we sent it to some friends to get some feedbacks, and Thom from Etch Wear Records asked us to release the LP together. Since we really appreciate his job and his label, even if it’s focused on different styles, we decided to accept. I guess the also, in this case, the coincidence.

• What kind of feedback have you had from the Italian public ? and from the stranger ? There are substantial differences ?

 Play live shows in Italy is awesome 99%. People is receptive, and with good backgrounds, if you have a good physical and intense performance people reward you. I love to play outside of Italy also because you can meet new people with similar attitude but with other mentality and different ways to work, different kind of crowds, different kind of reactions. It’s really stimulating and weird how the same live show can be felt differently depending on the “where”. I guess my favourite place to play is Czech Republic. They are super cool, they dance (on our music), they are dynamic but still very nice and polite.

•  In this period is back in vogue genre known as shoegaze , which is very present in your sound : there is a basic motivation?

We love shoegaze stuff, and we used to listen to a lot of shoegaze when we were younger. I personally do love the album “Loveless” from My Bloody Valentine more than the others. It’s still in my favourite albums ever. The hugeness of the sound, the mixing and the melodies of  “Loveless” make me freak out, they are simply perfect. I’m a big fan of old school shoegaze in general, I’m not really up to date about new stuff except A Sunny Day In Glasgow, that we personally know and feel closed.

•  You have done a lot of live with many artists, including the I Giardini di Miro , Slow Magic and Selebrities . What was the collaboration more beautiful than you remember? And why?

We did lots of collaborations, and actually about the artists you mentioned, we just remixed a song for Giardini di Mirò and we played together with Selebrities and Slow Magic. All the featurings/remixes/collaborations we have were awesome. Because of several reasons, friendship, same visions of something and the will to do something with someone else that normally is not included in the band. The best one is the one with Giulio a.k.a. Go Dugong, that is a stable member and collaborator since a couple of years. He’s super good into playing live sequences and samplers.

•  What did you mean to play at the festival SXSW (Austin) in 2012?

SXSW is something really overwhelming. If anybody would ask me a synonymous for the word “Overwhelming” I’d say SXSW. But it’s great. Everything’s got a strange good feeling in the air, people around playing everywhere, In the same block at the same time you can go to 10 different official showcase plus all the unofficial gigs. For us it has been something that helped us to grow up, to improve ourselves and play in a very special situation with a very special audience. Our shows were really good, but the second day Jesus and Mary Chain were playing at our same time 100 meters far…

• How you would like your music to be remembered in the future?

We live the present. That’s it, it’s really hard to predict something like that. Since we love to impress emotions and feelings like a sketch, music is for us something that should talk or suggest something about a precise timing or maybe about the absence of it. There are some big albums that are out of time. If I think about how it sounds the early work from King Tubby during sixties nowadays, it’s a miracle. The production is contemporary, crazy. Or Popol Vuh. Still fresh. Probably the bigger albums are the ones who can be played after 40 years and still kick serious ass. We’d be simply happy to be a screen shot of a certain scene of a certain era.

Guys, thanks a lot for this interview! And good luck for all your projects!

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• My Review on the blog
• Listen to here Odyssea
• FB of band

Hi Guys, thanks for this interview, I am really happy to speak with you! 

• Start with a simple question; What is the meaning of the band name?

indignu, after the latin word indignus or indigna, means cruel, intolerable, shameful or unworthy. As the shame every human experiences at least once in a life time. It represents very well the spirit of the band in the beginning

• how started your music project?

We’ll have to go back more than 10 years, when Afonso , Ketas and Jimmy decided to gather and make some noise in their garage – just the typical start for all bands. The pathway we took throughout the years, though, was as fickle as our personalities back then. A full-hand of people joined and left the band as we realized they weren’t adding anything to it or we weren’t adding anything to their own purposes. Indignu as it is now, only made complete sense after Mateus   joined the crew, in 2007. A guy that plays pretty much every instrument and uses the piano as its utmost talent, easily stands out. At the time, the music we made couldn’t be labeled, for it jumped from punk-rock,  to freestyle shoegaze every three chords and we didn’t really know what we were doing. In 2007, as both the band and its members brew, we finally started to walk in a direction that pleased our ears and our spirits. The first product of this new route was Fetus in Fetu our first LP released in 2010. Three years after, Graça joined us with her violin and her folk/traditional background, and a somewhat long experience in composing. Odyssea was born with all this ingredients, and if there was anything left from that rebellious immaturity in Fetus in Fetu, we sure ripened it thoroughly with our latest album. 

• what is the basic idea of your new album Odyssea?

The motto of the album is the sea. The idea was to create a storyline that guides the listener to the adventurous setting we imagined in the first place: an absolute reflection of the two extremes of the continuum of life: Light and Darkness, Purity and Corruption, Hope and Despair. Or, let’s say, all these in the opposite order, for the album starts with a dim faded force that rises slowly but steadily across mountains and seas, sometimes as if our spirit is floating with the soft breeze, sometimes as if it fiercely pounces to the threatening cliffs ahead. Throughout the Odyssea one can feel it easily.  It is meant to have few moments of absolute silence, as to represent the same continuum – although they might shock the listener sometimes, as they’re often followed by an explosion of sounds and emotions. The songs are tangled with each other forming a wholesome one-tracked album.

• How is it structured?

The album is, as mentioned before, a one-track only continuum organized as an audio-book: a prologue, vaguely opening the curtain for what’s coming, five long chapters follow it, each one with it’s own plot, making you cross those mountains and explore those seas, and an epilogue, that leaves space for the listener to catch up his breath and decide whether to continue the journey or to let it end right there.

• why is mainly instrumental?

Odyssea is an instrumental album mainly because we believe that it doesn’t need a human voice to tell the story we wanted to tell. We gave the sounds a chanting form of expression, so they become the narrative itself. It is mutual understanding among us that a guitar can actually cry and a violin can actually kill. And so we used all the elements we had, without the use of words, to create an alternative meaning of the sounds and make them act as symbols. We exceptionally resort Filipe Miranda’s voice in Chapter I, but it is not intended to be perceived as the core of the song. It is in fact just an element among the others. 

• What were the feelings that have brought you to compose the album?

When Graça joined us, we all felt it was time for a change, but we were walking very smoothly, even carelessly and without any kind of pressure. There was nothing in specific in our horizons in the beginning, but as it started pulsing from our hands it was as if a rusty door was opening in front of us and we slowly peeked inside. Everything we made had the same ultimate flavor, so we soon decided to lay our strings to it and see what happens. We weren’t expecting it, but after all, our Portuguese origins meet the sea by all means, and I guess it took over us, massive as it is. We then shamelessly cast our nets and explored the depths of the giant sea.

• which you would like to arouse feelings in the audience?

We want to free the audience from any strains and let them read this story as they wish. This is why we removed as many elements as possible from our script. Although generally our songs induce certain feelings into people’s minds, we actually love it when someone comes to us with a completely unexpected narrative. We expect people to feel lost, adrift, confused, but also to feel snug, safe, purified. In between, it will be violent and rough, but also lull and airy. It’s up to the spirit and the commitment of the listener. Odyssea is pure subjectivity. We welcome every interpretation of it.

• what was the reaction of the media? you expected this media feedback?

The reaction from the media has been surprisingly good. There are loads of reviews and the rating of the album is frankly good in the vast majority. The response has been coming mainly from Portugal but also a bit from all over Europe. And this interview is a living proof of it…

• what kind of promotion you have planned for the album?

We’re constantly boosting the album when we play live. Therein lies the true essence of us as musicians and that’s when real pleasure kicks in. We’re actually preparing an European tour for next Spring. The album itself has a massive visual component, in the physical aspect of the edition of the AudioBook but also in the video-clip we presented past March. There’s a new video already underway for the next chapter of this Odyssea.

• where can your fans follow you (fb, tumblr or something else)?

You can find our updates mainly on facebook and listen to our songs on bandcap and even download the album. Some tracks like the first chapter, Onde as Nuvens se Cruzam, are free download.

• where and when will take place the next live?

There are good chances of finding some European gigs next year. We definitely want to perform in the old continent. After all there are many people out there wishing for the Odyssea to sail the other seas.

I hope to watch your lives really early! Good luck for your future project and thanks a lot for this clever interview!!

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Fare belle canzoni non è semplice: riconoscerle è invece un qualcosa di più democratico.

Le canzoni de Il Cavaliere Alessandro sono infatti bellissime, e questo è comprensibile sin dal primo ascolto per la maggior parte delle persone. Per tale ragione non bisogna farsi sfuggire i suoi live presso le radio che si interessanno di questo artista e delle opere suonate e arrangiate con la  sua crew (Angelo Ceci-batteria-, Michele Palmieri-basso-, Ruggiero Chiariello-chitarra-) proprio nel mese di Ottobre/Novembre.

Qui sono riportate le date e le radio presso le quali Il Cavaliere Alessandro verrà intervistato e si esibirà da solo in un unplugged:

11 ott 2010:: CONTRORADIO (Bari) alle 15.30
13 ott 2010 intervista telefonica :: RADIO MASTER (Foggia)
18 ott 2010:: CICCIO RICCIO (Brindisi)
18 nov 2010:: RADIOFUTURA (Acquaviva delle Fonti) alle 17.00

Sinotinizzatevi e rigenerate le orecchie con buona musica!

When songs are beautiful, every people listen to this. For this reason you might follow the live and the unplugged of The Rider Alexander in October/ November near to station radio.

Here you can read where you can find The Rider Alexander:
11 oct 2010:: CONTRORADIO (Bari) on 3.30 pm
13 oct 2010 interview :: RADIO MASTER (Foggia)
18 oct 2010:: CICCIO RICCIO (Brindisi)
18 nov 2010:: RADIOFUTURA (Acquaviva delle Fonti) on 5 pm

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