PERVY PERKIN
Interview with Dante, Tides, Carly, Aks & Alex
PERVY PERKIN sind die Band der Stunde, sofern es um abgedrehten, niemals um einen Schlenker verlegenen, progressiven Metal – und noch weit darüber hinaus – geht.
Wer es nicht glaubt, sollte sich einfach das aktuelle Album ´ToTeM´ zu Gemüte führen. Ob die Bandmitglieder genauso verrückt wie ihre Musik sind, wollten wir aus einem kleinen Interview mit den Jungs aus Spanien feststellen. Es war nicht einfach, doch hier sind unsere Aufzeichnungen.
A wicked question equal to start with. Why the new album is not a double album?
Dante: Good question! Composing, arranging and recording our first and double album ´Ink´ was really hard, but necessary. Pervy Perkin is a wide, wild, diverse world. We needed to establish that from the first album, as our particular “Letter of Introduction” for everyone out there. And one disc was simply not enough. This time we didn’t record as much (although the album clocks at nearly 80 minutes), because we didn’t have to present as much as we could, we just presented more faces of this beast we have created, that feeds on every music genre we can come up with. Also, for the new people listening to us it would be easier to listen to just one disc, more accessible, and that is very important taking in account the single-oriented music industry we live in now. It is a shame really how nowadays very few people enjoy the pleasure of listening to an album the whole way through. But we are aware that many of our fans still do this, like we do, and we are glad to hear that.
Dante
Is your music this time more focused?
Tides: This time around there is still a lot of experimentation and variety, but each song´s style ended up being more defined when compared to ´Ink´. So you may have different sections in one track and each section may have its own unique feel, but more or less you can identify the song’s general genre, so to speak. Nevertheless there are some exceptions, like ´Mr Gutmann´, which is just utter chaos. This is just part of the essence of Pervy Perkin and one of its most distinctive assets for sure.
Juan Tides
Did you write the debut like the new album as well – in the same way?
Carly: Yeah, very similar indeed. It is all about jammin’ and bringin’ ideas to the table. We may have a theme for the song or a lyrical idea and begin to develop the song keeping that in mind or maybe from the scratch the five of us in the rehearsal room. Everybody has his own voice and in our music everything can be possible and every idea has a weight in our chemistry, it’s all about the music and collaboration with the other guys!
Carly
How to write such songs, alone or together, over weeks or months?
Alex: The way we create our songs is very diverse, it’s never the same. We like to be together in order to conform the structure of the songs, but the way a song is developed always depends. For example, if a song is about a certain matter, we join in the studio and build the parts according to what’s happening in the lyrics: if it’s a dark theme, we brainstorm with heavy riffs or eerie melodies, if it’s a happy theme, we come out with major scales, trying to fit everything together. Then in another moment, we might jam for a while, and extract from that session some cool riffs that we’ll end up incorporating into some part of the album. We then may go home, and work individually in riffs or melodies, and if we come out with something cool, the next day we bring it to the studio and decide if we incorporate it to a song, or develop it a little bit more jamming over it… And then we might change some parts that suddenly we’re not convinced with, or maybe even if a song is finished, we rearrange elements to make it better… We spent a year and a half composing ´ToTeM´, we like to work hard on our songs and make them the best we can, but always without losing perspective, because you could be forever “improving this, changing that”. Generally we “feel” when a song is finally done, and that final version goes into the record.
Alex
If I ask you according to your idols, I get determined a long list, right?
Aks: Right! I could give you names of common bands and artists that we all share, typically Dream Theater, Opeth, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Tesseract… But Then we each have our own influences and music that we grew up listening to (or just discovered, this is a lifelong process after all) that we may or may not share an interest in and that we consciously or unconsciously inject into our music. For me personally I can talk about Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eminem, Michael Jackson, Radiohead, Muse, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Amy Winehouse… I mean we could be talking about this for days.
Aks
How came the band line-up, very shortly before the debut, together?
Carly: Long story short, former member Alvaro and I knew Dante in highschool in our hometown in Murcia and we began to jam in my house. Later on Ugo came to add keyboards and ´Ink´ was composed in summer 2012 I think…
Later on we recorded it with Alex Macho at vocals, and then we ask ‘Aks’ to help us with the following tour, he had only played bass for three months in that time and it was the best decision of our lives, because he was and still is a very good friend of ours.
Who is Ursula von der Leyen?
Dante: Can’t answer this question…yet!
Are those radio news in the last Song real?
Dante: What is real? Are you real? Am I? *vanishes laughing*
Has your music a political statement or will you just entertain?
Dante: Depends on the song. As human beings in a decaying society we are very aware of our political and social environment. We don’t like injustice; we don’t like cruelty, racism, homophobia, or any kind of unjustified hate.
We are not a political band, but we speak of those issues when we feel them in our hearts. ´New Dawn´ of our first album ´Ink´, spoke about revolution and about the meaningless sacrifice of a man who believed in the wrong cause, and was deceived by the ones that in the end had taken no risks at all, as it usually happens. ´KountryKuntKlub´ mocks racism, and we talk about it because this is an issue that still today has relevance, sadly. But this is clearly not the main theme in Pervy Perkins world. We write about everything: human condition, philosophy, sci-fi, love, the power of the mind, ect; all sorts of themes that we need to share or that we feel that are interesting, transcending, or touching.
What about the music scene in Spain? Good or only looking for the next “New Idol”?
Carly: In Spain there are very talented bands that we are fans of. It is a great scene and their music quality is as good as the international one, but the repercussion that media gives to this kind of bands, and our music culture in general doesn’t help us .
Bands as Cheeto’s Magazine, Obsidian Kingdom, Jardin de la Croix are Spanish and well recognized beyond this land, the scene is about to emerge, gotta be patient! Haha.
How are your tourplans?
Dante: We are currently touring extensively around Spain presenting ´ToTeM´ and we will play in France and Portugal for the first time before the end of the year. After that we will tour a little more and we are preparing a very special and big presentation concert in Madrid.
Thanks, Boys, hope to see you in Germany!
Thanks for having us here, it’s been a real pleasure. Be sure to check our social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube. There is plenty of interesting content there.
Peace!!
https://www.facebook.com/Pervy-Perkin
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https://www.youtube.com/user/PervyPerkinOfficial
https://pervyperkin.bandcamp.com/
