Interview with Pablos eye
Im not so up to date on your releases, unfortunatley but its seems to
me its been a while´since youe released anything, i am wrong or are
you up for something soon?
What are you doing now and in the future? Any new releases?
Our next cd called "all she wants grows blue" will be released end of
June on "Swim" the London based label of Colin Newman and Malka Spigel.
We are also working on a compilation of unreleased material which will
be ready soon and will be released at the end of the year.
Someting that interests me a lot is that you so frequently work with
musicians from other cultures , especially Africa, how come?
I don't know if you're familiar with the history of Europe and Belgium
in particular, but here we've got a great tradition of contacts with
Africa. At first as colonies and now as partners economically, socially
and culturally. We feel that the contacts and the contribution of the
population of non-Belgian origin is vibrant very positive and
challenging.
You started working together in 89, what was it that motivated you
back then? Has it changed?
It hasn't changed a lot since then. We make part of a group of people
who wanted to work in that particular field of music where you had a
fusion of genres and ideas. Working with real instruments, mix them with
technology, and above all get together with all kind of people of very
different horizons. We started doing it because we thought it was a lot
of fun and after a while you realize your work is a reflection of your
personal motivations and desires. Getting in touch with the world by
making music is a great feeling.
Also you have your own label, or Axel Libeert more exactly, hows it
going with this?
I guess that every musician who has experienced punk and the D.I.Y.
attitude wanted to start his own label by doing so it was convenient to
release music which didn't interest majors.
I think that putting out an album by yourself is a great experience.
Every recording musician should do it once, you learn so much about the
industry and yourself.
We still use Celsius Blanco as an administrative structure but no
records have been released lately.
Not only do you make music but also Graphics, with the goal in the
surrealist tradition, why do you do this? any releases planned with
these graphics alone?
Making records, composing music for others takes a lot of time and our
wish to get more involved in graphic design and images has unfortunately
been a little bit slowed down lately. For the time being I am working
on a screenplay called "Southlite" which is based on the
writings of an English writer Richard Skinner who wrote all the texts of
our coming release "all she wants grows blue". I hope I will be able to
shoot this short movie this year in London. But the financial aspect of
such a project is another story.
Youve worked with alot of big institutions, CBS, The Eureka project,
how did this happen?
Basically a lot of luck and Brussels being the capital of Europe gives a
lot of opportunities.
A taste, a dream, you're musical goals has been described is this
true,
why have you chosen these atmoshperes to try and describe?
We didn't choose to make music like a taste or a dream. Once we made the
music people described it that way. We feel comfortable with that and
would like to see our work as a moment that people keep preciously for
themselves, nothing very important though something they cherish.
On your Extreme release "you love chinese food" you had som many as 21
tracks, most bands in this kind of music tend to have just the
opposite, why are yours so short?
I know a lot of people believe more in longer pieces for ambient,
experimental music where they can achieve a trance kind of feeling. For
"YLCF" we wanted to achieve small pieces which we
saw as little jewels. We enjoyed concentrating on short, intense
moments.
Also the sound of "YLCF" was simpler, not so complex, how come?
With "YLCF" we felt for the first time that we had achieved a
particular sound with all the people involved. So we decided to leave
the collages as they were when we created/played them and not
overarrange it. I still believe it's the music we have to make.
How did you get the idee to make this kind of music in the first
place, what led you there, what inspired you?
I believe I've already partly answered to this question. I've always
seen Pablo's Eye as a collective with the possibility of mixing the
expressions of different personalities. People come and go but most of
them have remained very faithful to Pablo's Eye.