Photo:
After the long winter, the Crystal Fighters' new album Cave Rave brings a much-need dose of uplifting electronica that will ensure their second studio record is the soundtrack of the summer for so many. The band are set to grab summer by the horns and deliver their unstoppable feelgood dance sound to the festival masses later this year.
Ahead of the album's release in May, we sat down with lead singer Sebastian Pringle to talk festivals, beer before gigs and becoming vegan
Hi Sebastian. Your album is one of the most uplifting album of the year. Is it your goal to make people happy with your music?
The last record was a mixed bag with lots of different sounds and we realised the uplifting songs were the songs that felt good to us to play and were the ones fans seemed to like. The uplifting songs were good at festivals and good at gigs and genuinely felt like you didn't want them to end. That was the feeling we tried to keep with us when we were writing the record.
Was it a strategic plan to have the album out in time for summer, so you can hit festivals with the new tracks?
I’d love to say it was intentional but it’s just the way it unfolded. We definitely wanted it to be out before summer. It was supposed to be out in January originally but gradually it got moved back but we always wanted to get it out before summer for sure.
Do you think the album would have sounded as good if it had been released in the middle of November?
I think the time of year plays a big part. There is a mood amongst people now and they want to get out of this dark, cold winter which we fortunately didn’t experience over in LA. Summer is one of those times in young people’s lives particularly when lots of things can happen. For us to be part of the soundtrack to people’s experiences in the summer is a great thing because we look back on summers gone by and hopefully summers to come with great fondness.
A lot of people believe the best art is made by sad people, or artists wrestling with inner demons. Do you believe this - or can love and peace be equally inspiring?
I remember someone saying ‘tragedy fathers art’ and every family has its tragedies and things like that. It’s part of being human and being alive. Consciousness of being sad is something that comes with age. I'm sure some really good art has come out of genuine naivety but to appeal to people of all ages you have to be conscious of sadness and know when it’s the right moment to let your sadness shine through which can be a liberating moment for people.
Watch Crystal Fighters' video for 'Separator' below
You've said in the past that there were aspects of Star of Love that you weren't happy with. What were they, and do you feel totally happy and at ease with Cave Rave?
I’m delighted that we got to make another record. I can’t remember saying that, it must have been during some dark moment on the road. Maybe in a few months time after playing the new songs 800 times I’ll be sick of it, but no I'm really happy with Cave Rave. Working with a producer was a new experience and whenever you make something in your life it just feels like a milestone. You lay something down and it’s about capturing a moment in time and moving on. Trying to improve it when you play live, but I take back what I said about not being happy with Star Of Love.
Tracks such as 'The Wave' are very epic. Are your aspirations bigger with this album?
There was no intention to make ‘The Wave’ a massive track, we were just sitting around and that hook came out which is how the song grew. It was one of the first songs we recorded for the new album so everyone was keen for it to be this grand thing to set us up. The producer has played with some big artists so he was used to having that king of mindset. It’s nice for people to feel that rapturous emotion and part of the reason we recorded Cave Rave was as a homage to the cave people who we originally feel started art and music. They were making something bigger than themselves and that’s all we wanted to do. It’s a grander than Star Of Love which allows you to get lost in the album.
Your sound is very distinct and very much non-suburban. As a London based band, is it tough sometimes to keep urban influences at bay?
We intended to get out of the suburban lifestyle for this album. Laure’s grandfather has this unfinished opera set in the Spanish Basque country and we thought we should go to the Basque country and see if our love for the place and art – the original reasons for the band – still exists because if it’s not there let’s not make another record. We took it upon ourselves to re-write the opera or write the second act. It took us alienating ourselves from society to find out certain things and write the record. The first time we went we were mingling a bit with some Basque people and it was nearer to Bilbao so people we knew there would come and see us and they would tell us about what was going on with news and politics. The second time we were pretty much isolated, but it’s hard to stop the influx of the really important things going on.
Watch the band's 'You & I' video below
Is a festival setting the best place to see Crystal Fighters live?
It’s a great honour to be invited to play at festivals and it’s one of those places where transformational experiences take place for people. To be able to provide something or the catalyst for those reactions is great and the music is written in that way. The festival can be quite a raw place and to see bands that have a vision that’s similar to yours or even further along the path than yours is an amazing experience. You realise a lot about music and about life in those situations. A festival on a Sunday can actually quite a depressing place to be and it can feel quite isolated if you’re lost and you can’t find your friends. Fun is happening all around but it’s got this dark tinge to it because you’re not involved. It’s great to watch from the stage and seeing these things unfold for people because we've all been in those situations.
Beer before gigs. Is this a good thing? How sober are you when you perform live?
In the past I used to drink maybe one beer before a show and the others do much more than that. I don’t know what they are going to do this year because it’s the first show, but hopefully it’s not too many. I’ll be stone cold sober before we perform. I've got a homemade juice in my bag that will fill me with all the energy I need.
Crystal Fighters are known for an amazing live show. Have you got any new ideas planned for your live shows this year?
I can’t give too much away but the interaction with the crowd is something we've done for a while and we will take that to a higher level. Every interaction is unique and it’s important that the crowd are there with us. We need to make them realise that they are just as important to that gig as we are.
What has been your best festival experience of all time?
The first festival we ever played The Secret Garden Party was pretty fun. It was the first festival we’d played and we got a really good slot, 7pm on a Friday night, which was quite unlikely for a band at our level. The house was excited and it was really good. There were members of the band that hadn't even been to a whole festival before and the first is often the best.
Apart from the album release, what do you hope to achieve in 2013?
I think now we have done the album it feels like something out of the way. We want to make some sort of monumental life change. I'm in the process of becoming vegan and every time a big change happens I'm always looking for the next change so once the album was done I took a personal challenge to stop eating meat. I’ll be vegan for at least a little while.
Thanks Sebastian. Crystal Fighters’ latest album Cave Rave will be available on May 27, 2013.
.jpg)
