Smalltown Parkview - Sound In The Signals Interview
First off thanks for the interview
Thanks to you for wanting the interview! It’s a pleasure for us.
For those unfamiliar with your band can you tell me how you got together and formed the band and what got you all interested in music?
Cris (bass and vocals): Well, three of us (Juanca – guitar and backing vocals, Diego and I) have been friends for a long time now and share a similar music taste. Diego and Juanca had a band when they were 14 but it didn’t work out eventually, so we had been some time thinking about the idea of starting a new band, this was like one year ago, and after all we did. On the other hand we had to find a drummer and this was the hardest part as we live in a small town (our name is based in this) and there aren’t many musicians that were willing to start this project. But at the end we found Pablo and that is how Smalltown Parkview was born as it is today.
Diego (guitars and vocals): We’re heavily influenced by Punk Rock but at the same time we like different things, Pablo plays in a classic Rock band, JC likes electronic music very much, I (Diego) love New wave and bands from the 60’s. Without The Beatles and the Beach Boys I wouldn’t be interested in music, and at the end of the day if you think in our sound, it’s a mix of all those genres and tastes.
Your new EP So Far, So Good just came out. How long did you work on the EP and what was the songwriting process for it like?
C: Before we found Pablo, we started composing the songs of the EP, so when we reunited with him we only had to put them in practice. The songwriting didn’t take very long as Diego and Juanca had some things previously composed, and when the three of us met up for this it was very easy to produce the lyrics and melodies that were needed to complete the songs. When we first had the band completely formed we begun playing small shows, and after some months we decided to look for a place to record our songs. We don’t have much money so we needed it to be something cheap and we talked to Alex, a friend of us from a band called Upside Down, who is the one that did all the recording and mixing of our EP. This process extended a bit more because the place where we recorded is far away from where we live and we had to agree all 5 of us which sometimes was complicated. We can say that since we started the band we’ve been working on the EP, so it has been like one year of work summed up.
I really like the mix of male and female vocals on the EP. Is that something you always set out to do or is that mixture something that kind of happened naturally as you started writing songs?
C: The truth is it has been something that we always had on mind for the band. As I said before, Diego and I have been friends for a long time, so we knew our voices made a good match and wanted to show it off in our music. Besides, we also thought this could be a differential value for the band, as you don’t see many people doing this in the actual music scene.
D: I think for me it depends on a lot of things, sometimes I write some lyrics and I don’t like how my voice fits in the melody, but then Cris come and sings the same thing and I believe it’s so cool. She has a better voice than me, sweeter and powerful. Probably on the next record we’re going to go further, and we’ll discover new ways to mix and play with our voices.
The closing track on the EP "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Heart" is a favorite of mine. It kind of reminds of early-mid 2000s pop/punk. Can you tell me a little specifically about the writing of the song and the lyrical inspiration for it?
D: Oh thank you, I’m so glad you like it. It probably is my favorite too. As you said, Eternal has that The Starting Line emo pop vibe from early 2000s, which I think is very cool. It’s simple and complex at the same time, that’s why it’s unique. At the beginning the verses were the choruses, and after that, the “nananas” outro came it to me (Diego), and I thought I had to change the structure of the song. We always want to write the catchier songs we can, and that’s what we did with this one. One the other hand, lyrics are so hard, it’s about an unhealthy relationship, when you’re stuck to someone and you’re losing what you were before and you know everything’s fucked up and love is over. It’s more about miscommunication and how at the end of a relationship you’re more focused on your interests than how much you loved and cared about the other person. The name is a reference to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Michel Gondry, one of my favorite love movies, which is so beautiful and sad at the same time, I thought it fits so well with the vibe of the song.
I really like the way the guitars sound on this new EP. What type of equipment did you use for the guitars and how long did it take to get them recorded?
D: We use an Epiphone SG and an Epiphone Les Paul Junior. We like Hardcore very much and we wanted it to have this strong sound, which is almost the opposite of the voices. We asked to our producer to make the sound lower to get this punch. The guitars were line-in recorded, and the distortion was introduced afterwards with AmpliTube. I think we recorded them in two days, JC and I always change between lead and rhythm guitars, so one day I recorded all my parts, and next day he did the same. We almost had written all the riffs except one or two we wrote at the studio, like that little riff in the second chorus of Eternal.
For anyone who hasn't heard your band yet do you have a favorite track of the EP you would recommend them check out?
C: We always like to show the first track on the EP, Zero Gravity. It’s funny because we used to call it “the hit” even before composing is. We wanted to show off all of our potential in this one. I think it’s the song that best defines us for anyone who hasn’t heard us; in it we wanted to highlight the fact that we use a mix of male and female vocals, as well as introducing some powerful elements as the keyboard sounds or the choruses with multiple voices. This song is also special because it talks about an important phase that we are all going through in our lives right now. It is about the desire of not wanting to grow up and wishing to be young eternally. We talk about embracing time when you have it and never stopping at anything, because at the end, what you do in life is the only thing that matters.
I guess that about wraps it up. Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else you would like to add?
D: We would like to thank you again for conceding us this opportunity, it is our first interview ever and we are really excited about it as we are a very small band from Madrid, Spain. We would like to invite everybody to listen and download our songs, and tell us your different opinions so we can improve and make better music for us and for you. Now we’re starting to write new songs, and we think it’s going to be awesome, so don’t sleep. Here we are alive!
For anyone who is willing to know more about us, you can follow us in our social media:
Twitter: @SparkviewBand
Facebook: Smalltown Parkview
Instagram: @smalltownparkview
Bandcamp: https://smalltownparkview.bandcamp.com/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/smalltownparkview/
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