Interview Vly: Karl Demata

Artiest: Vly

Geïnterviewde: Karl Demata

Interview afgenomen via: e-mail

Label: The Laser's Edge

Vly situeert zich in de muzikale kosmos, ergens in een ver zonnestelsel, waar bands als dEUS en Sigur Ròs elkaar ontmoeten bij een behaaglijk knisperend kampvuur. Recent brachten ze nog het album I/Time uit. Hoogtijd om eens via een interview dieper in te gaan.

How in heaven can you make a record sound like this? It seems to be a product of an entire band stashed away in a dark castle, completely cut off from humanity or any form of civilization. The album however has been written without any physical presence of the band members. How can you blend everything together so smoothly like this?

I take this as as the biggest compliment we have had. Yes this was always in the back of my mind while producing this album: how to retain a cohesive sound and develop music in an emotional level by working at distance. The answer is that it is possible to do that. In fact maybe for some kinds of music and some kind of production, working at distance (or remote collaboration as it is now often called) could even be beneficial. We have more time to listen and absorb each other's contributions to the songs and react in a deeper way. We don't have the time restrictions of recording in a studio. Yes there's the risk of loosing that “magic” that can occur when musicians are together, in the same room. It was important to maintain a coherence in sounds and moods and that's why I decided to produce the album and complete the process myself from beginning to the end. Of course I had Steve Watkins helping with mixing and the great Bob Katz on mastering.

Progrock seems to have many faces and all of them are intense. Influences of Pink Floyd and Steven Wilson seem relevant during the making of this album. Do you agree?

It's a very good period I think. There's a renewed interest and maybe some elements that were a little excessive in the past have now been tamed down a little in prog. I think this applies to a lot of different kinds of music. There's much more music out there, and quality average in production, songwriting or even instrumental skills are developing to higher level constantly. And yes of course some bands or artist have marked the history of this generation so much and it is unavoidable to hear influences reoccurring often. You can only admire what for example Steven Wilson has been able to achieve and is achieving on a daily basis. And of course there's much more around. Personally I listen to so many different kinds of music and progressive rock maybe only takes about 10 or 20 percent of my listening time.  Consciously or unconsciously I try to keep things very wide. I think we are what we listen to and my passion for music leads me to always seek something different both emotionally and technically. On any given day I could listen to contemporary classical, blues, jazz or folk. I have always been like that. Of course now with new means of music distribution, it is all much easier. My only concern is to try to maintain a sort of coherence in what I do. People might think I am crazy otherwise, but for example I have just finished playing six shows in a jazz cafe in London last week. For me it's all about enriching yourself, understanding new things, feeling new things, and hopefully have a great time along the way.

The input van Elisa Montaldo can’t be underrated. She creates the sort of dreamy landscape which emphasizes the complex variety of the album. Is the choice of the bandmembers the result of a long research? Coincidence doesn’t make this kind of masterpiece.

The choice of band members is the results of unconscious or semi-conscious decision, what you might call 'intuitions'. For example at the beginning I thought it would be interesting to combine the indie, pop and alternative musicality Keith brings with the more classic progressive sounds Elisa is used to work with. I didn't articulate this thought fully but it was in the back of my mind. Elisa was here at my studio a few times for this project and we had to work sometimes by just listening to music together and comparing reactions and comments.  I think everything in life is a bit of a coincidence but, and that's a big but, we all tend towards something by instincts and then things happen to us because by instincts we have set things in motion. We all send small ripples, like in water, and some come back to us.

I/Time screams for a live interpretation. Is that an everlasting dream?

I think it will happen. We are working towards that. Of course it is a little more different for us as we have members in four different countries. Plus, we are trying to run the band in a different way, somehow to echo the way we produce music. We are trying to run the band as a business in a much more 'sustainable' way and keeping an eye for the long run. We won't jump at any occasion to play live. It needs to be right, feel right and fit the way we work.

What venue would be the most suitable to listen to Vly performing live?

Oh we have a lot of ideas on how to develop the live shows. This band is like that. It's a never ending stream of cool ideas but of course we need to be realistic, and as I said before, sustainable – and I am using a word associated with ecology and economics on purpose. We'll see how much we will manage to achieve from our ideas. But from what I can tell I think we will be able to deliver on our vision in any kind of venue. It will be different for sure.

The album is mostly calm and hypnotizing. How tough was it to find this balance you hear throughout every song?

I think what you are referring to is just the kind of mood I wanted to explore with this band and this album. I didn't feel too attracted to very bombastic sounds but rather retain things to a almost intimate atmosphere, although being full on rock at times. I have heard some people describing this as 'psychedelic'. I am not sure if this is the right word but I can see how people think that way. As I said we often do things in a sort of  instinctive way. And listening back I seem to find myself often attracted to these kinds of mood.  Music is also this, a sort of self introspective research. As musician we are used, or should be, to react in an instinctive manner. Only later we can sit down and decipher our own actions and learn and refine our skills this way.

We noticed it was actually hard not to stop our activities when listening. The atmosphere has such a compulsive character, you simply get swallowed by the vibes the album produces. Wat do you think creates this momentum?

Well that sounds like another great compliment. Thank you. I think there are always two elements. One is objective, the music in itself, the album you listen to, the songs, the writing, how well is produced  - and by this I mean how well it carries its emotional messages – and of course this is a very big subject – for example the correlation between technical sides of music production and the emotional contexts. The other element is subjective or cultural. Which means how much we as listeners are keen or receptive or responsive to specific emotions, sounds, colors etc. What you called the momentum is created by the relationship of these two elements. In other words, is also up to you, the listeners. You are the one who completes the process of creating meaning and meaningfulness.

A lot of references will have been mentioned too much already, but how about these bands? Band of Skulls & Devastations?

I really like Devastations for what I have heard. Band of Skulls I actually don't know too well.

How realistic is the chance to start working on a follow-up album in the same type of collaboration?

I have actually already started writing material for the follow-up album as well as for other projects. We are hoping to get a new album done relatively soon.

Thanks for the interview, and congratulations on this masterpiece.

Thank you very much for your kind words. It means a lot to us. We know very well how much great music there is out there and if we have made something meaningful to people, that's great.