aaamusic | On 04, Jul 2013

The Melodic met when they were no more than children, they were joined by singer Lydia last September. They just released their Debut EP On My Way and left to start touring around the US. AAAmusic interviewer Monica Guerrasio talked with Rudi Schmidt and Huw Williams before their last UK gig at The Lexington in London.

AAAmusic: You are about to leave for your US tour; how do you feel about it and how do you think they will receive your music? There has been some resistance towards English music in the past.

Huw: We can’t predict how they will react to our music but the fact we’re English it’s in our favour. There’s some kind of cultural fetish and idealization about English.

Rudi: I reckon there is a strong resistance to British bands when it comes to the mainstream, but  there’s a lot of romanization about the English culture and the Royal Family. I think they respect the niche and the British bands that haven’t broken into the mainstream.

AAAmusic: One of your peculiar trait is to respond to people’s request to play in their living room; do you think you’ll have the chance to keep doing it while you’re touring?

Huw: At first I think we will be to busy driving, the distances are so big and we have lot of gigs booked in, but when we will be base in LA we might think about doing it.

AAAmusic: I’ve always been fascinated by this thing that you do. Is there any interesting or weird anecdote about these gigs you guys feel like sharing with me?

Rudi: All the experiences are diverse and the good thing is that we find completely different situations each time, different families, different groups of friends. But every time we find a very good atmosphere to play into. Once we went up to Nottingham and we played in this living room. The person who lived there was in a band as well and they played just before us. When it was our turn, he came on stage and since he was such fan of our ‘Piece me back together’ he joined us and  started singing the female part.

AAAmusic: You mention you have a full length album coming up in November; what’s the concept behind it?

Huw: It’s a tribute to the band and to the work we have done together so far. John, Rudi and I have known each other since we were ten and this is our first album, our first chance to get all in it. We recorded at Rudi’s house.

Rudi: They kind of kicked me out of my bedroom and we converted it into a studio and I moved into a squat down the road, which was kind of fun for a bit but then it got quite nasty. I’ve moved into a few and the best one was in the same road as my dad lives and it was the first one where I had my bedroom.

Huw: Rudi and his dad took charge of the production so we were really involved in the sound of the album and in every single decision.

Rudi: We didn’t want the album to sound organic or polished. We wanted it to be organic so we used sounds recorded from the street or from nature and we blended in a few tracks.

Hew: It’s not like track – track – track, the songs fade into each other. It’s more like a journey.

AAAmusic: You have  a peculiar bond with Nick Pynn, he has been a huge influence for you, he played with you on stage. Is there any other artist you would like to collaborate with?

Rudi: More than an artist, I’d be very curious to collaborate with a producer for our second album. Partly to see what a second person would bring to it.

Huw: I think a collaboration with a producer would be more interesting than one with a musician especially because he could take all the ingredients and put an order in all the ideas we have.

AAAmusic: You wrote an Ode to Victor Jara, was your interest motivated by his music or by his political activity?

Huw: When we were 18 we travelled to South America, we weren’t together. We actually started at two different ends. We visited Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and this journey introduced us to Latin American music and we discovered Victor Jara’s music. We can’t separate his music from his politics. They’re tightened together.

AAAmusic: Rudi, you travelled to South America to study charango with Ernesto Cavour and Italo Pedrotti, how was your experience?

Rudi: Italo lived outside Santiago, which is a pretty crazy city, and he had forgotten about me the first lesson. It may sound bad news but it was actually good because I met his neighbour and he invited me to stay at his place, because he was going to work on the coast and he had a very beautiful house.

AAAmusic: Did you have to pay to stay at their place?

Rudi: Yes, but when I was there I started saying ‘Oh this so peaceful and my hostel is very noisy’ so at some point he told I could have stayed at his place. When he asked me how much the hostel was costing me, I told him half of the price I was actually paying.

AAAmusic: A special memory from your trip?

Rudi: When I was in Bolivia my teacher from Chile came out and we went travelling with his girlfriend to these villages in the North to play during the carnivals. All the festivals were focused on the charango, everyone was playing a different styile  and every player had his unique rhytme. They all welcomed us and let us in. Funny thing was they got wasted every day. And on of the group had this tradition for the leader to carry a whip all the time. He used to come up and say ‘drink it all or I’ll whip your face.’ So I had to.

Monica Guerrasio