THE BLACK ANGELS

Steph: It’s been pretty good, we’ve signed with our new label, it was pretty quiet at the beginning but we’ve been touring all over since August, in Norway, France…

Nate: The last few weeks have really picked up pace, the shows have been awesome.

Nate: London is probably one of the best places to play in the UK, The rest of the UK hasn’t been as quick to receive us. France was really quick, especially Paris.

Steph: It’s definitely become more consolidated and more dynamic I guess. We’ve become better musicians if anything. Our songs have progressed as well.

Nate: I would say our song writing has progressed and I think we communicate a lot better. The pace of how we deal with things creatively is a lot quicker. Our first record was very pop and our songs were a lot more concise and shorter and our second record sort of became a jam session even though that wasn’t necessarily the intention and it wasn’t even supposed to become a record. This new record is pretty short, it’s thirty five minutes long.

Steph: With this record we were really able to create a real song structure.

Nate: I think originally the songs we thought were going to be on the third record were pretty long, drowny and trancy, at least that seemed like the case at first.  We pulled lots of songs from the background and some of those became the focal point which was interesting and from that it all evolved rather quickly. We were always encouraged to take it to more places in a shorter amount of time; it was a lot of fun.

Nate: Probably, but I don’t pay too much attention to trends that are popular, I kind of listen to the music that I like, I dig out a lot of old music.

Steph: I don’t know if anyone really listens to a lot of music that comes out now, we just do what we do.

Nate: Hmm, that’s a good question, there are a couple of bands from Austin that I think are really cool; Shapes Have Pains and The OCs and I think Sleepy Sun are great.

Nate: It’s pretty cool, you’ve got bands like The Strange Boys who we’ve been friends with since a long way back, they came up to me in Dallas and gave me a demo on a cassette tape. I always try and listen to everything that is given to me and occasionally you come across some amazing stuff.

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Nate: I think with the name there is no way to avoid it, we are constantly inspired by sixties music and The Velvet Underground always stood for a darker side of the Sixties, they weren’t flowery, pop-y, peace and love and all that kind of thing.

Steph: They created an environment too, they had all these people that surrounded them and created a movement.

Nate: I got into them because of Punk Rock, I was listening to a lot of late Seventies stuff and went back to find out where they got all their material from, be it The Stooges or The Velvet Underground.

Nate: With this last record we did it all of ourselves and got signed after it was finished so we had complete control, and all the artwork is done by Christian who is in the band so we try and keep it pretty free.

Steph: Maybe someone completely different from us.

Nate: Hmmm… I’d love to meet Nick Cave; he is one of my heroes, all the way back to The Birthday Party.

Nate: Most of the ones that I have written. Snipers is one of my favourites, it shifts around a lot. I’ll really love something and then two months later I’ll hate it.

Steph: I have a lot of parts of songs that are my favourite. I like Bad Vibrations a lot; I just love the creepiness of it.

Nate: I was trying to work this guitar riff on it, trying to channel some Gangster Rap like old Dr Dre.

Steph: I’m too paranoid.

Nate: I’m a pleasure hound; yeah I’m a bit of a pleasure junkie. A lot of times the band will all be going to get food and I’ll be in the back with a hangover and no money.  I guess that’s my FAULT.