Willow Street Roomers
FAULT: How has 2011 been for you so far?
Elisabetta: Well…2011 has been quite productive in many ways as we finally got together at the same time in the same place, digging out a few projects which were laying abandoned in our ever longer “to do list”.
Emanuele: Yes, we experimented new music, new weird videos in even more weird situations (for sure one of our passions) as well as trying to get known by a few labels we liked.
FAULT: How did you both meet and start making music together?
Elisabetta: Well… we kind of met between the age of 0 and 4.. ahahah! we are actually brother and sister, both from Florence, Italy. We started our production together when I was living in London, on the basis of a telematic exchange of vocals and music, which eventually came together as the Willow Street Roomers.
Emanuele: Yes, many could think that we were born making music together or something similar, but that isn’t the case. Last winter I was really into club music with my productions, but I had the need to try something else.
I never had the opportunity to listen to her voice singing (in a serious way), and when she sent me some snippets I was really impressed and we immediately started making the first tracks through the internet.
FAULT: What has been the source of inspiration for your latest work?
Elisabetta: Surely a great twist in our production has been given by video and cinematographic influence – particularly the films of Gus Van Sant, the idea of creating atmospheres and suggestions through music was very inspiring and led us to experiment more through sampling sounds and using voice as an instrument.
Emanuele: In the latest tracks that we made, I tried, while composing the music, to leave the presumed listener some space to fill with his own sensations, that’s the exact feeling that I have when I watch his movies.
FAULT: What are you currently working on?
Elisabetta: A lot of time was eaten up by the making and editing of our new video, but apart from that we are working on new tracks that surpass our previous approach.
Emanuele: We’re making videos and then music on them. Our first attempt was “In these Awkward Voids”, which took a long time to be made, but we now have improved our equipment and skills to make things better and faster.
FAULT: Has your approach to song writing changed over time?
Elisabetta: We are now realizing that we are slowly moving on from our first – perhaps softer – melodic approach towards a much more synthetic and especially essential type of sound. Lyrics become more refined while sound becomes increasingly dry.
Emanuele: Actually there’s not only one way, to me, to write lyrics. Sometimes there are feelings that I have to put down and sometimes meaning prevails over music, or the other way round.
FAULT: What is the story behind In Light?
Emanuele: In Light was my first “song”, following my mostly “club” approach to electronic music. I composed it while I was in a melancholic mood, can’t remember why exactly..
The piano melody, recorded from the grand piano in our living room, and the few lyrics that are in it, simply came out without thinking about them too much, it was actually the first time I tried to use words for the way they sounded rather than purely for their meaning.
FAULT: What can fans expect from Willow Street Roomers in 2011?
Emanuele: Fans? Do we have any?
Elisabetta: Ahaha! To our few affectionate followers, we can say that.. the fact that we’re finally working side to side surely will benefit our production and we’re hoping to come out with a whole new set of songs and to perform in a few gigs in our pretty musically-hostile home country!
FAULT: Who would you like to work with on future projects?
Elisabetta: Obviously we have a fairly long list of HEROES we would like to work with one fine day, but surely someone who touched our sensibility lately is Gowns, a relatively underground group which we find very innovative and close to our way of perceiving music, but unfortunately they disbanded recently and we’re very sorry about it.
Emanuele: I also would like to work with more film makers and video artists. Last year we collaborated with Marco Mazzi, a video artist working in Tokyo, and I was very satisfied with the projects we came out with.
Making music on images is surely one of my favourite ways to compose.
It is like daydreaming.
FAULT: What is your FAULT?
Elisabetta: Perhaps to mock around with our too many nerdy hobbies at the same time, which often makes our projects drag along for far too long…but at least we have fun!
Emanuele: Spending the most of my time in a damp and dark place called “studio”
In These Awkward Voids from Willow Street Roomers on Vimeo.
In These Awkward Voids (Warehouse Live) from Willow Street Roomers on Vimeo.
Hear more of Willow Street Roomers