Hiya THE OTHERNESS, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
Martin: Hi Carl, always nice to talk to you. Dear readers, beer is not warm in Sheffield.
What was life like for you before you got into music?
Pablo: Life was like trying to convince my parents of getting me a drum kit. It was quite tough, for a couple of years.
Nico: I was heavily into football, all day with the ball, until I asked my parents if I could try out in Huracán (a football team from Buenos Aires) and they said “NO”. Someday after that I heard Slash doing a solo on VH1 and I went to see School of Rock and decided that I wanted to play guitar and make music, that’s my life now.
Gon: It wasn’t very interesting.
M: I grew up with Gon in a windy town, memories flew away.
What’s the live music scene like in Patagonia, Buenos Aires and Berlin right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
P: The music scene in Río Grande (Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia) is pretty lively, considering the size of the city. There are gigs, parties, or something going on every weekend. There are good bands, like Kawabonga (Surf/Indie) and Killia (Nü Metal).
N: I recently moved back from Berlin to Buenos Aires, both cities have very active cultural and music scenes so I will add a few from each city: Wynton Kelly Stevenson (AKA the Wynstrument) and “Braintheft” in Berlin and “Isla de Caras” and “Tus Delirios” in Buenos Aires.
M: I don’t have friends playing in bands so I won’t lie to you… ha ha ha. Argentina has big names now when it comes to Latin Music, shit like reggaeton and trap music we don’t like at all.
G: Berlin is a techno driven city, which is not my cup of tea. I like the city very much but it lacks tunes.
It seems like being a social media curator has become added to the many jobs of a musician, how do you feel about this?
P: It is what it is, I guess. I believe not many musicians are looking forward to doing CM shite.
N: I feel like we are going to miss a lot of artists because every artist is a different animal. It’s like asking an elephant to climb a tree, so it will go unnoticed.
G: Like with any other job, irrespective of liking it or not it’s just means to make a living whilst dodging the cringe.
M: The social media age in music has unlocked new levels of cringe that will never be beaten!
How do you manage engagement on your socials?
N: I don’t know if I do.
M: Engagement is nice and sad at the same time because the like button represents a zero degree of perception.
G: I always try to get music to do its thing and be spontaneous, which is almost impossible within the scope of social media.
What’s your view on the Music industry today?
G: … that there aren’t many bands in the charts and the hit tunes are not written by less than 10 people.
P: There’s a lot of competition to be seen, with a lower bar of craftsmanship. There’s hunger for something special.
N: I am not an expert, though it looks like it is all pretty much in the air, uncertain and unclear…
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
P: In the outskirts, for now at least. Not that we really want to… If you like to change something, it should come from within.
N: I stand with Pablo
G: Pretty much at the bottom, chasing the tune.
M: I stand with my mates and we’d need a bigger chair.
What’s the biggest thing you have learned recently as you progress with your music?
G: To stay true to your musical convictions.
N: The evolution of our songwriting styles is the most interesting thing to me, how our expression evolved and evolves.
P: That, sadly, sometimes, music is not the most important thing in the business. That’s mainly the musician’s concern.
M: Most of the people don’t really care for music now because music itself has lost the ongoing battle of pop culture, and overpriced coffee shops and shorter attention spans are winning over the appetites of the masses. This cultural war ain’t over, of course. There are cycles of light and darkness and music is no exception so we learnt that you just have to keep going while getting better at the same time.
What was your best experience on stage?
P: Playing right after driving from Augsburg to Vienna on a borrowed wagon, after the gig of the night before. I had to drive and we arrived late to soundcheck, as tired as you could be sitting behind the kit. Everything went super smooth and it was great.
N: Ugh, I am super bad with memories. When we were gigging at “Cowboys und Indianer” at the Reeperbahn in Hamburg and the bartender lit up the floor with alcohol while we were playing! That was definitely one of the very best ones.
G: I’m always hoping for the next one. It’s very pleasurable to play with this group.
M: I will always cherish the one mentioned by Nico and I also love the Electric Brixton in London because the stage was super nice. When we did The Crystal Stage here in Sheffield for the Tramlines Fest we had a blast too.
What was your worst experience on stage?
G: Getting paid at a grassroots gig in London.
M: Gon is right and he’s not considering the differences between London and the rest of Europe when it comes to hospitality and the catering backstage…
P: My selective memory blocked that, definitely.
N: A bad one was one of the first gigs I ever had with the Otters (“The Otherness”), at Frankfurt am Main, I fucked up in ALL of my solos. That truly sucks because It is not like I don’t know how to play my solos. But yeah, anyways… things like that happen. This experience was why I got even deeper into researching for meditation and finding things I can do to be in the moment as best as I can, regardless of other stuff that might be going on in my life.
Tell us something about you / each member that you think people would be surprised about.
P: …
N: Hmm, I don’t know… I also paint and my hobby is Symbology, I guess.
G: I like mushy peas.
M: I prefer Leonard Cohen in shorts to Sabrina Carpenter… and I love Marmite as well!
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
M: “Hold On Tight” and “In and Out” yeah, 2 songs we wrote in a single day with Gon, one summer afternoon when he visited Buenos Aires last year.
P: It’s even better than our latest recordings. Check it out!
N: Yes, it’s our new attempt for the search of our sound and I like it a lot, it’s a great mix of old school and new school altogether. It’s something not easy to find nowadays.
G: What I like about these tunes is that they sound like a band, imperfect but true.
What was the recording process like?
P: Lengthy and dissociated, but we achieved a more organic/authentic sound.
N: Definitely faster than before.
G: it was a very enjoyable experience, putting a song together always feels special in all its emotional intensity.
M: We did the recordings in Berlin, Buenos Aires and Patagonia, the mixing sessions with Gaspar Benegas in Buenos Aires and Felix Davis mastered the songs in London at Metropolis Studios.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
P: I feel the learning curve in general is pointing steadily upwards. Not a leap, but a trajectory.
N: Don’t think so damn much about it and go with your gut, blindfolded doing a “thumbs up”!
M: In the end it’s always a dance between trial and error.
G: Every song has its own time. You chase the tune so the tune can come to you when you least expect it.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
M: Just if someone else is paying Gaspar (the producer) and Metropolis Studios to remaster!
P: No, if there’s something to change, it’s for the next one.
N: Nope, I feel absolutely happy with how it sounds, I wouldn’t change a thing.
G: it’s a tricky one because the second you dig deep enough you will find something, so it’s better to let go of it.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
P: Try to avoid being a c**t to each other, and search for good music. It’s out there, but you need to put some effort on it!
N: Yeah, I’d say that the phone is a tool, not your whole life… We all know that most people lie about their lives on it. Just be you and care about your closer ones.
G: I’d like to share tunes people can relate to.
M: Yeah, tunes plus decent lyrics! We have ready a 17 track new album entitled “Broken Latitudes” and it will be out by the end of the year. Dear readers of RGM: would you be interested enough to read about these 4 silly sausages again.
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