Well, Friends of the Aristocracy! We'll start now on all your emotions the Thirty-First Interview .
Today, our interviewees show that the sound of the 70's is more alive and stronger than ever before.We will speak with the Austrians from Tentacula who show us their second album entitled Estrella Destruida.The band have this formation:Vocals On Penny Slick Perry,Guitars is Markus Kapeller\Paul Eidenberger,Bass is Arthur Darnhofer-Demàr and Drums is Michael Falkner.Markus and Penny answer our questions.Let's go to one of their song before this exclusive interview for the Brazilian press.
A1:Talking about the composition work in Estrella Destruída? Markus Kapeller:The album „Estrella Destruida“consists of eight songs,raw versions of the oldest two songs Shadows“ and „No Place For Ponies“ have already been played live in 2019, the other six were composed more recently, some in 2020 and the majority of the songs in 2021. Most of the time,I come along with a Riff or several on which we are working together in the rehearsal room. We arrange a pilot version of it and record it. Listening to it we can better tell which parts are working together smoothly and which need a bit more work around the edges.Some songs like Warning Signs“ emerged directly from a jam in the rehearsal room and others like „Garaje“ were almost finished before the band ever heard it.
A2:Is the Vampire a Nietzschean figure? Penny Slick: The „Übermensch“? Yes and no. Vampires used to be human once but, they are neither living nor dead. So while they are indeed superhuman in strenght and speed and if they are a few hundred or thousand years old, they should definitely be wiser than we are...especially as they’ve seen human mistakes over times and at least could do it better. But they also have their flaws... I mean no garlic? Come on! Also no real food! They’re defenitely missing something! And while they’re often depictured as sensual and their bite as pleasurable yet there is no real proof of sexuality. And then there is also this dependency on human or in some literature animal-) blood. What can a vampire still drink in the 21st century? We covered this question in the lyrics of Garaje: our Queen of Darkness provides finest blood, type 0-negative enriched in Omega3 and Vitamin D. Funnily 4/5 band members have type 0 blood. For the question,of the perfect leader“, assuming Vampires do exist, they could perfectly run „family businesses“ for generations without nobody noticing as they are never seen especially not during the day and may have had their hands in any important event over the last thousands of years.Only Lovers Left Alive“ has a sophisticated view of this with Marlowe being the writer of Shakespeare’s plays without taking the credit for it - and Adam, while a lot younger being the composer for a lot of musical masterpieces over the last few hundred years.
A3:What kind of mysticism influences the band? Markus & Penny: Obviously we’ve studied some Horror and Sci Fi Literature. Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu mythos), Bram Stoker (Count Dracula, vampirism) and Isaac Asimov to name a few.But also old rites of the Aztecs and Maya and the Celts were from interest for us. And as the Necronomicron still doesn’t have an entry about Tentacula,we’ve decided to create our own history/cult... which more or less started by accident as our singer once got called „the Queen of Darkness“ and the same day she more or less controlled the weather, as she summoned the gods of Liquid Thunder and right after our show a heavy storm started.
A4:Is it correct to say that we can have all kinds of emotions listening to the band's album? Markus:You sure can. It’s an emotional album.You can also discover something new and have different emotions every single time you hear it. For us it is very intense and personal.Penny is processing the three months she spent alone on an island. It’s about personal growth, transformation, letting go and breaking old patterns.
A5:How is Tentacula different from your previous bands? Markus: Being in a band sometimes is like being in a relationship. Just with more people involved at the same time. And all those personal points, troubles and emotional states aside.after some experience you should have more or less figured out what you want from a band. And for me personally it’s not necessarily getting rich that would involve a sell out at one point or another.For me,it’s self-fulfilment.Having fun while doing what no one has ever heard or played or even dared to dream before meaning not doing some boring mainstream s***.Some of these pop-formulas might actually work and some of those might even have found their way into Tentacula.We have some catchy riffs for sure and we are creative at songwriting – so at the end of the day it’s definitely „something new.The initial task when I founded the band was to combine the twangy Surf Rock that didn’t fit my old band with the Fuzz drenched Heavy Rock we all love.. but if you really ask me for THE TWO main differences in comparison to my or our previous bands than I’d say: it’s 1,the voice! This time we have a singer - that actually can sing. And she has quite the range! And 2:The way the instruments blend together and complete each other.Drums are the foundation but the bass is more in the mid territory while one guitar is very bright, almost biting, the other is everything in between this creates space,where everything has its place.I like that a lot.It’s so much more thought out than the bands we had in the past.
A6:How the band arrive at StoneFree Records? Markus:We’ve known the head of StoneFree Records for years and when I told him about my new band and what kind of music we’d play he was all ears and told me to show it to him once we were ready! And as he seemingly liked it enough we got signed right away and so the whole production for Tentaculove“ was already as a part of the StoneFree family.
A7:Is there a sludge vein in band sound? Markus:No.At least,its not intentional as we don’t listen to Sludge.
A8:How can an atmosphere become sinister and at the same time, seductive? Markus:It’s very easy with Penny Slick Perry as your singer.But,we also like to create tension with our instruments No Place For Ponies“ and Garaje“ are good example for this!
A9:Is man an animal that carries the corpse on its back all the time? Markus:Hopefully,we are more than just the mistakes that we and our ancestors made.But it would help if more people were thinking about this at least from time to time.Especially those who hold power.History repeats itself too often!
A10:Why does the band have this name? Markus:Uff.This goes way back to 2013-15: right between Cachimbo de Paz and Lucifer Baby, I was playing around with the artwork for the new 7“ single and while I wanted to differ between the old Cachimbo style and the new more 60s and 70s Rock inspired stuff,The Tentacles“ popped up in my head, along with some other names but I found it sounded too generic and could only imagnine to be a fitting name if we’d be playing Surf Rock which always was a sound I wanted to mix with the heavy rock I was playing at that time but a Les Paul just wasn’t the most inspiring tool for Surf... so I’m glad I waited a little longer.About a year and a half later.Me an my Mushcream Booking colleague Bertram who also plays guitar in Parasol Caravan were going through some of my drafts for possible Night of Fuzz“ poster and while I was clicking my way through them,there was one with a lady with Tentacle-hair and the next showing Count Dracula and Bertram spoke in awe „TEN-TA-CU-LA“. And after a short moment of silence I asked him if it was okay for him that I’d use this name,he said „sure“. And then I told him that this would be my future band’s name and about the incidence of „The Tentacles“ and that I’ve waited for exactly this little extra“/alteration.
A11:Literally Speaking: Is the world ridiculous? Penny&Markus:Sadly, yes. Mankind could be way further developed/wiser if people wouldn’t be sedated with mass and social media. The ones who hold power create artificial urges and further an unfair imbalance in riches - that keep the masses busy,the ones try to achieve security/prosperity and the others who suddenly feel the need to protect and enlarge theirs on the back of others.
A12:How long did the pre-production of this album take? Markus:Song writing or pre-production? As mentioned earlier,the first two songs are way older than the rest.Arthur joined the band in autumn/winter 2020 and he was more interested in playing the stuff we were currently working on than the old songs and so we transformed the many many riffs and ideas into about 12 more or less finished songs of which we took nine into Pre-Production – which started in April, one month before we went into the studio.
A13:This album is conceptual? yes or no and why? Penny&Markus:While most of the songs share the idea of „transformation“ and „growth“ and some of the riffs were Italo Western-inspired it is still not a conceptual album.But,we put a lot of time in thinking about the perfect „dramatic arc“ and we are very happy with the built up tense and the ending of „Creator“.
A14:What kind of subject don´t deserve a Tentacula Song? Penny&Markus:You will never hear us sing/play about nationalism,the degradation of other human beings or politics in general...
A15:Is the men like specie an experiment going wrong? Penny:Mankind evolved and did not start out as an experiment.But there have been experiments (e.g. Stanford) that show how human beings start behaving once they are given power over others.I wouldn’t call the whole humanity an experiment – but there are a lot of things actually going wrong as humanity fails itself with the everlasting greed of some who start wars over resources, religion or out of boredom.Also we failed the Planet Earth as we are too humancentric and forgot to see that our development comes at a price that Nature has to pay. And we should all pay good attention on the way the field of AI develops. And nevertheless it’s all about manipulation of society...Capitalism, nationalism and all forms of beliefst hat divide society into groups hating each other.
A16:The band feel differences between Tentaculove and now in Estrella Destruida? Markus:Yes,definitely! Tentaculove was a good starting point combining the ideas of Garage-Psych with Surf and Heavy-Rock... but we’ve grown a lot since that, as a band, in songwriting and on our instruments... so „Estrella Destruida“ is better in every possible way,we are really proud of that album!
A17:In the opinion of the band, is it better to think of the human condition as agony or are we an animal for health?
Markus:Are we born to die and to suffer all the way on the way to the grave? Well no. Life can be hard and not every day will be easy but that’s not what life is about.Wherever you stand in your life, and what strokes of fate you have and had to deal with all those experiences. Good or bad make you the person you are today.Life will always go its way which is most of the times not the way we planned it! So what you need to learn is to deal better with what you get instead.If you can make it work no matter the problems you’re facing you’ve already achieved mastery.Health is one of the most valuable good we have and maintaining and improving it should be a primary focus. But instead people are breaking themselves by working to much, being in toxic relationships, eating unhealty stuff or taking all kind of drugs/medicine that should help dealing with life be it pain, neurological issues, visceral malfunctioning or just escaping everyday life. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you can’t face it alone! Offer help if you see that somebody needs it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXPv_VPbbPY
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