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Has Mario Rubalcaba ever been in a less-than-killer band? John Reis? Ian Svenonious? James Canty? No way, not even sub-par despite surveying a variety of collaborators, genres, and styles. Add to the list of rad musicians in a ton of impeachable bands Sandra Vu. I dug Midnight Movies, love Dum Dum Girls, and am a massive supporter of her psychedelic goth solo gig, SISU. I’m dying to hear her new material live and extra stoked that she and her crew are touring with Alex Hungtai a.k.a. Mr. Dirty Beaches. Dude. That is a rad lineup and I hope this brief Q&A inspires some of you to check it out. MW: I still haven’t heard the new Blood Tears LP! How does it compare to the Light Eyes EP in terms of recording or even just the sound in general? SV: We need to get you the LP! We had no budget for the EP, so the main technical difference is that Lars Stalfors didn’t mix it and Ryan Wood wasn’t as involved in making it. He was just too busy so I pretty much made it on my own. There are also no live drums on the EP, which was a limitation of not having enough to make it sound good enough. The EP is just about as lo-fi as I’m willing to go. Other than these technical things, the songs themselves are relatable but different. Blood Tears is more immediate to me, the songs on the whole are tend to be structurally more simple. I worked on the bass guitar more on the EP, and two of the main songs “Light Eyes” and “Two Thousand Hands” are meatier–longer, denser. The songs on both LP and EP were written in the same time period, but the EP was completed after. It came about in the long waiting period of trying to plan the LP release. MW: During the Dum Dums’ downtime, SISU plays a lot! How has the band been evolving? SV: We play any opportunity we get! I’m really proud of how the band has evolved. SISU is essentially a studio project, but it’s been really fun to take it further in the live show. Since I switched from playing bass to guitar live, it’s opened up a whole new world. Playing bass for me is more rigid, you’ve got to play it 100 percent correct and on, or else the bottom will drop out. On guitar, I get to wiggle around a little more which is really fun. I add parts that aren’t on the recordings; sometimes I wing it a little. On the other hand, it’s a pretty challenging job for my bandmates, who have been thankfully open to adapting to so many different configurations. We can play shows as a 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-piece band, with different members on both coasts. It’s insane! Tito can now switch between stand-up drums, second guitar, and bass guitar. We had Jules pick up the guitar when we do...
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Has Mario Rubalcaba ever been in a less-than-killer band? John Reis? Ian Svenonious? James Canty? No way, not even sub-par despite surveying a variety of collaborators, genres, and styles. Add to the list of rad musicians in a ton of impeachable bands Sandra Vu. I dug Midnight Movies, love Dum Dum Girls, and am a massive supporter of her psychedelic goth solo gig, SISU. I’m dying to hear her new material live and extra stoked that she and her crew are touring with Alex Hungtai a.k.a. Mr. Dirty Beaches. Dude. That is a rad lineup and I hope this brief Q&A inspires some of you to check it out. MW: I still haven’t heard the new Blood Tears LP! How does it compare to the Light Eyes EP in terms of recording or even just the sound in general? SV: We need to get you the LP! We had no budget for the EP, so the main technical difference is that Lars Stalfors didn’t mix it and Ryan Wood wasn’t as involved in making it. He was just too busy so I pretty much made it on my own. There are also no live drums on the EP, which was a limitation of not having enough to make it sound good enough. The EP is just about as lo-fi as I’m willing to go. Other than these technical things, the songs themselves are relatable but different. Blood Tears is more immediate to me, the songs on the whole are tend to be structurally more simple. I worked on the bass guitar more on the EP, and two of the main songs “Light Eyes” and “Two Thousand Hands” are meatier–longer, denser. The songs on both LP and EP were written in the same time period, but the EP was completed after. It came about in the long waiting period of trying to plan the LP release. MW: During the Dum Dums’ downtime, SISU plays a lot! How has the band been evolving? SV: We play any opportunity we get! I’m really proud of how the band has evolved. SISU is essentially a studio project, but it’s been really fun to take it further in the live show. Since I switched from playing bass to guitar live, it’s opened up a whole new world. Playing bass for me is more rigid, you’ve got to play it 100 percent correct and on, or else the bottom will drop out. On guitar, I get to wiggle around a little more which is really fun. I add parts that aren’t on the recordings; sometimes I wing it a little. On the other hand, it’s a pretty challenging job for my bandmates, who have been thankfully open to adapting to so many different configurations. We can play shows as a 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-piece band, with different members on both coasts. It’s insane! Tito can now switch between stand-up drums, second guitar, and bass guitar. We had Jules pick up the guitar when we do...
Continue reading