CONSTANTS is a band full of ‘eco-history’ and a hard working band. With their latest release If Tomorrow The War (2009) they toured a lot through Europe and now they are preparing their upcoming labum which will be titled Pasiflora.
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Please tell some basic things about CONSTANTS.
WILL – Well, CONSTANTS has been around since 2003, we’ve released 4 albums and toured a whole lot all over the world.
Your music is influenced by different styles…tell us some of your favorite bands and how they influence CONSTANTS. What means postrock to you?
WILL- Each of us have different “favorite bands” or bands that we think influence us most. and yes, we all listen to very different kinds of music. but I think it’s fair to say that at this point shoegaze bands like MY BLOODY VALENTINE, CATHERINE WHEEL, CHAPTERHOUSE etc have a lot of influence. And bands that took that sound and ran with like HUM AND FAILURE all the way to GOLDFLESH and TYPE O NEGATIVE. But we also think about bands like RUSH, YES and KING CROMSON when we write. But that is really just the beginning of the list, we all listen to music all across the board from electronic, hip hop, metal, punk etc etc.
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But I personally don’t really listen to anything that is considered “postrock” I don’t think. I was really into TORTOISE when I was younger, which some people consider one of the first postrock bands. But I don’t think that if you play in a band with delay pedals and no vocals you are “postrock”. It’s just not something I think about or consider.
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…I don’t think that if you play in a band with delay pedals and no vocals you are “postrock”. It’s just not something I think about or consider.
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You began in 2004 and toured a lot, released Nostalgia Of A Future and after line-up-changes you released an EP called “The Murder Of Tom Fitzgerril”, you played the “Ecological Tour” for many months. What are your experiences of the “Eecological Tour”.
WILL- That experience changed all of our lives for sure. We toured for 10 months straight with a bus that runs on waste vegetable oil. It was just amazing to NOT be spending money on fuel so we could actually be earning money even at smaller shows. and just being on the road for that long, you learn a lot about yourself and the people you surround yourself with. Since that tour, I’ve bought a home and built a recording studio that runs on Solar Power, so I’m a really strong supporter of renewable energy and being conscious of our environmental footprint.
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…It always bothers me when a band finds a sound and sticks to it…
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You did several sound-changes and experimented with new ideas. Is it a hard path for a band to become a personal sound?
WILL- For me it’s hard NOT to change. It always bothers me when a band finds a sound and sticks to it – I just lose interest. It’s much more interesting to me to challenge myself and the people I’m playing music with to try new things and be creative in new ways. Of course it’s important to keep your strengths in mind, and your individuality, but it’s just more fulfilling when you listen back to a record and hear the musicians taking chances and not always doing the obvious thing.
Some time ago you released a split album with CASPIAN. Where did the idea come from? Any experiences from the split record?
WILL- CASPIAN has always been good friends of ours. We all come from the Boston scene and have helped each other out a lot over the years. I think we had finished a tour, or were planning to do a tour together – we’ve toured together a lot! – and we thought it would be cool to have a release that had both bands on it.
Then you released the three-pieced album “The Foundation, The Machine, The Ascension” – is it a conceptual album? Experiences from the record?
WILL- Yes, that is 3 part concept record. It was written to be released as 3 EPs, and then later all be bundled together, but because of the cost, we ended up agreeing to release it all at once. I learned a lot from the record actually, it was our first release that we toured Europe to support, too. For me we took a lot of chances with that record and it seems like that is the album that people like the most from us – which is kind of weird to me, but I can understand that. For me personally, I was trying to use my voice differently, and we introduced a lot more synth for that record after losing our second guitar player. that album was all about experimentation with counter melodies and trying to tell a story without just relying on lyrics.
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In 2010 you released another album called “If Tomorrow We War” – you mixed this album in Will Benoit’s studio (Radar Studios). When did you start to create Solar Powered recording? Experiences from the record?
WILL- Actually, we recorded that here at Radar Studios, but it was produced and mixed by Justin Broadrick. Working with Justin was a highlight of my musical career. I love that dude’s music, and his production style. Working with him was just such an amazing experience. we got to talk about music a lot and to hear his take on our music is still pretty cool for me. “ITTW” is my personal favorite CONSTANTS record and I think will always be for that reason.
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As far as the studio goes, it’s a project that I’ve always wanted to take on, and now that I have a house I’m able to. It’s an awesome facility that just keeps growing – so far we’ve had CONSTANTS (of course), JUNIUS, CASPIAN, GIFTS FROM ENOLA, IN AEONA and a few other bands work on albums here and we haven’t even been open for a year yet, so I’m really excited about the future here. you can actually check out photos of the studio build – because we are still working on it – here: theradarstudio.com
You have finished a long tour with SIGHTS AND SOUNDS around Europe introducing your latest record. When did that friendshop start? Was it easy to work together on tour? Your favorite place on tour?
WILL- Their singer Andrew got in touch with us a few years ago, and we’ve been trying to make a tour happen together since then. We got to play a couple shows with COMEBACK KID and that’s when we met the SIGHTS AND SOUNDS guys – so at that point we were really stoked to try to get a tour put together with them. It finally happened and we did just over 4 weeks last month. It was an awesome tour and we love those guys.
It’s always tough to say my favorite place of tour, because I really just love touring in Europe. But if I had to pick I’d say I really love Spain – because we have some great friends there – and Portugal, because we had our only day off of the tour in Porto, and it was really amazing. we went out and did a couple of wine tours which was super fun.
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In Radar studio, you produced or recorded other bands? Your music is full of solar energy, when you listen to a normal record and one from your studio you notice differences between them? Which bands you are producing/recording at the moment?
WILL- Ya, I’m starting to work with other bands more now that I have a place to do it. I’ve always worked on producing and mixing albums – my personal favorites are probably the first two JUNIUS records. No, the solar energy isn’t something that can ‘be heard’, but I think that bands are really happy to be here and realize that the power here comes from the sun, it’s definitely a cool feeling and good vibe as a result. I just finished mixing the new GIFTS FROM ENOLA record, which I think people that like them are going to be really surprised and impressed by. And up next is a band from NYC called GRAVEYARD LOVERS. They are a two piece and the guitarist is actually Joel from JUNIUS‘ brother. I’m really excited to work with them and it should be a really cool experience.
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You uploaded a song from your upcoming album “Pasiflora” called “Sunrise” – an evolution since the last album? When it will the new album be released?
WILL- Pasiflora comes out in June this year on The Mylene Sheath. We definitely have another drastic change in sound this time around! I mentioned earlier, these days we are really embracing our 90s shoegaze side, so this album is full of really dreamy songwriting. Our drummer Rob came up with a lot of the basic patterns and melodies this time, and I’m also singing very differently… from people who’ve heard it, we’ve heard a lot of different comparisons, but the feedback has been really good so far.
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Since the title of our zine is NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION: What means passion to you? And hope?
WILL- Those are tough questions to answer, but I think both elements are important to humanity, not just musicians. Without passion and hope nothing would get done. Someone has to be hopeful and passionate enough to cure diseases, and bring real positive change to the world. Someone has to have enough hope and passion for their loved ones to get up every morning and go to work cleaning bathrooms. Those two emotions are really central to every other emotion we have. In my limited ability I try to convey hope in our music, but usually in a “there’s a light at the end of the tunnel” kind of way. As far as passion goes, I believe I bring that to music because – along with creativity – it’s something I care about a great deal.
…without passion and hope nothing would get done…
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CONSTANTS
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postrock / indie
from Boston, USA
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