{
MusIC
}
phOtOGrAphEd by ty MEChAM
whEN ANd whErE dId thE bANd
CONNECt? We all met in November of 2004
while we were touring with other bands. Claudia
and I were in a band called On! Air! Library!,
and Benjamin was in Secret Machines. We
joined up with Secret Machines and Interpol
for a part of their U.S. tour that year.
yOur sOuNd Is sO uNIquE; whAt
ArE yOur bIGGEst MusICAL ANd Art
sChOOL of sEvEN bELLs
INfLuENCEs? Can, money, Gurdjieff, slow-
cooked meals, J.L. Borges, Robert Wyatt,
change, David Bowie, Debbie Deb. . . .
whErE wErE yOu bOrN ANd rAIsEd?
hOw dOEs thAt AffECt thE MusIC?
Claud and I, although born in Guatemala City,
are of Bolivian and Costa Rican decent. We
moved around the D.C. area a bunch, and then
ended up in south Florida until 1999. Both of
those areas are extremely culturally diverse, so
I was lucky to be exposed to pretty much every
kind of music imaginable. It was impossible
to be partial to any single genre of music.
Benjamin was born in southwest Oklahoma.
I’m sure that the flatness of the space affected
his aesthetic, but not in the same way that it
affects most people that hail from southwest
Oklahoma.
wAs thErE A dEfINING MOMENt thAt
brOuGht yOu tO MusIC? My mom
says that before we even learned to string
words together into a sentence, Claud and I
had memorized an entire song (“La Mochila
Azúl”), and we apparently sang it for days and
days straight. I’d say that’s a pretty defining
moment.
whAt wErE yOu tryING tO ExprEss IN
thIs ALbuM? If we could have expressed it
with just words, we would have. It’s just about
our songs. You just have to listen to it and take
what you can from it.
whAt dO yOu thINk Is thE MOst
IMpOrtANt thING IN LIfE? We couldn’t
possibly know that.
hOw dO thE thrEE Of yOu wOrk
tOGEthEr? Our musical ideas come together
as conversations. One responds to the other
and so on and so forth. We all live in the same
thE sChOOL Of sEvEN bELLs’ dEbut
house, so there are three creative processes
ALbuM, ALpINIsMs, CAN bE bOuGht
going on simultaneously. It’s impossible not to
ON ItuNEs.
get involved with what the other is doing.
Is fAshION IMpOrtANt tO yOur IMAGE?
whAt ArE yOur fAvOrItE dEsIGNErs
Or stOrEs? We pretty much just wear what
we like. I love what Surface to Air does, Ann
Demeulemeester, Nathan Jenden, Comme des
Garçons, or whatever people give us for free.
ELIZA / 42 ELIZA / 43
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