FOR WEEKLY INSPIRATION Why
school of seven bells
New Music /

School of Seven Bells interview

With their dynamic and exciting electro-pop sound, Brooklyn group School of Seven Bells are just about the hottest thing out of the borough this year since fluoro coloured hair combs made their omnipresent comeback.

We spoke with Benjamin Curtis, one third of the trio, and asked him — given how intricate the production is on their debut album, Alpinisms — how hard it was for the group to let a song go from the mixing stage to the mastering stage: ‘It is a delicate process, for sure. I’m sure you can imagine that we could continuously work on any piece of music for the rest of eternity, but that’s where the chemistry with the three of us really starts to work. We really trust each other musically, so as soon as we reach a point where all three of us are happy with what we are hearing, we have to stop there. It takes a lot of discipline, but it’s totally necessary. Otherwise, we’d have never finished this record’.

Half Asleep is the song of 2008. No doubt about it. What do you remember most about the writing of it?
‘It actually started from a small vocal loop I’d put together. I’d arranged and bent this little snippet of music into a great little melody that later in a way became the basis of the chorus. Some chords were added, and we just let it sit to see where it would go. Claudia had some inspiring changes in her life, out of which came her words and vocals for the verses which were written over what I had done. Alley, being inspired by what Claudia was saying, and feeling really sympathetic with that emotion, came up with and sang the chorus, and it all worked together magically. It was written and recorded very quickly, and in the end was probably about as collaborative as any of us have ever been musically, and the result really shows. It’s a special song for us’.

Tagged: ,

Check out our sister site, My Secret Playlist, where our favorite musicians and DJs write about the music that's inspiring them right now.
Looking for the perfect gift? Check out the goodies in the Lost At E Minor online store or for a curated range, try this selection of cool presents.

RELATED

Thumb

Hypernova video, directed by Richard Patterson

Brooklyn-band Hypernova’s new music video was shot and directed by Common Machine’s Director of Photography, Richard Patterson, on Profoto’s spanking new, lighting packs, enabling the video to be shot on a stills camera. There are actually more than 16,000 stills that make up the video, the first time it’s ever been done like this.

Thumb

Kyp Malone’s new album, Rain Machine

I love Kyp Malone. I’d love him even if he weren’t guitarist and singer for one of the best bands out there, TV On The Radio. See, Kyp’s just a rock solid, totally unpretentious, good guy. He gives good hugs. Our kids play together and have sleepovers. I had mostly forgotten that Kyp was a rock star. Read more

Thumb

Amazing Baby’s Secret Playlist

Brooklyn band, Amazing Baby have a new album — Rewild — the product of love and sustaining the loss of it, a car crash, and a fourteen-piece orchestra — and a damn fine Secret Playlist. Simon O’Connor gave us the inside word on the music that’s been inspiring them of late, starting with the Cocteau Twins song, Blue Bell Knoll [listen below]: ‘This song is like Enya covering My Bloody Valentine. Actually, it sounds like that weird singing alien chick known as the Diva in the Fifth Element starring Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman. Sorry, I have a nosebleed and my Boba Fett helmet is upsetting my allergies’. Read the rest of Amazing Baby’s Secret Playlist.

Also by ZOLTON

Thumb

Crimea X’s Secret Playlist

Crimea X is the coming together of two offbeat, disparate characters, DJ Rocca (Ajello, Super Sonic Lovers, Maffia Sound System) and Jukka Reverberi from 90s Italian glam cult rockers, Giardini di Mirò, who have often have been compared with the sound of Mogwai, Arab Strap, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. We asked them about their favourite music and they started with The Smiths song, Ask [listen below] ‘I saw them playing live on Italian TV. It was during the 80s when I was extremely young, and I’ve never stopped listening to this song’. Read the rest of Crimea X’s Secret Playlist.

Thumb

Abandoned Swimming Pools

I love the curated selection of abandoned swimming pool photos on Feature Shoot today, featuring work by Carlo Van de Roer and Albert Jodar, amongst others.

Thumb

Win a set of Sony personal audio prizes

Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more

YOU'RE SAYING (1)

gus gaivno said | 6 December, 2008

Nice little interview. I saw them at the Empty Bottle, Chicago and they were amazing!
cool post, as always thanks for sharing.

HAVE YOUR SAY




Please be sure to enter your name and email before submitting this comment. Please also refer to our comments policy.

We asked New York-based photographer Gregg Delman about the differences between shooting for print and online: ‘With online publications, the layouts are very specific. You need to shoot and crop to fit a specific box on the web page. With print, you have a bit more freedom. Editors are willing to layout there text around your images as long as its within reason. Also, there is a lot less time given for online shoots. All the MTV.com shoots have been done in a 9 x 10 foot office space with fifteen minutes max’. There’s a full interview with Gregg Delman at the Feature Shoot website.


ADVERTISEMENT

I’d never before seen a museum where the building itself is the attraction more so than what is exhibited inside. Built by Daniel Libeskind in 1999, the Jewish Museum in Berlin is worth a visit even if you are not an architecture fan. Read more

With her collection of Skinover gloves, Rotterdam-based artist and sculptor Silvia B has taken a somewhat natural approach to the task of keeping hands warm — warts and all.


ADVERTISEMENT

Yum, yum, cupcakes are fun. These creations are so clever, so arty, so damn bizarre that it would almost be a shame to eat them. Almost! Read more

A Paper Tiger is a new venture that launched in January of this year selling exclusive prints by some of my favorite artists such as Jack Long [shown above]. Read more

Not much more needs to be said about this. Ricky Gervais, the funniest man in England, meets Larry David, the funniest man in America. Wit and genius collides. Very, very clever.

I live the upbeat, feel good tempo of the new single — A Hundred Hearts — from Philly group, The Swimmers. Off their latest album, People Are Soft, this song is a strangely fitting anthem for the blustery day outside.

WE'RE RESPECTING

WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

Thumb

Paolo Ventura

Italian-born, New York City-based photographer Paolo Ventura creates fairy-tale like pictures out of amazingly constructed, miniature dioramas that almost trick the eye into thinking he’s a tilt-shift photographer. Read more

Thumb

Mike Stimpson

Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more

Thumb

The Swimmers

I live the upbeat, feel good tempo of the new single — A Hundred Hearts — from Philly group, The Swimmers. Off their latest album, People Are Soft, this song is a strangely fitting anthem for the blustery day outside.

Thumb

Man-Tsun’s painterly images

Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more

Thumb

Celebrity PunchOut

Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.


ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more

This Spider Necklace by Andrea Corson is made from oxidized sterling silver and is a one of a kind: a blackened creepy crawly on a bed of Caviars that will freak and treat. We have them for sale in the Lost At E Minor online store. Read more

FOLLOW US

Follow Lost At E Minor on Facebook Follow Lost At E Minor on Twitter

[Advertise here]


WHAT YOU'RE DOING

What are you doing?

CAPTCHA

DISCOVER MORE

SO...


SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..

IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?

We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it’s not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.

If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.