© Analog Nights
Black Bombaim is one of those well kept secrets, obsessively followed by those that know and respect them, that the rest of the world just seems to be catching on to. They have been cultivating their monstrously hazy stoner rock for almost five years at this point and if their latest endeavor Titans is any indication of where the band is headed from here then they are going to be a genre crushing machine, defying limitations out outperforming expectations left and right. Black Bombaim’s one of those rare breed of fuzzed out shredding stoner rock bands that bothers to right material beforehand, and you can tell. While there might be a fair bit of exploration and improvisation when it comes to certain elements of the songs ninety-nine percent of it is meticulously planned and painstakingly performed. Seemingly endless soundscapes of apocalyptic doom metal boom and trundle their way into your subconscious, the massive riffs nestling themselves like demons in the dark corners and folds of your mind. Join me as I unravel the mysteries behind the beginnings of Black Bombaim and travel with me as I learn about where they are headed from here in the smoked out fuzzy haze that is Black Bombaim.
What is the band’s
lineup? Is this your original lineup?
Black Bombaim
is Ricardo Miranda on guitar, Tojo Rodrigues on bass and Paulo “Senra”
Gonçalves playing the drums. We used to
play with another guitarist, Fábio, but that was a long time ago before we had
released anything. Since the 2009 EP,
we’ve been a trio.
Are any of you in
any other bands? Have you released any
material with them?
Ricardo and
Paulo play in a garage rock band called ALTO!
You can find their releases here.
Ricardo also plays synths and keys in an electronic duo called PHASE.
Where are you
originally from?
The three of us
are all from a small industrial town in northern Portugal called Barcelos.
Where is the band
currently located?
We’re still
based here in Barcelos.
How would you
describe the local scene there?
Barcelos is a
very curious case regarding the local music scene. It’s even caught the attention of the
national mainstream media who are wondering why so many bands, including some
extremely good ones, have come out of this small town. A lot of people call it the “Portuguese
Capital of Rock”, whatever that means… I
still think the main reason for so many bands starting here is boredom; and the
fact that Barcelos is such a small place that you get to know everyone, so if
someone starts a band it automatically inspires you to start one too. It’s either that or playing soccer.
Are you very
involved with the local scene? Has it
played a large role in the history or evolution of Black Bombaim?
I like to think
so. Barcelos has had two major “band
booms”. There was one in the 90s with a
lot of experimental and alternative bands that caught the media’s eye and made
people start looking at this town differently.
Then another sprout came in the mid 2000’s, this time more focused on
rock. It inspired us to start the band
and to look for gigs outside Barcelos.
And now, in 2013, you see loads of new bands coming out, kids that were
about fourteen when we saw them at our shows, and they’re keeping the scene
alive, playing and promoting shows in town.
How and when did
you all meet?
We probably met
ten years ago in high school. Well, I’ve
known Ricardo all my life, as he’s my neighbor, but we met Paulo in high
school. We all had this big group that
got together between periods to smoke some and trade music on burned CD-Rs, and
we heard Paulo played drums with some friends and had a very small rehearsal
space under his parents’ supermarket. To
this day, we still rehearse and write all of our records in there.
What led you to
start Black Bombaim?
Probably out of
boredom, and a wish of taking our love of music to a different level. We were very young, about fifteen or
something.
I don’t like to
label or classify music, how would you describe Black Bombaim’s sound to our
readers?
Heavy
instrumental psych rock. That might sum
it up.
There are some
pretty apparent influences in your music, but the more you listen to it the
more layers and textures you find to the music, the complexity of something
that you make sound, for lack of a better term, “so easy”, is incredible to
me. Can you talk about some of your
personal musical influences? What about
the band as a whole as opposed to just personally?
It’s difficult
to explain how your influences connect with the way you make music yourself,
but it certainly does happen. When you
play rock music it’s obvious you’re reaching, as far as blues and classic rock
n’ roll, which we all love, but we like to employ various influences to make it
interesting for us, even if they’re not so obvious. We all love fuzz drenched guitars and
psychedelia, but even if you can’t tell by listening to our music, we are very
influenced by African grooves and German electronic music. I think it expanded our horizons and made us
feel different about rock music, which was very important when we were writing
those songs, even if it’s not a direct or apparent influence.
Alan Forbes has
done several pieces of artwork for you guys.
How did you become involved with Alan?
I love his work!
Alan is
amazing! We got to know his work by
seeing incredible art he’d done for bands we really liked and we had wanted to
work with him ever since. When we got
the opportunity to work with, I just wrote him and he replied right away and
started working on it! He’s really an
amazing artist and wonderful person.
Do you give a lot
of thought to artwork or the visual aspect of the band?
Artwork
definitely yes! We think it’s very
important, especially when you play psychedelic music. There are a lot of synergies between music
and visual art and when you release music on vinyl, artwork’s taken to a
different level. We also love to play
when there are psychedelic projections but we haven’t done it enough. Now if by visual aspect, you mean how we or
the stage looks when we get up there, we don’t really care.
Can you talk a
little bit about Black Bombaim’s writing process? Is there a lot of jamming or does someone
come in with a riff or more polished idea and present it to the band? You guys are fairly open about your usage of
drugs, at least marijuana and psychedelics, are they a large part of the
process?
Most of it is
jamming in the rehearsal space until we find something we all like. Sometimes somebody has an idea, a riff or a
groove and we try to develop that, again by jamming to it. We only try to figure stuff out and really
work on something after we jam on it a lot, it gives you a better idea of
what’s possible and the feeling of the whole thing. Well we used to smoke a lot back in the day,
but we have since slowed down a bit.
It’s cool and all, but I don’t think we really need it to write or to
play; we do enjoy having a good time of course!
I know you guys
have discussed the details of many of your albums with Klemen in a previous
interview, can you tell us a little bit about the recording of Titans? Where was it recorded at? Who recorded it? What kind of equipment was used?
We had a great
time recording Titans even though it was a very different experience from our
previous album. It was a more cerebral
process on how to let the various parts flow together as one and how to connect
the guests with it. We recorded it with
Zé Nando Pimenta, an excellent producer and engineer on his property near Famalicão,
in northern Portugal; a beautiful place with forests and lakes, we had the
whole Led Zeppelin IV vibe recording there.
He also has a huge collection of vintage microphones and a wonderfully
sounding Neve 8088 console, which practically makes everything sound amazing,
and that was basically it. We recorded
90% of it live in his studio and then our guests recorded their parts in
various studios across Porto, Lisbon, Oakland and San Francisco.
What was the idea
behind having so many amazing guest appearances on the album how did that all
come about?
The idea came
loosely to us after a big drinking night with the number one man at our label
Lovers & Lollypops, Joaquim Durães.
We were talking about what to do for the next record, and we wanted to
do something different, and then the idea came to us; why not do a record with
people we met along the way, who we like and admire playing on it? We know that idea has been overdone so many
times, but we thought our music could be expanded, and there was a lot of room
to explore. So, that journey began.
How did you handle
recording with all the guest musicians?
It was all
relatively easy, everybody was so cool when we contacted them, and were
interested from day one and excited to play on it. We just sent them the songs and said, “Do
whatever you want on it”.
What does the name
Titans mean or refer to? What about
Saturdays And Space Travels, I love that title and always wondered exactly
where it came from.
We always
struggle to find titles for stuff we do, songs, albums, even the band
name! But I guess Titans simply refers
to the people that played on the record, and since it is quite long in duration
we wanted something that was “big-sounding”.
Can’t go bigger than a Titan.
Saturdays And Space Travels came from the times we spent in our
rehearsal space where we would get together on Saturdays and space out while we
jammed. Simple as that.
Can you talk about
your collaboration with GNOD recently?
How did you come to play with them?
What about the decision to release a record of the performance?
We first met
them when we were touring the UK. They
actually helped us find a couple of shows where we could share the stage with
them. At that time, Joaquim from Lovers
& Lollypops, that also runs a festival in our hometown had already booked
them to play that year. We had a great
time and we were telling them cool things about Portugal until they told us
they weren’t gonna take a drummer to the festival, they would electronics only
do. We told them they should do two
shows, one more electronic oriented and another one with us together on stage
playing their songs. When they arrived
we were drinking a nice bottle of Alentejo wine at our place when we decided,
“Fuck it, let’s just get everybody on stage, and improvise something”. That’s what we did. We had no idea at all what to do
beforehand. It was super fun, and by
chance, local radio man Manuel Melo recorded the show from the audience with
just this tiny Zoom recorder. Dave from
Cardinal Fuzz, who we met playing with GNOD in Manchester, heard about the
recording that was made and released it!
What about the
track “Marraquexe” that you recorded with Rodrigo Amado for the Bodyspace 10
Anos compilation?
Bodyspace is
the best webzine in Portugal regarding music, and when they celebrated ten
years they invited a great number of people and bands to pair up and record an
original song together. They put us
together with Rodrigo Amado, an exceptional saxophone player, and since we were
listening to a lot of Arabic music at that time we decided to call it
“Marraquexe”. Funny thing, we recorded
our part in northern Portugal and Rodrigo in Lisbon without knowing each other,
and only met a few months later in Lisbon to play the song live!
Do you have any
releases planned for this year?
Not for 2013,
but we plan on releasing a new Black Bombaim record next year. There’s also another collaboration with a
more jazzy and post rock band La La La Ressonance. We got together to write some songs together
for a live show, and decided to record and release it. It was crazy.
Nine people on stage, doing very different stuff from what we’re used
to, but that connects in a very special way.
We’re really proud of that recording.
Where is the best
place for US residents to buy your records from and what do you still have in
print? Where’s the best place for
international residents to purchase your music?
I know that
Permanent Records in LA and Chicago, and Thirsty Moon Records in San Diego
stocked a few of our records, but don’t know if they’ve still got them. Rough Trade in London and Norman Records in
Leeds, UK should have a few left.
There’s always our own Bandcamp page, but the US dollar to EURO rates
and the ridiculously expensive shipping costs don’t make it easy on the fans’
wallets.
What do you have
planned as far as touring goes this year so far?
Just a few here
and there, shows in Portugal, nothing much.
We want to focus on writing the next album.
You have played
with some of my absolute favorite bands over the years including Earthless who
are without a doubt legendary in my mind.
Who are some of your personal favorites that you’ve had the chance to
play with?
We played with
a lot of bands along the years that we really love, like White Hills, Russian
Circles, Radio Moscow, Kyuss Lives, Endless Boogie, GNOD, Cuzo, the list goes
on, almost too many to remember!
Is there a funny
or interesting story from a live show that you’d like to share with our
readers?
There might be
a few, but it’s hard to tell them, as we’ve might been wasted and don’t
remember the whole thing. But
definitely, weird stuff happens at shows.
Where is the best
place for our readers to keep up on the latest news from Black Bombaim like
upcoming shows and releases?
Probably our
Facebook page, we’re updating it frequently.
We’re working on a website too which will have more complete info on
things, but we don’t really know when it will be online.
The psychedelic
and garage scene has been receiving a lot of attention, growing steadily over
the last few years. How do you feel about
the progression and growth of the scene internationally over the last two
years?
I, personally,
think it’s great. A lot of good stuff is
coming out and there’s a better general awareness of psychedelic music now, and
as long as it doesn’t implode, we can all be happy of so many fine records and
festivals happening.
I love having a
digital copy of an album to listen to when I’m on the go or whatever, but
there’s something irreplaceably magical about a physical release. Having an album to hold in your hands, having
something to look at and physically experience while listening to the music
makes for a more complete experience, at least for me. Do you have any such connection to physical
releases?
Of course! Digital music comes in handy a lot of times
and is indeed more practical, but, and there is no overstating this, everything
about vinyl is better!
Do you have a
music collection? If so can you tell us
a little bit about it?
Not a big one,
sadly. It’s mostly made of records I
really want to buy to support the band and small bargains I find from time to
time. There’s no specific musical genre
or anything, just random records. I wish
I could take it more seriously and had more money to spend on it!
How do you feel
about digital music and distribution?
While it’s rapidly changing the face of the music industry it’s an
indispensable tool for those of us fixated on discovering new bands that aren’t
exactly in our backyards, exposing me to a whole universe of music I would
never have heard of otherwise.
I guess we need
to think about digital music like a big important part of the industry
nowadays. Like you said, it’s the
ultimate tool for music discovery. Hell
you wouldn’t have ever heard about Black Bombaim and this interview wouldn’t
exist if it wasn’t for a couple of mp3 files flying away in the internet. It’s great and sometimes a very lucrative
business for major label with iTunes and whatnot, but we can’t forget about the
big picture. Like Neil Young says, it
sucks when musicians spend time and effort doing what they love, as well as
thousands of dollars in making something sound and look beautiful, only to be
blasted out of some kids’ earphones with ridiculous compression, sounding
nothing like the original. I mean,
digital is good in many aspects, but it should not be the ultimate form of
listening to music.
I ask everyone
this in an attempt to keep up with the amazing bands out there, who I be
listening to from your local scene or area that they might not have heard of?
There are quite
a few bands in Barcelos worth checking out from various music styles. I’ll just name a few, The Glockenwise, Aspen,
Killimanjaro, La La La Ressonance, Dear Telephone, indignu, etcetera.
What about
nationally and internationally?
I hate doing
these things, as I keep forgetting most of them and feel bad for leaving them
out, so I’ll just name the three national ones that come to mind right now; you
should seriously check out Sensible Soccers, Gala Drop and Norberto Lobo.
Is there anything
that I missed or you’d like to discuss further?
Think we
covered everything!
© Joana Castelo
© Joana Castelo
DISCOGRAPHY
(2007) Black Bombaim
– 2007 Demo – Digital – Self-Released
(2009) Black Bombaim
– Black Bombaim – CD-R – Lovers & Lollypops / Sonic Infusion Records
(2010) Black Bombaim
– Saturdays And Space Travels – 12” – Lovers & Lollypops (Limited to 300
hand numbered copies)
(2010) Black Bombaim and The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers
– Alexandra b/w You’re Going To Be Free – CD – Noisestar/Lovers & Lollypops
(Limited to 50 hand screen-printed copies)
(2010) Black Bombaim
and The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers – Alexandra b/w You’re Going To Be Free – CD-R
– Noisestar/Lovers & Lollypops (Reissue, limited to 50 copies)
(2011) Black Bombaim
– Live At Passos Manuel – Cassette Tape – Tapes She Said (Limited to 77 copies)
(2012) Black Bombaim
– Titans – 2x12” – Lovers & Lollypops (Limited to 500 copies)
(2012) Black Bombaim
– Saturdays And Space Travels – 12” – Lovers & Lollypops (Limited to 27
copies with alternate artwork)
(2012) Various Artists
– Bodyspace 10 Anos – CD – Optimus Discos (Black Bombaim and Rodrigo Amodo
contribute the track Marraquexe, album available for free download at
http://optimusdiscos.pt/discos/destaques/coletanea-bodyspace)
(2012) Black Gnod –
Black Gnod: Inner Space Broadcasts Vol. 3 – Cardinal Fuzz (Limited to 160
copies)
Interview made by Roman Rathert/2013
© Copyright http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/2013
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