klaus & kinski. interview #32

Klaus & Kinski is a band from Murcia, Spain and since 2008 they've been casting a spell of fragility, loud guitars, emotional melodies and phenomenal skill to mixture musical styles. Their albums have a profound collection of songs that travel through shoegaze, rumba, bossa nova and electronic sounds. And the most interesting thing to note about that is how cohesive this mixture of different genres sounds.
Alejandro Martínez is the guy who writes the songs and take care of arrangements. His lyrics deal with subjects from History - citing demons (like the nazi dr. Mengele in the beautiful 'Mengele y el amor') and heros (Bakunin, the russian anarchist political theorist); the fear of death and, of course, love.
Two years and two albums later (both released under the great Jabalina Musica), Klaus & Kinski is one of the pillars of the vibrant contemporary spanish indie scene.

We talked with Marina, the sweet voice breathing life to Alejandro's words. She talks about their origins, the many music styles inside their music, inspirations and about their new album, due to be released in 2012.


01. How did you got together and decided to start a band? And by the name of the band I assume you are big fans of the german actor Klaus Kinski… how did you get to the name?

We met on a disco parking, three days before 09.11 terrorist attack, but we started to make songs during 2006. Actually we are not fans of Klaus Kinski, but we liked his name and angry face. We thought "klaus&kinski" was stupid enough to sound cool.


02. If Klaus & Kinski’s music were a planet or landscape, how do you think it would look like?
Maybe a desert, like the place we live in: Murcia, at the south east of Spain.

03. An element that stands out in your songs is the subjects of your lyrics. Somehow you manage to create this universe of love and death; fragility and naivety mixed with a subtle and not at all obvious take on political, religious and social issues (or figures): dr. Mengele, the nazi doctor that performed experiments on jews; Bakunin, an anarchic Russian political theorist... just to mention the known figures.
Could you tell us what inspires you? And what are your connection with  death? (I mean, we all have a deep connection with death but what’s your ‘creative connection’ with it…)
Alejandro writes the music and lyrics here, at home, where we have recorded most of our songs. He's quite obsessed with History, wars, politics and other adult things. I think he couldn't talk in any other way, avoiding the things he's interested in. I mean, he tries to write about common things, like love, trough the things he likes the most. In other way, Alejandro is really scared about getting old and die, much more than any other person, as you can see in our lyrics.

04. Your debut ‘Tu hoguera está ardiendo’ (Your bonfire is burning), released in 2008, received massive praise for its quality and eclectic music styles imprinted in the songs throughout the album. In fact, I think it was the best album released that year… because it had – and still have – a freshness and a certain surprise factor in it. Could you tell us how was the making of it? In which stage of the creation were you when Jabalina Musica decided to release the album and what were your expectations with it?
Thank you for your kind words. "Tu hoguera..." is a collection of songs written and recorded for years by us at Alejandro's family home. When Jabalina came to "rescue" us, we were a little bit sad about how hard it was to get a record label. We have been recording and playing little gigs for three years and we watched other bands which have started after us, releasing records and videos. It was very exciting to have "Tu hoguera.." in my hand for the first time. We know a CD is like a passport to be on summer festivals and have a real tour band, and that's what we expected and got.

05. Last year, also released by Jabalina, came ‘Tierra, trágalos’ (Earth, swallow them). The second album and another collection of songs that goes from shoegaze to bolero/tango. Any difference between the creation of this album, comparing with the debut?
Our second record was created as a collection of songs meant to be together, not as the first one, created for years and putted together to be released. Alejandro had a bit of stress creating it, because we had a deadline and knew that we hadn't the surprise factor by our side. We were scared about how the reviews were going to be.
 
06. Are you guys already planning a new album? What can we expect for the future?
Yes, we would like to have another one at the beginning of 2012, and creating it slower than "Tierra, trágalos". We've got the same creative dogma: do what we like in every moment. So, maybe we will have classic rock'n'roll, rumba catalana, shoegaze, spanish folk... who knows.

07. To me, the Spanish indie scene is probably the most lively nowadays… any Spanish bands/artists that you think the whole world should know?
We are huge fans of Triángulo de Amor Bizarro, Los Punsetes, Alondra Bentley and Cuchillo from now. From the past, you can listen to the three first records of Los Planetas, and Surfin' Bichos. Most of them are noisy people.

08. Any music video (not necessarily from the band) that you think everyone should watch?
My favourite video ever is "Minusvalia" by Jimmy Gimferrer to Astrud. It looks almost like a Bresson film.
You can see spanish cool videos from the production company, Canada. They made us a video to "Forma, sentido y realidad".
My favorite video made to us is the one for "Ley y Moral", created by Chema García Ibarra.


09. Any song(s) you’d like to cover?
The songs I like the most have no possible cover, because we probably do worst. I really love every Beach House song and we cover "Gila" sometimes.
Once, we made a cover to a Brazilian band, Cansei de ser sexy, but it was much more darker than the original.

10. Name the perfect place and time to hear your music.
I usually not listen to my music, so I cannot tell you where and when, but I like to do it with my favourite records while I'm travelling by car, looking through the windows.

11. Recommend something you've been listening lately.
Yesterday I've been listening to Los Planetas 3rd record, "Una semana en el motor de un autobús". And we both became fans of Chilean band Dënver and Javiera Mena. We hope to see them in Spain soon.

12. Anything else you feel like saying?
Please, forgive my awful English and thank you so much!

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