In Conversation with
La Blanche Alchimie:
A little background:
For people who are familiar with ‘Setting Sun’ they
may know I frequently to Manchester’s unsigned
festival ‘In the City’ every year where a whole host
off acts play spotlight gigs to hopefully attract
the attention of record companies.
Of course with every year, there is always
acts that you love and others you don’t, but
when you discover acts frequently that you
really like, it frequently gives you tons more pleasure
that you have actually discovered them.
Milano (Milan), Italy based duo ‘La Blanche Alchimie’
are one of those cases in question. I had discovered
them by chance in the run up to ‘In the City’
and really enjoyed their moody tunes which
crossed over the boundaries off a mixture
with P.J.Harvey, Portishead, Nina Simone with in
the duo’s own words the atmosphere off
David Lynch, Tim Burton, Fritz Lang,
Roman Polanski and John Carpenter among
others which gave a twilight sort of feel
that make it sound like nothing else out
there in places.
Of course – this was a duo worth checking
out for Setting Sun for a interview with
a feel like this. I first off all saw them at
‘In the City’ and thought they produced a
Lovely little set and of course the interview
Has now followed a little later.
Thanks to their manager, Emi for her
assistance with this interview.
Check them out on their myspace
Page which is for further details
http://www.myspace.com/blanchealchimie
Cheers
Andy N
Setting Sun:
How are things and what's happening at
the moment?
La Blanche
Alchimie:
At the moment we are looking for a good label
to publish our first album. We'd love to sign with
an English or German label but everything could
happen!
Last month we played in Manchester at ITC
and it’s been so amazing to face to English music
scene. Now we’re doing many concerts in Italy and at
the end of November we’ll perform in Faenza at
MEI, an important independent music
meeting in Italy. We hope to find interesting
turning-points.
Setting Sun:
Next can you tell us a little bit about the history
of La Blanche Alchimie etc?
La Blanche
Alchimie:
We were both playing in other bands when we
met and discovered a strong musical affinity.
So we started making music together, leaving
all behind.
We worked on a few songs and later through
myspace we found lots of people interested in
our music who encouraged us to go on and
produce an album.
At the end of 2007 we were ready to record
the nine tracks that compose our first album
“La Blanche Alchimie”.
We made a lot of concerts in the last months
and we feel very positive about the future of
our music.
Setting Sun:
Next can you tell us what are your influences
music wise and what are you listening to at
the moment?
La Blanche
Alchimie:
We get inspired from every single beautiful
thing we hear and see. We love Radiohead,
the Beatles, the Velvet Underground,
Television, Joy Division, Bauhaus,
Eric Satie, Nina Simone, The Pixies,
Arcade Fire, PJ Harvey...a lot of musicians!
We like to get inspirations especially from
movies and visual arts.
The atmosphere of our music is very close to
directors as David Lynch, Tim Burton,
Fritz Lang, Roman Polanski, John Carpenter
and Dave Cronemberg and painters as the
pre-raphaelites and Danilo Buccella,
an incredible young Italian contemporary
artist.
Setting Sun:
I can see from your myspace page that you
play concerts on a regular basis - how do these
compare to your recordings? Is their one you
prefer over the other?
La Blanche
Alchimie:
We performed 4 times at the same venue
which is located in the heart of Milano’s
nightlife. This gave us the opportunity to strengthen
our show and have a big visibility. On the other
side, recording our first album was an incredible
experience. Very different approach, but both
important and exciting part of an artist career.
Setting Sun:
I am currently really enjoying your songs on
your myspace page - I think my favorite is
'Addiction' - can you tell us a little bit more
about this song?
La Blanche
Alchimie:
Addiction is a very sad song about a woman who
lives her life on earth sucking men’s blood. She
mingles with the human kind but her sorrow is
unbearable since she is condemned to live with
repulsing beings who bring in their veins the
only substance that guarantees her surviving.
A very never ending sad story. We found
inspiration from Abel Ferrara’s movie.
Setting Sun:
I also loved the fact you did a cover version
off 'Venus in Furs' on your myspace page.
How does your approach when doing
cover versions of songs?
La Blanche
Alchimie:
To be honest Venus In Furs in the only cover
we’ve done. It is a special song for us and everything
came very naturally. Piano and voice has been the
best choice as we preferred to keep the essentials
and preserve the intent of the original track.
Setting Sun:
What is the inspiration behind your name
'La Blanche Alchimie?'
La Blanche
Alchimie:
We like very much the sound of French words and we
want try to give the idea of something pure, alchemic
and intimate. We saw a beautiful Italian movie called
“Il nuovo mondo” in which there is a scene where
characters are swimming in a milk sea.
We loved that image and a few days later we
found a post-card in a club and on it there was written
“Sacred Alchemy”. This helped us to find a name for
the band and for our first song called
“Sacred Alchemy”.
Setting Sun:
A few little questions to finish off, I know you are
from Milano, Italy. What is the music scene like over
there nowadays? Have you being to see any good
concerts recently?
La Blanche
Alchimie:
In Milano there are lots of band trying to emerge and
some are really interesting.
The problem is that even if you play a lot around and
find a nice indie label it’s very hard to be sold abroad
and become international. Only a few big names can
go outside but it would be great if the indie Italian
system could also launch some underground bands.
Many of these sing in Italian and this for sure doesn’t
help. But we keep to have confidence in our
little country. We have to!
Almost everyday great artists come to play in
Milano. We’ve recently seen Radiohead, Melvins
and Portishead.
Setting Sun:
What would be your dream job if you
were not doing music?
Jessica:
I love cooking and countryside. So I think
could be great to open an agriturism
surrounded by cats and hills. And write
poems..
Federico:
I would be a writer or an horror
movie director, trying to express my
ideas anyway.
Setting Sun:
What would you like to be doing when
you are 60?
Jessica:
Of course I would like to keep on
working in music and develop a
new vocal training method
and teach it to young singers who
are looking for a way to express
their voice’s personality at best .
Federico:
When I’ll be 60 I’ll probably have
enough experience to become a good
producer and keep on making my
own compositions.