Cosmiclava where the lava flows

For mostly all Germans, Spain is one of their favorite countries, where they spend their holidays. But aside of that, it's a country where you can find a very interesting underground scene. There are small independant record-label, as the Punk-Rock oriented label Safety Pin or Alone Records, that's more known for its heavy 70's sounds. And of course, their are some interesting bands as Sex Museum, The Hot Dogs and...SMOKING BIRD. Finally this year, the guys have released their debut album "Sunset In A New Town", that's got nothing in common with Doom but it's full of 60's and 70's influences from the Stones to Motorhead, mixed up with a bit of bands as Alice In Chains or the Stone Temple Pilots. My questions about the past and present of SMOKING BIRD and music in general were answered by bass-player Ray Kurtz and lead-singer Pablo Lalanda.

Hello, Ray! Finally, SMOKING BIRD has released the debut album "Sunset In A New Town". You've searched for the right record-label in the middle of the year. Have you found any or will you release the album by your own?

RAY: Well, I think is still soon. Of course we're looking for a good label to work with, but what I see is that the labels are working with styles of music, not bands. What the people buy is not great bands with their own personality, just nu metal, stoner...and it's sad for me. In Spain there're a lot of good Rock n' Roll bands and any band can live with this. It's hard they can take the chance to play outside, it's hard to find a good label, etc... Anyway we've got pattience and sooner or later, I think we'll do.

Why was it so difficult to find a record-label and what for experiences have you made during your search?

PABLO: It's a cultural problem,rock music is really underground here in Spain.Small labels have little money to support bands.You have to strongly believe in what you're doing because there are not great amounts of money to share. But that's the game we want to play! And I think that rock music is gonna get bigger in the next 2 or 3 years.

RAY: I agree. Now is a new era in the music history. But I'm not sure what kind of bands will be bigger...

What kind of response have you received for the album?

PABLO: It's been very well-received by everyone who's listened to it, especially by people who have seen the band live.It catches our live vibe.

In opposite to your last CD-EP "Losing Touch", the album sounds much thicker and stronger. You've also added more up-tempo R 'n' R songs on it as "Eight Days More" for example? Where do you see the main-difference between both releases?

RAY: The new album is cool. Better songs, a great producer, better studio, more time to do it. When we recorded "Losing Touch" we didn't think so clearly about the band. Now we know what we want and how to do. In this time we're played a lot of gigs, we've test a lot too. We've listened a lot of new music. Everything is different except the fact that we still want to play Rock n' Roll. We're better musicians now. In my opinion "Losing..." is just a sketch, and "Sunset..." is a good Rock 'n' Roll album.

The melancholic "Brown Mountain" is one of the songs, that have you've also released on the EP, together with "Last Bird" and "Fire Always Works". Why have you chosen this three tracks for the album and have you re-recorded them ?

RAY: Because we think this songs are the best of "Losing Touch" and obviously the sound of our demo is not so good. There's another songs of this era in "Sunset...", that we can't record like "Dreams" or "Breakdown". Anyway, I like the other songs too, but I prefer all the new songs and we didn't want to record more than ten songs. Also we use to play this three songs in the gigs, but the others there's a lot of time that we just don't play.

How much time have you spent for the recordings and are you satisfied with the final result?

PABLO: Sunset was recorded,mixed and mastered in one week.We are very proud of it. It's our first baby,what can I say about it?

RAY: Ha, it was mastered and mixed in one day!!

I've noticed, that you're playing bass and guitar on the album. What are you doing, when you're playing live and are you searching for an additional bass-player or guitarist?

RAY: Hahaha, nah...I just record a couple of occasionally guitars, in "Eight days more" and "Lost for the most". I don't want to play the guitar, man, but whe you're in the studio it's cool to do something like this. Gigs is another thing, we sound so strong with one guitar, and we don't need any guitarrist more. Anyway we'd love to work with an organist, like Deep Purple or The Faces. I like this combination.

As on the EP, you've combined different styles on the album, that ranges from 60's Garage to 70's Bluesrock, but there's still a "modern" vibe over the whole sound, what keeps SMOKING BIRD apart from being just a simple retro-rock band. How would you describe your music and what's important for you, when you're writing songs?

PABLO: Well,It is hard to describe your own music...We don't believe in music tags like pop,grunge or stoner.They are useful in certain situations but that's not what music is all about.We listen to a lot of music from The Faces to Unida,from Muddy Waters to The Who you know what I mean? There's a kind of sixth sense in the band that guides our music...We play something and then it works or it sucks. I hope we'll never pick up what it sucks,je,je. R- We're fans of the music and we want to do the best.

We just try to make good songs, simple or complex songs, it could sound like 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's or 50's!! We're working in a song that reminds me the magic 50's. We just try to make good songs. When I'm composing I just need a beer and some Humble Pie, or some Aerosmith, or some New York Dolls, or some Gene Vincent. I like to hear albums to solve the typical problems when you're composing a song, and is always an inspiration. We use to talk about the songs to try to make it better and we try to be autocritics.