SPANISH TRIO SVTIL TALK NEW MUSIC, LOCKDOWN, AND ADVICE FOR NEW BANDS

Spanish band SVTIL are about to release their debut single ‘Raised By The Moon’ on Incantation Records, a new imprint from Manchester ran by The Elephant Trees. We’re talking seriously impressive alt-rock / grunge-pop all the way from Tarragona.

We spoke to them on the day of their latest release... enjoy!

Can you please tell us a bit about the band for anyone who might not know? We are from Tarragona, Spain formed by Paula (vox, guitar), Nerea (bass) and Cris (drums) and we make grunge pop. SVTIL has been in the making for a few years but it wasn't until we met our drummer that finally became the three piece we are now. We have an EP coming named Moonstock with five songs that reflect the different dynamics and possibilities our sound has, trying to capture our essence in every song. We've been together for a year and we are so happy to finally release these songs and see how people will react when they listen to them on record and not just in a show setting. We can’t wait for the release of the new single guys, can you talk us through the process of recording it? We were gonna record the EP the same week our country went to lockdown, we have to wait months until we could go into the studio so we were eager to finally record these songs. We only had four days so it was an intense experience but it was very rich, we learned a lot in that little time and really know how hard it is to make everything sound how we wanted. It was our first time in the studio recording a whole EP and we were lucky to have two producers who made it as easy as possible for us to enjoy the work and helped in all we needed.

'Raised by the Moon' - SVTIL (2020)

You’re signed to incantation records for the latest release, how did you meet the guys over at The Elephant Trees and what has it been like to work with them? We've always wanted to play in the UK and we stumbled upon Natasha's and The Elephant Trees' instagram, we talked to Natasha and the rest is history. They played a show in Barcelona and we played in London last November. We are so proud to be working with Incantation, it's inspiring to see all the hard work Natasha and Martha do and it's and honour for us that they saw something then and now want to help us bring our music to the world.

How has lockdown challenged you as a band and individually? It was a big hit for the band, we had planned to release the EP before summer and then play all the shows we could get but we are really grateful that we are all safe and we can come back better than ever. We can surely say this pandemic took a toll individually, as musicians the inspiration was strung out and suffered writer's block at the beginning. But talking to friends, family and having time to read, see movies and listen to music to pick you up helped put us on our feet again. All of this lead to our EP being released by Incantation Records so we have to stay positive and be happy that everything turned out better for the band. The artwork and visuals for the latest release are great, who is responsible for them? Cris, our drummer, has done all the artwork for the single and EP. We are really proud of how it came out and having her talent in the band is a gift for us besides having her as a drummer. We have a friend, Javier, who does all the visuals for us. He does all of our photos, shot our EP and single cover and we've also filmed the single with him and the help of another friend, Mireia. We are so grateful for all the people who has helped us create the image we've envisioned for our band. How have you found the governments approach to the creative community since lockdown, what more do you think they can do to help the issue? As always culture is one of the most affected parties when the country is in crisis, so we weren't really surprised when they left the music and arts behind during this pandemic. We are tired of saying that the governements have to support the arts but we will keep on proving that we work hard for what we believe and love. Venues are closing everywhere because politicians don't offer solutions and only make it harder for people who work in the music industry. What they can do to help is realise shows can be a safe space and people will support local music and venues if everything's done following sanitary measures responsibly so artists, managers, etc can go back to work and make a living.

What advice would you give to a band in the early stages of their career? Our advice is to have fun, don't be in a band just for the money because that takes a lot of hard work and doesn't always come (if it ever does come) to put it simply, that mentality won't get you anywhere. If you are lucky enough to find a group of people who want the same as you do and are gonna work hard towards the same goal then go for it, take the risk and don't look back it will be worth it. There's nothing like playing music you've created and see people dancing, listening and vibing to it. That's why we do it, to connect with people and if you work hard everything will come. What else can we look forward to from you guys? (Tour dates, new releases)? For now we don't have any tour dates scheduled, hopefully next year we can start playing shows again and come back to do a proper UK tour, it would be a dream for us. Good thing about that is new music is on the way, we have a lot of new songs and another EP could be on the way. For now, we have this EP and we are gonna celebrate that is finally out for the world to listen and hope people love it as much as we do.