Aires Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the musical project?
1- Aires is a solo project that I started some months ago. The whole idea was to create an album out of some sounds that I recorded and discarded over the years. So I started digging my hard drives for sounds, worked them up a little bit, transformed those ideas into tracks and  "Aires" was born.

2.How would you describe the musical sound that is present on the recording?
2- I would describe the sound on this record as a mix between the digital and the organic, or, if we're in the mood for fancier words, this sounds like abstract echoes of digital entities mixed up with concrete, organic sounds, like the samples of people talking, which I used a lot on this one. Here,the digital is always dominating the organic, but even something as common as sample of an old man talking (like the one on the opening track) can be a diffuse, spectral experience. I like that duality.There is also a lot of repetitions and static-like noise, and tons of effects that give it this weird symphonic vibe.  As far as genres go, I like to think of it as some sort of noisy mechanical drone, not without its emotions. The new stuff I'm working one if far more melodic and emotional ; if you're into creating new tags and genres ( as I do) ,you may witness the birth of something that I like to call the emo-drone.

3.What are some of the images you bring out with your music?
3- The sounds conjure images of bleak,quiet desperation, let's just leave it at that. But what I feel doesn't matter,I hope that the sounds are strong enough on its own to create something on the mind of the listeners.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Aires'?
4- There is no real meaning nor inspiration behind the name Aires, I just like the name. I was attracted by the idea that "Aires" gives no clues as to what the music might sound like. If a band is called Ruptured Artery you imagine a death metal band, if the band is called NecroWinter or something kvlt like that you would imagine an early 90's norwegian black metal band,and so on. Aires gives no clues about the sound, it's just a name, with nothing attached to it, as far as I'm concerned. 

5.Currently there is only 1 member involved with the project, do you feel this adds to the creativity of the music?
5- Yeah, I'm alone in this one. I'm not sure about creativity, but I do know that being alone enables me to do things my way, and that is what I need for this particular project. It's more about control, about being in charge. 

6.the new album came out on Enough Records, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
6- I always had Enough Records in mind when I first started the project. I knew that they were not accepting submissions from new artists, but I decided to try my luck and sent them the album anyway. Fortunately, Filipe liked the record and ended up releasing it, which was great, as the label is very influential and respected. Enough Records has been active since 2001, with almost 350 releases on many different genres, so they really know what they're doing.

7.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of ambient, drone and shoegaze?
7- The feedback so far has been very good. The record has 8 or 9 reviews online and it's been surprising how positive and encouraging they were. Let's hope it continues that way!

8.Are you also involved with any other musical projects?
8- Yeah, I'm involved in a couple more projects . I play synths in some of them and I sing (scream) in another. You may notice that I ain't sharing the names of those bands – that's because Aires is a separate thing, at least for now. l probably be releasing stuff from 3 different projects this year, apart from Aires... 

9.Where do you see this project heading into musically during the future?
9- Like I said, I've been working on some new tracks, and while they don't sound radically different from what I've been doing, they sure have more melody going on, more emotion. On the next few weeks I'll release a split with two very talented musicians, but you'll know about in due time. As I said before, emo-drone, man.

10.What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
10- Tough question. I'm not sure if what I listen ends up influencing me, at least not a lot. I've been listening pretty much the same stuff for the last couple of years : lots of Fell Voices, Ash Borer, Weakling... Fell in love all over again with Dissection recently, and discovered a new black metal band, called Sun Worship, which stuck in my head for the last 5 or 6 months. On the experimental side of things I tend to keep to the familiar : Ben Frost, Oneohtrix Point Never, Tim Hecker...

11.What are some of your non musical interests?
11- Besides music I'm interested in arts in general, cinema in particular. I'm also finishing my master's so my interests revolve around that : music, cinema, books and journalism.

12.before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
12 - First of all, thanks for taking the time to listen to the record and doing this interview. For those reading, check out http://aires.bandcamp.com/ for 30 minutes of bleak stuff, you might like it. Even if you don't, its free,so...Anyway, take care!