Wednesday, November 11, 2020

The Coal Interview

 


1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?


The Coal is an improvisational duet from Athens, Greece, that focuses on playing on the spot with musical stimuli that draws inspiration from ambient, folk, jazz and experimental music. The relationship between the drummer and the guitarist of the band pre-existed from the school years as they played together in their first groups at the age of 15. So we are essentially talking about a musical relationship of at least ten years even though the first release is in 2017.




2.Recntly you have released a new album musically how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?


Every live or release of the group is an one off performance, it is freely improvised, meaning that nothing has been organized from before, neither structure or form, not even a single rythm or melody, it's all played on the spot. So, we could say that every release is an x-ray to our inner self at the particular time that we recorded that.




3.So far all of the music has been instrumental, are you open to using vocals on future releases?

 

Yes, we would be open to that, if the vocalist would like to follow our way of creating music and suits our style.



4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'The Coal'?


The Coal, from our point of view, refers to the fact that our music constantly refers to icy black and white images.




5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?


If you allow us, we would like to leave open for interpretation for each listener.




6.Currently there are only 2 members in the band, are you open  to expanding the line up or do you prefer to remain a duo?


We are talking lately on working on with a cellist that we think that she could fit in well to our ensemble.



7.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

So far all our live shows have been beautiful for us, each one for different reasons. But the most impressive was definitely this at the Empros Theater as we played at the end of the last day of the Krama festival, and went out at 1 o'clock in the evening. A really laxative set. We would also add our live in Marseille in a very small space where in the end we did a jam with a violinist who played the same day with us, in a very festive atmosphere where a lot of irrelevant people came in to listen to us. Finally we would mention our last live during the last summer, where we played in an outdoor area in the city overlooking a large highway and infinite apartment buildings .. Our stage presence is an outrageous jazz performance.








8.The new album was released on 'Submersion Records', how did you get in contact with this label?


Sakis from the label contacted with me telling me about the new label. He asked me to send him some of my stuff that I wanted to be released, and in the end they ended up on Atlas.




9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your recordings by fans of experimental music?


Apart from the people at Marseille that they watched our show and they loved it, we don’t have any other reactions yet.




10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?


We like the idea that we don’t have any idea at all on where the band is heading into musically during the future.




11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?


Some musicians would be Brian Blade, Bill Frisell, Robbie Basho and Jon Christensen.






12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?


Let’s hope that the live performances will come back soon.. Thank you very much for the interview.

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