Crystal Fighters: from cave to rave
(© Pepe Brix)
With a combination of acoustic instruments and the latest in electronic equipment, Crystal Fighters have taken a new direction and created a dance floor in the woods.
Originally, Crystal Fighters was the work of Sebastian Pringle (guitar and vocals) and Gilbert Vierich (synths, percussion, and programming). The two had met at school in London. In 2007 they joined forces with the guitarist Graham Dickson and took on a singer, Laure Stockley. She was to play a key role in the group’s story. Browsing in papers left behind by her late grandfather, she came across the libretto for an unfinished opera entitled Crystal Fighters, which was set in the Basque Country. Obsessed by this work, the foursome took the title as their stage name and decided to fly off to Spain to compose some songs. After recording Star of Love in 2010, Crystal Fighters have now moved up a gear with Cave Rave, their impressive second album, which seems tailor-made for success. Sunny anthems, radio-friendly singles, and choruses designed to be chanted around a stadium have turned Crystal Fighters from rank outsiders into future crowd-pleasers.
Your first album was influenced by the Basque Country and its culture. Are there any traces of the region to be found on your new album, Cave Rave?
Sebastian Pringle: The Basque Country has had such a big effect on the development of the group that we found it impossible not to go back there to work on the ingredients for the new tracks. When we arrived there, we were once again immersed straight away in the mood of the first album. We immediately started thinking about Laure’s grandfather’s opera again. But this time we focused more on the content of its message. So we drew on Basque culture to understand the real themes of its story: love, death, madness, hope, decline, etc. From a story whose starting point was located in Spain, our thoughts developed in the direction of a much more universal vision. The new tracks touch on subjects that are related to human nature: truths about the human condition. Those are eternal themes.
With a combination of acoustic instruments and the latest in electronic equipment, Crystal Fighters have taken a new direction and created a dance floor in the woods.
Originally, Crystal Fighters was the work of Sebastian Pringle (guitar and vocals) and Gilbert Vierich (synths, percussion, and programming). The two had met at school in London. In 2007 they joined forces with the guitarist Graham Dickson and took on a singer, Laure Stockley. She was to play a key role in the group’s story. Browsing in papers left behind by her late grandfather, she came across the libretto for an unfinished opera entitled Crystal Fighters, which was set in the Basque Country. Obsessed by this work, the foursome took the title as their stage name and decided to fly off to Spain to compose some songs. After recording Star of Love in 2010, Crystal Fighters have now moved up a gear with Cave Rave, their impressive second album, which seems tailor-made for success. Sunny anthems, radio-friendly singles, and choruses designed to be chanted around a stadium have turned Crystal Fighters from rank outsiders into future crowd-pleasers.
Your first album was influenced by the Basque Country and its culture. Are there any traces of the region to be found on your new album, Cave Rave?
Sebastian Pringle: The Basque Country has had such a big effect on the development of the group that we found it impossible not to go back there to work on the ingredients for the new tracks. When we arrived there, we were once again immersed straight away in the mood of the first album. We immediately started thinking about Laure’s grandfather’s opera again. But this time we focused more on the content of its message. So we drew on Basque culture to understand the real themes of its story: love, death, madness, hope, decline, etc. From a story whose starting point was located in Spain, our thoughts developed in the direction of a much more universal vision. The new tracks touch on subjects that are related to human nature: truths about the human condition. Those are eternal themes.
You put the finishing touches to Cave Rave in Los Angeles. Were you determined to get away from London?
Gilbert Vierich: We worked with the producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen [Beck, Air, Tori Amos - NAL]. He wanted to work over there. And, in a way, that suited us fine. It allowed us to escape the sad reality of a European winter. And then, above all, we had an opportunity to record in the Sunset Sound studios, a legendary place where the Doors, Tom Waits, Prince and so many others recorded albums. Indirectly, our new album also shows more American influences.
Was using the word “rave” in the album title a way of emphasising your English roots?
Pringle: Above all, it is a way of stressing the group’s identity. We like combining traditional elements with new technology. A Crystal Fighters song is always a compromise between the modern nature of the electronic sonorities and the use of folk instruments. So you could see the word “cave” as a reference to times long ago, to primal notions. “Rave”, on the other hand, refers to the idea of modernity. When we were in the Basque Country, we were really moved by the history of the region. That brought us back to something very basic. We often thought about those people who depicted their daily lives on the walls of a cave. That way of looking at things links up with the themes of the album and reminds us that music is not just a business. It is, above all, something human and extremely visceral.
Crystal Fighters • 22/5, 20.00, €20/23, Ancienne Belgique, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, www.abconcerts.be
Gilbert Vierich: We worked with the producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen [Beck, Air, Tori Amos - NAL]. He wanted to work over there. And, in a way, that suited us fine. It allowed us to escape the sad reality of a European winter. And then, above all, we had an opportunity to record in the Sunset Sound studios, a legendary place where the Doors, Tom Waits, Prince and so many others recorded albums. Indirectly, our new album also shows more American influences.
Was using the word “rave” in the album title a way of emphasising your English roots?
Pringle: Above all, it is a way of stressing the group’s identity. We like combining traditional elements with new technology. A Crystal Fighters song is always a compromise between the modern nature of the electronic sonorities and the use of folk instruments. So you could see the word “cave” as a reference to times long ago, to primal notions. “Rave”, on the other hand, refers to the idea of modernity. When we were in the Basque Country, we were really moved by the history of the region. That brought us back to something very basic. We often thought about those people who depicted their daily lives on the walls of a cave. That way of looking at things links up with the themes of the album and reminds us that music is not just a business. It is, above all, something human and extremely visceral.
Crystal Fighters • 22/5, 20.00, €20/23, Ancienne Belgique, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, www.abconcerts.be
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