Features : Crystal Fighters Interview

With a new album out today and extensive touring, Bast from Crystal Fighters took some time out to tell us more about their debut LP and what they have planned in the future.

Music News: When you set out to make Star of Love what did you hope to achieve with it?

Bast: We were presented with a lot of Basque opera and musical options which we wanted to put together into a coherent album. It’s a collection of everything we’ve learnt over the past few years all put together.

MN: Has much changed since you started the process?

B: We were a lot closer to the dance end of the spectrum. Our emphasis was on a bass and beats but through our other influences and introducing different instruments we’ve become a lot more song based.

MN: Where are you all from? Each source says somewhere different.

B: We’re from all over. I’m from London but the rest of the band comes from USA, Spain and Italy.

MN: Do you think this national diversity has affected your album’s sound?

B: Definitely. We produce ourselves and use the influences from our respective cultures in our songs. We sing in English though as we find it a lot more appealing than our native languages and there’s a certain charm to singing English lyrics with a foreign accent. We’ve also expanded our instrumentation on this album, for example we use a Spanish guitar which wasn’t in use before we started recording.

MN: Is the track I Love London Ironic? Those places you mention aren’t perhaps the towns you’d associate with London.

B: It’s about finding London where you can. It’s an intimidating city and a lot of people expect you to have fun just because you’re there. I guess from that point of view it is ironic but if you’re with the right people and at a good party it doesn’t really matter where you are, you have that London spirit with you.

MN: What are your experiences of London?

B: Seeing as I live there pretty much everything! Squats, raves, gangsters, all sorts. East London, where I’m from, has a lot going on culturally and musically: dubstep, techno [etc.]. There’s a free-for-all spirit which can make London quite intense sometimes.

MN: How has the album been received by both fans and press?

B: You should read our reviews… I don’t really read them. I think the Star of Love reviews are mostly good with a few dodgy ones. Our fans however seem to really appreciate what we do and are enjoying the LP so far. Its official release is today so a lot of fans are hearing it for the first time. We’ll see their reactions tonight at our gig.

MN: What’s planned for the next couple of years?

B: We plan to release another record within that time and make some large format tracks that are heavily influenced by opera. We want to mix theatrics into our stage show and tracks. We also are gigging loads and have bigger stages lined up for bigger shows.