Vomit creatively.
Mall talks about yesshadows/lightabout recording his debut album twice (the last one in just three days) and what it means to prepare the atmosphere to open to American Footballone of his own influences.
Mall is a Mexican band that moves between dream pop, shoegaze and 70s progressive without wanting to stay still in any of them. His music is built from experimentation, with unpredictable structures, enveloping electronic textures and even a handmade theremin taking center stage in his set. His debut album, yesshadows/lightwas born from a long and intense process that forced them to re-record it twice, the last one in just three days. On September 26 they perform at the Pitchfork Music Festival CDMX as the opening act of American Footballa band that, without planning it, ended up being one of his influences.
Indie Rocks!: For those who discover them today, who is Alameda and how would you describe their music, both sonically and in what they seek to convey?
Mall: I think that our music, or at least what we have so far, could be classified as a little unpredictable, with unpredictable structures and a lot of influence from dream pop, shoegaze and a lot of ethereal things in general, also combined with alternative and progressive music perhaps from the 70s. It is a complete fusion, but yes, I would say unpredictable structures. It really is based a lot on experimentation, we don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into a genre or a style, simply if something makes sense to us when it comes to composition, we try it.
GO!: This is very noticeable in their debut album, yesshadows/light. I wanted to ask you about the title, because both the title and the cover caught my attention, and from the title I feel like it was already communicating something to me before I heard it. How did they get to it?
TO: In itself, I think the title was what we least thought about, because it has always been a bit complicated for us to name things. It’s like defining something that cost us a lot of work in two or three words, and yes it is a task with a lot of responsibility, so sometimes we just try to leave it aside during the creative process. In this case it was a very complicated process because we had to re-record this album twice. There is another recording prior to this one that is already official on platforms, but it was a very long process, many months, very intense. Just the day we uploaded the album to the distributor, it just happened. I don’t remember very well, we were just throwing out words, no tree, no birds, and in the end, because we didn’t want to define the album with a concept, we preferred to leave it in the hands of ambiguity.
GO!: I had heard that when they re-recorded the album it was in three days or something like that, right?
TO: Yes, we re-recorded it in three days. Crazy. We re-recorded it twice, and the second time was because we were already getting opportunities to work with other people and start moving the project forward. So we were between “either we do it, or better everything dies here”, and it was “well we have to do it”. Everyone in the band is an audio engineer, so it was “you do this, you do that, we have to start trying to at least get the album out.” And the net was a great album. Here carla mixed and mastered half of it, and Pepewho is the former member of Mall that shaped the creative process of yesshadows/lightthe other half was thrown away. We made a work team, it was very cool to do all that chaos.
GO!: You can see the synergy they have and how everyone contributes their part. They have mentioned that the album does not focus on a specific theme, but rather they think of it more as an immersive and changing experience, but it still communicates a lot, both in the lyrics and in the instrumentation. Could you share some inspirations, musical and non-musical, behind the album?
TO: There are definitely several. For example, in the process while we were recording, David I was traumatized with The Sundays. He liked it a lot and at that time he hit us hard. We also brought shoegaze as a reference, quite a few references from Mazzy Star or of Slowdive. In those moments they came to each other’s faces. AND Aerialeither The Aerialalso. In general there are quite a few references, but I think that more than saying one specific one, it was the accumulation of listening to so much music that led, when composing, to not think about “we have to do something like that artist”, but rather about doing something that felt in line with what we were composing. And after we heard it we were like, “hey, this sounds like this artist.” We have references and that’s how it happens, but we don’t think about it so much at the moment, it just happens.
GO!: They have mentioned that something that unites them a lot is that they are very sensitive to art in general, not just music, and that they try to express themselves beyond music. Do you believe that sensitivity is something you are born with or something that is developed? And if it develops, how do you do it?
TO: Good question. I believe that there are two types of people: those who are born with it, and those who develop it, or those who are born with it and continue to develop it. I feel like it’s a personal job, but there is no way to define that or know. Each person has a different level of sensitivity. There are people who are not dedicated to art, but to other things, and who have not developed that, I don’t know whether to call it an ability, or who don’t even know that they can develop it or that they have it. And I feel like it doesn’t even matter, you just have to do things and not think about it.
I believe that there are people who find it a little difficult to feel this sensitivity perhaps in art, with music or cinema, but who are very sensitive in their daily lives, who feel their emotions a lot. And that in itself is also art, expression. If someone feels something very much and wants to express it, that’s how art works. It is not that the one with the greatest knowledge of music theory, or the most music lover who knows the most groups; It is rather having an intention, something you feel, and expressing it. I think that more art is made on a daily basis than on platforms.
GO!: I agree. And I think it’s a very relevant question today: how do we stay sensitive to so much information and saturation all the time. Another thing that I really liked about the album, and about his music in general, are all the very electronic, enveloping textures that feel floating. I listened to your Pool Session, which I really liked, and an instrument that you play caught my attention, Carla, which I didn’t know and which in research seems to be the theremin. Can you tell us about the instrument and where the decision to use it came from?
TO: I didn’t really have the idea of wanting to have a theremin. I don’t know exactly how that contact came to me, but he is a man who puts together theremins, he dedicates himself to putting them together in his free time. I saw it on a page, I thought it was interesting, I sent him a message, and I went, I told him I wanted a theremin with certain specifications, and he put it together for me. It is literally done DIYand I think that in some way that has been a bit what has defined me in my image or in my sound, without meaning to. It also takes full action and prominence in our set: there is a 20-minute theremin solo.
GO!: That brings me to the part of the show where they are going to open for American Football in the Pitchfork. Many congratulations. It is a band that for many marked an era. What does it mean to you to prepare the atmosphere for this specific show?
TO: First of all, it is a great responsibility. As you mention, we are aware that, at least for me, and I think we can all agree, they were, if not the creators of Midwest emo, then the pioneers, and they were very important. So it is a great responsibility to have this opportunity and be at the level. We are preparing a quite varied set, which summarizes Mall quite well, because they are combinations of songs from yesshadows/light and this new material that is about to be released very soon, still without a date. And it’s very funny to think that at the time of making this second album, American Football It was our influences, without even thinking about it or knowing that this would happen. It is a great responsibility, but I think we are up to it, without sounding arrogant. We are very excited, I already want that day to come.
I am motivated by trip that it can be done. We have always imagined being able to do a show like this: putting on certain lights, certain visuals, doing an intro, an outro, an interlude. I feel that it is the perfect place to vomit creatively, because it is not just about getting up to play, but everything that it generates, or rather creating the conditions so that the album and our music arch, flourish and the entire show is beautiful.
GO!: I loved how you put it, “creatively vomit.” That brings me to the last question. They have a very textured and atmospheric album, which lends itself a lot to the live experience. What challenges have you encountered in translating all of that to the stage?
TO: The bottom line is that it’s not that complicated, because we don’t consider whether what we do is good or bad, we simply play, we allow ourselves, and we try not to overthink it so much and mess around with each other. Obviously there are challenges, especially when structuring a song, because we are four people who are in four processes completely unrelated to each other.
I can think of challenges. For example, sometimes the tone of the guitar: if you don’t find the right tone with the right distortion, with what the song asks for, it is a huge challenge. Or sometimes we have the idea of what we want to play, like a kind of polyrhythm, and it gets quite complicated for us. Sometimes songs come out and it’s like, “I can’t play this song, it doesn’t come out,” and that’s a big challenge. And besides, wanting to make a complex song, but not necessarily complex to show “look, we play really cool”, but complexly creative, so that we don’t get bored playing it, so that it is a fun experience for us too.
We seek to stretch ourselves as much as possible and convey the rawest emotions possible. Emotions in themselves are complex, so it becomes the challenge of wanting to express well how we feel. Maybe people listen to it and may think something very different from what we think about what we want to convey. That is the challenge, but as we said, we are doing it well, and more than a challenge it becomes a super exciting experience.
GO!: I am very excited about the concert. I had never seen a live performance of a Pool Session, so I’m going to recommend it to the band so they can see a glimpse of what awaits us. Thank you for your time and we will see you there in a couple of weeks.
TO: Thank you.
