Featuring sun kissed vocals from Sarah Cracknell (St Etienne), purveyors of alternative, acoustic electronica – Lisbon Kid, aka award winning producers Danny De Matos & Rui Da Silva bring us ‘We Look At The Stars’ the second release from their imminent eponymously titled album, recorded in Portugal earlier this year…
Interview by Dan Prince
Danny, Rui a huge welcome back to DMCWORLD. Where in the world are you right now?
We’re in Hoxton writing for the next album. We’re always really busy so we gotta try and keep ahead of the game when we can.
The best piece of new music you have heard today since rolling out of bed…
Just listened to 2 things actually “They Move On Tracks Of Never-Ending Light” by They Will Destroy You and “If You Want To Know” by Reginald Omas Mamode IV. A couple of beauties.
A really exciting time for you at the moment with the release of your new single ‘We Look At The Stars’ featuring the wondrous vocals of Sarah Cracknell of St Etienne fame. Let’s kick off with your uncompromising audio approach first where you’ve employed vintage and the latest techniques and software. Talk us through the music…
The track is a real blend of acoustic and electronica. We used both software and hardware synths. TR808 type drums. A 1956 Martin 0-18 vintage acoustic and an 80’s 12-string Takamine with a high capo on the 8th fret and a Fender Precision bass. Sarah’s voice was recorded via a Neumann mic going onto an Avalon mic comp/pre. Recorded very dry at our Shushstudio room near Windsor where we have a great vocal booth and then edited in Sound Forge to be really clean before finally using a beautiful Blackhole type reverb. Sarah was a complete delight to record. It really didn’t take very long at all. just a few dates and we were off for a cup of tea and biscuits. We could tell straightaway that the vocal was sitting really well. It’s so clean and pure. That’s Sarah for you.
How did the hook up with Sarah happen, she is perfect for the track and must have been a delight to work with…
Danny and Sarah are both from the same area of Berkshire, England, near Windsor (along with Andrew Weatherall and Tim Dorney from Flowered Up) they’ve been friends for years and followed each others work often working with the same people but this is the first time they’ve actually worked together. Sarah first heard the track when we played it to her and her manager Martin at her place in Oxford and she liked it straightaway. We were really chuffed because the instrumental was always done with Sarah’s voice in mind. It needed that uniquely recognisable quality that Sarah has. It’s the quintessential British alternative female indie pop voice. Laid back and smooth… nd beautifully familiar. More importantly she’s just a warm and caring human being. She has absolutely no ego and no real idea about how good she is. Sarah also co-wrote the topline. She was so easy to work with because she knows exactly what’s needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjfE1DWLflg
Danny, tell us about the video…it’s amazing but we hear you did it all yourself and on a zero budget?
I usually do all our videos. From shooting with my mate Stan Kujawa to editing and colour grading… but this one was different. I’d seen the work of Mannequinman Films though Ben Bristow friend of mine. It’s his mum and dad that did it! They do lots of different Action man and Barbie stop-motion stuff. I loved everything I saw. So I took a punt. I got in touch and asked them if they would consider doing a video. They said they wanted to hear the track first before committing. Luckily for us they loved it. The films they make are a real labour of love. They take a very long time to make but they’re really unique. They made a herculean effort to get it done by the release date and they smashed it.
And we believe a vinyl release will be coming in the new year?
We’re looking at getting final pressings hopefully end of February but for Easter 2017 at the latest depending on production capacity. Vinyl’s obviously exploded in popularity and plants are super busy right now, so we’re gonna need to be patient!
You have spent all summer touring a hybrid Live-A/V DJ set which included a series of sunset sessions in Ibiza. What stood out for you, Hostal La Torre is pretty special these days and Cafe del Mar certainly looks different!
We went out to ibiza twice to do the Sunset Sessions. Hostal La Torre is obviously pretty special but as well as the more obvious places like Cafe Mambo and the now enormous Cafe Del Mar, we also played a couple of new fantastic new places…the beautifully secluded Cala Bonita beach and the stunning rooftop terrace at Hotel Es Vive. Both thoroughly recommended.
Tell us about your deconstruction masterclass at Point Blank Hoxton last week, is this the first of many?
Danny’s done video interview stuff for Point Blank before but this is the first time we’ve done anything together. It was actually very enjoyable pulling back the curtain on how and what we do things. We’re sure we’ll do some more again when the time is right.
Your 3 favorite tunes of 2016…
Portmerion Tide Flow – Chris Coco
I Feel It Coming – The Weeknd
Rust – Akase
Film of 2016?
Trust No One – Rui worked on the soundtrack.
Album of the year?
Black Star – David Bowie
Looking back at the year, has it been a good year for electronic music?
Yeah of course, lots of incredible new music. The ease of production and access to the market place these days has lead to some incredible and interesting talent coming particularly this year. The problem is usually finding it. You have to be a digital crate digger.
And finally, what is coming out next from you guys in 2017?
We’ve 2 more singles We’re releasing a visual album. A DVD of all of the videos we’ve done so far including the lyric video for Last Weekend. We’re curating a gallery exhibition in West London with artist each doing a piece based on each of the tracks on the album. It’s gonna be a really exciting first for us and an opportunity for us to show the depth of this debut record of ours.
