Interview with Last Minute To Jaffna
1. Thanks for the exchange of words Last Minute To Jaffna. Let’s start with an introduction and basic run down of the band.
Hi everybody. Last Minute To Jaffna is a classic five-piece band born one year ago. At the beginning we were six, but the guy playing sequencer soon relocated in Poland. We had some gigs all around Italy, and a few weeks ago we released our first DIY promo EP.
2. Describe your sound and vibe for the readers. Any genres you’d place yourselves under?
It’s not easy at all to describe a sound using just words. Let’s say we put a bit of our several influences in it, these to be the great 70s rock, movie soundtracks, minimal electro or some kind of metal. You know, all of these genres can be found in the most evolved forms of post hardcore, so we’d place ourselves under the “Apocalyptic Post Hardcore” file.
3. Man let me just say you guys have a massive sound! Let’s discuss your top 3 band influences listed on your profile, which are clearly present in your own individual style, Neurosis, Pelican and Sunn-O))). How do you feel each band inspires your work?
First of all, I’d say those bands are certainly great sources of inspiration for us, but they’re not the main.. Anyway, to answer your question, let’s say we love Pelican’s monolithic riffs, we love Neurosis’ mystical approach and we love Sunn-O)))’s wall of sound. But nevertheless we love tons of other bands, such as Botch, Fantomas, Will Haven, Tool, Isis, Converge, Melvins, Everytime I Die, Nine Inch Nails, Eyehategod, Soundgarden, Breach, Kyuss and many more.
4. Any releases available or in the making? Where can we locate your tunes?
As I said before, we just put out our first two tracks promo EP, available for free on our site www.lastminutetojaffna.com . Then we have been selected to take part at the “Desert Sounds vol. 2” compilation made by Perkele.it, Italy’s main webzine for stoner/psych/doom. The compilation will be out soon. Since our sound is developing fast, I think we’ll enter the studio during the summer to record some of the new tracks.
5. What’s the meaning behind the band title Last Minute To Jaffna and why was it chosen to represent your band?
Jaffna is (or should I say was) a little island in front of the city of Jaffna, in Sri Lanka. Both the island and the city were completely destroyed during the terrible tsunami in 2004. You can give any meaning to our name, imagining the last minute before the tsunami hits the city or a last minute flight to it, or even something else. We don’t want to lack respect to the victims of such a tragedy, our name is just about the strength of nature and the depths of the sea.
6. What inspires you guys outside of music? Any particular themes or issues?
All of us love photography (we’re photoaholics!), cinema, and graphics. You know, three of us are into graphics, so there are always big discussions on the artwork of the CDs, on the graphics for our website and merchandise, on the lights to be used on stage and so on.
7. How about the lyrics? Who’s in charge and do you tend to base your words upon any one thing in particular?
The lyrics are written by our singer, Valerio. They are mainly inspired by the music themes, so you can search any kind of meaning or just the reflection of the sounds we’re playing. So, in them you can find landscapes descriptions as metaphors of describing feelings as the depth of the human self-conscience… They just want to transmit emotions. Anyway, you should ask Valerio directly.
8. How’s the scene in Italy? Are you playing many shows and if so what’s the following like for your style of music?
You hit a painful nerve. In Italy there are lots of good bands, but it’s extremely hard to get gigs. Too often the guys of the venues are not professional at all, sometimes they cancel the gigs without any reason, or give you less money than how much were agreed and so on. Fortunately there are some exceptions, but the main level of the venues dosn’t allow the scene to grow and develop.
About the style and the genres, right now the mainstream genres are pop-punk and emo/metalcore, but our genre is well represented by bands such as Ufomammut, At The Soundawn, Dead Elephant, Ornaments and many others. We are friends with a lot of our bands, so we play quite often; we’re just back from a mini tour in southern Italy, and in the next weeks we’ll have some more gigs.
9. Any plans to tour abroad?
We’d love to tour Europe, but we first decided to tour Italy and put out our EP, in order to collect a relevant press coverage. We want to make a step at a time. Let’s say next year we’ll try to set up some gigs abroad.
10. How have you found Myspace in terms of networking amongst other bands and also fans? Has it been a helpful tool?
MySpace is *the* thing you have to work with if you wanna make music. In two or three years it completely revolutionized the way to get in contact with bands and fans, making it easier to get in contact with anyone. On MySpace we found tons of cool bands, tons of people interested in our music, labels, agencies, zines (as Dowuntune Despondency hahaha) and so on.
11. What your plans for the next 12 months? What can we look out for?
Uhmm.. it sounds like a wish list. Let’s say we’d like to record some other tracks and possibly find a label interested in them. Then touring all around Europe. Pretty cool, huh?
12. Plug any websites relevant to Last Minute To Jaffna.
I’d say our website www.lastminutetojaffna.com and our MySpace profile http://www.myspace.com/lastminutetojaffna . Here you’ll find all our news, mp3s, reviews, interviews, pictures and so on.
13. The last words are yours
Thank you Kitty for giving us space on Downtune Despondency. And thanks to all the people who read it here :)
Check our profile and tell us what you think!
