Audience: “Even if we sing in English we’ll always keep on writing some songs in Basque”

Audience was born between Busturia and Guernica (Vizcaya). With their first demos they got to the final at the Villa de Bilbao in 2000. Since then, they have been growing and making albums. The last one “Tryings wings on the roots” will bring them to Catalunya and to their land, The Basque Country.

EuskoSare talked to them about their history, present and future.

Would you mind to let us know a bit about your history? How did you meet?
Well, since me and my brother started to get interested in music, we knew that we wanted to have a band. A couple of years after (1995) we formed our first band (called ortozik, means barefoot) and it developed on until in 1999 we finally got our final line up as Audience. In those early years we published two demos and played lots of concerts. 2001 was a very important year for the band since we won two very important music contests (Villa de Bilbao and Demo 2001). That led us to release our first long record and to be able to participate in some of the biggest Festivals. We also had the chance to go and play in festivals around Europe (Holland and Finland). Today, the band is formed by Ager, Hannot, Andoni, Mikel and myself (Gaizka).

Do you sing in English? Why?
Yes, we sing in English. Since we were kids, we've always listened to American and English bands, so when it came the time to sing, it naturally came out that way. It wasn't even a decision we made. So even if we speak Basque in our daily life, English is our language to musically communicate.

Are there any songs in Basque?
Yes there are. We've written a couple of songs in Basque and there'll be more in the future for sure. However, the choice of the language is very seldom something we make on purpose. In our case the lyrics come usually into the song once the main shape of it is made, but it's in a very natural way how it pops up. I must add that Basque is our language and the difficulties for its development in the current situation worry us. Even if we sing mainly in English our commitment with the Basque language is very strong, so I'm sure that we'll always keep on writing some songs in Basque as well.  

Your work has a slight touch of country music. What inspires you?
We feel inspired by everything that surrounds us. Specially things we love, hate, or cause an impact on us. When it comes to speak about just the music, country is obviously one of our influences, but we also feel inspired by blues, folk, rock or jazz among others. Movies are also a big influence in our music, actually, sometimes our songs emulate movie plots, since they have a beginning, a development and an end (I mean we don´t repeat very much the parts of the songs, we like the song to go on forward all the time)

Can you tell us anything about your third and last album “Trying wings on roots”? what has the public response been like ?
“Trying wings on roots” is the closest to a classic rock album we've made so far. The influence of blues and country rock is very obvious (therefore the roots), but we like twisting it around so it has that unique Audience touch (that's the wings). So we present the album as an experiment, a senseless and impossible experiment. What would it happen if you put wings to something that's made to be stuck  to the ground? It's like bringing the blues and the country to our days, to our town, next to our friends, we twist the blues around and make it ours. About the response, it's been very good. All the reviews were great and the reaction from our friends and Audience fans is excellent.

One of your songs  has been selected to take part in the greatest hits album “Ball of Wax”, which will be released at the end of may. How did you feel when you heard the news?
Somebody said “I can't get no satisfaction”, but these kind of news surely help on the way. It's really great to be able to reach new places and people through music. Seattle is a great music spot when it comes to Alternative music, specially after the 90s with Nirvana and all that. I hope that this is just the beginning of a path that will lead us to many other places.  

How could you describe your new album to your fans? How are you getting on with the planning of your concerts in Cataluña and Euskadi?
If I compare it to the 2 previous albums, I'd say it's definitely more accessible and it's got an “easier going” rhythm and sound. This time we focused more on the vocal harmonies and in the arrangements, so we decided to keep the initial essence of the songs and not complicate them too much with complex structures. Despite all these differences, I think it keeps the energy that we've always had. About the concerts, we are very excited to go back to Catalunya and it's always a pleasure to play home, here in The basque Country.

Are you thinking of playing in New York at any point? If yes, when?
Yes. I don't know when but we definitely want to cross the Atlantic ocean and play in the home of blues, country and jazz music. New York, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Nashville are all places we'd love to visit.

Have you contacted any Basque Centre in the US?
Not yet, but since Gernika and Boise (Idaho) have a close and strong institutional relationship, we're planning to do an exchange with a Boise band. I think it would be a very good experience for everybody. We'd get to know Boise and to spread our music in the U.S. The Basque Country would be a great place for a Boise band to play too, there's a lot of musical interest and American music is surely a favourite among Basque youth. For the towns of Boise and Gernika it'd be a great chance to reinforce the relationship and to get to know each other better. It would also support the relationship among the youth of both towns, which is really important for the future. It's obvious that both communities have had a great influence on each other and it'd be great to feel part of that culture exchange.

For more information visit the Audience website or  Audience in MySpace