Balvanera

Agustina:  Change. One grows older, moves, relationships end, and one no longer feels so attached to that type of music and plainly wants to explore more. We’ve always been interested in electronics.  For some reason, electronic music feels like a continuation of punk to me. Like in the 80’s a lot of ex punks and industrial musicians were drawn to raving. In that sense I feel there’s a lot of similarities in the communal experience, ethics, DIY, etc. The raw and very rudimentary approach to electronics in terms of sound (when we started) definitely came from hardcore punk.  
Lucas:  At that time, after playing in several punk bands, I found it was complicated to make music as a group. I wanted to have a project in which I was the only one dealing with writing music. Plus I just wanted to learn more about electronic music. It’s easier not to carry so many instruments, allowing us to play anywhere. 


Agustina:  Dry is a bit harsh! There were a few acts when we started but I guess not really out there as a scene that would attract other people other than the goth/industrial niche that has always existed. We even had some EBM in the early 90s in Buenos Aires. Carlos Shaw, who did our mastering, was in a historical EBM act in BA, called Unidad de Transmisión. They’re a diamond. In the present, I think what’s great is that the audience has broadened a bit, and is very diverse. I believe some DJs (and I'd like to think so of ourselves) definitely helped shape and establish an underground party scene that is focused on darker sounds. And fortunately it’s very active nowadays. 
Lucas:  At first, we would play with DJs or bands that did not necessarily play the same style or genre. Eventually we realized that we liked to play at parties rather than gigs, where people go because of the dancing itself, making it easier to blend with us. Our music also changed towards that objective. 
Agustina:  I did not expect anything in particular. Coming from the punk scene I guess you know that the underground is underground and that feels right. Just to do music. I feel one is never really complete, so we are reaching for it, for sure. 
Lucas:  My goal was to learn how to make electronic music, make a record, and play it live. Objectives change for each record. On a more global sense, I guess my main interest is learning how to create better music/art. 

Agustina:  Sure, the scene got bigger and bigger so I presume that accounts for a rise in interest. And I would stress that this did not only happen in BA but also we get a lot of love from other countries as well. 2017 and 2018 were the global comeback years for EBM, right? It shows that more and more people are jumping on this boat, and luckily staying. Hehe. It’s not even been a week since the release and we’ve been getting a lot of messages regarding this last album, so we are excited about what's to come. 
Lucas:  I think so. Even though this past year was very hard. The connection with a live audience makes me aware of these types of things. Hopefully it gets better real soon to continue meeting new people. 
Agustina:  I feel we actually learned how to make the music we want, haha. When we started I felt a bit more insecure from not knowing certain stuff. However, it was always a very intuitive process of learning and mastering our own skills. Now I really feel "Courses of Action" is more mature than anything we’ve done in the past. There’s less heartbreak, hehe, and it comes naturally this way. I’m always glad when things form organically and it’s not as if we are months planning each track to perfection. That’s what maturity feels like for me. 
Lucas:  I discovered there’s not one way to make music. You can manipulate sounds neatly or be loose about it, and it might work either way after good editing. I’d like to think that sound is something that changes all the time.  

Agustina:  Well, we were independent a bit by chance, because we were solely thinking about releasing music. Local labels did not exist when we started and we found it difficult finding an international label. Since we are really, really far away...It’s a gamble for a label when you are not on the touring network. We are glad that DKA were so enthusiastic and we feel Balvanera is a perfect match for their label. We are now label mates with projects we love like Multiple Man, High-Functioning flesh, Sally Dige, Boy Harsher, Autumns, etc.
Lucas:  We want Balvanera to reach more people globally since our audience in Argentina is rather limited. We like the idea that anyone anywhere may hear us now. Especially people with our same musical interests. That’s why we were inclined towards DKA. because they release music that we really like. Sometimes we get to know other bands because of our fans. That helps me grow.  
Agustina:  I feel that "courses of action" is often a phrase we mostly associate with or hear during political speeches or in business jargon. That the term usually accounts or results in nothing actually happening. In the senses that it’s very abstract, ergo it’s somehow deprived of meaning. We felt the record sounded and demanded “action” and since last year was so hard, time itself put everything in perspective, demanding also to make choices in our own personal lives.
Lucas:  It’s a record that invites you to action, to movement; to gain consciousness of one's acts. In this way, this phrase gains a more introspective nature. 

Agustina:  It does look like a guillotine! But it’s actually some wood ornamental frame or structure, and a mannequin chest torso. An Argentinian artist, Liliana Maresca, would do photo-performances in the late 80s and early 90's in which she would be naked and “wear” this object as well as others. Maresca is one of my favourite artists, I was glad to work on some of her exhibitions in Buenos Aires and also in Istanbul. She is the epitome or embodiment of the type of action we were thinking about.  She had an incredible political body of work and sadly passed away because of an AIDS related illness in '94. I happen to be friends with her daughter too, which makes this connection really heartfelt and important to me. These nets of affection are ultra necessary for me. Maresca’s image for the cover, the album title and of course each song, bring sense altogether. 
Lucas:  We like album covers and art that generate multiple interpretations, like how listeners interpret our music or meaning to lyrics. We chose this work by Maresca, cause it’s important to have a certain connection with the image. In this case, we wanted to pursue that idea of consciousness about the body as a tool to make decisions and generate changes. Plus, being an Argentinian artist, it’s a way to connect with our culture, reinterpret it, and share it. 
Agustina:  I would say 'Rust' probably, ironically as native Spanish speakers, it’s our first one in Spanish and means a lot to me. A friend of ours is working on a video for this song too that we hope sees light in march. 
Lucas:  My favourite song... might be 'Tide'. I like the feeling it generates, although it’s so short. I can listen to it many times and it does not feel repetitive and tells a tale. It’s new for us in terms of composition but it’s inspired in the type of atmospheric openings we usually do in our live shows. 
Agustina:  Some stuff I recorded for Cándido might be out soo, aside from that I am mainly concentrating on an EP for my project Contacto. Contacto has appeared on several compilations (some more will be out soon!) but an album on my own seems like the next step. 
Lucas:  With Fenece, we just launched our second EP and are about to record a split with another band from Buenos Aires in the next few months. 
Agustina:  For now, no gigs, but wishing to tour Europe, the USA, and Latin America. But mainly focused on releasing a couple of videos real soon! A new video for 'Medium' is about to be out shortly! We found time to work on audiovisual pieces during the pandemic and that has kept us busy.
Agustina:  Thanks a lot for these really nice questions!
Lucas:  Thanks for sharing, hope to see you soon! 

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