Interview Neurozine
Interview with: Chinese Theatre
Genres: Synth, Synthpop
Date: May 31, 2005
Krister Peterson a.k.a Chinese Theatre is in the middle of June in the hotspot with a debut album. We took the opportunity to talk a few words with the guy that has worked so hard for a breakthrough.
Congratulations to the opportunity to finally release an album. Eagerly waited?
- "Hi, and thank you very much. Yes I have been waiting for this album a long time. Even though it's not "mine" album because I have remixed them, but it feels like my own album."
Can you tell us how your musical life has been until you finally landed on Synthphony Records?
- "Well, my musical road has had many setbacks. I have found great singers but not had the money to do something serious with the material. I think it's a shame because there is a lot of the old material that I like a lot. I have been active in bands like melody Lane, Sayonara, De!Funct, Open Minded and a few others. Melody Lane must be the band that got the best career and we actually got a gig at Romo Night a few years ago. But there are plans to do something useful of the old material and release them under Chinese Theatre, but I'm still planning that, so nothing is decided."
How did you get contact with Synthphony Records? Was it on Internet or did you use the demo-CD trick?
- "That story is a little bit fun. I had heard about Synthphony Records idea to release a series of remix-albums there every album was remixed by only one person/band. I contacted David Lin and asked if you could give it a try and then he told me that he was just going to send me an e-mail and ask if I was interested in recording a remix-album. He has got a tip from a friend that had told him that I was very good of making remixes that didn't sound like most other remixes. I sent him some songs that he really likes, and you know the rest."
The album that you are releasing is a remix-album, how do you do when you are choosing the artist that you are going to remix. Do you have any inspiration when you remix?
- "On this record I picked about half of the songs and the rest did Synthphony record pick. I think that I got the opportunity to ask around with different artists has been very fun. As you can see a have done a remix of The Twins and that was my pick, it's was a lot of fun to make a remix of them because they are old childhood-heroes for me. It is hard to say some specific influence when I do my remixes, but it is mostly old electronic music like Human League, Yazoo, Erasure, Boytronic etc. I look for nice melodies for my songs and I think that more songs should include more nice melodies and great bass instead of filer sweeps and stuff like that. I like song with filter but I think that to many bands these days concentrate too much around filter instead of building their songs around nice melodies and bass-sounds."
Just doing remixes and not releasing some own material does it hard to go on stage and play. Is that something you are going to miss?
- "I have never liked the part of playing live, so I will definitely not miss it. I prefer to work this way and when I do I come up with the best results. Sure, it's very nice to see people dance to your music when you are on stage but you can see that on a dance floor on an ordinary electronic club, or just a regular club."
How about the future after this album? Do you want to produce more of your own music and release records or is it back to remixing and appears on various records like before?
- "I will try to release an own album. Mostly because I want to have a record released with my own material. One thing is sure, there will be more guest-appearances in the future, and I already got a few in the air."
Any last words to our readers?
- "I encourage everyone to support their idols and buy the albums. Feel free to download them before you buy them but if you like it, please buy the CD, and if you don't, just throw in the trashcan. There are not many electronic bands that can live on their music today, but there are surprisingly many that listen to electronic music. What is nicer, a folder with MP3 or a record with a nice label, lyrics and track lists. I know what I prefer. If a record is sold out and no longer can be bought I have nothing against that it's on the Internet for Downloading and I don't think the artist have that either. Thanks for me!"
Interview by: Tommy Richardsson
Interview link: www.neurozine.com
Read also a rewiev over the Chinese Theatre album Voices & Machines made by Neurozine.
Read also a rewiev over the sampler Synthphony Remixed Vol 5 made by Neurozine.