Indievotion publishes today the fourth interview from a series of in-depth talks with musicians/bands that we deeply cherish, acknowledge their talent, creativity, resilience and envision them as groundbreaking acts away from the inane mainstream numbness.
This amazing interview was only possible due to the absolute generosity of our interviewee, Shana Falana, who promptly accepted our challenge and actively cooperated to help making it happen. Thanks for being so rad!
For all those not yet acquainted with Shana Falana we should briefly say the she is a Kingston (NY) based musician originally from San Francisco and front woman of the “supertastic” not-so-dark-pop duo that goes with her name, along with her domestic partner and drummer Mike Amari.
Shana Falana has been composing, writing, recording and releasing songs since 1995 from the west to the east coast. Shana Falana is making awesome sonic bouquets for quite a long time strenuously fighting for a deserved place in the sun.
In spite of Shana Falana's long career, her debut release only happened back in 2012 with “In the Light” EP produced by Kevin McMahon and with the little help of the unique Jane Scarpantoni as additional musician. Briefly and without pretending to review it now In The Light EP was a bold and beautiful statement of a musician that weaved "Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares" with "Dead Can Dance" and "Hugo Largo" which is something pretty inventive.
The overall result was something I dare label as "mantric experimental ambient pop" once summoned all the inner demons within some church walls. Vocally extremely well crafted “In the Light” EP worked as an epiphany.
Shana Falana made us patiently wait whole three years for her debut full-length. "Set Your Lightning Fire Free" was an elegy of positively spooked good vibrations and an enthusiastic demonstration of joy disguised as dark grim dream pop. Do not let yourself be fooled by one of the very best album of 2015 and get ready to welcome wave that is about to hit new sonic shores.
1. Before SHANA FALANA officially formed back in 2011, you were so to say performing as a solo musician. You left San Francisco for NY in 2003 to pursue making music in Brooklyn. What made you decide to form the band? How much of your cultural travelling, musical background contributed to that decision?
I guess I considered myself a solo musician because bands are so hard to keep together in NY. Everyone is so busy! When I moved upstate in 2008 I formed a band and called it FullON! That too soon disbanded and then again solo, I went through many drummers, 5 in a year I think! Finally, when I met Mike Amari and we became a couple, I started another 'band' with him and that has lasted 5 years.... I think that its really super special to find people that you really can create with, even with Mike it's taken me years to let his ideas in and to accommodate his input.
2. You are not a full time musician. In fact, you also work as a house painter, which is a bit unusual. How do you see the artist’s challenge of balancing life and art? To what extent does it interfere with your creative process, rehearsal logistics or recording process?
I think that because I work for myself house painting it's actually so much EASIER than if I had some straight job or if I worked for someone else. I do feel tired at the end of the day so that can make it difficult to drag my ass to a rehearsal. Winter is usually a good time for me to do creative projects; painting seems to slow down in the winter, good time to demo a record, work on projections etc.... The hardest might be timing touring with work only because my busy times painting are in the spring, summer and fall which is when Mike wants us on the road!
3. SHANA FALANA is often defined as a dream-pop, shoegaze psych rock band. Do you feel at ease with this labelling and how do you deal with it?
I was really confused when I was defined as a shoegaze band, dream pop I get, but I just went with it because honestly the shoegaze scene is the sweetest most supportive scene I've ever experienced! Whatever you need to label us as! This album coming out now to me is 'dark pop' but what do I know!
4. Considering your previous answer how would you then define the band’s sound and what is your musical comfort zone in case you creatively consider there is one?
I write so, so, many different styles, I write folk songs! I write little pop songs! I write experimental vocal ambient cello songs. I write some other songs that sound like metal!!! I love it all! Trying to choose what style or sound to put on these records has been really, really, challenging for me, there’s so much to choose from and I don't know what will work 'together', there's no comfort zone for me.
5. New York is truly a gold mine of talented musicians and aesthetically revolutionary bands. As Kingston based musician two hours away by car from NYC how would you describe the indie/alternative music scene there when in comparison to Brooklyn’s creative effervescence?
Living 2 hours from the city is amazing.... I live in a beautiful dreamy Hudson Valley, pay cheap rent and still enjoy a vivacious artist community. Mike books a music venue here in town called BSP Kingston, and he has hand-picked bands from the city to come up and play here, bringing a lot of musical culture to this growing town. There are staple local favorite bands though, that maybe sound like a Brooklyn band, but they came from here!!! PWRBTTM, Diet Cig, Battle Ave, Laura Stevenson, Breakfast in Fur, INNIS and new local favorite Top Nachos !!!!
6. Can it be objectively said that SHANA FALANA creative process is somewhat influenced by their urban environment or are there any other more meaningful variables?
I think the only thing that is in the creative process is finding the time to create! Thank god, I have albums of back catalogue from when I was in San Fran and Brooklyn, I've written a few songs since moving in 2008 to Kingston but only a handful!
7. When i researched your bio it impressed me the fact that you consider yourself a ‘channeller’. I am personally highly interested in this sort of mediunic relation towards art. What is the role of spirituality in your life and how do you relate it to the tricky process of inspiration?
Oddly enough, before I got sober I wrote a lot more 'devotional' sounding music, songs about energy and believing in yourself, being true to yourself, "There's Away" and "Shine Thru" are examples of that from Set Your Lightning Fire Free. I have so many more from that time in my life, lots of chants and almost music spells, still working up to letting that side of me come through. I like writing dark lyrics in shiney sounding songs "Cloudbeats" on our new record Here Comes the Waves, or catchy positive songs for the kids on our new single "Cool Kids". I just let it all come out, I don't judge it when it's passing through me, I just hit record.
8. On a more instrumental level how would you describe SHANA FALANA songwriting and composing process? Is this natural process and slow or do your lyrics come suddenly before getting into the studio?
I will sit and "demo" an entire record before I go into the studio! Studios are expensive and my producer Dan Goodwin loves that I take the time and make a list of what needs to get recorded on every song. Everything has most likely been written and performed for a while leading up to recording so it's just a matter of making it sound up to date with our gear etc. Mike will often have some last minute ideas, which is fine since I'm so prepared.
9. You once said that PJ Harvey made you pick the guitar and that she is a massive influence on your music, but when one gets into your music what emerges seems to be more like a tremendous presence of 4AD sonic seal particularly the medieval imprint of Dead Can Dance. How do you explain that urge to sound to some church choir solemnity?
Ahhhh.... YES! I'm so glad that all comes through! I loved Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and NYC art rock band Hugo Largo. I created and sang in a Bulgarian Women's Choir and chanting group in San Francisco in 1990's-2000; we experimented with Medieval harmonies and even sang some Chinese songs, beautiful, beautiful stuff. I sang at Glide Memorial Church Gospel Choir as well, I've just explored the voice but always come back to what my first musical inspirations are, were and probably will forever be, the dissonant, somewhat dark, haunting and ethereal. When people that don't know "dream pop" genre stuff ask me what my music sounds like, I say it sounds like a pop song sung in a church with dark overtones....
10. “In the Light” EP was not the safest choice to make for a debut and it is definitely a bold one. The sonic ambience clearly reminds a sort of mantra or prayer, but mostly and overall, an exorcisement that seems to outgrow from the layered vocals. It worked in part as a turning point, but also as a summoning of all past experiences. Was it like that? What can you tell us about it?
When I was picking songs to record with Kevin McMahon, for the "In the Light" record, “Anything” (a track released on SYLFF) was on the table, “Dive” was recorded and not released, as was another creepy dark song I haven't released yet called "Journey", and I made a decision to NOT do a pop record, to put out songs that might not be so easily liked, my thought was "people want to hear something different, everyone is doing the Ty Segall thing, everyone is selling garage rock etc.... I really wanted to challenge people.
11. Between “In the Light” EP and “Set Your Lightning Fire Free” you changed producer and drummer. How did this transformation contribute to rethink the inner dynamics of the band and to which extent did it influence and redefined the working process from then on because there seems to have occurred an aesthetic change of path in between the two?
When we did the full length, the song Gone was sort of the bridge we thought to the EP, and maybe a few others, but we just grabbed the songs we had started playing on tour.... there was a 3 year gap between the two releases so we started to add new stuff to the mix, upbeat stuff.... make the kids dance in that basement DIY scene!
12. Listening to your discography and considering your musical influences it is interesting to highlight that from a sonic point of view and certainly, from an aesthetic one your sound is not as dark as we could initially think of, in fact the dark mood that beautifully infects your sound is a happy one I would say. How do you explain it?
Ahhhhhahahahaa.... you found my TRICK!!! You are exactly right! I love, love, love writing dark 'sounding' songs in a positive light. I just love playing with these overtones so much, and I love being optimistic and helpful, it might also be that it's easier to hear the light when you're sinking into the heaviness of the sounds... like in the song “Go”, or “Shine Thru”!
13. “Setting Your Lightning Fire Free” was a brilliant full-length debut and undoubtedly one of the 2015 best albums. A year later, how would you describe everything that was involved in the making of the album?
Wow! Thanks for saying it was one of your favs! That's so amazing!! We really did a quick job on that one and honestly we did an even quicker job on this one!!! I just learned from demo-working the album ahead of time, working with Dan Goodwin and how motivated he is (once we pin him down haha) that the flow of 'go with it' is good for us. These songs have been realized for me for a long time and even though I hadn't played all of them live I knew that they were strong enough to be released, I like not being so precious, for me it's good to work hard and then let go of the results.
14. "Here comes the Wave” will be SHANA FALANA'S sophomore album due out this Fall. I have been listening to “Cool Kids” and I am thrilled. It is an awesome addictive track. What can we expect from the new album? Does it correspond to a different aesthetic approach or does it follow the same creative flow of the previous one?
I'm so glad you're digging "Cool Kids" that song is so fun! This release I think is going to feel different for people, it's definitely more pop oriented, dark pop in my view, I was worried that we may lose some of our 'shoegaze' cred, but maybe all the goth's will come with me!!!
15. Considering that SHANA FALANA have always adopted a fully DIY approach to music industry how do you see the actual state of the music business and how different it is now to be part of Team Love?
We are still very DIY... Team Love is amazing but they are not paying our way. We still hire our own PR, radio campaign, Mike is booking us, managing us.... they DO offer licensing and distribution which has been incredibly helpful... our record is in stores all over the US and EU and we have been licensed quite a bit from the last release and even In the Light. So, it's a slow climb up, but honestly I'm happy about the pace, this is ALOT of work, and it gives me the chance to integrate everything I'm also doing for my sobriety.
16. SHANA FALANA has an ever growing faithful crowd following the band whether in the US or Europe. What are SHANA FALANA'S near future touring plans?
We are playing some release shows in NY Oct. 20-22nd and then heading out on a national 5 weeks tour starting in Philadelphia Nov. 3rd, we will be in the West Coast! The dates should be up soon on our website shanafalana.com. Hoping to tour this new record for a while and get over to the EU! If anyone reading this wants to help with that...... we are OPEN!
