Aqua Nebula Oscillator
interview
- December 2010 -
Aqua Nebula Oscillator is a band from Paris, France, playing heavy, loud, dark and psychedelic rock that has elements from the 60’s psych, fuzz and garage rock bands as well as some 70’s space rock vibes but all saturated with a heavy dose of occult and paranormal. The band has just gone through some major personnel changes and are going to play at the Psychotropic Caravan Festival in Helsinki on the 5th of February with OM, Alan Davey’s Gunslinger, Steel Mammoth etc. Since they are still relatively unknown in Finland (if you don’t count the die-hard psych heads, of course...), we thought a little interview with the main man David Sphačr'os, a psych freak extraordinaire, was in order.
How did you come up with the name Aqua Nebula Oscillator?
Aqua Nebula Oscillator is the name of a spaceship coming from infinity to invade the world with many colors, sounds and vibrations changing the boring people into wild animals!!!!
When did you first get interested in music and what bands/artists were your early idols?
My first interest for this music was at the age of 15 with the kings BEATLES, the best band in all the universe!!! After that I began to search for more this kind of music and I saw a documentary of Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett playing “Lucifer Sam” on LSD (and I was on that too) and that was it, it became a RELIGION and a purpose to be on earth!!!!
How did you learn to play guitar and organ? Did you have any professional learning/lessons?
I learned guitar on LSD with a 3-string guitar, with 2 friends who were master psych rock tripping people and we practiced like that for 3 years in a really shitty cave with 10-watt valves amps, every day and all the time (now we are rich and we have 200-watt valves amps, beautiful caves and 6 strings on our guitars eh-eh)!!! We were even scared to go out of the cave and to see people with monster face aha-hah!!!! Paranoiaaaa!!!
I never trusted in any school teaching guitar or art. I don’t know any notes and that’s the best school of life, play the sound vibration, not the note. Everyone can do art, even a baby, we don’t need to go to school for that!!!
Have you played in any other bands before ANO?
Yes, I have played in many bands before, like Les Alchimistes, Kyst, Black Out. We were really underground and there is no trace of those bands left anymore, they’ve been eaten by time!!!
How and when exactly was ANO founded?
ANO was founded in 1999 in London, we were playing kind of weird performance live music in squat parties with make up, crazy dancers dressed like dark trolls, coming out of a giant egg, playing for hours!
You have had different line-ups along the years. Are you the only constant member and do you think it’s fair to say that you’re the captain of the spaceship ANO?
Yes, I’m the CAPTAIN SPHAER'OS of Aqua Nebula Oscillator aha-aha!!! If you don’t like me, I’ll cut your throat with love!!! Eh-eh-eh.
Juan Trip used to be your drummer. How did you meet him? I have a couple of his solo albums which I find very interesting and psychedelic... He has also done more electronic-oriented stuff; do you like electronic music as well?
I met Juan Trip in a bar because I was looking at his beautiful girlfriend and I saw him looking back at me with a big smile!!! A great spaceship weird motherfucker man. I love him!!
I love electronic music like Bruce Haack, Silver Apples, Pierre Henry or White Noise, but I hate techno and electro shit!!!!
What are the main influences for the music and ideology of Aqua Nebula Oscillator?
Do what you want, when you want and be proud of what you do. Find your wild animal power, don’t listen to those shitty people who are trying to put you in a small box, be a wanker and proud of it ah-ah-ah!! And we are influenced by all those people who think like us. It could be Baudelaire, Antonin Artaud or Jimi Hendrix, any outsiders, we love them!!!
What kind of music do you listen to these days? Your favorite bands/artists?
The music I listen to these day is Aqua Nebula Oscillator and my favorite band is Aqua Nebula Oscillator ah-aah. I love the people who I play with now, they are my brothers, my space family and I don’t care about anything else!! It’s weird, no?
What is your relationship with the occult?
My relation with the occult started when I was born: my grandmother and mother were surrounded by ghosts and spirits and I’m the same. When I was young I was scared of them, now I love them ‘cause I know they are my friends, helpers, they give me energy and a reason to live!!!
What are your favorite books and writers?
Lovecraft, Antonin Artaud, Isidore Ducasse, Melmoth.
Is it true that you live in a 15th century cave? Must be cold and moist during the winter...
Yes it’s true, we are hiding underground, surrounded by strange stones, weird sculptures, dead animals and bones eh-eh-eh. For the dark moon we dance naked with painted faces crucifying mussels and snails on the wall!
How important factor are the psychedelic substances for ANO?
Psych substances are a religion to us!!!
Some of your songs seem to be pretty much jam-oriented. How do you usually write your songs?
Most of the time, me or someone comes with a guitar part with lyrics, we play around until we find the right way to do it, but always with a free music space. We don’t like square songs, they’re boring to play!!! We prefer round song or spiral songs, eh-eh.
How did you ended up supporting The Cult on their 2009 European tour? What was it like?
It was the singer Ian Astbury who found us, he’s a great man, a big fan of indian dance, Jim Morrison and knife eh-eh!!! It was great: we played in front of 50 000 persons and after a song or concert, no-one would applause or say anything, it was a silent sea of big eyes looking at us!!! Really strange, ah-ah-ah.
It was stated on your MySpace site that the line-up featuring Shazzula was the definite one. Now she’s out of the band, so it wasn’t, after all. Would you like to tell us why she’s not in the band anymore?
Shazzula is a great person, full of ideas and creativity, but she was my girlfriend and we broke up, so it wasn’t possible to carry on like that, the flame was gone, time to move on!!!!
What was the reason for starting another band called Osphaeratu? Is that band now turned into ANO or what?
Osphaeratu was my freedom space during a hard time in my life. I met Antoine (Aluk Todolo) and Victor Rassov, and they became my space brothers, I love them. They’re really talented self-taught persons and child spirits, wankers like me, so I decided to just have some good time in life and play with them all the time. I took Simon who was in Aqua Nebula with me since the beginning, and that’s it, that’s what you going to have at Psychotropic Caravan fest!!! The third studio album of Aqua Nebula Oscillator will feature this line-up.
I’d like to know what the third ANO album for Pan European Records is going to be like compared to the earlier releases? When will it be out?
It should be out in june. Let’s hope so!
Can you tell us a little bit about the recent vinyl only releases on Assommer and Funeral Folk labels? Do you still have some unreleased archive material left?
The albums on Assommer and Funeral Folk are the old, raw recordings. We have some stuff from 2005 for later!!!
What is the ultimate goal you have with ANO if there is one? What would you like to achieve with the band?
First, to have fun all the time (“Nobody Spoil My Fun”, Sky Saxon), second we’d like people to listen to our albums (even when we will be in our coffins taking the piss on the poor humans) and to feel a breath of freedom, colors, and to give them the opportunity to experience parallel dimensions, like we do and like other bands did before us!!!
We want to carry on the old tradition of psych!!! And we want the people to do the same for 300 years!!! Infinite spiral!!! Not even just in music, in all kinds of things, visual art, way to be, to see etc. etc...
You have never played or visited Finland yet. What do you know about our country?
We can’t wait to come to Finland, we are really excited and glad but the best in life is not to expect anything, we’ll see!!!! We’re going to have a great fun!!! And we’ve never been there!!!
What can the audience at Psychotropic Caravan III expect from your gig?
Psychotropic can expect what they booked us for eh-eh, heavy dark psych!!!
Anything you’d like to add?
We’d like to add that even if you don’t know us you have already helped us on a lot of things. This is a kind of really cool guy’s attitude, you’re welcome anytime!!! We gonna have lots of fun, good luck and many thanks for choosing us!!!
Thanks a lot David, we’re all really looking forward to meet you and experience the trance-inducing Aqua Nebula Oscillator gig at Nosturi!
Do not miss this unique opportunity to see this great band. Tickets are now available from Tiketti and Lippupalvelu. You can buy all the ANO albums through their MySpace site at:
www.myspace.com/aquanebulaoscillator
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