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interview to rachel goswell from slowdive - pygmalion (1995) by Diego Centurióntranslation: marcelo simonetti

It’s interesting listening back to music you have made in the past.

First I want to thank for the time you take to answer the questions. We have a section for the anniversary of the albums that we like, reviewing them through time or (as in this case) interviewing people involved in the album. But we cannot live in the past, so we will also ask you about Sowdive’s present and future too.Anyway, we will focus the interview in

Pygmalion’s 20th anniversary, Slowdive’s third album

1995. How did the band get to the composition of this album? As we can hear it, the band wanted a change. Less shoegaze and more atmosphere in it. Neil was listening to a lot of ambient and

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techno music at the time and Pygmalion really is born out of that.

This work marks a change in the treatment of spatiality, regard to sound. Is it that the band tried to sound more ambient, more ethereal? Which was the aim, perhaps to sound more soundscape?By the time Pygmalion was recorded we weren’t really a fully functioning band to be honest. A lot of this record was down to Neil’s vision. I added vocals in various places and was present during the recording process.

Do you remember how it was the songwriting process? Have you and Neil written all material separately?There is only one song that was the cowrite I wrote the vocal melody and lyrics. Neil had already written the music for that song.

Do you hear your earlier works? How long since you hear Pygmalion from beginning to end for the last time?I listened to all of the albums back to back at the beginning of last year for the first time in probably a good 15 years or so. It’s interesting listening back to music you have made in the past. Some of it still stands up well and some of it doesn’t.

The band came back in 2014. How was this reunion planned? I think this is really well documented now across the internet. We had an offer from Primavera to play and we all started discussing the possibility of doing new music as a result. We thought that by doing the festivals this would be a good way to star and see if even for starts on a personal level it would work for all of us to be together again.

I have heard some concerts and chemistry is intact. How are you taking this reunion, will there be a new album?We had an absolute blast year and have all really enjoyed it so far. It has already gone way past our expectations. We are certainly working on new material now and hope this will result in a new album.

What do you think about Pygmalion’s sound twenty years later? My personal opinion is that it seems to have been recently recorded.I think it stands up really well generally and still has good relevance. I am proud to have been a part of the process.

Shoegaze and the dream pop is back since a couple of years ago, with new bands rescuing these 80s and 90s sounds. How do you see this revival?I think generally with music everything is cyclical? There are some great bands that have been influenced by shoegaze. Dream pop I am not so au fait with to be honest. Am really enjoying The Black Ryder’s album which is due out in March for example and I loved Alcest’s homage to the genre with their last album.

Any plans for 2015 for Slowdive?Yes, we are making many plans this year for the future!

Latin America?We do hope so at some point. We have looked into it and right now it just isn’t possible. But we will be looking at this in the future with the new record.

Thank you Rachel for the time you take to answer the questions.

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