NH7 › Interview: Boat Beam

Indiecision Check Out act Boat Beam impressed us immensely with their debut album Puzzle Shapes (check out the single ‘The Rain Pauly’ on our music player). The project of Josephine Ayling (Australia), Aurora Aroca (Spain) and Alisha Buttke (US), Boat Beam call Spain home and and paint beautiful pictures with strings and Fiona Apple-esque pop sensibilities. We caught up with the band to talk about being sisters, musical influences and puzzles.

Q1. How did the band come together?
We were born as sisters to a polygamous family in suburban Sydney and then for reasons of criminal persecution taken to live with families in various different continents, didn’t see eachother for the next twenty years, and finally re-established contact and decided to start a band together here in Madrid.

But we usually tell people that two of us came to Madrid to learn Spanish and started performing as a two-piece, then met Aurora at one of the concerts and decided to try adding cello to the songs. It sounded so breathtaking that we decided to form a band.

Q2. All of you come from diverse musical backgrounds. Was it easy finding a common ground on which to create Puzzle Shapes? How did the creative process work?
Josephine usually composes the songs with her guitar or the piano and then Alisha and Aurora work on the string arrangements. But there are many variations, because Aurora also plays the piano like a dream, and Alisha plays the bass and does some percussion. So depending on what the song calls for, we morph into another combination of instruments. It´s quite entertaining on stage, as long as nobody trips over the melodica or kicks the tambourine.

Q3. Was there a concept behind Puzzle Shapes, or is it just a collection of songs you wrote once you decided Boat Beam was a project?
No, there was no underlying concept, and that’s reflected in the name – all the songs come from different moments and emotions and reactions – the idea was to portray real life, in all its manifestations. And hence the name – one puzzle is made of many parts, but when they come together it seems to make sense.

Q4. There’s a lot happening on each of the songs on this record. Some of the tracks feature pretty elaborate productions. Who produced this record? How was it working with him/her?
The record was recorded partly in Sydney, Australia, and partly in Madrid, Spain. There are different people collaborating on different songs, but overall, the idea was to make it as interesting and eclectic as possible. The album was “produced” by Josephine, as in she directed the evolution of the overall sound, recording much of it in her house with the other two girls. In the final stages, Manuel Cabezali did the mixing and mastering, giving the album a very deep and rich texture, which is his specialty.

Q5. The fact that this music comes from Spain adds this sort of idyllic European imagery to it. Did being in Spain add something to your songwriting process?
Being relatively isolated from the US/UK/Australian music scenes gave us a bit of breathing space to formulate our own ideas instead of being influenced by what other people were doing. And also hearing the music of Spain, which is not only flamenco, but lots of Eastern European gypsy music which people play in the plazas and on the metro, really opened up our ears to other possibilities. We’re listening to more and more music from Cuba, Brazil and Africa, but at the end of the day we’ll probably be writing indie songs for a long time to come.

Q6. Top 5 songs on your respective iPods right now.
Josephine:
1. Azul – Natalia Lafourcade
2. La Gloria Eres Tu – Rubén González
3. Poliomyelite – Staff Benda Bilili
4. Macaco – Moving
5. That Was the Worst Christmas Ever – Sufjan Stevens

Alisha:
1. Sea Legs – The Shins
2. Mass – Bobby McFerrin
3. Almost Crimes - Broken Social Scene
4. Joyful Girl – Ani Difranco
5. Macedonia – Mark O’Connor

Aurora:
1. Everything In Its Right Place – Radiohead
2. Clap Hands – Tom Waits
3. The River – PJ Harvey
4. Mysterons – Portishead
5. 1% of One – Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks