WHAT WE'RE LISTENING TO - PublishedTrespass Magazine June/July 08

You describe WE as “atmospheric indie rock
with elements of noir and surf”. Your sound is
strongly evocative. If you could provide the
soundtrack to any past event—the fall of the
Berlin Wall, the creation of Mickey Mouse, the
birth of Christ etc.—what would it be?
Yes, (always start an answer with a positive word). I
guess we will lean into playing at ends more than playing
at starts…we are more a funeral band than a wedding
orchestra. But not really a sad funeral. More like the
funeral of a decade, (some people will remember this
decade as a wonderful collection of bright events. Some
will be happy to move on to the next decade with no
looking back). We’ll be happy if we could play at the
funeral of this decade.
WE are composed of an Italian (Gabriele
Gori, bassist), a drummer from Latvia
(Mareks Kaminski), a Swedish vocalist
(Paul Rubenstein) and a guitarist from
Israel (Then Wissoky). Does this colourful
jumble of backgrounds relate to your
eclectic, experimental style? How did you
meet?
Yes the drummer has turned Latvian, (we’ve been
playing with Mareks for the past 8 months).
Otherwise the short and sweet answer is yes,
but…what made us into a collective is our individual love
of the musical adventure. It’s the pheromone that draws
us together.
In reality we romantically met through a paper ad.
Paul placed an ad, Snail answered and then we found
Gabriele, (Mareks was not born yet and only joined later
after the invention of the global computer network that is
called ‘Internet’. We found him basking in the corner of
some remote website).
You have been awarded “Best Unsigned Record of
the Year” by Playmusic and appeared on the compilation
Best of Myspace UK alongside Bloc Party
and Maximo Park. Do you see yourself with a bright
shiny label anytime soon? Do you feel you need a
label to succeed?
Shiny new label? Can we get it wrapped in flowery paper
and with a ribbon?
Otherwise you will need to define the word success.
Our success is in our ability to continue to invent (our 3rd
album is in the making). We succeed every time a new
song is born.
Label? We will obviously say yes to put the right roof
over our head (labels are nowadays more a marketing
and promotional tool with lots of money to buy internet
ads). But if we get no offers, we hope to still be able to
be the street musicians that we are, homeless with a
mission of taking over the world.