Interview with Ambros Chapel

Ambros Chapel is a band from Valencia (Spain) that sings in English and has a clear influence from Bowie and other bands like Suede and The Cure. Their music is instrumental but very alive. It catches you very quickly.

The group emerged in 2006, starting their career with the ambition to highlight a different and personal project. To do this, and after some lineup changes, they got into work to compose and express their emotions and feelings, recording their first songs on a demo (2006) that had some local success. That led them to perform their first concert at El Loco Club (Valencia) in December of that year.

After this first experience, they continue working to make more songs and to expand their repertoire gaining more confidence. After that, they performed many concerts and at the end of the year, they recorded a second demo (2007). This demo was a big success, allowing them to play outside their region several times, in Catalonia and Madrid, to be featured in the media (20 minutes, El País, Mondosonoro), to get semifinalist in several national contests, to have radio interviews (Radio 3, Radio Nou, Radio Klara, Vinilo Valencia, Cadena Ser, Radio Mislata, etc..) and to be described, by specialized media, as a revelation local band.

At the end of the year, the Spanish magazine Mondosonoro assigned them the 6th place for their Demo 08 among the top ten of the year. Their song 25 was featured on BBC Introducing Bristol in 2009.

They were also included in the Valencian CAC compilation of bands by Radio Klara in the last three editions (they were chosen to present the CD with a performance at the Fnac in 2008 and in Matisse in 2009) and they won the sixth edition of the Troglogló contest organized by La Caverna, which had about 40 bands. As a result, they recorded two songs with Dani Cardona at Studio 54.

From 2008 until early 2010, Ambros Chapel performed over 90 gigs and has played everywhere in Valencia, Castellón, Alicante, Madrid, Aragon, Tarragona, Malaga, and Murcia.

In late November of 2009, they presented their first CD Rome. It is released under the independent label Malesta Records and distributed by Everlasting / Popstock.

Rome was considered the best album of the year in 2009 by the radio show El Club de Los Amigos del Crimen by Radio Klara. It has also been included among the 10 best albums lists by both local and national media, including Mondosonoro, Vinilo Valencia, 39 Sonidos…

1. How did the band begin?

Well, in a very classic way. Paul had some songs done at home, and he met Alfred, who played bass. They had the same taste, and with another friend who played the guitar, they began to unleash their musical rehearsing sporadically. Later they saw the need for a drummer and they found one by an advertisement. With this alignment, we recorded our first demo (Demo 06).

Later, a friend of Alfred, Vincent, joined us as keyboardists. Our drummer left and we got another, Jose, also by an advertisement. With these two additions, we recorded the second demo (Demo 08).

In early 2008, Rafa came as a guitarist because we lost our first one. And from this moment, with this formation, this is when we began to grow musically, to write without bias and to consider the band as something serious and important in our lives. Without this mentality and these components, it would have been difficult to take a step as important as recording our album Rome.

2. How would you define the sound of the band?

We believe that at beginning we were more influenced by bands like The Cure or Bowie, even Joy Division, but now we have achieved our own sound. We have opened the range of shades and although in the demos you can already recognize us, now our sound is more personal and more open at the same time. On the album you can find some sounds of jazz, bossa-nova, The Doors. Especially now the sound has more groove. We settled the dark base of the demos and we have seasoned it with other elements.

3. Talk us about your last work.

Well the album ROME is from the end of 2009, which has more than a year and a half. It consists of 9 tracks that are the result of the time we lived and the experiences we accumulate then. In terms of influences, there may be part of the British scene of the last twenty years, but the disc is not confined to any particular type of music, it is variated and has more nuances. Basic bands from our personal discography vary depending on each band member, although there are bands that we all like . We also enjoy to listen to bands from the 60s, 70s, songwriters, classic rock bands and so on.

Also on the album there are jazz atmospheres, bossa-nova interludes, some funk rhythms…it is very variated, more than peopel think. We believe that there should not be prejudice in the music as long as it ahs quality, and not to stick to a particular style, this could close some doors that we want them open and able to cross.

The important thing for us is that every song make you to have specific sensations, and whether it is more or less fast, or more or less happy, to put it in some way, the bottom line is that when you hear it you find a sense.

We like to play with the dynamics of the tracks, make some atmospheres and crescendos, part times … mostly because we do not want a linearity on the themes, not having all the same structure. It comes naturally. We seek to touch the listener or the public in our concerts, at the same time that we also get excited while playing songs. We feel comfortable with what we play, no matter if it is fast or slow.

4. How are your concerts? What can we find there that we wont find on your studio records?

We try to take care of the songs. Have a good balance between melody, the punch and the arrangements. Live, where it is more difficult to control all the variables of sound, we try not to loose this balance, and we try to adjust as much as possible to the sound of the recorded version. At the same time we seek that the concert has its own tempo, interspersing the songs properly. We seek, as I told you before, atmospheres and feelings in the audience, to move and to excite.

We are not a band that gives many concessions to the public in terms of a established setlist, but we do ensure a compact live difficult to forget.

5. What do you think about the music industry and your place within it?

The national scene is currently in the best shape possible. There are new ideas and different ways of making music everywhere. There are many bands in Spain but also many new local proposals. But we lack places to play where the scene revitalizes and grows. It is shown that the scene does not need much statal support to survive, but we believe that it would be necessary to have more windows where to show what is being done. The step for a band to move from a small gig to a large capacity one is very big, we lack the next step with intermediate facilities.

Interesting proposals as demos contests and other supporting models like radios, newspapers, magazines and blogs like yours make possible for bands to be known and that know what others are doing. But all this is still just a step from everything that could be done. But the effort is worthwhile and pays off, even in long terms.

Our place in the music scene has to be defined. We occupy a privileged place within the local scene in our city, but we still look for our place on the independent national scene. We do not believe that we belong to any particular scene, we are a bridge between styles.

At the moment we think we are on the right path, as our music and album reviews are positive, and the people who have attended our concerts have liked them and were surprised. This encourages us to move forward.