Calla from NYC.

Young people playing strong intelligent music. It’s not often. In the Café Charbon, just before the Paris gig, they are talking about Calla’s music and life. In front of me Aurello, long black hair, piercing eyes, is looking around and Wayne seems to be tired, the nose in his coffee. Pete, short haircut, is beside me, smiling.

How can you describe your new record "Collisions" ?

Pete : It’s definitly a more rock record.

Wayne : More aggresive.

Aurello : Very guitar based. We wanted to make a very guitar based energy record, very aggressive in Calla terms. People think it’s pretty mellow but in our world it’s pretty heavy.

You have worked with the famous producer Victor Van Vugt. How did you meet him ?

Aurello : We had a lot of mutual friends for years but we never actually met him. I met him throught an ex-girlfriend of mine. I didn’t realize who he was. We sat down, talked about music and I thought that it could work. I asked him and he said : "Sure!".

There was a lot of changes for Calla since the previous record "Televise". How these events influenced your work ?

Pete : The aggression of the album can reflect this period of time, very uncertain times, lots of things wrong coming together.

Aurello : We’ve lost our label, our manager. We didn’t have any money for recording the album.

Pete : Since we’ve recorded the new album, things are going better.

Aurello : We basically recorded the new lp as a three piece. So we decide to continue, touring, supporting, everything, for this record as a three piece. As Pete said, I think the record speaks for itself as we were going during that times.

Why Sean left the band ?

Wayne : It’s probably several reasons. But there was a time, there was conflicts. I think it’s the big reason.

Aurello : It was a really frustrating time for all of us but for him, it was not working anymore. For him, it was not enjoying anymore. He felt : "We’re going anywhere!". There was also creative differences.

How do you write your songs? Calla music is very complex. How are you processing ?

Aurello : All of us are working individually. We did it in the same way when Sean was in the band. We record beats and samples and I write a song. We’re coming with stripped versions and we start collaborating, cuting and pasting, puting things together and decide where the song could go. With "Collisions" we wanted much live feel. We worked in the same way as we did. Wayne came with song ideas, Pete contributing. When we get together, we start on the the computer cuting and pasting everything, programming, decide the way and play the song to know the energy of this song live.

Wayne : We have to really mix bases for the guitars. We worked in this way every sequences of this album, even the samples. It’s a different approach, something we never did before. Another goal was to create songs with a lot facts, making every part of the song louder.

Aurello : We want to focus on the fondations of the song. It’s much expensible. If we had three songs unfinished, we cut them and put them together to create one song. We still did that but less of it.

Wayne : This record was influenced by how we play live. There is a progression, with backwards textures. Calla experiments and we are more and more a live band. We have the oportunity to tour intensively.

The three of us were playing in previous bands so we play together easily.

Aurello : And write together easily.

Pete : For lots of bands, the fourth album comes as a live album and it’s more sophisticated. So we worked this way, in the studio.

Are you hard working your lyrics ?

Aurello : Oh yes ! All the time, every day. Always sticking about it, even more when I’m working on a record. Constantly. When I’m walking down the streets in NYC, anyway, constantly thinking about it. Certain situations, things I heard or personal experiences I’m going through. It’s a pretty long process. Lot of times, I have two or three versions of a song before I start cuting it down to put it on a record. It depends of the song.

When I’m writing, I use a stripped version of the song or get the main line together. When I have the vocals melody, I start to put it into my head immediatly and base everything on this line. So you figure out what I want to say but words are just coming out. Sometime you’re aware for your sayings, thinking about very specific things, personal experiences, but it just comes down for results sometimes.

Living in NYC is very important for your art ?

Aurello : I think so personaly.

Pete : Yes.

What is the influence of NYC on Calla ?

Pete : NYC is like any other city in the USA It’s a world city town, not national. It’s amazing to see all ehese people concentrating in a so small area. In contradiction, it’s very difficult to survive : it’s very expensive. You have to keep on your toes. But I think it’s a sense of pride to be a musician in this town. I love this city.

Aurello : You are exposed to a large audience. Writers, painters, photographers. Anything is exposed in art, everything is interesting. As Pete said, there are a lot of people successful and lots are not. They keep on their toes. Wayne is from Texas, you wanna ask to him that question ! (laughs)

Wayne : I mean it’s compact. Your relationships... Lots of times I’ve been frustrated.

Aurello : It’s a love / hate relationships. But that keeps you very emotional, very...

Wayne : Angry !

Aurello : Yeah, angry, in every sense of the word. You’re struggling and that makes you work hard. If I live in Texas again or anywhere else, I will live in a different style.

Wayne : Everywhere you live in the world will affect what you do artisticaly.

Aurello : It’s cause’n’effects.

Wayne : I moved to NYC. It opened my eyes to things I’ve never interesting before. Moving in NYC made us play in a different way.

What remains from your work with Michael Gira ?

Aurello : We still talk together, by email or chat.

Pete : We worked with different producers, they all have their vision of things about singing and guitars.

Aurello : We learned a lot from Michael. We worked without any experience recording in a studio, we were doing everything on a 4-track and on a computer. In the studio, we were definitely intimidated. When we went, with Michael there, he changed the way we looked that things, how we approach everything. We learned a lot from him. We continue talking and listening his stuff.

Tonight, what will be your setlist ? Your new lp is very different from the others.

Pete : We will play songs from "Televise" but concentrating on "Collisions".

Aurello : It was a hard thing to work. We tried to pull up songs from every record but sometimes when we do something from the first a lot of times it doesn’t quite fit into the set. So we tried to bound to songs from "Televise". As Pete said we’re supporting this record, so there is a lot of songs from "Collisions".

What are your plans for the next months ?

Aurello : We were in Europe for a month and we go down for a Texas festival. After that it’s an open air. We want to start recording the next record yet. Because it was to long to make "Collisions" after "Televise". Because we did not have a label, it takes three years for this stuff to come out. We want to record the next pretty quickly.

Pete : We will back for festivals in august.

Last question : can you sum up Calla in three words ?

Aurello : Wayne, Aurello and Pete ! No... The word’s coming to my head first because of reviews I read is “prouding”.

Wayne : "Confused". In the positive sense. Like the Velvet Underground with the different styles in it. Yes, "confused" in the best possible way.

Pete : "Hopeful". (general laughs)

Thanks, guys, for your time and your great show in Paris.