Das belgische Duo SX im Interview
Das belgische Duo SX im Interview
Mit ihrer Ende März veröffentlichten EP „Alpha“ hat das belgische Elektropopduo SX mächtig Staub aufgewirbelt. Wir zeigen das Video zur neuen Single „Shimona“ und stellen die beiden im O-Ton-Interview vor.
Were you guys sad when David Bowie died?
Stefanie Callebaut: Oh yeah..We were actually on our way to the airport or something, like really early in the morning on the highway and it was about 7:30am in the morning..
Benjamin Desmet: We turned on the radio..
Stefanie Callebaut: And we were like in a really good mood and then all of a sudden..
Benjamin Desmet: We had goosebumps all over!
Stefanie Callebaut: Yes, it was crazy. And then bit by bit we realized that he just released his new stuff and how connected everything was, it was really crazy. We had goosebumps all day. Like all week I think.
Benjamin Desmet: It was like a moment where you realize you’re alive!
Did you have a favorite song?
Benjamin Desmet: Oh so many… I really liked his new album. I really like his imagination and his Alter Ego Ziggy Stardust.
Srefanie Callebaut: He did so many different things, it’s like asking your favourite song from Michael Jackson..there’s not really a favourite, all of them are good somehow…
Would you mind briefly sharing with us what you use to record your music with?
Benjamin Desmet: With Abbleton. Mostly in the studio but also with the recorder of field recordings, we try to mix hard sounds, hard nature sounds or even more ambient sounds.
Do you spend more time on the recording process or on writing lyrics?
Stefanie Callebaut: We are writing most of the time inside the studio, so the recording and producing is like one big building. It is more like everything is floating at the same time.
Benjamin Desmet: It’s all in one, yes!
Stefanie Callebaut: Even when we’re writing we’re already working on production, because we are really into sample sounds and stuff so you’re already producing your sounds while writing. Most of the time everything happens already in the studio.
Benjamin Desmet: I guess we work a little bit like, i guess a lot of artists work that way, like with the stream of conciousness, just let it flow and then maybe conceptualize afterwards. It works really great when you just do and then you conceptualize.
I really enjoy your video „Hurts“! Was it really shot in the Amazon forests?
Stefanie Callebaut: Yes! We went to Surinam and shot three videos over there. We went with three people, me, Benjamin and Harvy, a guy we work with on our clothes and stuff and we packed all this together and went to the Amazons, deep down the jungle! It was a crazy ride…
Benjamin Desmet: It had a lot to do with the lyrics of the song, it’s about the time after singularity, the moment where technology takes over human consciousness. We are feeling this happening and that we are moving towards that. And the video we did plays after that. We survived it, back in nature, back in the jungle.
Stefanie Callebaut: The song is more like a beautiful gospel message we try to send out, like, everything is gonna be ok, nature is gonna win and it’s gonna be wild!
Benjamin Desmet: … and it’s not bad that sometimes it hurts, to go through the process.
Stefanie Callebaut: And we look back at the moment where we’re heading to right now, we’re like somewhere in the future, where technology takes so much space and people are losing their minds in a way. And we look back and want to say: Ok, it hurts, it did hurt to rebound, but we’re ok now, we’re back in nature. So we really needed to go to the wild Amazon jungle to really feel your nature and to feel that there is still something raw.
Benjamin Desmet: We did a car ride for like four hours and then an eight hour boat ride down the jungle in a very little boat!
Do you have a strong connection to nature, you enjoy being in nature?
Stefanie Callebaut: Yes! I think we enjoyed the contrast..
Benjamin Desmet: Yeah, because when we were on the boat we lost the connection of being a european, like some fake identity is surrounding us and it was like: oh, what am I?
Stefanie Callebaut: I think we are just really looking for contrasts, like our group name SX, the S is really soft and sensual, nostalgic; and the X is really abstract and a bit mysterious. We put the contrasts together. That’s what we’re doing in our music, in our clothes, in everything..
Benjamin Desmet: We like to keep it in the roots and reality.
Why do you guys call yourself SX? What’s the story behind it?
Stefanie Callebaut: It’s something visual, like the soft and abstract, and then you put them together, it’s like a tension you create and we look for this tension in our music, too.
Benjamin Desmet: It also resembles how Stephanie dances on stage, she can be really sensual but also very hard.
What are the three basic things that should be in a catering rider?
Stefanie Callebaut: I think it’s water, fruit and nuts, really healthy stuff. Keeps you going when you’re on tour. We are like really easy going.
If you could recompose the soundtrack for Charlie Chaplin’s „The Kid“ – what kind of music would it be?
Stefanie Callebaut: I guess it will be like exactly what we do, we would use our own vibes.
Benjamin Desmet: Yes, that’s a good answer…
Stefanie Callebaut: It would be challenging, though.. Charlie Chaplin…
„I still have the dream I go to school, or to my job or on stage without my clothes“
Do you have favourite german electronic music artist?
Benjamin Desmet: I really like your techno-scene, can’t pick a favourite! I really like the straight forward techno and the german style of techno. My brother is our co-producer and he mixed our records, he releases sometimes on a german label and i really like the sounds.
Have you been to Berghain before?
Stefanie Callebaut: No, we haven’t been there. We played twice here before, one time in Astra Berlin and the other gig was in Kreuzberg, a few years ago. Everyone we’re telling we play there is like: wow! So we’re sure it must be really legendary.
Benjamin Desmet: Isn’t it the nightclub who has big restrictions on who comes in?
Yes!
Benjamin Desmet: My dad once went in. He fooled the doorman and said my son is having a gig here, so he was partying in Berghain, that was cool!
You still buy records?
Stefanie Callebaut: We had a phase where we bought every Vinyl we like, now we try to select, every year we select in our minds, our favourite artists from the year and buy those records and only those records!
Benjamin Desmet: Its more like: I really like that one, let’s get that one!
Do you have a reoccuring dream or nightmare?
Benjamin Desmet: I still have the dream I go to school, to my job or on stage without my clothes. But last time i didn’t really mind, when I was younger i was really frightened, but now i am more fine with it. The nightmare became more of a reoccuring dream.
Stefanie Callebaut: When I was a bit younger every dream I had ended with the same vision: I was a mole, the animal which lives in the ground. I was that animal and every dream ended up the same way: i was rolling myself together and then i role off the stairs.
I had it for years and years, always with this ending. Now I don’t have that anymore, i am not the mole anymore!
You have a favourite quote or saying?
Stefanie Callebaut: Everything’s gonna be alright! It’s really simple, like couldn’t be more simple, but it’s very positive and i think everyone should keep this little positive reminders inside.
