Indy.com: How did you guys first hook up with Steve Albini?

Valina: We first met at a show that we played with Shellac in Germany in 2001. At this time we were already working on the songs for our second long player “Vagabond” and needed to make a decision where to record it. Steve was obviously on the top of our list. No, wait! That sounds pretentious. There was no list. At that time it was simply a desire to once make a record with him…for two simple reasons: We admired the way he recorded some bands that we really used to like (Big´N, Dazzling Killmen, Oxbow, The Jesus Lizard, Don Cab etc.) And we always liked his attitude.

When we were teenagers and curious about this whole music world, he was a great inspiration for us – for our later band politics and “our way to be a band“ in general. I think you can learn from old sailors to know the ropes. Then you have to get on your own course anyway. And there were definitely some old pirates in our lives that we could learn from, Steve was one of them, I guess. So after that gig in Germany I just called Steve and asked if he would like to do a record with us. He said yes and we made appointments. Ship shape and Bristol fashion.

Indy.com: What did he add to the sound that already was not present?

Valina: Well, I guess it´s already common knowledge that Steve isn´t the “big producer” kind of guy. He records the band the way it naturally sounds, not the way HE wants the band to sound. And if you book a session with Steve you already know that and don´t expect any magical things to happen. So he didn´t really add anything to our sound, he just did a brilliant and professional job to capture the band the way it is. Plus, he keeps track of all the other things that come with making a record in a studio. For instance he helps the band with not getting lost in all the decisions that have to be made during a long recording day.

This and the fact that he is a very friendly, intelligent and funny person made it very easy and comfortable for us to work with him again. Valina does not make a record every year. (There were 5 years in between “Vagabond” and “a tempo!”) So it´s always a special thing for us. And therefore it´s also important for us to spend a good time in the studio and have an engineer to work with who we can trust and who doesn´t fuck around with the ideas that we have developed over a long period.

Indy.com: There seems to be such a strong musical vision for what you were aiming for on A Tempo! How much pre-planning was there in terms of layers and instrumentation?

Valina: I wouldn´t say there was one big vision, but rather three people who were willing to work on this record and on their creative ideas for many many hours. For sure there weren´t so many strong ideas concerning the technical side of music. In fact, we always have to laugh when people write about us as a very technical band. The truth is, me and Husbert Huber have no idea about the typical rules of music at all, because we´re 100% autodidact. We have no clue about standard harmony rules, we don´t know anything about songwriting, we sometimes have different ways to count and we have a singer (that is me) who hasn´t just an awful voice but a limited vocal range too. But we´re fine with this situation, because we know very well that this brings other possibilities into the process.

This process usually starts with an idea. Then we start to experiment on this idea. Then we try to make things reproducible for us, because we are not aiming to present an experiment to our audience, but rather have a “song” in the end; then we play the different parts over and over again, trying to find out what we like or not; make decisions; sooner or later we start on the main arrangement for the song…and find out about new aspects or find out that we just totally failed. Sometimes this process really feels like hunting a phantom. We´re close at one point, we can nearly touch it – and then we lose it again. Our label picked a song for their website; I guess this one is all about failing and trying it again. It takes time – one and a half years for “a tempo! a tempo!”

Indy.com: How did you guys end up signing with Joyful Noise?

Valina: Usually we are touring a lot during the year. We´re doing this because it´s obviously great fun to be on the road and to play live. But we are also doing it because we wanna leave our hometown, look left and right and get to know new people and make new friends. We don´t see some of these friends for years, but we always imagine that we could call them in ten years – when even the band might have disappeared – and go for a cup of coffee around the corner.

Karl (from Joyful Noise) did a show for us in 2004. That´s when we first met. So I guess he told us then that he had a label, but we didn´t think about it any longer. When “a tempo” was released in 2008 on Trost Records in Europe, another friend of ours from Bloomington told us that Joyful Noise could be interested to put out the record in the U.S. We thought about it and agreed that Karl is not only a person we can trust but a man we´d like to have a coffee with in ten years.

Indy.com: Have you guys played Indianapolis before? Just wondering how a Midwestern crowd treats you guys?

Valina: Yes, we did. And when we did those two longer tours in the U.S., most of the shows were in the Midwest.

What can I say? We didn´t run into perverts, it didn´t rain pig-blood from heaven in Ohio, Chicago gave us a brief idea of what a home run is about and some people from the audience in Indiana invited us to break into a private swimming pool after the show. So I´d like to say: The crowd treated us well. We´re happy to be there soon again and please excuse my accent!

Valina will be having an album release show at Spin on May 15th, 2009 at 8 p.m.

Links:

http://www.myspace.com/valinamusic

http://joyfulnoiserecordings.com...

http://www.trost.at/valina