The Bilinda Butchers Talk Dramatic Stories and Honoring My Bloody Valentine, May 21

The Bilinda Butchers Talk Cinematic Storytelling and Honoring My Bloody Valentine, May 21

The Beijingers | May 21, 2018 10:42 am | Add a comment | 1065 reads

The interplay and production between ideas taken from audio and visual elements are at the high tide, where music videos become cinematic masterpieces and realizing songs. Hailing from otherwise sunny San Francisco, The Bilinda Butchers have a knack for swooning, tragedy-infused tracks with an inflection of maudlin synths straight from Twin Peaks' Roadhouse.

Attracted to romance and the inherent sadness that sits in direct opposition to love, The Bilinda Butchers craft music suitable for both watching sunsets on the beach and heartbroken nights alone. The band is led by singer and guitarist Michal Kepsky, who we speak to below ahead of their May 21 Omni Space gig, with accompaniment from Lukas Untersteiner on bass and Adam Honingford on drums.

The Beijinger: We assume there is a story or a reason behind the name?
Michal Kepsky: We love My Bloody Valentine and love Bilinda Butcher so we wanted to honor them.

Your music is peppered with swaying instrumentals and faded vocals that can feel like closed-eye, love-filled dreams. Where do you look for inspiration? Is it music, books, places you travel to?
Film mostly. Wong Kar Wai is a big influence, his cinematic style and storytelling are dramatic in a way that we try to model our music around.

There are so many melancholic love stories communicated in your songs, is it just a story you adopt or does it come from your own personal history?
I’m drawn to dramatic and depressing stories. I feel most artistically fulfilled when I’m writing about my shortcomings in life and the things that make us all feel vulnerable and sentimental.

How does the process of music making work between you? Do you improvise together or does one of you lead the way?
I write most of our songs and mostly maintain the overall vision of how songs will sound in the end. I’m picky and like things to sound and feel a certain way. I’m sure Adam and Lukas think I’m hard to work with but I know what I want. I’ll usually present a demo version of a song to Lukas and he’ll produce it to the end, adding drums, sound design etc. Lately, we’ve been collaborating more and more, with writing lyrics and parts.

How do you feel your music has developed since your first releases back in 2011? Has it been a long journey to become what you are now or do you feel like you've stuck to the same message you discovered in the very beginning?
My goal is for each project to sound and feel different. As time goes on I try to push the sound farther and farther. Our first two EPs are pretty similar, but our first full-length record Heaven is a concept record about a woman who kills herself to follow her lover into the afterlife. We tried to make the sound more varied on Heaven. Our next record Night and Blur which we are currently working on is much more electronic and dance music oriented. Heavily influenced by Everything But The Girl’s Temperamental and Walking Wounded.

You played in Hong Kong before, is it your first time in mainland China? What are your expectations or anticipations?
Our first tour in China with yeRecords was a blast. A dream come true. Our fans are amazing and dedicated, we’re not really sure how to handle it. We’re kind of shy. We’re really excited to be back and play our first festivals in Chengdu and Shanghai. We’re really excited to finally see some of our fans again.