Short interview with Buvette from Switzerland/​Mexico

Shortly about Buvette: 26-​year old guy, who stud­ied pho­to­graphy, for ten years played in vari­ous bands, appre­ci­ates cumbia, Brazilian and African music. He grew up in Swiss Alps, but — sur­prise! — hates Schlaggers, and prob­ably would like to col­lab­or­ate with Jay-​Z.

Your sound is inter­est­ing, it is quite multi-​layered, yet man­ages to stay pretty light, easy to listen. How do you cre­ate your music, what do you use for that — most pro­gram­ming, samples, instru­ments? How does the cre­ation pro­cess go?

I record all the sample and the sounds myself with some key­boards, gui­tars, drum-​machines. Everything starts with a loop. Then all the lay­ers nat­ur­ally come above it. It can be vocals or vari­ous other sounds. When I am play­ing live, I launch all these sounds myself and put effects on it. I add some synths and my voice. The lyr­ics are very import­ant to me.

What are your lyr­ics about? Do you have the main idea, which you want express through your music?

The lyr­ics are about things that happened to me. It can be situ­ations, land­scapes, sen­sa­tions. I use a lot of meta­phors. It is a very visual way of express­ing feel­ings etc. There is no main theme, but I’d say that my recent travels exper­i­ences and family/​friends rela­tion­ships is the base of my lyrics.

What about col­lab­or­a­tions — do you usu­ally play live by your­self? Are visu­als import­ant part of your per­form­ances? With what artist you’d love to collaborate?

I usu­ally play live shows on my own. Sometimes I col­lab­or­ate with a friend called Kurz Welle (he appears on the song “Faith in Tigers” of the new album). Sometimes he plays live with me. I am actu­ally col­lab­or­at­ing with a visual artist called Thomas Koenig. He does some pro­jec­tions dur­ing the show. He will be with me in Vilnius. Visuals are inter­est­ing as they are a visual ver­sion of the music. They also con­sist in lay­ers etc… I’d love to col­lab­or­ate with….. uh good ques­tion. I don’t know the answer. Jay-​Z??

Thomas Koenig visualisations

Switzerland is prob­ably the best place to live in Europe because of good con­di­tions, gov­ern­ment sup­port for the artists and so on. What are the advant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages for the artist in such a warm-​house conditions?

You’re right. There is a lot of advant­ages and sup­port from the state. It is prob­ably easier to live as an artist there. But there are also dis­ad­vant­ages in that. For example, what makes the US/​Canada or UK scene very inter­est­ing is that it is harder for the artists. To play shows, to release records etc.. So they always have to be very good and cre­at­ive. Which is not always the case in Switzerland…

You’ve men­tioned about your con­nec­tion with Mexico, right? What are you doing there? How would you com­pare Swiss art world with Mexican one?

I am liv­ing in Mexico as I share my life with a Mexican woman. I am play­ing music here. I played vari­ous shows last year and had a very warm wel­come. The scene here is dif­fer­ent to Switzerland, where there are a lots of clubs and fest­ivals for example. In Mexico, most of the con­certs are “events”, sponsored by a brand etc… So the vibe is a bit dif­fer­ent. The aspect of a “scene” is less import­ant. But the audi­ence is very good. Very friendly and dances a lot.

Last year you have vis­ited Baltic states > Latvia for the first time, yes? What was the impres­sion? What kind of pro­gram have you pre­pared for us this time?

Last year, I’ve been invited to play at Zemlika fest­ival in Durbe, Latvia. I had a fant­astic time there. I felt some­thing very power­ful in the con­nec­tion with the people. They came from far away for the fest­ival. And they were very inter­ested and respect­ful for all the con­certs. I felt a real interest and exchange. Sometimes I feel that there are so many things hap­pen­ing that people are bored, for example in NYC, where I played vari­ous times. I met a lot of inter­est­ing people in Latvia and I am very excited to know Lithuania as well. I am com­ing with a new set-​up and a new album.

Tell us please about your label Rowboat, how has it star­ted, why? What are your labels’ eth­ics and what are the future plans.

The label has been cre­ated with my friend Pat.V to release our own music and music made by friends. We star­ted doing some home– made CD-​R com­pil­a­tions with our draw­ings. We were also organ­iz­ing shows for the bands, to sell the com­pil­a­tions. Later we star­ted press­ing vinyls and we have a dis­tri­bu­tion. There is not only one type of music in the record label. We are look­ing for things that sound per­sonal and authen­tic. There are vari­ous genres. Post-​punk, gar­age, elec­tron­ica, dub.

And what are Buvette’s plans for the future?

My plans are: com­ing to Vilnius and Latvia. Then some sum­mer fest­ivals in Switzerland and shows in other clubs. In September I might do a Latin American tour with my friend Feldermelder. I am actu­ally fin­ish­ing a 7″ for a Swiss record label called “Hula honeys”. And I will live in Mexico for longer.

Thanks a lot!

Buvette says, that everything is gonna be alright.

About author:

Ilona Klimaitytė
From the very beginning, Ilona had a passion for event management, writing and a cold glass of beer. These three forces fit perfectly together with interests in postindustrial music, anthropology and weird cinema. At the moment, she is finishing her cultural history and anthropology studies and is writing thesis on the subject of industrial elec... Read further >