Saeta - Waiting for hope

They take their name from an ancient Andalusian folk song that calls for devotion and penance during the Stations of the Cross. With a name so weighty, Saeta - pampered by the press (the "Seattle Times" adores them) and esteemed by top producers - are making a stop in Italy to promote their latest work, and agreed to chat with us for a bit

You've been on tour for several weeks now. Are you tired?

Lesile: No, we're sad!

Sad?! Why are you sad?

Lesli: Because the tour is about to end!

Come on, though? Aren't you dying to get home, feed the cat, get back to paying the bills?

Lesli's eyes widen while her bandmates and I, seeing her surprised face, burst out laughing.

Lesli: Noo! No! No! No!

Every show we've played has gone great, the audience has welcomed us really warmly, and we're having a blast.

It's a very different experience from the tours we do in the United States.

Bob: We've had such a good time that sometimes it feels like we've died and ended up in musicians' heaven. We never want to go home.

(we laugh)

Fair enough. Saeta, though... your songs don't actually have anything to do with the saeta itself.

Matt: I loved that Miles Davis track. I was really struck by the description of the saeta in the album's liner notes, and I thought what we do was similar, emotionally speaking, to the saeta.

Are you religious?

Lesli: Nnno...

Matt: I believe in a higher power. I had a Catholic upbringing, and I guess I've held on to some traces of those teachings.

Still, I think there's a spirituality to our music: some songs could be considered genuine prayers - obviously not in a deeply religious sense, but they speak of hope.

Right, hope: “ We Are Waiting All For Hope “. What kind of hope are we all waiting for? Matt: A while back, before America bombed Iraq, I heard an interview on the radio with an Iraqi diplomat who, at one point, said: “We are all waiting for hope,” and it was a phrase I liked immediately. I connected it right away to my lyrics: there are so many people in the world who feel sad and depressed, but we all need a bit of hope, and that's the concept I try to express in my songs: there's always something better out there worth noticing.

Going back to the record, from what I understand “We Are Waiting All for Hope” came out in 2004, then it was reissued the following year. What happened?

Lesli: It was released by our label, Fish The Cat Records, in 2004, but the various distributors only came on board afterward, so we had to reissue the record.

Ghost (who distribute them in Italy, ed.) had actually put in a request for our third record, and right around that time “We Are Waiting All For Hope” was coming out, so we offered them that one instead.

For your second and third records you worked with Kramer (who had already produced Daniel Johnston , Galaxie 500 , Urge Overkill, Pussy Galore), while for this one you worked with Steve Albini (who had already produced PJ Harvey , Nirvana , Uzeda). How did you choose and contact them? I'm especially curious about Albini — how did you end up picking such a “noisy” producer for such a “sweet” record?

Lesli: For our first record we worked with Windy & Carl, and with the second one we wanted to try something new, so we thought of Kramer because he'd produced so many records we loved, spanning all kinds of genres. He'd also produced Low, a band we're often compared to.

What surprised us about Steve Albini was how approachable he was: we simply got in touch and told him we'd love to work with him, and he turned out to be completely accessible. You know, it really was a surprise, because we were convinced he'd be a jerk, but instead it was wonderful working with him: he's a phenomenal producer, a phenomenal person, and a phenomenal host who welcomed us into his home and treated us with a lot of respect — a lot of respect for us both as musicians and as guests. Recording with him was a genuinely relaxing experience.

We recorded and mixed the record in just three days, and he worked without stopping for a second…

Bob: He drank coffee and smoked cigarettes non-stop.

You recorded and mixed the whole record… in three days?! You must have had a very good reason to move that fast!

Lesli: Money.

Right, I was actually going to ask if Steve Albini charged a lot of money.

Matt: Let's just say it was a reasonable price.

Lesli: It was reasonable also because the price covered both him and the studio, whereas with other studios you get separate bills for the studio, the producer... With him it was an “all-inclusive package,” food and drinks included!

All things considered, it was probably even more cost-effective working with Steve than with other producers. Kramer included.

I imagine you rehearsed an awful lot before going into the studio, so much that you were already sick of the record before even recording it.

Matt: Definitely, yes, we rehearsed a huge amount.

Is that why there are two covers on the record? (“Grand Canyon” by Magnetic Fields and “Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me” by the Smiths)

Lesli: No! The reason we chose those two covers is that we'd played them live so many times, and every time we performed them they got better and better, to the point that people started asking us when we were going to record them. In the end it just felt natural to include them on the album. They're our own interpretations.

The first time I got your album in my hands and read “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me,” I thought to myself: “Well, sure, easy to cover the greatest song ever written!”

(we laugh)

Was it easy to cover such an important song?

Lesli (very confidently): Yes.

Weren't you worried about making a mess of it, making some mistake, or about how the average listener would react?

Matt: No.

Lesli: In Seattle there was a Smiths tribute night organized, and we were asked to take part by performing one of their songs. As soon as we started rehearsing our version of it, I had no doubt that I wanted to play it in front of an audience.

You were born and raised in Detroit, then you moved to Seattle in 1998. Being terribly European myself, Seattle strikes me as a strange choice for a band like yours: the first things that come to mind when I think of Seattle are: Queensryche, grunge, and the tower from which Rocky and Bullwinkle drop coins to kill passersby…

(we laugh)

Lesli: I moved to Seattle simply to get away from Detroit, and Seattle is about as far from Detroit as you can get. It's a beautiful city, very relaxing, and the music scene there is excellent, so it was the best choice for exploring a new sound. That's what I wanted.

A year later, Matt joined me there, and we became convinced that Seattle was the perfect place, including for the musical project we were working on.

The moment we met Bob, we knew the band was complete.

It wasn't a matter of the “music scene” so much as the “influence” the city had on us, of feelings we could never have experienced anywhere else.

We talked earlier about the title, but what about the cover?

Bob: That was a period when I was taking a ton of photographs and doing a lot of video art.

One day, in Seattle, I was in a friend's studio and I was going down in this unsettling open elevator, and out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of something in a dark corner. I took the picture without being sure what it was: I had to go home and develop it to actually understand what I'd photographed, since it must have been lit by the flash. I was really struck by the way the wood of the chair sat against the iron of the walls.

I showed it to Matt and he immediately picked up on this feeling of solitude.

Lesli: I think it also works well with the title: that empty chair really does seem to be waiting for something.

Interesting. Although it has to be said the booklet leaves a lot to be desired...

Lesli: That was also a matter of money (smiles)

Bob: But you know this is the first time we've ever published the lyrics? Am I right?

Matt: Yes, it's the first time. You know, I've always loved New Order's booklets (smiles), where everything is left to the imagination.

Bob: The photos, on the other hand, were taken in the studio: we thought it made sense to be portrayed during the recording sessions.

Okay, this might be a slightly silly or disrespectful question, but I'll ask it anyway because I'm curious: what's your opinion – as outsiders – of Italian music?

Lesli: To be honest I didn't have a specific one, but I was very curious to have this experience because I really didn't know what to expect (opening the Saeta's Italian shows was the thoroughly Italian Black Eyed Dog, followed by a performance from Marco Parente). I was hoping we'd end up playing with bands that had a sound similar to ours.

The shows we played together with Black Eyed Dog went really well and our styles complement each other. In fact, on the last few nights we asked them to play a song together with us. It was a very instinctive idea.

Right now we have an excellent impression of Italian music.

Last question. You know that if you type www.sae…

(sheer delirium of screams and laughter)

Saeta: The porn site!

Bob: We love it.

Lesli: Yeah, we think it's a good site.

Do you think the young lady gets a spike in traffic every time you release a record?

Lesli: I think so, I've always thought that! I'm convinced of it. Yes.

Bob: I really hope so! It's kind of like giving people an alternative to our music, and we wonder what happens...

Jail, Legnano (Milan), May 12, 2006

Ride the wave of great music

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