Brains: Keeps on Singing in English

Culture

Brains, a group of young Hungarian men playing electronic music, keeps on writing songs in English. They say English fits best to the style they represent and their songs would sound funny in Hungarian. Brains was interviewed at Campus Festival, Debrecen:

–          The band was founded in 1994, since then the musical genre you represent is constantly changing. You have already been a hardcore, then a funk-rock band, you also have had wind instruments in you songs and now you are considered as a drum and bass band. Can we consider this a stable genre now?

–          Norbert Varga (Jimbo): We have not made an agreement in terms of musical genres, and we won’t do that in the future either, we just go ahead. Just as he modern electronic musical styles develop, we also develop with them, we follow trends, and we bring in more and more new ideas. Our next album will be a bit different is style again, it won’t be the same as the previous ones. We are gradually leaving out the old songs at concerts as well. We are categorized as a d’n’b band, but it is way too oversimplified to say as many other genres appear in our music, we are not playing only d’n’b. I’d prefer to say that we combine a mixture of electronic and non electronic music in our songs.

–          Many Hungarian musicians say that a Hungarian band should play in Hungarian, as this is the only way it can be authentic, and that the audience expects this. Despite this, you sing in English. For what reason?

–          Levente Lukacs: In the early 2000s, there was a trend in the Hungarian pop music life that most bands, even those who had played before also in English or only in English, switched to Hungarian. Back then, it was an expectation or the prevailing notion that Hungarian bands should perform in Hungarian. Nowadays we are often asked why we sing in English. On the one hand we belong to another generation for whom authenticity and quality does not depend on language. On the other hand, this musical style requires English, in this genre, English is inevitable, so it goes without saying that we use English too. Our songs would sound really funny, if we sang them in Hungarian. The audience would be perplexed if we did that. Also, English is what fits into our singer’s profile, but of course, “just for fun” we perform some Hungarian songs as well to enrich our program.

–          So you sing in English. Does it mean that you are one-step away from starting and international career? Have you ever thought about this?

–          Levente Lukács: In theory, there is a possibility for it, but in practice, we are way too busy at here, at home to start an international expansion. Of course, we could go to some foreign clubs to show ourselves, but we are concentrating on our career in Hungary. Thanks God we have a lot of gigs, we are hardly able to go everywhere we are invited, and we are very happy for this. We are present at all major festivals, the band is going well, so we cannot complain. If we wanted to meet the requirements abroad as well, and achieve success, then we should find a foreign agency and label, who support us and help us get in clubs that fits our style. This is a long process with staying, playing and promoting abroad a lot. For this, we would have to cancel home tours. Our new album is soon to come out and we hope that it will be on demand, so we don’t feel we should go abroad. Of course, we don’t reject the possibility completely. If we got a good offer, then we could built the foreign career upon it, so we would definitely accept that. However, we are not consciously searching for these possibilities. Otherwise, there are a lot of Hungarian DJs that are successful abroad, but are known in Hungary only by professionals. To sum it up, we focus on Hungary.

–          When the concert at Campus Festival started there were only a few people lingering around the stage, but by the end a huge crowd roared. To this, the early starting time of the concert contributed a lot. What makes an open-air concert good?

–          Norbert Varga (Jimbo): This depends on many factors. In case of open-air concerts starting time is crucial. As you could see, now we had a late afternoon- early night starting time, it was not even darkening. We prefer playing in dark as we have a lot of light effects on stage and videos displayed on the screen, which by day don’t have the same effect as by night. We prepared a show tailored to the main stage, there are many complementary show elements, it is not just about music. For one of our open-air shows at Park, Budapest we brought even fireworks. These design elements are closely related to our music, so we require darkness. Early start can be problematic also because there are not many people out at the festival. 10 minutes before this in Debrecen we saw 30 people at the stage. We felt down for this and we thought that we would be playing only for these people, but by the end we could hardly believe that it developed into such a great party. We don’t even know where all these people came. Maybe out of nothing… So, despite the early start the concert was very good and in this the audience had a major role.

–          Do you prefer open-air parties or club concerts?

–          Norbert Varga (Jimbo): If we consider this concert in Debrecen, one vote would go for open-air, because it is impossible to bring this many people into a club, maybe into a great hall it is… So more people can come to an open-air concert, but it cannot be said that we prefer it to club concerts. The success of a concert depends on the audience and it is self-reinforcing process, because if they enjoy the concert then we also enjoy it, which induces the great atmosphere, and it gets higher and higher. If everything works right the concert results in an elevated mood, just like it was here in Campus Festival. But if the audience doesn’t enjoy it and doesn’t take the hint, then  the end won’t be good neither.

–          Levente Lukács: It depends on what factors we take into consideration. Both open-air and club concerts have advantages. We do great concerts in PECSA (Petőfi Hall, Budapest), but that is a huge hall, so it is almost like playing open-air. In this summer heat we don’t like going to clubs, but from autumn we do. Playing in clubs have a special atmosphere, and sometimes the concerts sounds better there. We go to clubs outside Budapest, which seems almost like a time-travelling, in respect to these great festivals. However, at these small clubs we get closer to the audience, which has another kind of atmosphere. On the other side, we cannot give such a great concert in a small club than at a festival. There are a lot of conditions in a club, like the acoustics of the room. But sometimes it happens that with 200 people in from of the stage there is such a great energy that the club almost explodes. But all in all, it is a great experience to play at the main stage, where thousands of people move.

–          What are your plans for the next months?

Norbert Varga (Jimbo): a video for “Budapest Tour” is going to be ready within weeks. We are doing video clips too, we have just finished the clip for “We Are One”, that features Sian Evans, singer of Kosheen. We had a concert together in Park, and we captured some of the moments of this, for example when she arrives or enters to studio, etc.The clip is made of these moments. In autumn, we are going to make a video for “Your Desire”, but we are planning a new album for that time too. There is a remix album in the making now. Hungarian and foreign (Spanish) DJs are involved in this work, an in the autumn we are coming with other bands again to Debrecen.

interviewer: Kenyeres Attila

foto: https://www.facebook.com/BRAINSBAND

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