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Vanaprasta Interview
Liisten: First things first, you guys are unsigned, are you actively looking for a label or are you happy without one?
Vanaprasta: We're definitely happy to self release and get this music to people who've been waiting and expecting it from us. We'd love to sign with someone who's passionate about our sound and direction, someone who can help bring our music to as many ears as possible while allowing us to continue to have the creative freedom we have.
L: 'Healthy Geometry' has a lot of first takes and minimal overdubs, can you talk a little a bout the recording process?
V: For every track, excluding Nine Equals Nine, we'd all go into the live room at Sound Factory and track live as a band, sometimes with a click, sometimes without, depending on the song and the vibe. Dave Schiffman, our producer, was really the first guy who was able to successfully capture the sonic depth, bigness, and excitement from our live show and put it on record. There's something to be said about a lot of those live takes, playing with everyone else in a room, that you just can't duplicate when you're doing multiple takes after the fact by yourself. Sometimes you have to re-track a part or two, because the feel and performance of the overall live take would be killer, but maybe there's a guitar flub here and there. We'd still be able to keep that initial core of the original live take, but fine tune the details. That attention to detail helps a lot on the production side of things.
L: Which songs are you especially proud of?
V: Nine Equals Nine stands out because it's not only the last song we wrote for the album, but also one we recorded in a completely different way. It was something that came together moreso in the studio than in our rehearsal room. Dave pushed us to treat it as a more electronic song, since it is, so we recorded it one by one, part by part, really honing in on each section of the song from start to finish. It's probably my current favorite track on the album, too. I just love the way it sets the tone for the rest of the album, while being something entirely different at the same time.
L: What music are you currently listening to?
V: WU LYF's album might be my favorite record this year. Lately I've also been listening to the new Portugal. The Man, M83, a ton of stuff really. I recently discovered an EP by this guy from Portland, the band's called Port St. Willow. Has an Antlers vibe, really good stuff. We're 90s kids so we've all been admiitedly listening to the new Blink-182 album quite a bit, not gonna lie. I'll listen to that and then I'll throw on something like the James Blake record. We're all over the place.
L: Any other unsigned bands you'd like to give a shout out to?
V: Our residency at the Satellite this month is filled with awesome unsigned acts like Voxhaul Broadcast, Chasing Kings, Hands, Incan Abraham, and Twilight Sleep. We're really happy to be a part of such a burgeoning LA music community.
L: What's up with the band name?
V: Its origin comes from a Sanskrit word meaning "forest dweller," and it also represents a stage of life in Hinduism where you give up all your material possessions. Its etymology is pretty interesting when you look into it.