Pinkshinyultrablast - Interview

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 19 / 6 / 2015

intro

Anthony Strutt speaks to St. Petersburg shoegazing band Pinkshinyultrablast and recent Club AC30 signing at a gig in Leicester during their first visit to the UK

Pinkshinyultrablast are from St. Petersburg and features Lyubov on vocals, Igor on bass, Roman on guitar, Rustam on synths and Sergey on drums. They are the first Russian shoegazing band to tour the UK and spent May there. Their debut album, 'Everything Else Matters', which was released on British label Club AC30 in January, and has already sold out on vinyl and has already had three pressings. They have drawn critical comparisons with Lush and Ride, but live they are much more heavy and sound like a combination of My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins. Pennyblackmusic spoke to Roman and Igor at a show at The Scholar in Leicester. PB: First of all why the name? ROMAN: It was taken from what was a beloved album by Astrobrite. They had an album called 'Pinkshinyultrablast', and we listened to that album many times, and we decided two weeks before our first gig to take this name because we liked how it sounds. PB: You didn't have any problems using a name that already existed? ROMAN: The front guy in the band wrote to us and said, "I'm not against this, but please tell people where you got the name from." PB: Is there a shoegaze scene back in St. Petersburg or are you unique? ROMAN: We are not unique. It is quite a common thing. There has been quite a tendency amongst Russian musicians to start up shoegazing bands. A lot of bands say they play shoegaze, but they don't. We don't have a shoegaze scene as such though. PB: This is your first tour of the UK. Is it going well? ROMAN: Yeah, Terrific. PB: You are playing with another Club AC30 band, Flying Colours. Has it been a good mix? ROMAN: Yes. They really are lovely guys. It's cool to play with them. PB: Did Club AC30 find you or you find them? ROMAN: I knew them from MySpace days,and then I sent them a demo about a year and a half ago. And they said, "We know you guys. Send us some of your stuff." PB. Have you put out any releases in Russia? IGOR: We have no official releases in Russia. Club AC30 does the UK and manages all the internet sales, and we have different labels for Japan and America. PB: You have been compared to Lush and Ride. Would you say they are influences or do you just happen to sound like them? ROMAN: I don't know why everyone thinks we sound like them. Maybe it is because of the vocals. I have never really listened to them. IGOR: None of us were ever into Lush. ROMAN: I really liked 'Going Blank Again', Ride's second album, at one point but I can't listen to it anymore now though. PB: Are you pleased with the album, and the way it turned out or is there anything you would change about it? ROMAN: No,I don't think so. We just had to stop, because it took so much time. We just said, "We are okay with this." PB: Is the follow-up album written already? ROMAN: We have a lot of new songs, so after we tour we are going to start recording new material. We will spend the summer in Russia recording, and then we will have another tour in the UK and Europe in September, October and November. PB: Thank you.

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