http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/07/31116/
I'm Sure, the newest effort from La Jolla via Mexico City bedroom dreamer Twin Cabins (Nacho Cano), is the definitive soundtrack to star-crossed late adolescence.
While Cano’s earlier releases explored more introspective, ambient textures, I’m Sure finds footing with an infectious, beat-driven cross-section of chillwave, beach rock, and dream pop.
And, like a high school crush, it’s really like-likable.
Having been made available at name-your-price on Bandcamp just three weeks ago, I’m Sure and the boyish bravado that it asserts have already garnered much attention in bloglandia for its New Wave drum machines, guitars suspended in quixotic reverb, and hormonal lyrics that sound as if they’re sung from the pages of a diary.
But don't get the wrong impression.
At 20 years old, Cano and his notebook doodle confessions come off neither naive nor contrived.
Instead, I'm Sure harkens to memories of a distant summer day that may have never happened - forgotten snapshots of a freckle-framed smile - sun-bleached, faded, and curling around the edges.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zg00wsXLgo
The name Twin Cabins evokes some interesting images. Is there a story behind the name?
To be honest, it wasn’t anything life changing or significant it was just that some years ago I was trying to start a band with a friend and we called ourselves Turtle Island, named after my favorite Beach House song. He didn’t like it and in the end abandoned the project. Then one day I was at the Museum of Contemporary Art and I had a friend who was rearranging words on a piece of large paper. She put the words Twin Cabins together and I really liked the way that the two words sounded together so I decided to name my band that.
What instruments came into play on this album? Is that an 808 in there?
Haha, (I actually laughed when I read the 808 part) no I didn’t. I used an old Alesis SR 16 to make it sound super eighties. I mainly used really cheap instruments when I started making this album. An old Washburn with really bad pickups (hence the fuzzing in the background), because of that I relied heavily on my effects pedals. An RV-5, Line6 DL4 (Best), and a simple OD Pedal. I really wanted it to feel stripped down and somewhat raw but then I got a nice guitar and started polishing it up. A Taylor hollow body electric.
I'm Sure sounds like pure nostalgia wrapped in an album. What feelings are you reaching to evoke with this collection of songs?
I have this great admiration for girls and in particular my closest (girl) friends. I allow them into my life and I let them get close. Over time, like any other, I begin to romanticize what it would be like to be with this friend. I feel great frustration when these feelings arise because though I would like to indulge in my emotions, friendships always come first. So my music became an exploration at this frustration with a very particular kind of romance, one that didn’t exist. The songs became a narrative for a romance that would likely never happen. Yet the song allows me to feel that emotion as it is truly mine and somehow that seems like it is enough for me.
What themes do you see tying this album together?
Honestly, I think it isn’t just purely a sense of nostalgia but also fantasy. The reason I wanted to explore the 80’s vibes are because it was a time that I was never a part of. I can’t be nostalgic of encounters and years that I never really had. So if I wanted to be true to my romantic fantasies and pains, I wanted to conjure a theme of a nostalgia that could never be true.
What part of San Diego are you living in? How have San Diego and Mexico City influenced the music you write?
I lived in La Jolla after I came to Mexico City, on Mount Soledad actually. It was fascinating to go from a landlocked area, with a thick pollution, loud cars, and thousands of people to a very quiet suburban beach town. For many years it was like living a fantasy. There are days in which I take my bike from Mt. Soledad down to Pacific Beach or Ocean Beach and I remember where I came from. It makes the ocean all that more beautiful. I wanted that feeling and personal realization to be a part of my music.
Where does the surfy influence come from?
I guess the surfy influence comes from riding my bike near the beach. I gave surfing a shot when I first moved to the United States and I found great difficulty in it. I caught a couple of waves and shortly thereafter accepted that that was as good as it was going to get. I guess most of the influence comes from the sensations that the beach brings to me and not particularly what I do in it. Like my father once said, “I love the smell of the ocean, the sand at my toes, and the breeze on my skin. But I hate getting in the water.”
Is chillwave dead?
I wouldn’t know. I get classified as chillwave. But in truth, I’d like my music to be labeled as anyone would like to. I’ve been classified as dream pop and I think that is the one that I most agree with. Simply because dreams are everything my music is about.
What's next for Twin Cabins? Upcoming shows?
Sadly, I just moved to LA to go to school at CalARTS. I don’t have any plans as of now but to get as many people as possible to listen to I'm Sure. It’s free and it’s online, I want it to spread. As for shows, I don’t know, I have to find a backing band in the US, my band is stuck in Mexico and we probably won’t play another show until the winter time. Maybe I will do some shows in LA, who knows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7MlLjZG8GA
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/07/31116/
I'm Sure, the newest effort from La Jolla via Mexico City bedroom dreamer Twin Cabins (Nacho Cano), is the definitive soundtrack to star-crossed late adolescence.
While Cano’s earlier releases explored more introspective, ambient textures, I’m Sure finds footing with an infectious, beat-driven cross-section of chillwave, beach rock, and dream pop.
And, like a high school crush, it’s really like-likable.
Having been made available at name-your-price on Bandcamp just three weeks ago, I’m Sure and the boyish bravado that it asserts have already garnered much attention in bloglandia for its New Wave drum machines, guitars suspended in quixotic reverb, and hormonal lyrics that sound as if they’re sung from the pages of a diary.
But don't get the wrong impression.
At 20 years old, Cano and his notebook doodle confessions come off neither naive nor contrived.
Instead, I'm Sure harkens to memories of a distant summer day that may have never happened - forgotten snapshots of a freckle-framed smile - sun-bleached, faded, and curling around the edges.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zg00wsXLgo
The name Twin Cabins evokes some interesting images. Is there a story behind the name?
To be honest, it wasn’t anything life changing or significant it was just that some years ago I was trying to start a band with a friend and we called ourselves Turtle Island, named after my favorite Beach House song. He didn’t like it and in the end abandoned the project. Then one day I was at the Museum of Contemporary Art and I had a friend who was rearranging words on a piece of large paper. She put the words Twin Cabins together and I really liked the way that the two words sounded together so I decided to name my band that.
What instruments came into play on this album? Is that an 808 in there?
Haha, (I actually laughed when I read the 808 part) no I didn’t. I used an old Alesis SR 16 to make it sound super eighties. I mainly used really cheap instruments when I started making this album. An old Washburn with really bad pickups (hence the fuzzing in the background), because of that I relied heavily on my effects pedals. An RV-5, Line6 DL4 (Best), and a simple OD Pedal. I really wanted it to feel stripped down and somewhat raw but then I got a nice guitar and started polishing it up. A Taylor hollow body electric.
I'm Sure sounds like pure nostalgia wrapped in an album. What feelings are you reaching to evoke with this collection of songs?
I have this great admiration for girls and in particular my closest (girl) friends. I allow them into my life and I let them get close. Over time, like any other, I begin to romanticize what it would be like to be with this friend. I feel great frustration when these feelings arise because though I would like to indulge in my emotions, friendships always come first. So my music became an exploration at this frustration with a very particular kind of romance, one that didn’t exist. The songs became a narrative for a romance that would likely never happen. Yet the song allows me to feel that emotion as it is truly mine and somehow that seems like it is enough for me.
What themes do you see tying this album together?
Honestly, I think it isn’t just purely a sense of nostalgia but also fantasy. The reason I wanted to explore the 80’s vibes are because it was a time that I was never a part of. I can’t be nostalgic of encounters and years that I never really had. So if I wanted to be true to my romantic fantasies and pains, I wanted to conjure a theme of a nostalgia that could never be true.
What part of San Diego are you living in? How have San Diego and Mexico City influenced the music you write?
I lived in La Jolla after I came to Mexico City, on Mount Soledad actually. It was fascinating to go from a landlocked area, with a thick pollution, loud cars, and thousands of people to a very quiet suburban beach town. For many years it was like living a fantasy. There are days in which I take my bike from Mt. Soledad down to Pacific Beach or Ocean Beach and I remember where I came from. It makes the ocean all that more beautiful. I wanted that feeling and personal realization to be a part of my music.
Where does the surfy influence come from?
I guess the surfy influence comes from riding my bike near the beach. I gave surfing a shot when I first moved to the United States and I found great difficulty in it. I caught a couple of waves and shortly thereafter accepted that that was as good as it was going to get. I guess most of the influence comes from the sensations that the beach brings to me and not particularly what I do in it. Like my father once said, “I love the smell of the ocean, the sand at my toes, and the breeze on my skin. But I hate getting in the water.”
Is chillwave dead?
I wouldn’t know. I get classified as chillwave. But in truth, I’d like my music to be labeled as anyone would like to. I’ve been classified as dream pop and I think that is the one that I most agree with. Simply because dreams are everything my music is about.
What's next for Twin Cabins? Upcoming shows?
Sadly, I just moved to LA to go to school at CalARTS. I don’t have any plans as of now but to get as many people as possible to listen to I'm Sure. It’s free and it’s online, I want it to spread. As for shows, I don’t know, I have to find a backing band in the US, my band is stuck in Mexico and we probably won’t play another show until the winter time. Maybe I will do some shows in LA, who knows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7MlLjZG8GA