Las Kellies – The Collapse Board interview
by Brigette Adair Herron
When I had the extreme good fortune to visit Buenos Aires, Argentina back in 2004, Las Kellies did not yet exist. I’m not sure what each individual member was doing around that time, but perhaps we crossed one another’s paths on the subway system. Or maybe we ate across from one another in a restaurant. Maybe they were friends with the girl who invited me over to watch La Noche De Los Lapices, a movie based on the true story of students who were abducted and murdered by the Argentinian government in the 60s for conducting protests at their school. Either way, I have kicked myself for not having the guts to drop all of my plans and just stay put. If I had waited even one year later I could have been dancing to Las Kellies a long time ago. At the very least it would have improved my ability to speak Spanish in the following interview with them. Las Kellies released an album on Fire Records in the UK on 6 June (out on 5 July in North America). They are currently on tour in Europe and the UK through the end of July. This is what they had to say about being a band, daydreaming, and touring. In the spirit of the bilingual music of Las Kellies, the interview was conducted in English and Spanish.
Te gustaria introducir mismos?
Por supuesto. Somos las Kellies, de Buenos Aires, Argentina, el pais del dulce de leche, Che Guevara, Maradona y Messi, y mas importante Gilda.
Puede decirme algunos de los influencias no musicales que han influido en su musica?
Betty’s dog Cuchufo, Scotch Pancakes and whisky, fever, the wonderful weather in Argentina.
Rather than asking what kinds of music people like, I find it is more important to find out why people like what they do. I enjoyed your cover of ESG’s ‘Erase You’. What is it that you like about ESG? And why did you choose to cover this song?
We love ESG because they make our arses shake with their groovy minimal rhythm and no-shit vocals. We chose ‘Erase You’ because we use that phrase in Argentina to address lots of things.
I saw some footage of one of your performances in Argentina where it appeared everyone in the audience was dancing. On tour have you noticed if people dance more or less in certain places?
Oh yeah! In Exeter nobody danced, but we made up for that in Leeds and Leipzig and London and lots of other places where there was lots of head and hip moving. Apparently we made the French dance, but we’ve discovered that alcohol really helps our audiences to feel the beat, so the Germans were really into it.
Lo que gusta de musica?
This question is a bit confusing, but we can answer it our way. Cuando agarramos nuestros instrumentos todo tipo de cosas pasan, hasta gente en Alemania nos quiere llevar de gira. Music is everywhere. Es la manera que encontramos para entender el mundo y relacionarnos con el.
Que es lo que detestan de musica?
Bad music.
I know of a very talented musician in my hometown who only has three records in her collection: Brian Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets, a field recording of whale songs and a Syd Barrett album. Pretend you are her … what are the only three records in your collection?
Humpe Humpe, The Slits’ Cut, Althea And Donna. [Oh my God! Humpe Humpe! I’ve never heard of them before. How great are they? – Ed]
Visite Buenos Aires durante unas meses en el otono de 2004. Sigue siendo uno de mis lugares favorites en el mundo. Lo he echado en el interin? (Su formacion como banda, para empezar!)
This question we dont understand, sorri.
Touring can leave a lot of time for daydreaming. What do you daydream about when you are traveling to and from shows?
Buy a house in Uruguay by the beach with goats and ducks and growing tomatoes and buying really nice shoes.
They ended our correspondence by saying,
Thank you so much. Come back to Buenos Aires soon!!!!!! BESOS LAS KELLIES
I would be there in a second if I could.
