WHILE WALKING MUSIC
Happy Monday! Today we interview a band with a rather unusual name, While Walking. Not only do I love their sound, I love how the band came together, check out their unique style of emotional and instrumental rock.
The band came to life in 2018 and after 2 years crafting their sound released their self-titled debut album last month. The Barcelona based duo are Callum, who plays a (never-usually-seen-before), double-neck guitar & bass with a loop pedal, creating layers of rhythms and melodies and Ingrid, marking the pulse of the music from the drum kit.
The album was recorded at Articwave Studio in Barcelona by Ignasi Miranda who encapsulated the raw sound of how the band play together live.
Tell us a bit about yourselves.
We’d Love to be full-time rockstars but we have other professions that we are also passionate about.
Ingrid (36) is from Barcelona and works as a University professor, specialising in education & gender studies. Callum (34) is originally from Scotland and has lived in Barcelona since 2012 where he runs his own organic clothing brand (@cal.lum.co).
We both have different musical backgrounds, Callum at 13, with an angsty teenage spirit, took up the bass & guitar spent his teens & early 20s playing in bands in and around Glasgow’s vibrant live music scene. Ingrid, always a music lover and concert goer, didn’t start playing the drums until she was 30.
We were neighbours living on a street called Carrer Asturies (which became a song title). While having a late night wine in Ingrid’s apartment, seeing her electric drum kit set up sparked the idea of playing together. We have always had a magic connection and hopefully that translates in our music.
Your greatest inspirations or influences?
Our musical influences are post-rock bands such as Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, And So I Watch You From Afar, Yvette Young, El Ten Eleven, and alternative indie bands such as Interpol, Radiohead & Bright Eyes.
Female musicians, and especially female drummers, are inspiring role models for us. Drummers such as Cat Myers, Ursula Strong-ek from Niña Coyote eta Chico Tornado or Arianne from Doble Capa are breaking the ground of the male dominated rock scene.
How do you describe your musical style? and creative process.
Our style is probably best defined as post-rock.
Our creative process is something that we love to do together, one of our favourite times of the week. We go to our rehearsal room in the industrial outskirts of Barcelona where we spend hours at a time jamming. We then refine the chaos into songs!
Tell us about the challenges of your industry?
Nowadays we are lucky to be able to self-publish our music thanks to online streaming platforms such as Bandcamp & Spotify. The challenge is that we are just a little fish in an ocean of musicians and it is difficult to reach the shore of potential fans.
What about the impact of COVID?
It has impacted our neighbours and roommate as we are now playing at home!
We released our debut album in April of this year, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We had been planning live performances to celebrate the album but obviously they have been put on hold. We hope that there is a renewed appreciation for live performances once we don’t need to adhere to social distancing.
The magic when a crowd of humans is sharing a feeling while at a concert, watching a film at the cinema, dancing on a dance floor creates belonging and community.
Favourite websites, social media handles?
TomTom Magazine https://tomtommag.com/
A magazine dedicated to female drummers, during lockdown they are doing an Instagram live-lesson everyday with renowned drummers!
The comics of Flavita Banana @flavitabanana
David Shrigley’s art & humour @davidshrigley
& we listen to a lot podcasts such as @radiolab @kexp @bowdown @bbcworldservice
Tell us a little about the adventure of your video clip. and just wondering how and why was Lebanese film director Nadine Labaki chosen to direct the video (we love her so much).
Lockdown limited our possibilities for recording a music video but we came up with the idea of using clips that were never intended to be shown and creating a storyline with a little bit of humour!
We absolutely love Nadine Labaki, as an actor & director, she stole our hearts with Capernaum! She has an empowering way to portray women and a unique elegance in revealing social injustice. We then found out that she has directed music videos of Lebanese singers (such as Nancy Ajram - Akhasmak Ah) so it was a perfect fit for the video!
Anything else you'd like to share with us, personal, about music, about the world?
We would like to thank you Leila and Ninu Nina to have us on your platform, we are so glad to be part of this community of creative people, to share our music and the message that is never to late to reinvent yourself and try to do what you have never though you would do. There’s nothing more pleasant than breaking the rules of the expected.
You can listen to our music on Spotify (link) and follow us on Instragram (link). We’d like to leave you with a song that for us emanates with the excitement & curiosity of visiting a city for the first time. A little musical journey during lockdown! https://whilewalking.bandcamp.com/track/a-new-city-for-the-first-time
Check out these guys, they are truly amazing, and I am so incredibly happy and proud to have them on our platform. Thank you for the interview guys. Hoping to see you play live in Madrid eventually :)
