“Have you ever been placed in your own prison from your thoughts of how you see your past? We wrapped this feeling in a Up/down beat song.”
It was in this way that Memory In Plant first got in touch with Sonic Breakfast by E-mail.
In truth, this is probably a pretty universal feeling; surely, even the most productive and dynamic of us (I don’t count myself in that group) are trapped. We beat ourselves up over the mistakes we’ve made and the opportunities we failed to take. And seek comfort in repeating patterns of behaviour simply because they’re familiar.
A few weeks later, Memory In Plant sent me a link to their EP, ‘An Epic Triumph’. Intrigued, I listened. There’s much going on. Cluttered yet simple, complex yet accessible, mysterious yet obvious, this is an EP of contrasts. It dabs in the psychedelic paint pot but refuses to be pinned to any genre for too long.
In an effort to get beyond the mystery, I sent an E-mail with questions to the band. Here’s the responses I received: –
Many readers of ‘Sonic Breakfast’ won’t know much about Memory In Plant. How would you introduce yourself to them? What are Memory In Plant about? What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
We are a Psychedelic band with no obligation to a certain genre. The whole point is to do what ever the fuck we want.
The things that makes us get out of bed in the morning (and sometimes at noon) is mainly our day job, but also making our own music which is the perfect escape from it.
You’ve recently released ‘An Epic Triumph’ to positive reviews. What is it that makes you proudest about this EP?
That it’s truly An Epic Triumph! We created this thing that has no specific rules and people really get it.
A fair bit is made of your special recording process? It certainly generates a creative sound. How does this recording/writing process work in practice?
In practice, the writing and recording were as one. The main work was to build the parts of the songs and to make them sound as one unit. The album was recorded in our humble home studios and that was a big part of the sound of this album.
We didn’t try to imitate the sound of professional studios, We used what we had. Because we didn’t work with a time and money limit, we had the chance to use unconventional recording methods and embrace the mistakes.
Who and what are your influences?
We prefer to let the listeners to speculate who and what by hearing our music.
How much does living in Tel Aviv influence the sort of band that you are? Is there a ‘scene’ there and if so, do you sit comfortably within it?
Living in a rough neighbourhood at south Tel Aviv does have its effects on some parts of the album. Living with a lot of immigrates around you, and in Israel as a Melting pot in general, has made dreams of a better places put a kind of new world sound on this album. There is a scene in Tel Aviv and there are some great bands over here, but they are outnumbered than the potential audience. We are not sitting with the scene here, we’re standing with our luggage, ready to tour the big world and to see some amazing places.
A number of reviews have mentioned the ‘psychedelic’ aspects of your recordings. If you were forced to listen to ‘An Epic Triumph’ on a drug, what drug would that be? Combinations also allowed!!!
Actually, we asked our fans this question and as of this moment only one answered us that he would totally hear the album with the after effect of “psychedelic toad licking”. We recommend to listen to the album with all the drugs that you can get (not all at once) and then please contact us and tell us about your trippy experience.
What might the next year hold for Memory In Plant? Do you have any plans for translating these recordings into a live thing?
We are working on the live show a while now, planning on playing where ever they let us. Also working on some new stuff, always.
For those who are now itching to listen to ‘An Epic Triumph’ in its entirety (highly recommended), you can find it here….
sonicbreakfast 