What’s the Black Nail Cabaret story?

Emese Árvai-Illés (EM) I started the band together with Sophie Tarr about ten years ago. It wasn't long before we’d written enough songs for an entire album, but we didn’t have a studio to record in. That’s when Krisztián entered the picture! He had a studio and a team of engineers in another part of Hungary, and they invited us to record there, and helped us set up our first live performances as well.

Eventually, Sophie gravitated towards making more ambient, guitar-based music, she was starting a family and there were lots of other things going on, so she decided this was not her cup of tea anymore and left the band. Krisztián and I, who had been doing most of the songwriting, decided to form the new duo. That’s the short version!

We’ve recently involved some other musicians like a saxophone player, guitarist and live drummer when rehearsing for a new, alternative live lineup. Working with others is always a rewarding experience, being more people makes it feel safer, if that makes any sense, but as a duo, even though there’s more pressure, our roles are more well defined.

I move around a lot being expressive while Krisztián remains calm and collected dealing with the synths. He’s the fixture and the safe spot on stage that I orbit around while delivering all the drama.

About the drama – you’ve such an extravagant stage persona! That, coupled with the riveting lyrics and profound sound, is a powerful experience. Did the extravagance cause problems for you at any point, in terms of not being able to perform or get airtime?

(EM) Well, I would have loved to reply no, but regrettably I can’t. Our music has been described as a sexy amazon in-your-face experience (laughs) which probably rules out the mainstream right there.

Our style of music is thought of as gothic, and for most people who are not familiar with this culture, that equals fear and darkness and any bad thing you can imagine. In a poetic sense, although the music may sound dark and unfamiliar, we do strive towards the light.

Mainstream or not, we’ve had some great reception over the past few years, and we try to focus on that.

Your music style has also been called dark wave or neo wave among other things. The first thing I thought of when really trying to listen to both lyrics and music was, rather than oblique darkness there was a real sense of interaction, sometimes struggle, between the darkness and the light.

(EM) I agree. I wouldn’t call our music dark wave because it’s a mixture of all these different elements: sometimes synth pop and sometimes even minimal wave. Sometimes too goth for the mainstream, and sometimes too pop sounding for the goths! We try to find a balance between the two.

Now that we’re busy categorizing anyway, forgive me for being blunt but I really get a Soft Cell vibe too – the lush production, the beautiful lyrics – with a more somber and profound tone!

Krisztián Árvai (KR) I’m happy to hear that! Soft Cell created a distinctive sound, and a whole new level of sound quality back in the Eighties, inspiring loads of other artists to try and do the same. They’re such an iconic band and being compared to them makes me happy! We always strive towards high quality production and mixing too.

What can you tell me about your brand-new album, Pseudopop?

(EM) We didn't want this one to be labeled, I think labelling it, calling it a goth album or suchlike, just puts people off, and frankly we couldn’t put a label on it if we tried!

We’ve got so many influences mixed together. Kris is slightly older than me, he grew up in the Eighties whereas I grew up in the Nineties.

You’ll hear influences from a bit of both decades on the album, and my infatuation with the Nineties can surely be heard in my vocals just as the Soft Cell qualities can be heard in Kris’s contributions.

To be fair, he’s hugely inspired by Nineties and Noughties and contemporary music as well –

(KR) Yeah!

(EM) Bands such as Morcheeba and Hooverphonic. We listen to all kinds of stuff, and the album is infused with all we’ve been listening to for the past couple of years.

I love the fact that the album covers such a wide span of styles, it’s almost like a Black Nail Cabaret premium sampler! One of my favorite songs on the album is called Nineties. Really surprising instrumentation on that, as well – is that steel guitar?

(KR) Nineties is a good example of the mixing of styles, and we made that one entirely using the Octatrack. No other instruments, just this one hardware sampler!

When I got my first sampler, in 1989 or something, that was the only instrument I had so I had no choice but to do everything on that. Making the song Nineties was sort of a return to that highly minimal production style, and a recreation of that feeling of joy and exploration I had using one of those early samplers.

I also did the mixing in the same way as I did 20 years ago, when I did my first few productions in a professional studio, so making that song was like a milestone and a recap of my musical life for the past 20 years!

I’m amazed to hear that, because I’d imagined the instrumentation as being a room full of synthesizers, live drums and a steel guitar!

(KR) Nineties was the only song we used that minimal one-machine production for, all other songs on the album have a lot of analog and digital instruments and live drums. That song is special.

What was your first Elektron instrument?

(KR) The Analog Keys. I recall looking for a polyphonic analog synthesizer a few years ago, and I stumbled across an Elektron promotional video for the Analog Keys on YouTube. I asked myself is this for real?

I felt a strong urge to get it, so I immediately did! Then, when I saw that Elektron had made a hardware sampler too, something I’d been really looking for, I realized I needed to get the Octatrack too.

All I needed at that point was a proper Analog drum machine. What do you know? The next thing you guys released was the Analog Rytm, which I got.

This year, I got the Digitone too and I’ve used it on several songs on the new album.

(EM) He basically fell in love with Elektron after buying the Keys!

What was your initial experience when you got the Octatrack? Did your experience with samplers of the late eighties help you get to grips with it?

(KR) I was positively surprised in every way. The sequencer workflow on the Octatrack, and all other Elektron gear as well, all of it was like a revelation for me. I was like: oh my God, this is exactly what I and every other musician has dreamed of for ages!

It is a complex device, for sure, with such a great sound and such a professional system for arranging. Elektron stuff gives you all of that in one box, which is impressive. We discover new possibilities every day we use Elektron instruments.

I really like the design of the instruments as well. Very sweet.

(EM) We’ve been using loads of gear from many different manufacturers throughout the years, virtual analog, analog, samplers, digital drums, so much stuff. Obviously, they come and go: we buy a lot of stuff and we sell a lot of stuff. I remember one synth just sitting in the corner of a room for a week, then we sold it.

It’s the opposite of that with Elektron. We’re so attached to them. Even though we still buy and sell a lot of stuff, we’d never flip the Elektrons.

(KR) There is admittedly a bit of a learning curve, but after a couple of times it becomes second nature. You just switch it on and quickly get to what you want. It’s so easy.

What do you reckon the Elektron personality is like?

(KR) We’ve reached out to so many companies over the years, and Elektron was the only company that ever paid any attention to us. So, yeah, the first thing that comes to mind is friendly. That’s a great trait!

My impression is that Elektron is not just a business-oriented company. You really care about the musicians who use the instruments and cater to their needs. More so with every new piece of gear you release.

(EM) We’ve been in contact with pretty much all the companies whose gear we use. Elektron is by far the most approachable one.

You’ve made a collection of great patches for the Digitone called Dissonant World. I’m pretty blown away by the quality and usefulness of these sounds!

(KR) I'm glad you enjoy them! Digitone is my first FM synth in 20 years, and it was a blast to create those patches for it. By far the hardest, most challenging part of the experience was to come up with suitable names for the sounds!

It’s so easy to create new sounds, and it’s so quick: I usually did 10 or 15 sounds at a time and just went on to fine tune the levels, the filter or distortion settings a little, and just like that, they were done.

I’d recommend any musician looking for an FM synth with loads of possibilities to get a Digitone. It’s easily the best choice.

With a lot of your patches, interesting stuff happens to the sound when you jog the mod wheel or apply aftertouch too.

(KR) I think people are going to find them even more enjoyable combined with the powers of the sequencer, locking modulations and other sound changes to each successive step. You can go crazy (laughs)!

I think you did a good job with the naming too, by the way, the references to the classic science fiction and horror flicks made total sense to me!

(EM) We did sneak some obscure references in there as well, though. People we know, our cats and little things like that. ION Project is a patch for our friends in a band called Irrational Orthodox Noise. Blanca and Pedro are our cats (laughs)!

We always mention the cats on the album credits because they’re always around when we record, supporting us and keeping morale high when we need it the most - like during the stressful final days of finishing an album.

(KR) I made a preset for our former keyboard player Sophie’s son and called it Son of Sophie. I referenced some bands and musicians from our local scene and people who’ve inspired us, too. When I did the sounds for the second collection (to be released later), making those sci-fi textures, I really tried to visualize what was happening when you heard every sound. Is that a monster approaching? A space ship falling from the sky? Things like that.

The references that I did get are spot-on. Really vivid and evocative. The textures sound pack, I’d imagine, will be a great asset to any film studio audio department! Especially in the suspense, horror or sci-fi genre.

(KR) That was the plan!

(EM) We wanted to make a cinematic sound pack.

Your top three films?

(KR) Blade Runner 2049 is the first one that springs to mind. I kept losing myself in the music, to the point where I didn’t know what was happening in the story! Such great music, overwhelmingly good.

(EM) At certain points we just looked at each other in awe of the music.

(KR) Same thing with a movie called Annihilation. Fantastic sound design and music. The music steals the show in this one as well, although the story is pretty good too. I would also like to mention Star Wars, the whole saga. It’s like a handbook for any musician getting into scoring!

(EM) I want to say Annihilation as well. From idea to execution, the visuals and the music are great, especially the sound design by the end of the film. Mother! by Darren Aronofsky is another powerful one, and it shows the story entirely music-free! The horror film It follows is my third pick, because of the story and the music. We’ve been listening to that soundtrack for weeks! It’s a cool synth wave sound, kind of like Stranger Things.

Some hidden gems I’d like to mention is Call me by Your Name, it was just beautiful, and I burst into tears when I saw it. My Litter Sister is another great one, and it made me think of my own youthful experience of embracing the gothic subculture. The music is just great! Hereditary is another great one because it rewrites the horror genre and it’s nerve-wracking!

(KR) Lastly, I’d like to mention a movie I watch every six months or so: Control. It is set in the Hungarian subway system, and there’s not a single scene shot in daylight. Some nice cinematography and music there. It’s a cult classic by now.

Can you share the brightest memory of your musical life so far?

(KR) Our two-week tour with Camouflage in 2015, that whole experience was great. Touring with them had been my big dream for – I don’t know how many years! We did eleven shows with Camouflage and became good friends in the process.

(EM) That’s my pick as well and it’s probably the most important thing to happen in our musical career so far. Things really took off for us after that. Lots of people got interested in our music. Going on the road and playing live is really the greatest way, perhaps the only way, to reach followers and fans. That’s my message to other bands just starting out.

When can we expect the Pseudopop tour?

(EM) We’re working out the details right now, making live versions of the songs, deciding what guest musicians to bring along and things like that. We’ll be ready to hit the road in Spring 2019!

Interview by Daniel Sterner

Photo by Zoran Varga