Interview with Acid Baby Jesus
DISTORSIONI: Your album "LP" for slovenly has centered much attention on you, you have been waiting for an outcome that surprising, and how did your collaboration with the label?
Acid Baby Jesus: We met Peter from Slovenly in a festival in Sardinia where he saw us play live and told us to put out a record. Since then the label has been very helpful and supportive in what we want to do. When we put the record out we didn't expect anything because we had listened to it a lot and wanted to move on to new things, so the attention was a surprise.
"LP" for a debut has already a very personal sound. The reverberated and kneaded sound make it very special. When you registered your record, did you have already a clear idea in mind of what the sound would had been? or was it more the result of an improvisation?
We put a lot of thought on the sound and production but had very little time to do it because we where depending on the free time of our friends that helped out without the process. We recorded it in two sessions in our practice space and improvised a lot with microphone placement. Most of it is live with some overdubs.
I looked at your next tour dates, and I saw that you have a busy calendar of 
events, including the Austin Psych Fest. How did you the USA react to your music?
It's going to be our second tour in the U.S, this time we are going to the west coast too. We are very excited for this one as we are also going to Puerto Rico to spend some time with our friends Davila 666. There is a big tradition of live music in the states so the crowds are very used to seeing shows and i feel most of the times they understand what we are going for more than they do here.
Your band has the advantage of being positioned between two musical scenes: garage and psych. Do you feel to belong more to one genre or the other?
Both and none at the same time. It's very hard for me to classify our music as I take inspiration from a lot of things.
You are a very young band, and people often associate you with the Black Lips, perhaps more for an anagraphical issue. But which bands from the past inspired you to play, if any?
I would have to say the Velvet Underground for sure, the style of guitar playing and composition has influenced us. We were lucky to tour with the Black Lips and were definitely influenced by their hard work ethic and live show energy, it is definitely not a coincidence that they are such a well known band.
Do you think that somehow your style may have been affected by the influences of the traditional music of your country, for example Rebetiko?
The more we have travel, the more we go back into our roots musically. I don't know why, maybe its because we get homesick or that we realize that music is universal and has no language. The scales and thematology of Rebetiko music amaze me and i think subconsciously emerge in our music.
The video for "It's on me" is very particular, could you please explain us what is Blicker, and how was your collaboration?
Blicker is two brothers, Chris and Alex. They asked us to do a video through a mutual friend and we have become close ever since. We shot "It's On Me" in one day in May almost two years ago. We just finished a new video for the song "Fingerpainting" which will be out this week.
You recently hosted the Brooklyn band, The Men, in Greece. How this kind of music is accepted in your country? And is there a local scene? Are there any bands/musicians names that you could suggest us?
We played one show with them in Athens and it was very well received, a lot people are into rock music apparently and more bands are emerging. Internet does play a role and there are some promoters that are doing a good job, more now than before.
How does the political situation in Greece in recent years is reflecting on the artistic and cultural aspects of your nation? How is to live in Greece at the moment especially for the younger generations to whom any prospect of an “ordinary” life is nowadays denied?
Well as I previously said, more interesting bands are emerging and people are organizing concerts and art shows that you can relate to but this whole economical situation is new for everybody and it is pretty depressing to live here right now because it’s what people are always talking about. It’s an easy subject for people to fall back on and say that they can’t do anything because they have no money but I think music and art should have nothing to do with money.
What are your plans after conclusion of the Austin Psych Fest?
Going to Puerto Rico for six days, after that we have two festivals in Greece and then we are taking a break to record as much as we can.
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