White Noise Sound
Interview by Christopher Duda
(SugarBuzz Hell)
SugarBuzz Magazine
What is white noise? It’s not simply soft ocean waves or the soothing sounds of the autumn wind blowing through the trees. Technically, it includes all sound frequencies within the range of human hearing combined. It will also blow your fucking eyeballs out of your blackened sockets!
1. When did White Noise Sound materialize? Were members in previous bands prior to the forming of White Noise Sound?
Griff- Yeah, we were all in a few different bands in Swansea – where we’re all from. We just thought it best to join up.
Dan – We were always going to end up in the same place at the same point in Swansea, we kind of gravitated towards each other I guess – some before others, but all in the end.
2. How do you feel when critics tag you 
as “Shoegazing”?
Griff – I love ‘shoegaze’ bands but I don’t think we sound like any bands that I consider ‘shoegaze’.
Dan – Terms like that don’t sit well with me – there’s a diverse melting pot of influences within the band, we’d never sit comfortably within any one genre - we’d never be able to agree which one!
3. What bands influenced the overall sound of the band? Frequent comparisons are made of Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Suicide. Do you feel those are accurate representations of your output?
Griff – There was never a conscious decision made to try and sound like any one thing that had been done before.
Dan – We didn’t really aim for anything with the album – we just did it… well, maybe for it to be loud and good. We all really like the bands that you’ve listed and we’re happy to be mentioned in the same sentence as them – but I think we’re our own band. I can’t think of any band worth its salt that would be happy being pigeonholed – we don’t fit… but Spacemen 3, JAMC and Suicide – that’s a fucking good box to be put in!
4. Was Krautrock ever an influence in any 
capacity?
Griff – Yeah, they were so far ahead of there time – Can, Amon Duul II, La Düsseldorf, Cluster, Neu!, Faust… the list goes on!
5. How did the affiliation with Alive Records come to being?
Griff – I own a lot of Alive releases, so I’ve been aware of the label for years. We finished mixing the album with Cian and we sent Patrick a few of the tracks – it basically went from there.
6. What was it like working with Pete Kember and Cian Ciaran?
Griff – We did a few sessions with Pete some time back – it was a great experience and we learnt a lot. Cian mixed the album for us in 2009 – he is a magician. The album was mainly recorded in an old hotel / 24 hour drinking-den in Swansea though.
Dan – Yeah, it’s a very interesting place to record – more people should try it! I can’t speak highly enough of Cian – he’s such a top fella. He took
the album to another level… and added some John Barry-type horns while he was at it! What more could you ask for?
7. What would you cite as your most memorable gig thus far?
Griff - The gig with SFA was pretty special for us.
Dan – The shows in Europe in November with the Warlocks were definitely a highlight too - great people and great shows.
8. Any plans to tour North America with this release?
Dan – Not as of yet but we would love to at some point.
9. How do you approach making the sounds you create?
Dan – We kind of work backwards in terms of recording or bringing songs in. We have ideas which we demo in ones or twos; we work those in rehearsal; then we do a full band demo; then we work it live and then we go back and record it proper – or something like that! We have quite a big sound so it’s not always easy to get across what you want to achieve with a song on your own.
10. Are plans in place to record new material?
Griff - We’ve just come back from a tour of Europe and we started work on the second album straight away. We’ll be touring properly again later in the year and there’s some collaboration work being finalized at the moment, so 2011 is going to be another busy one!
White Sound Noise - "There is No Tomorrow"