What was the beginning pint for your music career? How did it all start?
I have attended classical music school since I was 6 years old, so music was with me since very early on. After falling in love with the romantic composers Chopin, Schubert and Debussy I’ve also discovered Nirvana and the world of electric guitars and loud distorted amplifiers. Barricades first became Plastic around 2007. We changed countries and countless band members since then.
Was there any bumps on the road? What kind of challenges did you have to deal with?
It is awesome to be in a band. It is also incredibly hard: from interpersonal relationships and ego clashes and taste differences to writing music together, touring, promoting and etc. You have to have a very stable mental health and quite thick skin to survive. There were a lot of members in Plastic Barricades over the last decade, and it was never easy to get along every day. Care about each other and at the same time push each other is a difficult task.
What was the most fulfilling and satisfying moment so far?
Every time a song is suddenly born out of thin air – nothing can beat that for me. Playing great sounding shows and seeing audience’s eyes shine bright is great, but that is a fleeting moment. A song will stay with you forever.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
We try to be sincere in our writing and express our worries and fears but also always try to find a way out and offer some solace to our fans.
What is your creative process like?
Our new album “Self-Theories” just came out last month. It was all written, recorded and even partially mixed in a tiny 4×2 m backyard shed. Our aim was to try and create a coherent body of work that has absolute minimum edits, takes and overthinking. We tried to capture a spirit of improvising “band next door” while trying to figure out what it means to be human when change is the only constant.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
This is a difficult question with a very long answer. There is a lot of things that need an update. But at the same time everything is rapidly changing with new technologies. I would say that I would love to see more transparent ways of promoting music online and more useful resources and agencies for this, that can actually help you, not just take your money and send some emails.
If you were asked to give a piece of advice to upcoming bands, what would that be?
Write as many songs as possible and choose progress over perfection (there is no such thing!) And also from early on embark on a quest of finding who you are and what you sound like instead of emulating your favourite artists – you will never sound like them anyway.
What has been the best performance of your career so far?
We had our fair share of gigs and tours and all that. But I think at this very moment we are most proud of our new album “Self-Theories”, that was released against all odds after many desperate days and nights when the universe seemed to be against us.
If you didn’t become a musician, what would you be doing now?
Most probably writing novels. Being a novelist, unlike being a musician, makes house moves easier – you don’t have to look so hard for some truly deaf neighbors.
What is new with the band at the moment? What are you currently working on and would like to share with the world?
Our brand new album “Self-Theories” is out now – you can find it on your favourite streaming platform. There are also some truly DIY music videos on YouTube. There will be more music, more video art and hopefully gigs in 2021! Let’s make this a good year!
Music Videos
Tunnel – How would your anxieties look under a microscope? The video was made using a microscope with up to 1000 times magnification.
Optimist – “Labyrinths with open doors for an optimist”. Video featuring 8 houses, 8 cars, plenty of glassware, some benches and trees, a crowd of 300 cast members and around 20 buckets of water.
One for the Road – An ode to the freedom of exploration. Footage filmed in the late 1950s around the US by families with their brand new cutting edge handheld cameras.
PRESS-RELEASE
“Self-Theories” IS OUT NOW, an album about despair and hope, anxiety and optimism, lack of self-esteem and active search for it, maladies of the modern world, our responsibilities and reinventing ourselves for the sake of a brighter future.
“Self-Theories” facts:
Written and recorded in a backyard shed in North-West London, mixed by Paul Love in London and Paris and mastered by Andy Baldwin at Metropolis Studios in London.
Three singles “One for the Road”, “Optimist” and “Tunnel” have truly DIY music videos. “Tunnel” was filmed using a digital microscope, “Optimist” had a cast of 300+ in a fish tank and “One for the Road” used vintage road trip footage from the 50-s.
Artwork for the album and singles was created by Elina Pasok. “When your world is turning upside down – step outside, change your perspective and have a look from a distance.”
10 album tracks are followed by 2 previously unheard demos, that conclude the LP on a vulnerable note.
“Self-Theories” is a follow-up to the 2017 “Mechanics of Life” LP.
What are self-theories?
Many choices that may eventually lead to life-defining decisions are fuelled by our internal „self-theories“. We create and nurture stereotypes about ourselves from an early age, and these stereotypes shape our thoughts, feelings and behaviour for the rest of our lives. However, we are not what we think we are, we are what we do. We are our actions!
ABOUT:
Romantic and honest, gloomy and curious, melodic and melancholic, Plastic Barricades chronicle life in the troubled yet fascinating XXI century, asking questions and trying to find answers. Based between London and Paris, Plastic Barricades are Dan Kert on guitars and vocals and Paul Love on drums and production. Inspired and influenced by almighty Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Oasis, Coldplay, Muse, Death Cab for Cutie, Placebo, Snow Patrol, The Shins, Nirvana and many others, the band loves to experiment with styles, sound and approach.
www.facebook.com/plasticbarricades
www.instagram.com/plasticbarricades
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4XMzKbdDQLpa36cYrISsO7?si=Zw-2k3HPThOnCg8VqVzxmQ
SPOTIFY ALBUM LINK: https://bit.ly/selftheories
