INTERVIEW TO POSTCARDS
- BIO -
Postcards is an indie folk band based in Beirut, Lebanon, formed in the summer of 2012 by four friends with a common passion for music. The band is composed of Julia Sabra on ukulele, mandolin, guitar and vocals; Marwan Tohme on guitar and vocals; Pascal Semerdjian on drums, harmonica, and vocals; and Rany Bechara on bass, keyboard and vocals.
Postcards started off by playing the pub circuit across Beirut. Performing a varied repertoire of both English and American folk-rock music, they gradually but surely built a loyal fan base, while writing in parallel the songs that would become their first EP, Lakehouse, released in the fall of 2013. In the words of Beirut.com, the 5-track EP is an "immersive experience, constructing its own little world around the listener, a world of mountains, trees, lakes, seas, and passionate lovers frolicking in nature’s playground." Using its musical influences as a springboard, the band manages to create a lush and dreamy sound-world, equally informed by traditional and contemporary folk genres, and delivers in the process 5 gentle ditties of atmospheric beauty, posed somewhere between Fleet Foxes and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes.
In the year following the release of their first EP, they played shows all across Lebanon, toured Jordan, the UK, France and Portugal, opened for numerous bands including Beirut, The Royal Concept and Wanton Bishops, and performed at festivals in Beirut and abroad (Wilderness Festival, Byblos International Festival, Wickerpark Festival).
Postcards started working on their second EP in 2014, and released their first single 'Where The Wild Ones' late in the year. Work on the record continued in the early months of 2015 in Beirut, under the capable supervision of sound engineer and producer Fadi Tabbal from Tunefork Studios, and the EP What Lies So Still was finally completed and released in early summer 2015 to excellent reviews.
On What Lies So Still, the four musicians have decided to take proceedings further, making a departure from the basic 'rootsy' foundation of their earlier songs, and investigating new territory, both structurally and sonically. In the words of Adam Grundey from Triplew.me, the 6 songs are "more complex, less conventional, and all the richer for it (...) The sound of a self-confident group of artists pushing themselves to articulate, musically and lyrically, what they’re feeling, What Lies So Still is a gorgeous set of songs that feel utterly genuine and built-to-last."
In July 2015, the band opened for international folk duo Angus & Julia Stone at BIEL in Beirut. The world is indeed their oyster, and they are set to make an impact far beyond the confines of their country.
- Ziad Nawfal, August 2015
Postcards started off by playing the pub circuit across Beirut. Performing a varied repertoire of both English and American folk-rock music, they gradually but surely built a loyal fan base, while writing in parallel the songs that would become their first EP, Lakehouse, released in the fall of 2013. In the words of Beirut.com, the 5-track EP is an "immersive experience, constructing its own little world around the listener, a world of mountains, trees, lakes, seas, and passionate lovers frolicking in nature’s playground." Using its musical influences as a springboard, the band manages to create a lush and dreamy sound-world, equally informed by traditional and contemporary folk genres, and delivers in the process 5 gentle ditties of atmospheric beauty, posed somewhere between Fleet Foxes and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes.
In the year following the release of their first EP, they played shows all across Lebanon, toured Jordan, the UK, France and Portugal, opened for numerous bands including Beirut, The Royal Concept and Wanton Bishops, and performed at festivals in Beirut and abroad (Wilderness Festival, Byblos International Festival, Wickerpark Festival).
Postcards started working on their second EP in 2014, and released their first single 'Where The Wild Ones' late in the year. Work on the record continued in the early months of 2015 in Beirut, under the capable supervision of sound engineer and producer Fadi Tabbal from Tunefork Studios, and the EP What Lies So Still was finally completed and released in early summer 2015 to excellent reviews.
On What Lies So Still, the four musicians have decided to take proceedings further, making a departure from the basic 'rootsy' foundation of their earlier songs, and investigating new territory, both structurally and sonically. In the words of Adam Grundey from Triplew.me, the 6 songs are "more complex, less conventional, and all the richer for it (...) The sound of a self-confident group of artists pushing themselves to articulate, musically and lyrically, what they’re feeling, What Lies So Still is a gorgeous set of songs that feel utterly genuine and built-to-last."
In July 2015, the band opened for international folk duo Angus & Julia Stone at BIEL in Beirut. The world is indeed their oyster, and they are set to make an impact far beyond the confines of their country.
- Ziad Nawfal, August 2015
- interview -
1-How was born the band and why you became the "Postcards" that you are right now?
Pascal (drums) and Marwan (guitar) are cousins, and Rany (bass) is an old school friend. The 3 of us met Julia through mutual friends while camping by the beach in the summer of 2012.
We all bonded over our mutual love of folk music, and a couple of weeks later, we decided to form a band.
We started by playing covers in pub, while writing our own songs on the side, and eventually the next summer (2013) we recorded our first EP Lakehouse.
2-What do you need to pass down to the listener of your music ?
There’s not really a specific feeling we want people to feel when they listen to our music, each person relates to it in a different way, but generally it’s a feeling of serenity, quiet nostalgia, dreaminess…
3-How do you choose your music instruments for your songs?
We have our ‘regular’ instruments which we start off with (acoustic/electric guitar, mandolin, ukulele, keys), and we usually try the songs in different formats using different combinations to see which instruments fit it the most. But in the studio we have a wider range of choice, with all the synthesizer sounds and we have friends who’ve helped record various wind instruments, which has been cool.
4-What's changed from lakehouse to What lies to still ?
A lot changed between the 2 EPs, in terms of writing, music and production.
We had a clearer idea of what we wanted our sound to be, because we’d been listening to a lot of music after our first EP.
Our influences shifted radically, and our way of writing songs was a lot more intricate and we took our time with them, playing them live and wirting and re-writing them.
So hopefully What Lies So Still feels like a more accomplished, mature work, that’s the first step toward the musical direction we’re going in.
5-And now it's time to speak about your "What lies to still": which is the central idea that connect the songs in this album?
There’s not really a central idea as much as a central mood, one of happiness mixed with sadness, a melancholic, nostalgic dreamy mood.
We talk about different things, from love to a crumbling relationship to traveling to realizing our meaninglessness next to nature and everything that came before us.
Pascal (drums) and Marwan (guitar) are cousins, and Rany (bass) is an old school friend. The 3 of us met Julia through mutual friends while camping by the beach in the summer of 2012.
We all bonded over our mutual love of folk music, and a couple of weeks later, we decided to form a band.
We started by playing covers in pub, while writing our own songs on the side, and eventually the next summer (2013) we recorded our first EP Lakehouse.
2-What do you need to pass down to the listener of your music ?
There’s not really a specific feeling we want people to feel when they listen to our music, each person relates to it in a different way, but generally it’s a feeling of serenity, quiet nostalgia, dreaminess…
3-How do you choose your music instruments for your songs?
We have our ‘regular’ instruments which we start off with (acoustic/electric guitar, mandolin, ukulele, keys), and we usually try the songs in different formats using different combinations to see which instruments fit it the most. But in the studio we have a wider range of choice, with all the synthesizer sounds and we have friends who’ve helped record various wind instruments, which has been cool.
4-What's changed from lakehouse to What lies to still ?
A lot changed between the 2 EPs, in terms of writing, music and production.
We had a clearer idea of what we wanted our sound to be, because we’d been listening to a lot of music after our first EP.
Our influences shifted radically, and our way of writing songs was a lot more intricate and we took our time with them, playing them live and wirting and re-writing them.
So hopefully What Lies So Still feels like a more accomplished, mature work, that’s the first step toward the musical direction we’re going in.
5-And now it's time to speak about your "What lies to still": which is the central idea that connect the songs in this album?
There’s not really a central idea as much as a central mood, one of happiness mixed with sadness, a melancholic, nostalgic dreamy mood.
We talk about different things, from love to a crumbling relationship to traveling to realizing our meaninglessness next to nature and everything that came before us.
6-Where the wild ones. Are you the protagonist of this song, the wild ones? Why have you decided to put the masks on, in the music video?
In a way yes we are, but the video isn’t a literal interpretation of what the song is.
We just decided to play on the word ‘wild’, and ‘become’ wild in the end.
7-Walls. which are the walls you speak about in the song and why are they so important for you ?
The walls are metaphorical walls, and they’re ones that cause isolation within a relationship (any type of relationship).
The song is about loneliness and a lack of communication with someone close, and the walls
Symbolize that.
8-For each of you, which and why is the most representative song, from the album, of your person as part of the group?
That’s a difficult question, because the new EP as a whole is representative of each of us, but if we had to pick a favorite song it woud be:
Rany: Traveling North
Julia: Walls
Marwan: Walls
Pascal: Walls / Porto
9-How's the Indie-folk situation in your country, the Lebanon?
There aren’t many indie folk bands, only a few, and we were one of the first ones. But there is a growing independent music scene which is very exciting, more and more alternative bands coming out with great music and slowly making it outside of Lebanon.
The market here is very small for music in English, especially since it’s sort of underground and not big on a commercial level.
So bands that sing these styles are always aiming for more than just recognition in Lebanon.
10-Do you have any plans for the future? Any new cds? Any italian tours?
We’re constantly writing new songs, and we’re going to start working on our debut album soon, that will hopefully be out by the end of 2016.
We’re also about to go on our first Italian tour next week which we’re very excited about!
In a way yes we are, but the video isn’t a literal interpretation of what the song is.
We just decided to play on the word ‘wild’, and ‘become’ wild in the end.
7-Walls. which are the walls you speak about in the song and why are they so important for you ?
The walls are metaphorical walls, and they’re ones that cause isolation within a relationship (any type of relationship).
The song is about loneliness and a lack of communication with someone close, and the walls
Symbolize that.
8-For each of you, which and why is the most representative song, from the album, of your person as part of the group?
That’s a difficult question, because the new EP as a whole is representative of each of us, but if we had to pick a favorite song it woud be:
Rany: Traveling North
Julia: Walls
Marwan: Walls
Pascal: Walls / Porto
9-How's the Indie-folk situation in your country, the Lebanon?
There aren’t many indie folk bands, only a few, and we were one of the first ones. But there is a growing independent music scene which is very exciting, more and more alternative bands coming out with great music and slowly making it outside of Lebanon.
The market here is very small for music in English, especially since it’s sort of underground and not big on a commercial level.
So bands that sing these styles are always aiming for more than just recognition in Lebanon.
10-Do you have any plans for the future? Any new cds? Any italian tours?
We’re constantly writing new songs, and we’re going to start working on our debut album soon, that will hopefully be out by the end of 2016.
We’re also about to go on our first Italian tour next week which we’re very excited about!