Binnenkort vliegt het album van deze éénmansband onze brievenbus binnen maar we wilden jullie niet onthouden het interview er al mee te lezen. A rather short story for a rather little band.
From where does the name Umber come from?
I just saw it as a name for myself as 'Alex Steward' didn't really have a good ring to it. Plus it rolls off the tongue a lot easier. I've come to understand it derives from the latin word 'umbra' which translates as 'shadow'. That sounds a lot cooler right?
You call your genre Post Rock with a tingling ambient sound, could you explain what you mean with that?
I don't really mean anything by it. It's how I hear what my music sounds like but I guess it's different to everybody. Label it under anything you'd like and I promise I won't mind.
You already released an EP and a single. How hard was it to make the decision for recording a full length album?
For me it wasn't hard at all really. I basically had 7 tracks that fitted together nicely so I decided to use them for this release.
We will receive this album for reviewing it but what do you think about the reactions?
Is it a summer or winter album? Please explain why. To me it's more of a winter album. The cold weather and the dark nights influence my writing much more than a warm evening. And I tend not to write as much during the summer.
I couldn't find much about you guys on the internet. Even the Facebook of Umber is written with not a lot of words so ... who are the members and does they fit together?
It's just one member at the moment. Me... Although I have a lot of help from some good friends. For example my friend Sophie (of Her Name is Calla fame) played violin for me on a few tracks and they sound fantastic. I hope to write more with her in the future.
Will you guys ever come to Belgium? What do you think about Belgium and the music scène?
I'd love to come to Belgium. You guys brew some great beers over there and i'm a big fan! I'm not familiar with the Belgian music scene at all so if you could recommend some bands that'd be awesome!
What would you do with 1 million dollar/euro? But you can only use it for the band himself.
Wow. Err, 1,000,000 euros worth of guitar picks? Seriously though, i'd buy as many instruments as possible with enough money left to buy some decent microphones for recording with. Probably a few 100 reverb pedals for my guitar and run them all at the same time through a 10 watt amp.
