Bands | Ambros Chapel

Introduction

Ambros Chapel is a band from Valencia who sings in English and has a clear influence from Bowie and other bands like Suede and The Cure. Their music is very instrumental, but very alive and it captive you very quickly. Ambros Chapel is a indie rock band that I can not stop listening again and again.

Band Members

Influences

The Doors, Suede, The Cure, Joy Division, The Smiths.

Biography

Ambros Chapel, emerged in 2006. They started their career with the ambition to highlight a different and personal music. To do this, and after some lineup changes, they get into work to compose and to express their emotions and feelings, recording thier first songs on a demo (2006) that has some local success and that leads them to perform their first concert at El Loco club (Valencia) on December of that year.

After this first experience they continue working to make more songs and to expand their repertoire gaining more confidence.

After that, they perform many concerts and at the end of the year they record a second demo (2007). This demo has a big success, which leads them to play outside the Region several times (Catalonia, Madrid), to appear on press (20 minutes, El País, Mondosonoro), to get semifinalist in several national contests, to have radio interviews (Radio 3, Radio Nou, Radio Klara, Vinilo Valencia, Cadena Ser, Radio Mislata, etc..) and to be described, by specialized media, as a revelation local band. At the end of the year the Spanish magazine Mondosonoro assigned them the 6 th place for their "Demo 08" among the top ten of the year. Their song "25" is featured on "Introducing Bristol" by the BBC on 2009.

They were also included in the Valencian CAC compilation of bands by Radio Klara in the last three editions (they were chosen to present the CD with a performance at the Fnac in 2008 and in MATISSE in 2009) and thy winn the TROGLOGLÓ contest, in its sixth edition, organized by La Caverna and which had about 40 bands. As a result of this they recorded 2 songs with Dani Cardona at Studio 54.

From 2008 until early 2010 they have performed over 90 gigs and have gone through all the concert halls  of Valencia, as well as concerts in Castellón, Alicante, Madrid, Aragon, Tarragona, Malaga and Murcia.

In late November of 2009 they presented their first CD "ROME". It is released under the independent label MALATESTA RECORDS and distributed by Everlasting / Popstock.

ROME has been voted as the best album of the year in 2009 by the listeners of the radio show EL CLUB DE AMIGOS DEL CRIMEN de Radio Klara. It has also been included among the 10 best albums lists by both local and national media as relevant as Mondosonoro, Vinilo Valencia, 39 Sonidos...

Discography

Listen to Ambros Chapel

• Rome (2009): Recommended track: Recorder

• Constants are Changing (2011):

          Recommended track : Kissing the Doom

Interview with Ambros Chapel

1. How did the band begin?

Well, by a very classic way. Paul had some songs done at home, and he met Alfred, who played bass. they had the same taste, and with another friend who played the guitar they began to unleash their musical rehearsing sporadically. Later they saw the need for a drummer and they found one by a advertisement. With this aligement we recorded our frist demo (Demo 06).

Later, a friend of Alfred, Vincent joined us as keyboardist, our drummer left and we got another Jose, also by a advertisement. With these two additions we recorded the second demo (Demo 08).

In early 2008 Rafa came as a guitarist because we lost our first guitarist. And from this moment, with this formation, is when we began to grow musically, to write without bias and to consider the band as something serious and important in our lives. Without this mentality and these components it would have been difficult to take a step as important as recording our album ROME.

2. How would you define the sound of the band? 

We believe that at begining we were more influenced by bands like The Cure or Bowie, even Joy Division, but now we have achieved our own sound. We have opened the range of shades and although in the demos you can already recognize us, now our sound is more personal and more open at the same time. On the album you can find some sounds of jazz, bossa-nova, The Doors. Especially now the sound has more groove. We settled the dark base of the demos and we have seasoned it with other elements.

3. Talk us about your last work.

Well the album ROME is from the end of 2009, which has more than a year and a half. It consists of 9 tracks that are the result of the time we lived and the experiences we accumulate then. In terms of influences, there may be part of the British scene of the last twenty years, but the disc is not confined to any particular type of music, it is variated and has more nuances. Basic bands from our personal discography vary depending on each band member, although there are bands that we all like . We also enjoy to listen to bands from the 60s, 70s, songwriters, classic rock bands and so on.

Also on the album there are jazz atmospheres, bossa-nova interludes, some funk rhythms...it is very variated, more than peopel think. We believe that there should not be prejudice in the music as long as it ahs quality, and not to stick to a particular style, this could close some doors that we want them open and able to cross.

The important thing for us is that every song make you to have specific sensations, and whether it is more or less fast, or more or less happy, to put it in some way, the bottom line is that when you hear it you find a sense.

We like to play with the dynamics of the tracks, make some atmospheres and crescendos, part times ... mostly because we do not want a linearity on the themes, not having all the same structure. It comes naturally. We seek to touch the listener or the public in our concerts, at the same time that we also get excited while playing songs. We feel comfortable with what we play, no matter if it is fast or slow.

4. How are your concerts? What can we find there that we wont find on your studio records?

We try to take care of the songs. Have a good balance between melody, the punch and the arrangements. Live, where it is more difficult to control all the variables of sound, we try not to loose this balance, and we try to adjust as much as possible to the sound of the recorded version. At the same time we seek that the concert has its own tempo, interspersing the songs properly. We seek, as I told you before, atmospheres and feelings in the audience, to move and to excite.

We are not a band that gives many concessions to the public in terms of a stablished setlist, but we do ensure a compact live difficult to forget.

 5. What do you think about the music industry and what do you think is your place within it?

The national scene is currently in the best shape possible. There are new ideas and different ways of making music everywhere. There are many bands in Spain but also many new local proposals. But we lack places to play where the scene revitalizes and grows. It is shown that the scene does not need much statal support to survive, but we believe that it would be necessary to have more windows where to show what is being done. The step for a band to move from a small gig to a large capacity one is very big, we lack the next step with intermediate facilities.

Iteresting proposals as demos contests and other supporting models like radios, newspapers, magazines and blogs like yours make possible for bands to be known and that know what others are doing. But all this is still just a step from everything that could be done. But the effort is worthwhile and pays off, even in long terms.

Our place in the music scene has to be defined. We occupy a privileged place within the local scene in our city, but we still look for our place on the independent national scene. We do not believe that we belong to any particular scene, we are a bridge between styles.

Por ahora vamos en buen camino ya que las críticas hacia nuestra música y nuestro disco son positivas, y el público que nos ha ido a ver a los conciertos se sorprende y les gustamos, por lo que nos anima a seguir adelante.

For now we think we are in the right way, as the criticism of our music and our album are positive, and the public has attend our the concerts like them and get surprised. This encourages us to move forward.

Video

Ambros Chapel - Lovers (Rome, 2009)

Ambros Chapel - Survive (Constants Are Changing, 2011)

Tour dates

Visit Ambros Chapel fan page on Facebook to know more about new events.

Links

Ambros Chapel on:

• Facebook
  
• Youtube

Contact

Contact Ambros Chapel by their Facebook page.

All submmited material Copyright Ambros Chapel