In this interview, Sonic Panda's Pere Ibañez and Seni Ren share insights into their unique collaboration, blending industrial, folk, and rock influences to create impactful music that addresses social issues and personal experiences.
1. How
did the collaboration between you, Pere Ibañez, and Seni Ren come about, and what inspired
you to form Sonic Panda?
Pere:
Seni and I go a long way back, we are family at this point. When I told him I
wanted to start making music, I immediately suggested to do it together since
the topics we shared and talked the most since we met was that, music. And I
thought that the mix of his mellow and asian folk influence with my industrial
and darker touch could be something special.
Seni:
Pere and I know each other for more than 10 years now, I’ve been always into
music and Pere and I were always sending songs and showing bands to each other.
When he said he wanted to start a band, knowing him I knew he was serious about
it. I’m much more shy and reserved than him, so we work well with him being the
voice and forefront face of the band.
2. Pere,
you’re well-known for your work as a
visual artist. What prompted your transition from photography to music, and how
does your artistic background influence Sonic Panda’s creative vision?
Pere: To be
completely honest, I was quite burned out with photography. I felt that somehow
I said what I had to say, and that to continue was going to be one way to keep
cashing out and repeating myself. Music was my passion since childhood, and I
had songs in mind since years ago. One morning I woke up and I took that sudden
determination, I was going to stop and start making music because that’s what I
felt I had to do.
And now I can say that my music is a natural continuation of my work as a photographer, I revisit themes that I talked about in the past but with a new angle and in a much more direct way. I often say that if you had to put music to my photographs, that would be what Sonic Panda sounds like.
3. “Foreigners” is a powerful anthem against xenophobia and
racism. Can you elaborate on the personal experiences or moments that inspired
this song?
Seni: We
came up with the idea, since Pere lives as a foreigner in China and every time
we travel I become the obvious foreigner being an Asian. So yes, we are all
foreigners somewhere. I thought it was a simple and meaningful message. I
remember being shouted slurs while visiting abroad, and despite not
understanding what they said I can assure you it wasn’t something nice haha.
Pere: As
Seni said, we both have experienced at some point xenophobia, I’ve lived in
Asia for about 17 years, and is often that people who meet me daily don’t
bother to call me by my name but just the ‘foreigner’. Anyway the inspiration
for the song wasn’t so much personal experiences but the wave of hatred that is
sweeping across the globe. Toxic nationalism, fear of the outsider and
scapegoating immigrants, we seem to forget that we are all people and yes, that we are all foreigners
somewhere.
4. The
lyrics in “Foreigners” are described as direct and filled with rage.
What was the writing process like, and how did you channel these intense
emotions into the song?
Pere: I
wrote the song, and Seni gave notes and tamed some parts that were too harsh or
could be misinterpreted. But the writing process was very fast, it came out
quite naturally. This was one of the first songs we recorded, and it was a
message we both were on the same page, despite me having a stronger approach.
5. Sonic
Panda blends electro-rock with emotional intensity. Which artists or genres
have influenced your sound, and how do you incorporate these elements into your
music?
Pere: I’ve
always liked industrial and metal so I can’t help but being heavily influenced
by Rob Zombie, Rammstein, Manson or Zeromancer among many many others. At the same time I’ve grew up
listening to Bowie, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd since my father was a big fan.
So I think our music has a healthy dosage of both.
Seni:
Growing up in China I wasn’t exposed to any foreign music, much less metal or
rock. I heard of many of this bands for the
first time through Pere lol. The music that I grew up with was Chinese folk and
pop, which is very melodic and chill, the most western-sounding Chinese artist
that I listened to I guess would be Jay Chou, which is the closest to rock that
I came to before meeting Pere.
6. How
did you connect with No Where Records, and what role has the label played in
shaping Sonic Panda’s
debut single and overall vision?
Pere: We
sent them two demos from Beijing, one of them being ‘Foreigners’, funny enough
I didn’t know at the time that they were from Barcelona just like me, and once
we met things started rolling quite fast. I would say that we are on the same
wavelength musically and they are incredibly supportive. It’s a very healthy
collaboration where they guide us and expand our sound, I feel that they help
us make our songs bigger and more organic. Plus working with them it’s really
fun, it feels much more of a collaborative project between friends, rather than
how lonesome was the photography thing.
7.
Beyond “Foreigners,” what other themes or social issues do you
hope to address through your music in the future?
Pere:
‘Foreigners’ is a song with a clear social discourse but not all our songs will follow that trend. In fact what we are preparing next is way more
campy and fun. But anyway many of our future tracks will touch economic inequality, division and
some surprises that we just won’t tell yet haha.
Seni:
Yes, ‘Foreigners’ is one of our more serious songs, but we have many others
that are less direct, still carrying a message of course but with a sense of
humor… very dark humor.
8. Pere
and Seni, how do your artistic styles complement each other, and what is your
dynamic like when working together on music?
Seni: Pere
writes the songs, and after he writes something he comes and shows me, then is
when we butt heads on how to develop the song or how it should sound like. We
have very different taste in music and different influences so we have
sometimes heated debates on what makes a song special or what it doesn’t.
Pere: Seni
is very detail oriented, so he easily notices problems in the structure or
melody of a song. I’m chaotic, but
organised within my chaos if that makes sense. And Seni has zero tolerance for
chaos haha. So yeah he polishes the ideas and identifies where is the hook of
the song and what should be the chorus etc.
9. Pere,
your photobook Ultraviolence – Selected Works 10-25 was released alongside “Foreigners.”
How does this visual collection tie into the themes of the song and Sonic Panda’s identity?
Pere: The
fact that the book came out on the same week was symbolic for me, it was
closing a chapter in my life and starting a new one. The songs will follow up
on themes that I touched with the photos but also expand on its own onto new
ones. That book is
special since it closes 15 years of hard work and so many memories, but it’s
time to look forward not back.
10. What
was it like working with Carlsed on the production of “Foreigners,” and how did you achieve the modern, immersive
sound that defines the track?
Pere:
It took us some time to find the real ‘voice’ of Sonic Panda, Carlsed was
really the key to get to that sound. I
just really started with music, so at the beginning is hard to really translate
what you have in mind into the demo, and Carlsed has been deciphering that
balance between dark electronics and industrial sound. We are both workaholics
and the more time we get to work together the more in line we were on what
makes something click or what it doesn’t. At this point, not just with
‘Foreigners’ but with whats to come next, Carlsed is an integral part of Sonic
Panda’s sound.
11.
Sonic Panda uses music as a platform to break barriers and challenge stigmas.
What do you hope listeners take away from “Foreigners” and your future releases?
Seni:
With this first song, the idea is simple, is just to ignore all the debate in
the media and the internet and simply try to walk in other people’s shoes. We
are all people and despite our differences we should all try to empathise with
each other.
Pere:
Yes, as Seni said, the idea is to remind people that passports are only a piece
of paper and cardboard. Behind them there are human beings and we often seem to
forget that.
12. With
“Foreigners” marking your debut, what can fans expect from
Sonic Panda moving forward? Are there plans for an album, live performances, or
other creative projects on the horizon?
Pere: Yes to
all of the above, but all in the right time haha. For now we are going to focus
on a one-track basis, releasing singles that we feel we are proud with. Some EP
along the way and eventually, who knows, if things go well and we are not
incarcerated, deported or cancelled, an album.
Seni:
We have no rush, everything will happen when it has to happen. We are not very
ambitious, just want to enjoy making music and sharing it with people.
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