An Interview With Portaits & Tales
A heartwarming new single from Portraits & Tails delivers a cinematic undertone and a folk-rock approach with so much honesty and character that you get attached to it almost immediately and from there on out, you hold on tight.
"What if i was? Is a gorgeous song that has a unique way of growing in intensity the farther it goes and the track features lush vocal harmonies and lyrics that are not only touching but incredibly relatable to the point where this song can cause memories of your own to pop into your head at random.
This is like a gift musically because it doesn't happen often so when you get it, it's very refreshing and almost rejuvenating strangely.
This is a very clean track but it's also full-bodied with drums, bass, acoustic guitar, a little bit of electric guitar, and vocals that are oozing with soul.
What really grabs you is that persona because it's so truthful and genuine that at times, you feel like the song is something you want to give to a loved one as a message of your own.
This is brilliant because I think bands like this have a unique approach to expressing themselves and we all have strong feelings and emotions all the time of course, we're only human.
The difference is, a lot of us can't articulate those emotions or feelings into words let alone music so when you come across a band like this one and you hear a song that has this much impact on you, you're left in awe a little bit.
We all want to be able to express these strong feelings that we have and the wonder of a song like this is that when you hear it, you understand it completely and you feel like it must have been for the artist to write and release but for the listener it leaves its mark exactly the way it's supposed to.
The track is certainly powerful and I love how driving it actually becomes towards the end because it gives you this sort of emotional climax and the whole thing takes you out of your surroundings for a chunk of time and puts you in your head for a little bit.
Music is subjective and we all can take in songs differently when we hear them but it's always in relation to our own lives and experiences.
This song could be about a wife, a daughter, a son, a husband, or any loved one that has that level of impact on you.
That's the beauty of a song like this. You take it in and you feel and think because of it and I feel like we need more music that does that to us.
This was a lush and very beautiful song that felt alive and breathing in a way and I adore that aspect of it completely.
The energy was pretty much perfect and it hits all the sweet spots that you would want from a song that affects you this way.
If you are someone who likes music that can actually make you feel something then I suggest listening to this wonderful piece and seeing how it hits you.
An excellent track from a group I will be paying a lot more attention to from here on out.
With such an impactful release, we wanted to have a sit down with the band to find out where this actually came from and what might be next for them.
Here's what happened.
TSWS: Let's start with What If I Was! This song was beautiful in its sentiment and came through with heart! How did this song come about?
Well, the song came about as an urge to telling our kids how much we care and love them. The reason of this urge, has a lot to do to all the children who's suffering in the spotlight of the terrible wars going on around the world today. To see and hear children crying, screaming and dying made us write this statement of love to our children.
TSWS: I'm hearing some great styles on this. Who are some of your biggest influences musically?.
Well, there are some big names for sure who has influence our way of writing music. Smith & Tell is one of them and also the great First Aid Kit. But I also have a solid background in rock music wich you can hear in my vocals and in my way of singing. My biggest idol of all time is Chris Cornell, wich is the reason why I started singing in the first place. So yes, you can hear those diffrent styles in our music wich give us a unique sound.
TSWS: Are you guys performing live right now?
We are booking some liveshows for this summer around the northern part of Sweden. The first show will take place in the city of Luleå the fourth of May. We have been invited to play at a charity concert. The money will go directly to "kvinnojouren". An organisation that helps women to get away from domestic violence.
TSWS: Are you working on new material right now? Anything coming up next?
Yes we are!:) Actually, we are working on new material every singel day. We have about 50 new songs waiting to be processed. Since we all have daily Jobs, we need to use every sparetime possible to be able to work with the songs. It is not always that easy;) The goal is to release new material in the end of Mars.
TSWS: Who is in all your headphones right now?
O, that's very diffrent. But I think that the common music in our headphones right now is listening to new great Indie artists who deserves to get recognition for their hard work. One of my personal favorite indie artist right now is Damian Kalicki. Great artist.
TSWS: Do you record at a big studio, or do you have a home set up?
We have invested in building our own homestudio. With some very good mixing tips from our good friend Patrik Heikinpieti ( drummer in Mando Diao ) we do everything by ourselfs.
TSWS: What kind of things inspire you to write, and do you write songs together?
The things that inspires me to write are very diffrent. Mostly I write about self experienced life situations, but sometimes it can be a word, a smell, a sound, a color or just pure imagination that inspires me to write. Sometimes my wife Malin hears a melody that I'm working on and she starts writing lyrics to it, and sometimes, it's the opposite. But when it comes to the instrumentation, I tell Jyrki and Robin that they have total freedom on writing the bass lines and guitarr riff. Then we sit down and share thoughts and Ideas.
TSWS: What are you guys doing when you're not making music?
Well, we all have dayjobs, so we work:) Then we all have families to take care about. Me and Malin has 4 children. All pree teens.... Robin has a toodler who's running around at their place. Jyrki can take it chill on that part, his daugther is all grown up but he always some projects to work on when we don't work with music.
TSWS: Before we go, what would you like to say to fans of the music?
Well, first of all, thank you so much for all your support. You're the reason why we continue doing music. Please continue supporting and beliving in us. We are now working on some more awesome music and who knows, someday we will show up in your home town;) Follow us on social media and share our music with the rest of the world!
Thank you so much for this great interview.
With love from Sweden, Alvaro Araya Leon, singer and songwriter at Portraits & Tales.