Although the five members of Deco Pilot come from different countries: Mexico, Sweden, or Spain, UK and London were for them the starting point of this musical adventure.
José Juan (lead singer) and Juan Francisco Portillo (lead guitarrist and brother of José) went deep into the artistic world during his period of musical study in the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) based in Paul McCartney’s old school. Liverpool was the witness of the cultural and creative mixture between the mexican-spanish brothers and other musicians as Gian Carlo Bonfanti (italian-mexican keyboarder) who also studied in LIPA . But the truly witness of the constitution of Deco Pilot as a band was London. José, Juan and Gian Carlo met there the rest of the line-up formed by John Franklin (swedish bassist) and Eduardo Sánchez (spanish drummer) and the project took shape. They are currently recording their first EP in the Garden Studios (London) where bands like Artic Monkeys, Happy Mondays or Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have worked in. The name of the EP is “This City” and will be launched around this november.
We can found in their music synth-pop or alternative rock influences but you will be able to know a bit more of the band through this interview.
Who are Deco Pilot?
We are 5 good friends that met in London thanks to music, but we come from different parts of the world. We are lucky that all the band is in the same “musical channel”, so we like to play a lot and make cool songs. We are currently finishing our first EP as Deco Pilot and we really like the sound of it. It’s gonna be out sometime around autumn this year.
Why that name?
We came across with the name playing with words but I think Deco Pilot represent in a certain way what music is for us.If music basically changes an atmosphere and peoples moods music can change your journey, your way, or your destination.We see music as a Copilot.”Co-piloting” with music.
Who are your main musical influences?
I think we all have different influences in the band. Some of Our main influences, as well as inspirations are: The Killers, Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Zoé (mexican band).
If you had to describe your music with colours which ones would be?
We think it would be a combination of black, red and white with a bit of blue!
How is your composing/writing process?
In our composing process we don’t follow any eccentric protocols. We definitely go with the flow. We just share our ideas playing. The more we talk about what we want the longer it takes to finish. Sometimes one of us brings up a riff, like the main melody, and we start playing around it and we let the song develop by itself basically. Other times someone might have more clear the idea and brings up almost the whole song structure, and as we play we add in more details and make some changes to the song.
Tell us a bit about your first/EP.
We’ve been going to the studio finishing the mixing with our friend Eduardo Paz who is producing and mixing it for us, and we really liked the sound we got, cause this time we recorded it playing together in the same room, so that kind of gives the songs a more human vibe . We rehearsed the songs a lot, so we knew them really well when we recorded them. It’s going to be our first EP as Deco Pilot, cause we were formerly known as The Risk, and these songs have really motivated us to try to be better than before. We are really happy with them.
What do you offer in your concerts that other bands not and which are the dates of your next gigs?
We offer an energetic atmosphere with space for self reflection but you’ll have to go and check it out yourself. Our next important concert date is Brownstock Festival 2012 (sunday, September 2 at 12:30am) in Essex.
In the meantime and until the release of “This City” you can listen to some of their compositions here. Judge for yourself and enjoy the tunes!
