A CURE FOR SIRI
Methods Of Truth
(Doetleukmee Productions)

 

It’s not easy breaking new ground for pop and rock music in the 21st century but the Holland-based band called A Cure For Siri gives it quite a go with their 2013 CD entitled Methods Of Truth. Apple computer fans might know “Siri”—who is the voice of the Apple iPhone. Siri can tell you anything you need to know but what about a cure for Siri? Siri (he or she) will find hi-tech solace on the debut CD from A Cure For Siri. With a number of highly memorable tracks, the Methods Of Truth CD is sonically revolutionary, both in its musical style and recording style. As described on the band’s Facebook page, A Cure For Siri makes music with the aid of machines and the result is an ingenious mix of wild, high-tech sounds with human voices in the form of both pop songs and electronica-based instrumentals. With such a bold bag of sonic tricks up their collective sleeve, A Cure For Siri might just be the Art Of Noise of the 21st century. Methods Of Truth is just so diverse sounding that, while often veering from hippie rock to disco in the blink of an eye (or ear), A Cure For Siri is also not afraid of performing deep, swirling synth / electronic instrumentals that would make Kraftwerk blush, while on their vocal numbers, A Cure For Siri sounds like a futuristic Velvet Underground from another planet. Methods Of Truth is truly an experimental CD, but the music created by A Cure For Siri still maintains a human edge over the onslaught of the technological madness known as the 21st century. www.acureforsiri.nl / www.ACureForSiri.bandcamp.com


mwe3.com presents an interview with
A CURE FOR SIRI


mwe3
: A Cure For Siri started off at a fundraiser for a children’s hospital. How did the original ideas expand and lead to the CD release of Methods Of Truth, the first CD by A Cure For Siri?

A Cure For Siri: Well, with the fundraiser we made music with a goal: to raise money for the children’s ward. The thought arose: why not make music to get other things across, like ideas, philosophical thoughts, to make music with a mission, a vision. And have some fun with oscillators and filters along the way!

mwe3: Can you tell us who plays what instruments and sings on the A Cure For Siri album and what did you set out to achieve musically and conceptually on the Methods Of Truth CD?

A Cure For Siri: The "who" is not important. One of the cornerstones of A Cure for Siri is to try and free yourself from ego. The music is what is important, not personal recognition or praise. Sometimes difficult - we're all human - but if you succeed you feel liberated. Having said that, A Cure for Siri consists not only of musicians but also of other artists, like dancers, graphic artists... The music is mainly produced with piano, synthesizers and some percussion and we've got some help with the vocals from our friends Jacqueline and Caroline Bosch. We set out to make, well, not necessarily a concept album in the traditional sense, but a concept in feel; it should be "a trip". Some of the ideas we feel strongly about should be addressed along the way.

mwe3: The music on Methods Of Truth has some great instrumental tracks such as the brilliant “What You Get Is What You See”, but there’s also a number of pop and rock vocal tracks that are said to be
influenced by a range of words written by some of your favorite philosophers. Who are your favorite philosophers and how does using their philosophical text fit into the A Cure For Siri mindset?

A Cure For Siri: Even the "instrumental" tracks have a subject matter. "What You Get Is What You See" for instance is influenced by Eckart Tolle, who took some ideas from Buddhism and made them more "user friendly"... and we mean that in the most respectful way. See the title of the track; take a good critical look at yourself ("wake up!"), try and rid yourself from ego. But see the good things also; see what you've got, not what you don't have. Bill Hicks, the late American comedian, has some thoughts along those lines too. The "curse" of humankind is that we know that our life will end some day, we are aware of death; but don't let that awareness immobilize you from living ("Tragic Hero").

A lot of the ideas come from science and people like Richard Dawkins, Richard Feynman and James Randi, (not a scientist) who advocate a kind of honesty, a clearness in thinking without prejudices. The philosopher Peter Singer looks at and challenges the way we treat animals, especially in industrial farming ("Anima Mundi"). The title track sums everything up in a way; the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizet basically says something along the line as: "...The creation of earth (and humankind).... is a cosmic imbalance; something went terribly wrong. How can we justify this? Answer: with love." Well, we don't know for sure whether this is exactly what he meant, but it is a wonderful thought.

mwe3: Siri of course is the famous speaking brain of the Apple iPhone. Is that the “artificial intelligence” you speak about on your Facebook page? Do you feel people are becoming more and more accepting of artificial intelligence in a world of confusing / multiple answers and conflicting cures? Has technology made us better or more colder and more confused? What is the cure for Siri then and how can we learn to be more human and humane in an artificial world?

A Cure For Siri: Siri stands for all forms of artificial intelligence, technology, machines. Siri can understand human language and can speak, but Siri doesn't know irony, sarcasm, metaphors; these are very human characteristics. And yes, technology has made us better, colder and more confused. This wonderful invention called internet makes it possible that we are having this "conversation" while being thousands of miles apart, it is a wonderful source of information, it makes the world smaller in a good sense. But there is definitely a very dark side too, like lack of privacy, and new forms of crime. Industrial revolution has brought a lot of welfare, but also a lot of abuse to people and animals. The answer to the confusion, the "cure"? Awareness. Education. Fight ignorance. Empathy. Love!

mwe3: How has the Methods Of Truth album been accepted in Holland and throughout Europe and what other artists do you feel are also making groundbreaking music these days? What artists and albums had such a big part in your musical influences?

A Cure For Siri: So far reviews of the album have been, without exception, very positive. And it is great to see that everyone gets something different, musically, out of it. That is probably because our influences are so diverse. Of course,s progressive rock is at the heart of it; the great bands and artists of the seventies like YES, Tangerine Dream, ELP, Pink Floyd, Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre expanded not only the musical and technological possibilities but also showed that an album could be a piece of art (Close to the Edge, Dark Side Of The Moon, Phaedra, Albedo ... etc.).

In the 1980’s, the technology of especially synthesizers got incorporated into pop music; people like Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush and groups like Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails were, and are, very influential. Then there is that other side of the musical spectrum that is influential to our music: minimalists like Steve Reich and Michael Nyman, piano based modern composers Ludovico Einaudi and Olafur Arnalds. Most progression in sound nowadays comes from dance based music, like Gold Panda and James Holden, and from post-rock bands like Sigur Ros and Archive. We could go on and on!

mwe3: Can you tell us something about the great album art work on the A Cure For Siri album and how does the artwork reflect the music under the cover?

A Cure For Siri: Raymond Hamers could probably answer that one better, but the thing we can say is that it spoke to us immediately. Most artwork these days, certainly in prog, is dark and the work of Raymond is bright, colorful. For us, it stands for hope. Like the music, we think. The song "I Won't Let You Go", a pop song to which we made a little video, says: it doesn't matter if we don't always understand each other, or if we disagree, or even if we're completely different, we still could and should take care of each other.

mwe3: What plans does A Cure For Siri have moving forward into 2014?

A Cure For Siri: Making more music. To be inspired and to be inspiring!


{Afterword: we're thinking about making a video for the song "Science". No actual filming has to be involved. If anyone who can connect with our ideas, could help (ideas, video-editing etc.), or knows someone who could help? Please get in touch: info@acureforsiri.nl}



 

 
   
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