Longital Interview: SXSW 2010

On paper, Slovakian electronic rock duo Longital invite comparisons to Nordic brethren Sigur Ros, playing bowed guitars and singing in a language understood by few outside of their homeland. The similarities end there, however. Schooled as a jazz musician and steeped in the traditional music of Iran and India, Daniel Salontay joined together with poet and folk singer Shina to create a sound informed by music from far-flung reaches of the globe but still distinguished by its Eastern European provenance. Spinner spoke with Salontay about his band's upcoming appearance at SXSW, their first, in support of their new album, 'Gloria.'

Describe your sound in your own words.

We play the soundtrack to a psychedelic version of the happy end of the world, where fish fly over the rivers filled not with water, but with music streaming into the seas. Some say that we sound like Camille and Spoon smoking around a Slavic midsummer bonfire -- like Animal Collective with a European pedigree. We flit between the old and the new, always traveling light and always returning to a bluff above the Danube River that inspired our name and musical adventures.

How did your band form?

We were a couple before we formed the band. I was a jazz guitarist with an eclectic musical background and Shina was a poet and folk singer. We started working on our own music together in 2000 and quickly formed a four-piece band only to lose two drummers in quick succession. Even though it looked like a disaster from the outside, the situation showed us how to become self-sustainable. Now we can travel to gigs by train or plane with just a few small cases and what we jokingly call our virtual bandmate, Xi Di Nim [minidisc spelled backwards]. It's funny because sometimes concert organizers don't get it. They reserve a room for him or ask if the Japanese guy in the band is vegetarian.

What are your musical influences?

Shina's most important influence is music created by women, namely Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell and Suzanne Vega. I discovered I was a musician by browsing through the records of my parents and listening to everything from Yma Sumac, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix to early fusion music by Miles Davis, John McLaughlin and Chick Corea. Our recent musical influences lie in personal encounters with musicians whom we've met while touring and became friends with, including wonderful people like [the Swell Season's] Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

You're named after "Lange Teile" -- the name of a hill in your hometown of Bratislava -- but does the word Longital hold any greater significance?

The Slovak name of our home base, Dlhe Diely, became the band's first moniker, but led to some wacky cross-cultural miscommunications: We became Diddly Diddly in Finland and Dilly Dally in Ireland. Unsure of what to do, we stumbled across the old German name for our home at the intersection of Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic: Longital, the long valley. When we Googled the word Longital in the beginning, there were just three references. The first two references were about the history of the hill and the third was a scientific paper on the physics of elementary particles in which the word longital was used to denote behavior of excited electrons in an electromagnetic field!

What's your biggest vice?

I love good French wine and an unpasteurized sheep cheese called Bryndza, which is produced in Slovakia. Shina's vice is reading everything that has ever been put into words and on paper, especially spiritual books.

What's in your tour survival kit?

We always take along Merino wool clothes made in New Zealand by a company called Icebreaker. They keep us warm while touring, look good and are extremely durable. My suitcase is always full of electronic gear like cables and preamps, so I stuff my clothes in with my guitar. In our mental survival kit we try to carry the ability, or at least the willingness, to accept situations as they arise and read them as messages from some invisible beings or better selves who are trying to teach us and guide us. We call them coincidences.

Which current popular artist would you most like to meet?

Maybe Brian Eno. I read that he doesn't drive a car -- same as us. And Daniel Lanois, my guitar hero.

What artist would you like to meet in any era?

Paul Klee. I love his art and how he merged painting and drawing. There is something very musical in his approach to working with colors and textures. I'd also love to read his diaries -- he was really painting the music for me.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

Vintage guitars. I just keep stumbling across guitars with a story and they're often in a very desolate condition. I can't help but to save them, buy them out from slavery and bring them to life. They reward me with some amazing pieces of music. I found the guitar I'll be playing at SXSW in a flea market, covered with tiger-pattern wallpaper.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

Last year, we played a barn in the middle of nowhere on the border between the Czech Republic and Austria. There were bonfires to keep the audience warm and two amazing VJs who used old overhead projectors to create visuals by cutting out pieces of paper and colored transparent plastic. During the middle of the show, a huge thunderstorm shook the building and a man on a white horse burst in, completely soaked. He parked his horse by the bar and the animal quietly sipped beer from abandoned glasses for the duration of the show. I wish I had a camera, but maybe it's better we do not have this documented. Memories of that night make up a movie that I sometimes watch in my head.

Say you meet Sigur Ros in a dark alley. Who wins in a bowed guitar competition?

Meeting Sigur Ros in a dark alley would be magic. All I can say is that we are using heavier double bass bows, while Jonsi of Sigur Ros is using a cello bow, so it would be a power play on the side of Longital!

Jesse Costello is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.