Kerretta Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 11th 2010 12:00PM by Stephen Dowling
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"Ear-splitting." That's a description that's been bandied around for instrumental Kiwi three-piece Kerretta, a band who've been likened both to ethereal Icelandics Sigur Ros and legendary New Zealand noise outfit Bailter Space. Their SXSW visit is part of their debut US tour, which comes hot on the heels of the release of their debut album 'Vilayer.' Before climbing on board a US-bound plane, the mysterious NZ trio fielded a few questions from Spinner.

Are you hoping SXSW will give you a foothold and some fans to come back to?

Absolutely -- coming from New Zealand its a difficult process to get well attended shows organised. Being a part of SXSW opens the door to a huge amount of publicity and exposure the we wouldn't otherwise get. It also lends so nice credibility to our name.

How would you describe your sound?

Hopefully these words sum it up: Large, immediate, delibrate, elegant, delicate, brutal, firey.

How did the band form?

A random coalescence of like minded instrumentally inclined jam buddies plus beer and Sundays.

What are your musical influences?

Musical innovation is an influence, genre is a dirty word. Anything breaking new ground and trying to make something unheard of is an influence. Oh and Led Zep.

How did you come up with the band name?

Theres a little village in NZ called Kereta. We thought is sounded nice and decided to add some extra consonants so it sounded more like Beretta.

Do you have anything you consider your festival survival kit?

Our laynards and Austin street map!

Do you have anything you consider a musical guilty pleasure?

tuning our guitars and drums down low seems like a guilty pleasure, though I'm not sure why. It just seems bad ass.

Beatles or Stones?

Beatles in a heartbeat.

What do you have coming up after SXSW?

SXSW kicks off a month long US tour for us, check out myspace.com/kerretta for the tour schedule.