Costa Rica’s Patterns make fabulous, 80’s styled synth dance pop that glimmers with sunny tones and sparkly, kaleidoscopic melodies, all tied together with a sweet, sugary vocal from singer, Michelle Gonzalez. Patterns released their début album, Dangerous Intentions,earlier this year and are set to be touring a whole lot next year overseas, heading to the USA, pockets of South America and most importantly to UK shores. Patterns are a very exciting band indeed.
I caught up with the band to chat about everything from their début album, Dangerous Intentions, to the music scene in Costa Rica and much, much more. Read on for more.
You released your début album, Dangerous Intentions, back in July and a few days after it was released it had already hit the number one spot on iTunes. How did it feel to know that you’d achieved number one with your début?
It was a huge surprise, we never expected to be over other great artists that at that moment had also released their album. Recording and producing this album (on our own) was a great experience, we did everything and anything we wanted to do to each song during the process… It was also a lot of time locked up in the studio, so it’s very rewarding to know that something you worked so hard on hits number one and the public is enjoying it.
You recorded and produced your latest track Sunny Days yourself at your recording studio in San José. It must be great to have that level of control and creative input with your music, can you tell us a little bit about the process of working on that track?
Sunny days was one of the very first songs we composed. It got shaped until Michelle sent us (Mario and Allan) a track with some ideas she had for the vocals… From that track we basically took only like five seconds of what she had sent and re ordered it completely… That’s how the sort of loopy vocals on the chorus came out. Then the rest of the song developed from there.
It’s the best that can happen to a musician… Being able to record and develop any ideas you have without having to worry for studio time or some renown producer rate. We were lucky to be able to work that way because it let us give the necessary time and care that each song required… It was a very detailed operation we did back then.
Living in Costa Rica, it must be hard to drag yourself away from the beautiful weather to go indoors and work in the studio, because your music is so vibrant and kaleidoscopic, does the climate and culture of Costa Rica have any influence on your sound?
Well, Costa Rica has a lot of variety in landscapes and its full of warm-full people, we also have a lot of talented musicians in a lot of genres. We grew up listening to reggae music, salsa, cumbia, merengue, and other Latin music, also rock, pop, jazz, soul, disco; so this weird mix of such different types of music makes a very different way of seeing the music. We also love the beach, the mountains, the rivers and to travel a lot here in Costa Rica. We think all these additives gives our music a taste of tropical flavour.
What are your thoughts on the music scene in Costa Rica? Is there quite a buzz around the city surrounding the music scene, and are there any venues you’d recommend checking out?
The music scene in Costa Rica is really small but filled of great artists, we have great bands in different genres. I am just counting the days to be the witness of a lot of Costa Rican bands touring around the world. We have also some small great venues, we recommend Steinvorth, Hoxton Pub, and Club Vertigo.
What’s a show for Patterns normally like?
Our shows are very honest. We love to show the people we are real musicians. So we just drop a lot of great energy in the stage! We have a great chemistry as a band, so we just try to have a great time live!
Michelle, you’re well known for unique stage costumes, it must be fun to put the outfit’s together, do you had a favourite stage outfit that you’ve worn so far?
One of my favourite costumes has been the morphsuit, having your face covered up, is like being completely separated from everyone else, like when a kid closes its eyes and thinks no one can see him. It feels comfortable. It’s intriguing to people not knowing if it’s a boy or a girl behind it, you become a character and forget the person.
Can we be expecting any international tour dates to be announced soon?
We sure hope so. We are planning a few dates in the USA early next year. We are also setting up a European tour by next spring at the time that plan includes only U.K. and France. We would also love to go to countries like México, Colombia and Peru were it seems like we have a big fan base already.
We’re big supporters of new music here at Bitter Sweet Symphonies. Having said that, are there any new artists that have caught your attention recently that you’d like to share with us?
Sure. A band from Barcelona named 08001; Banks; Paper Lions.
Do you have any tips for new bands starting out, any advice that you could give them?
Get crazy on stage, people don’t want to see their friend on stage, they want to see an idol, an icon, and you have everything to do it, so get loose and don’t over think it so much.
You are very active on social media, twitter and facebook in particularly. How important is to for you to connect with your fans that way?
Very very important, even thought we prefer connecting with them at concerts. We answer each and every message, post, etc. We feel the connection and the fans too.
As we’re approaching the end of 2013. Is there anything that you’d like to achieve by the end of this year and what can we be expecting from Patterns in the New Year?
We are negotiating a record deal with a well-known independent label in LATAM. We hope to get into an understanding regarding the general scope of the agreement and sign a final version next year. We also are preparing ourselves to tour next year.
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A special thanks to Patterns for this interview and for more info on the band, check out the following links below.
