Interview taken by phone with Steven Redent
Dakka-Dakka program from SCORPIO radio (BE), 24.8.99

Steven: And on the phone we have Bluster, Hello.
Bluster: Hello
Steven: This was one of your songs, "Blustery" it's called
It's from your EP, well let's called it an EP, it's not very long.
It's called just "Bluster". And we also have a second one here which
is called "Outlands". And you just told me there is a new one coming up.
Bluster: Well actually, "Outlands" is the new one. It's a demo CD which
contains 3 songs we've cut in just a matter of two, three days, over a weekend.
It shows the new direction we are taking, which is slightly more "nineties" than
the style we had on the first CD.
Steven: Why is it more "nineties", what has changed ?
Bluster: Well, the sound has changed, the way we write the songs as well as
the structure of the songs. Essentially, what has changed is the way we fuse our own
influences which are rather diverses influences. Each band member of Bluster
has very different influences and we try to fuse them, we try to melt them
together into these new songs. Previously, our songs were mostly written
individually by each band member and then put into the band for it to be
played.
Steven: So this new sound, is it well, something only you are doing or are
there other swiss bands also going in new directions ?. Because I have this impression
that there a lot of swiss bands coming out of hiding at this moment...
Bluster: Yes. It is true there is a revival of the music scene and the rock scene in
Switzerland. It has taken several years, almost 10 years, for bands to
come out of the shadows and start assuming [believing] they have their
own personality and that they are also able to write their own songs and
have their own style. I'll just mention bands like Knut, impure Wilhelmina,
Fragment, Shovel which all come from this, kind of punk scene. They are
all musicians which already have previous experience and have become more
confident about their style and playing and now are ready to explore new
lands in their music.
Steven: Bands like Fragment and Shovel have a label backing them up. Is this something
Bluster is trying to find ?
Bluster: That's correct. Both have a label, Snuff records... er... Headstrong
...
Steven: Headstrong, I'm very sure, we played Fragment just an hour ago.
Bluster: Right. We're looking for a label right now. A label which can understand what
we are doing. This is quite difficult for us because we have a hard time
trying to describe our own music. We can of course get onto labels such
as "core" or "hardcore" or "post-alternative" but we really think we're
into something new right now, with the sound we have, with the style of
music and we are not sure any of these labels fit with the music we write.

Steven: They're not ready for it yet ?
Bluster: I'm not saying that people are not ready. I'm just saying that we have this
impression we haven't heard previous bands with the same sound or writing
in the same style. We haven't heard that yet. We've always been referred
to, like "it sounds a little bit like Tool or Deftones", but we can't always
refer strictly to one of these very original styles.

Steven: Does this revival reflect in live gigs also ?
Bluster: Yes. In Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, since about 2 years now, there are plenty more
concerts happening. Things are taken more seriously because I believe musicians
want to have more international impact. This was a problem we had previous
years ago in Switzerland: bands were satisfied if they toured around Switzerland.
Now, they are starting to understand that Switzerland is quite small, and
if they really want to achieve some kind of recognition and success, they
have to play in a bigger league and try to tour around France, Germany,
eventually Belgium and the UK.

Steven: On a finishing note, we might talk about your web site. You're very active
on your website?
Bluster: Yes. We have a web site. We have set up a web site. We think that, well we're
mostly technicians here, and we believe it's a wonderful way, we don't
know all the extents of this technology but, we think it's a cool way,
at least to get some exposure and promotion. The web site is www.bluster.ch,
on which you'll find concert dates, interviews, pictures, mpegs, mp3s.

Steven: So you're all, what did you say, engineers, or software people ?
Bluster: Not all in computers, but we're all involved in technology, like mechanics,
computers, biology. We're more technical guys than social or litterature guys.

Steven: Isn't that a problem when you want to tour ?
Bluster: I don't think so. We get along pretty well. We're pretty rough between each
other. Bluster is this magnet.

Steven: Jobwise ?
Bluster: I can't tell, We're all quite stable in our jobs and all have full time jobs.

Steven: That could be the problem. That's what I'm saying.

Bluster: We can arrange some spare time to go touring. We can find windows, several weeks within a year to go around touring. Yes we can.

Steven: So maybe we'll see you here. Let's listen to "Core" which is on this new "Outlands"
demo CD.