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While the bigger names at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound festival tend to be drawn from outside the area (with Pixies and Arcade Fire headlining this year’s event), some of the best surprises are the more local acts. Barcelona-based trio Lasers played that role to perfection last weekend, combining their brand of danceable electronica with frenetic live drums. Our Barcelona correspondent Josep Xortó, himself a synth-stroker of some repute, caught up with the good people of Lasers before they closed the VICE stage on Thursday night…

How did it all start?

Like every band, a bunch of friends that play together. There´s no interesting story behind it.
Alex and Charlie used to play together for fun and then Ivan joined to play the bass.

How long have you been playing together for?

About five years…we started playing together in 2009.

What are your plans for the next few months?

We’re going to record our third album in our Barcelona based studio, Newton Audio, and play some festivals like Pop-Arb in Arbucies, Tomavistas in Madrid, Festival’era in Llagostera, etc…

Synths are pretty popular at the moment, is it just hype?

Synths have always been popular. We don´t think it´s a hype, they are just one more instrument. Maybe now the people are more receptive…

What do you think about artists going for the vintage feel in their music?

We are glad about that, we love the old records and the way they have been recorded. The production techniques used in the past kept the feeling of the music, for us it’s very important. We are happy that artists wanted to bring back all these.

Do you declare yourself a ’90s fan?

Yes, but not especially. We love all decades. You can find good stuff in all of them…

What do you think about getting brands involved into music?

We don´t care about it. There always has to be someone behind the festivals and concerts, if brands want to be there we don’t have any issue with it.

Tell us, what’s you favourite sound?

’70s records had a special feeling. We love that sound.

Check out Lasers’ latest video above, and stream their most recent record, Exchange Levels, on their Bandcamp…

Josep Xortó