LUNCIL: Dream Pop from Argentina
LUNCIL is a Dream Pop band from Buenos Aires, Argentina, formed in 2005. They recorded their first EP in 2008 called "Durmientes en el Mar" and an instrumental experiment in 2011, called "Paisajes". In 2013 they resume and remix the EP "Durmientes en el Mar".
After a small pause the band returned in 2015, making some live performances for the first time. They participated in some compilations, and 2019 decided to start recording their first album, which is still in progress. Last September they released a single preview of the album, called "Nunca lo harás".
The band members are: Carla Desiderio and Diego Centurión.
The musical inspiration is very wide, ranging from Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance or The Cure, to Tango, Bolero, classical music or the Bosanova, all that mixture of musical cultures fall within the sound of LUNCIL
Noise Artists take a close look to the universe of LUNCIL from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Band
Where are you from? Where are you living now?
We are from Buenos Aires, Argentina. And we continue to be part of the iconography of the same city-
What did you study?
Well! Carla Desiderio is a Designer of Clothing and Design. Diego Centurión is a musician, Director of The 13th Magazine and one of the founders of ‘No Me Escucho Records’.
What is your day job at present if any?
Carla: My "official" job is as professor in the clothing industry course at the University of Palermo (Buenos Aires).
Diego: My "official" job is an office worker at the University of Buenos Aires.
Do you dream to live from your music or is it a passion you do not want to spend your full time on?
Diego: This is a difficult point to explain. Thinking about living from music is something that in these times can be utopian. One unconsciously hopes that what one composes alone, or in this case, as a duo, comes to light, and that many people can hear us.
But I also know that if I can have free time for the money our music has generated, it would be more than barbaric. I would probably have more time to take care of other things related to art and not just music.
In these times, the diversity of offers on the web makes everything dissipate in the eyes of fans or potential buyers of our records. That's why I think that living on the royalties that music can give us today sounds utopian. But hey, who doesn't want to be recognized for the work done and make you live with what your music generates?
You have a great history. Could you tell us more?
Diego: Luncil was born from a group of old songs composed for a rock band format. At home I disassembled those songs and rewrote them as I always wanted them to sound, without the opinions of other musicians.
I always had the idea of keeping everything bounded to the guitar and the tracks on a computer. But sometimes the songs requires another instrument and although I try to do it on my own, my friends always give us a hand with some if these instruments.
Could you tell me how the band meet and decided to do music together?
Diego: After the aforementioned process, the reworking time, Carla joined to help me with the voices and together we embarked on this trip called LUNCIL. Today we are a constituted duo and take decisions as a duo.
Can you tell me the inspiration behind your band? You can detect the influences of Dream Pop and have a very unique sound. You took all these influences to make your own music, your own sound, which is not easy. Could you tell more?
Diego: LUNCIL was conceived as a being all music that I had in my head throughout my life. From a young age I was strongly influenced by the music that my older brothers listened to.
When creating new music I have three bands mainly in my blood, Pink Floyd, The Cure and Cocteau Twins. I think Luncil's music has atmospheres that match many bands, but those three can always be distinguished in LUNCIL, but in a very lost way in the climates we can create.
The voice of Carla is usually very ethereal andt the union of my guitars and her voice, make Luncil something different.
Was there a vision of sorts or did you know what you wanted to do when you started up
Diego: The idea from the beginning was to sound like LUNCIL sounds today. It took us a long time to achieve that in conjunction of what I have in mind and what we can actually create.
I knew that what was coming was going, rethinking everything, would be a difficult job. And here we are in the process of completing our first album. We knew that we would get there, but we didn't think it would take more than ten years to make the decision.
“Luckily we have our friend Darío Martinez who has “Estudio Montacargas” and that was something that reassures us, since he perfectly understands the language we intend to speak”
Do you have any other musical side projects apart from this band?
Diego: Not as such, but I usually do remixes for other groups.
Could you tell me more on the band composition? Do you have plans to add new members, or is there possible departure scheduled from existing band members?
Diego: We were always a duo. Although we have played with guests, but not more than once per concert.
The idea was always to preserve the our space, and when we feel the need to add a live musician live we do it. In our next album there are many guests. When we decide to play it in a concert, we will see if we will have those guests in the show. If one of the two of the band left, obviously LUNCIL would make no sense.
Can you tell us more how you came to have the band’s name?
Diego: Well! LUNCIL is born from a sweet story. LUNCIL is a two-word anagram, one that is another anagram, Lunica, which is formed by the names of my son "Luca Nicolás", and the other word that forms the anagram Luncil is "stencil". So Lun (belongs to Lunica) and cil (belongs to Stencil).
The Creative process
Who writes the song and the music and how do you get to the final song? Is it a community process, do you have leaders in composing or arranging music?
Diego: Well, almost always everything is born from in my mind. I create the parts and she only listens to those projects after they exceed my filter. Then we accommodate the voice melodies to the tones, that is the hardest work, but the result is lovely. Although the original tones can be modified several times for her voice.
Do you listen to the advice of your band mates? What would you do if they said a song was shit but you liked it?
Diego: In that sense, Carla is usually very critical, and many times she is the one who tells me that it is too long.
I have the tendency to go on a trip, that if it was for me it could last several minutes. I usually extend a lot in the introductions or in the finals. Luckily she knows how and when to tell me "this is too long".
There’s a degree of unconventional song writing. Was it kind of intimidating going to record knowing people might not be engaging with the songs in terms of hooks and such and trying to deliver an engaging sound on record?
Diego: It happened to us that in the recording of our first EP "Durmientes en el Mar". The person in charge of the recording wanted to handle the production and we ended up having a very bad time. Fortunately, since we worked with Darío Martínez, everything changed and he perfectly understands what we want.
Talking about the lyrics: who write them? Is there a common thread in them, a theme?
Diego: For now I write the lyrics. Although they can always be changed to accommodate the vocal melodies of Carla. The lyrics usually talk about love...
Do you labour over your lyrics? Is that something that comes easy?
Diego: I almost always try to adapt the vocal metrics to the writings I have. That how we always have worked. Although sometimes I have written based on what I have created from music.
Do you have a message that you want to get across in your music? If so, what are some of the messages you want to spread?
Diego: The conception we always have of LUNCIL's music is to create a trip, we almost always think of sound structures that makes a sense as a travel. We like to look at the stars and fly, and we try to take it to our music.
Did your listening habits changed over the years and does it affect what you write?
Diego: It has changed. We are from the era where an entire album was heard and we didn't have as much information as today. We still take the time to put an entire disk on our cell phones and we enjoy it, it is that ‘travel’ concept that I spoke in the previous question. But new times have changed the way you show your music, and there are things that we adapt, such as editing singles and remixes. But when it comes to our way of composing, that hasn't changed so much.
Tell me more about the following songs, how they were written, what they are about, any anecdote or story you want to share
Diego: We are currently finishing recording our first album. The songs in this album belong to our stage of maturation as a band. We've been going around the sound we wanted to capture in our recording for a long time. Today we are finishing this registration process and closing a stage. But we already started working on new material, and in these new songs there are already a more team spirit and understanding among us, we can see what kind of songs are missing in our repertoire and we go in search of those sounds.
How is your recognition going worldwide? Is it growing? Are you happy with it?
Diego: We have been waiting for the moment of the edition of our Single to show our music in a more professional way. And so far we are surprised by the good reception that it´s having. In various parts of the world, as in our country, the returns of our music have been fantastic. And we find it hard to believe everything that they tell us about LUNCIL.
The path to music
Is it easy to find producers and studios where you lived for indie-rock?
Diego: Nowadays it is easier to record in your home, with the minimum and indispensable tools. I have heard music recorded in small home studios with very good quality. Luckily we have our friend Darío Martinez who has "Estudio Montacargas" and that was something that reassures us, since he perfectly understands the language we intend to speak.
He is a musician and producer, you should listen to his band “Horacio.nuevatemporada”. And he knows how to understand the moment of a recording, those moments where things don't go as you want and get frustrated. In those moments he usually intervenes and solves in a simple way what for us may seem like a tragedy.
Your recorded sound is very good, which is not easy. Did you engineer the sound yourself, or did you have a sound engineer with you? If yes could you tell us more about him/her?
Diego: From the moment we started recording a song, we know what sound we are going to make. We know the weather that we must generate in each track. But that is what one has in the head, magic always ends up appearing from the hand of Darío Martínez, since it mixes and gives the body that each song needs. In our case the sound is present in the recording, but it is Darío who puts magic in the recordings making everything shine.
Was it a community work to try to have the best sounding music possible or mainly driven by the sound engineer or by the band?
Diego: We arrived with the sound ready for the recording. But in that process, the real sound is always captured with the help of the engineer or who makes the recording. In our case we usually arrive with the idea and the sound very reflective and detailed, then in the mix appears the hand of the engineer who takes our ideas to the tracks. For several years, our producer is Darío and he is our guru where we deposit our ideas and he is the one who makes them audible.
Can you tell us how the recording process was?
Diego: We are in that process yet. We are finishing recording the latest songs. This recording has taken us almost a year, and we still have things to record, we do not want to hurry, we are taking the time to record everything very carefully. In these songs we have several guests who have sent us their recordings via the internet, which is a challenge for the puzzle to work. But it is sounding very nice and the result is surprising us. We need to register some songs and wait for the participation of some other guests.
Could you let us know some important technical tricks you learnt during the process that could help other musicians not as experienced?
Diego: I think what has helped us a lot in this recording is knowing what to do in the studio. At least both. The collaborations have always been managed so that the guests have total freedom to record whatever they want. What was always surprising. But the basis of the song on our side was always very rigid. Then, with the aggregates of the guests, he (Dario) gave us a new look at the songs, which nurtured us with new ideas, but we always maintained the basic idea of each song. In short, everything should be very clear when entering the study and not experiment, provided it is not your own studio.
Any interesting anecdotes on some recording session you would like to share?
Diego: There are songs that we had to record again because the studio computer died. Luckily we have made a copy of a lot of the material on another computer. But there was material that we could not recover and we had to record again. Which was beneficial for us because it gave us some new ideas to register once again. It also happened to us that the remixes they gave us had so many versions that at the time of deciding which we would use we had so many different files that we had to listen to them one by one. And we were surprised with several versions that we had discarded.
Did getting the live experience across on record create any pressure for yourselves in the recording process?
Diego: No. Almost always the recorded sound is closely related to what we bring to the shows.
Instruments: tell as something about your equipment.
Diego: We don't have so much important equipment. I think the root of the guitar sound is my Epiphone Dot guitar and my Zoom Gfx 8 pedalboard, its delays and chorus are essential for our sound. But the most important thing about the LUNCIL sound is the voice of Carla, which has no effect.
Do you have one favorite instrument or do you change often?
Diego: My Epiphone Dot is brilliant for LUNCIL and I don't need another guitar.
Tell us what you are looking when trying to achieve your sounds? Do you experiment a lot or have a clear idea of what you want?
Diego: It is not always the same. Sometimes I experiment with chords and sounds, although sometimes it doesn't become a song. Other times I know how I want the sound to be but I don't have the precise chords. So it is always a search that can occur from some point or from none.
How many concerts a year would you do on average and what would be the size of the venue?
Diego: We are not a band that performs many live shows, we prefer to focus more on the aesthetic proposal of the shows, which many times we cannot perform as we would like. That's why it's hard for us to play live and that's why we play when we have the necessary possibilities.
Would you mind sharing some good anecdotes from your concerts/touring?
Diego: At a concert in 2015, the sound of the place was locked by a delay effect, and throughout the presentation we listened to that delay effect, which was growing and we could not hear our own sound. Fortunately, the public never realized what was happening. The funny thing is that it was one of the most beautiful concerts that came out, according to the public.
What are some places around the world that you hope to take your band? Do you have any plans at present to tour in other countries?
Diego: We would love to travel. But it is not yet in our immediate plans. But, Peru, Mexico, Italy and Spain, would be among our favorite destinations.
Is there any reason in particular that you want to go to these places? Is there something about dream pop/shoegaze in those places that makes you want to go there?
Diego: In Peru and Mexico there is an important activity in Shoegaze and Dream Pop, but Italy is where there is the greatest movement, and Spain by language is much simpler.
The Scene
Argentinian Dreampop is not well known internationally. Could you tell us more about it?
Diego: The Argentine Dream Pop has been present in our bands since the late 80's. Bands like Euroshima in the late 80's, but in the 90's we can rescue the bands that were encouraged to the sound of the Shoegaze, a whole generation of new bands took part of this sound, led by the band Soda Stereo and it´s album Dynamo, band of which Cirque Du Soleil made a show.
Towards the end of the 90´s and the new millennium, it brought us to bands like "Suarez" or "Entre Ríos", where the shoegaze sound in one and the dream pop in the other is much more crystalline.
But there are currently several bands that provide that sound much more linearly and beautifully. Bands such as Nax, Horacio.nuevatemporada, Los Tenders, Mellonta Tauta, Altocamet, Ural Mountains (Editor: read our article), among others, are renewing a sound that is being renewed worldwide.
Is it easy for a Argentinian indie bands to be known internationally? Do you have any example?
Diego: The truth is that it is not easy. Although today social networks help a lot to make this happen, we have seen several bands achieve important collaborations, such as Nax or Altocamet.
Has the scene changed since you began, and if so how?
Diego: There has never really been a Dreampop or Shoegaze scene in Argentina. Currently there are several bands trying to get together, but there is still no scene of these genres.
Could you tell us a bit more about your record label and your relationship with it?
Diego: We are currently working with "No Me Escucho Records" which is a netlabel that I founded with my friend Darío Martinez. We have already published "Always Down with Water" by Nax and several other works.
Dario Martinez, musician, productor and audio engineer.
How did the funding worked for the LP? Did you invest a lot yourself? Was your label supportive in that respect?
Diego: The album's work is being very laborious although we are not spending money because the studio it´s from my friend Dario Martinez. And everything that will be the distribution and press will be in charge of the Netlabel.
Do you make a decent revenue from your music or is it still very much a hobby?
Diego: No, I hardly receive anything. Only what the public wants to pay for bandcamp.
I think music should be free to have more arrivals, nobody would buy a new band's album, we should generate a link and I think the best way is to get our free music and if you want to leave us some money, the better.
How do you sell your recordings (shops, online, …)?
Diego: In the social networks of "No Me Escucho Records".
The Future
What is the next album due?
Diego: Our album "El Lenguaje de las Estrellas" (the Language of the Stars)is taking a little longer than expected but will be released soon.
Any other project (i.e. movies soundtrack, …) or plans
Diego: No, we are working to finish the album.
Do you plan to continue music for a long time or are you tired of it?
Diego: With the launch of the netlabel "No Me Escucho Records" I am very pending to continue with this for much longer.
Anything else you want the reader to know?
Diego: I would like to tell you to allow yourself to listen to music in the Spanish language, and to give LUNCIL a chance, you may be surprised.
Music Info
WHAT is your music about? Could you tell us what you music is about, what you want to do with it, …?
Diego: Luncil's music is basically dark and bright, at the same time, all in one song. The bases tend to have a melancholic or dark color, but the voices of Carla usually give it the brightness that makes the song stand out and have a much more crystalline atmosphere. The sound style of Luncil has a lot of dream pop, intimately performed with bands like Cocteau Twins, but also has a darker side that receives influences from Pink Floyd or the Cure. The songs usually have a ghostly aura, but it has that dreampop delicacy in it´s sounds. Carla's voice is usually the instrument that finishes defining the final climate of the song
Tell us about the artists you have worked with
Well, in our album participated musicians from Budapest-postpunk, an Argentine band, which I recommend. Nicolás Castello from Nax also participates, Darío Martinez de Horacio.nuevatemporada. But we cannot fail to name those who have remixed us, Maxx Wild, Brian Hodges of The Blue Hour and Franco Colombo de Reflection and BTB. I have also collaborated with Latin American artists such as the Colombian project "Cenizacromada". Or with the Argentines of "The Tenders" to whom I have made remixes.
Some good videos to watch
We are very happy with the video of our single preview "Nunca lo harás"
WHERE to find your work?
No Me Escucho Records Bandcamp
Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram …
Listening / buying your music
Thanks to
I would like to thank Nicolás Castelo who invited me to conduct this interview. To all who accompany the trip called LUNCIL, to Darío Matinez, Ruben Torres and to all who make it possible for LUNCIL's music to reach new people's ears.
Luncil live at a gig on “ Panda Rojo “, Bs. As. Argentina.
