BALTHVS – Like Coconut Water

By starrymag | February 6, 2024

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

A) BALTHVS could be described as a world psychedelic funk band.

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

A) Lonnie Liston Smith, The Grateful Dead, Alice Coltrane, Khruangbin, Santana, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Dick Dale, Sade, Rick James, Erykah Badu, Erkin Koray, Enigma and many others!

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Like Coconut Water.”

A) “LCW” was the last track we created at a house in the Colombian highlands in La Mesa, a proper closure after a month isolated from the world in this tropical haven. When life becomes waking up to birds and swimming followed by intense music creating sessions, we really felt like sweet, coconut water. There’s some nostalgia there since we couldn’t really stay there for long.

Q) The song came out in October. What kind of fan response have you been receiving to it?

A) It’s the only track from the new record that’s been played to live audiences, and they seem to be enjoying it! People have streamed it quite a bit as well.

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

A) There’s a small video coming up but it’s still a surprise!

Q) A summer home in La Mesa helped you create this new song and 8 others. What do you think it was about that environment that made it so conducive to writing new music?

A) Very bad signal, tropical weather, mango trees everywhere, no outside responsibilities, no chores, no people, a big swimming pool, an ideal space to isolate ourselves, and just focus on music for a month. Don’t let this laidback setting fool you, we HAD to finish an album by the end of the month – completely produced, mixed and mastered. It was intense work every single day.

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

A) We’re instrumentalists first and singer/songwriters second. Half of the album is instrumental; lyrics are sparse and come and go only when it’s worth saying something, which is hard for us. We always work with drums first, bass second, guitar third and, if the song asks for it, we work on vocal melody/lyrics last. After that, Santiago [Lizcano] and I took over mixing and mastering duties.

Q) How much of a hand do you have in the production of your music?

A) We produce, mix and master all of our music; we do everything, including our artwork.

Q) With “Like Coconut Water” out now, will there be a full album or EP coming in the new year?

A) The BALTHVS way is to release one song every month. When ten songs come up, we put them together as an album! And we have already recorded the whole thing in La Mesa so do expect our fourth record to be out there by June.

Q) You have been out on the Third Vibrations Tour. Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you?

A) Colorado felt like a home away from home. We also come from a high-altitude city in the mountains (6000 ft)! It’s the laidback, outdoorsy vibe of the people there. Their love for funky psychedelic stuff. What’s not to love?

Q) Which song(s) do you still enjoy performing live? 

A) We try to keep things interesting for both us and the audience, so we play from a pool of 50-70 songs. We try to vary every setlist and do different things when we visit a city more than once. At the moment we are really enjoying playing our third album’s songs live. Our second album, Cause & Effect, feels like our “core” repertoire at the moment.

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

A) Say She She

Q) What artist/musician are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

A) Nice Biscuit is great!! Australia is like a crazy source of excellent psychedelic rock bands! SO much is going on over there.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) We love you. You changed our lives. It means the world that you listen.