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At One with Himself

The typically ethereal sound of Cigarettes After Sex came about somewhat by accident when GREG GONZALEZ was experimenting with his songs in the stairwell at the University of Texas. Then “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby” went viral on YouTube. We spoke to the band’s founder about the possibility to plan success, the cigarette after and whether he ever wears colorful clothes.

  • Text
    Iris Soltau
  • Photo
    Press
This issue of our magazine is all about serendipity and coincidental insights and happy accidents. So what would you say: can life be planned?

A lot of the things that have happened to me I have had to make wishes for and really envision. I had to write down my wishes and really think about what I wanted. I know it sounds like witchcraft or something, but it has been incredible how that works.

Is that like when people sometimes wish for a parking spot by sort of talking to the universe?

I think maybe there is something to that, that things happen if you want them enough. Though it’s not like I write things down and they happen the next day. For years I wrote down all my wishes. I still write down everything that I want to happen in a little black notebook, whether it is musically or just wishing good things for my friends or my family.

Would you recommend that to everyone?

You should try it. The hardest thing is just staying with it.

Do you consider yourself a strategic person?

I guess so. I wouldn’t normally use that term for myself, but it really makes sense the more I think about it. My whole life I have always been planning records and songs, planning concerts a year ahead and how I want to release my albums. I have to plan lots of things a year ahead of time, so I guess that would make me a strategic person.

That doesn’t sound like the typical artist lifestyle…

I know what you mean. For most artists it is certainly counterintuitive to say they know where they are going to be this time next year. But that has worked for me because it helps me plan and gives me peace of mind. All this traveling and touring and playing shows is extremely exhausting. But when I have everything planned, it gives me room to think.

A concert is a very spontaneous, interactive event. How do you deal with that?

I have always loved it. And I feel really grateful for the crowds that our band gets. It is unlike anything I would have expected. We make this very gentle music, the most gentle music you can imagine, very melodic, but everyone is always shouting along so loudly that sometimes I can’t even hear what we are doing ourselves.

As a musician, you can’t really wish for more, can you?

Absolutely. I like the idea that we play these really gentle love songs about romance and sexuality, and the crowd receives them in this way where they get totally hyped up about it. It’s an amazing contrast. I don’t want to play shows where everyone stays in their seats all the time. We want to have this total rock show feeling. The first shows I ever went to when I was a kid were metal shows. I loved those!

→ Read the full interview in rampstyle #27 »By the Way«.

Iris Soltau

Iris Soltau

Freelance Editor
Iris Soltau's strengths? Finding entertaining shoots for dry topics. Tracking down stories. Spotting trends before the others do. Writing structurally and to the point. Polishing foreign texts until they shine. After a daily newspaper traineeship and studies in German and English in Hamburg, she worked as deputy editor-in-chief of the lifestyle magazine BLONDE MAGAZINE and deputy head of department at PETRA, but also as editorial director and head of copy at MAXI. And now? She writes for us.
rampstyle #27
By the Way
At One with Himself

rampstyle #27
By the Way

Mal ganz nebenbei bemerkt: Rund 30 bis 50 Prozent aller Entdeckungen lassen sich auf Zufälle zurückführen. Ob Klettverschluss, Viagra oder Röntgenstrahlen – man findet etwas, was man so überhaupt nicht gesucht hatte, doch dafür wird man mit anderem belohnt.

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