HER SPACE HOLIDAY
Her Space Holiday, aka Marc Bianchi, exists in an indefinable area between guitars and electronica. HSH's second album, 'Manic Expressive', is a subtle blend of electronic textures, beats, vocals and guitars, as well as strings that tug the heart. Is he surprised a dance mag wants to nab him?
"Well maybe 'Ambidextrous' created a bit of interest," he ponders, "but it's a weird concept. I'm kinda shocked."
'Ambidextrous', releases earlier this year, showcased Marc's remixes of people like Elastica, Bright Eyes, Ruby and Micromars. This very mag said that "Marc looks for whatever droplet of beauty there is in the original, then expands on it."
"What I try to do - and get flak for it - is rather than taking the song and morphing a lot of the parts that are in there, I usually just ask for the vocals and I'll listen to them on their own, then try and build it into a different type of pop song," he says.
And was that his aim for this album, too? "I didn't even know where to begin," he remembers. "The record before this had some electronic elements, but no-one really picked up on that. I knew I wanted to make something more lush, and a bit more electronic, and the record just unfolded itself in front of me and the more I started tweaking samples and sequences." And then there are those sumptuous strings.
"They're one of the oldest instruments," he beams. "Even though they're so raw I think they're one of the richest instruments."
It's all a long way from the hardcore guitar outfit - Mohinder - that he used to play in. "I was younger so I had more aggression," he recalls. "With this music, though, I want to feel uplifted and at peace."
So why a title like 'Manic Expressive'?
"Well with the last studio album - 'Home Is Where You Hang Yourself' - some of the press really dug into me for having such a depressing title. A German magazine said that if I was really so sad, I should kill myself. So it was kind of like a play on that. You know, manic expressive instead of manic depressive."
And where does this particular manic expressive place himself?
"I don't consider myself as an electronic musician or an indie musician," he states, "so I really don't know how to classify it."
Classify it as Her Space Holiday. Simple as that.