Interview: Crystal Fighters’ Graham Dickson On “Cave Rave”, Collaboration And Basque Culture

By: Shannon Reid (@allisplural) –

Crystal Fighters (Photo: Neil Krug)

It’s Friday June 15 and with summer in full bloom Toronto is buzzing. The last time Crystal Fighters played their upbeat, eclectic sounds here was last May at Wrongbar; this year they played at The Hoxton for NXNE where they showcased their newest album, Cave Rave. Hours before the show, Graham Dickson spoke at length about the spiritual and mysterious band he plays guitar and percussion for.

Crystal Fighters originally formed in 2007 in Navarra, Spain. Their “Folk-Tronica” style doesn’t define this UK group. Their sonic output is so vastly layered with instruments of the old and new age that even Dickson has trouble branding it. One word that signifies this band is ‘collaboration.’ Collaboration is the very magic behind Crystal Fighters. The band’s dynamic performance and their active pursuit towards discovering the history of Basque culture, continue to ignite their passion.

They named the band after singer Laure Stockley’s grandfather’s unfinished opera. She discovered the book of manuscripts, which he wrote as he suffered through his last throws of insanity, while clearing out his home and she became intrigued by them and shared them with her bandmates who became equally enthralled. His writing would aid as a platform for where the band would begin; it would function as a stage to raise them up higher to reveal a hidden course of knowledge from the past; and it would serve as a foundation to become re-inspired. Dickson describes what is so captivating about the “collection of illustrations and different themed plots.”

“It’s by far the most inspirational thing I’ve ever seen,” Dickson says. “The bit we liked the most, the section that loosely translates to Crystal Fighters, it’s the title of the section; and [tells the story of the] youth of Spain, and it’s basically the understanding of enlightenment. He wrote about the kids realizing that there’s more than ‘this’ and wanting more to life than what they had at the time. We feel at this stage in the game, in most humanity, we feel like there could be much more.”

The manuscripts sent the members diving back in time through Basque Country history; while researching the faded human footprints of the French/Spanish blended soil they discovered instruments of communication dating back to Roman times, which they currently include in their live performances; a decision that would not exist without the influence of the manuscripts.

“We wrote [Cave Rave] in the Basque Country,” Dickson explains. “The manuscript let us look into the Basque culture and traditional Basque mythology, [as well as] instrumentation so it will always be a part of our sound. Once we got to Basque Country to write this album we started thinking more about how Basque culture became Basque culture; and who created that.”

Dickson goes on to describe how the band found themselves “researching early cave art from 35,000 years ago and this collective understanding of existence.” He adds, “all around the world at that time, people were documenting the same experiences and they all had the same understanding of existence; so we’ve now broadened our horizons. We have some African stuff going on in this album, South American stuff. The book will always be an influence but that’s all about what’s deeper, before Basque culture.”

For example, Dickson says the instruments they play on stage, “used to be used to communicate hilltop to hilltop when the Romans came to conquer, to help communicate with these different instruments.” What does the band hope to communicate? “In a fun way, maybe we’re speaking a language that people understand when we’re playing live.”

While collaborating with the manuscripts meant sharing creative pursuits with an absent man, performing has proved to be a crowed infused ritual of purpose.

“The manuscript let us look into the Basque culture, [as well as] instrumentation so it will always be a part of our sound.”

Critics have said that in the past that Crystal Fighters’ use of multi-instrumentation during their live performances didn’t fit together this year, critics are boasting about their eclectic sound; referring to it as “stripped down”. Dickson insists that is not true.

“No, we actually brought in more. We have a new singer with us, more instruments live now. I find reviews to be funny sometimes in terms of what they think is going on, compared to what’s actually going on. So, we’ve expanded our set up so it’s not really stripped down, it’s actually [the] opposite.”

But the critics might be on to something. There is a new collaborative fingerprint in Cave Rave’s creation, but what is this new sound that reviews are trying to articulate?

“We got a producer this time, Justin Meldal-Johnsen,” he says. “We went to L.A. to record it and he’s basically been producing some pretty sick records recently like the M83 album and the [new] Paramore album which is really good. To have a producer that is successful and to have been a bassist his whole life, he understands the live show. The live show has always been our backbone and to have him be the final judge on what would work and what wouldn’t work was really amazing to have.”

“It also took us four months to record, which is a small fraction of the time it took us to record the first one. The first album we produced ourselves, except for one track with Lee smith, so to have the final judge be someone who we all respect, is so established in the music world was awesome.”

“Our music is pretty light-hearted, positive and you don’t have to be in any [particular] mood to listen to it.”

Regardless of opinion, Crystal Fighters’ support from fans has grown immensely and at a rapid pace. It’s a fellowship that is a challenge to acquire for a lot of bands. What’s most important is Crystal Fighters ability to sustain and nurture this fan base while staying true to their Basque-culture core. Dickson credits their attention to their positive vibe and “playing a lot of shows.”

“In the first few years we were playing non-stop so that got the word out, but I also think our music is pretty light-hearted, positive and you don’t have to be in any (particular) mood to listen to it. If you’re in a good mood, hopefully it works for you; if you’re in a bad mood, hopefully it will cheer you up. It’s not too emotional unless you want it to be.”

Crystal Fighters sound has been described as Latin, Afro-Beat, Pop and Dance fused together. It’s a sound Dickson heard described once as “Globo-wonk-funk” and “Folk-tronica” but he currently refers to it as, “a mixture of the old and new.” What’s more is that the music is a direct outcome of how they’ve redefined their live shows.

“The live show is like a fireball,” he says. “All the songs written on [Cave Rave] were written with a few years of experience of what works and what doesn’t in the live format. Every show we play definitely has an influence.”

The band also extends their collaborative vision towards video production, specifically with the track “You and I”, and its stop-motion inspired video, which features a tree with a very human face [representing lead singer Sebastian Pringle’s face]. While the members did not directly influence the video, Stockley’s grandfather’s writing indirectly does. Dickson says, “he definitely wrote about that situation in the video; you know, the vibe about consumption with no awareness of consequence, he defiantly touched upon that.”

Dickson also elaborated on why the band doesn’t mind stepping back and allowing outside collaborators to make creative decisions on their behalf.

“Elliot Sellers, who did “You and I” and the “Separator” videos with the crazy trails, pitched the ideas first. We sometimes have ideas but other times we just like to see what directors would like to do. But we always let them know what we want to do, aesthetic wise, and Elliot really hit the nail on the head with what we were really going for [messages that we wanted to convey].”

While the manuscripts proved to play an essential role within the band dynamic, it’s their sharing process that remains essential for the bands creative growth. In fact, members Sebastian Pringle (lead vocals, guitar), Gilbert Vierich (electronics, guitars, txalaparta percussion), Laure Stockley (vocals), Eleanor Fletcher (vocals) and Dickson (guitar/ txalaparta) are proving that actively pursuing collaborations is their strongest quality.

In some magical way, the manuscripts not only pose as a muse for the band but have pushed them into forming new relationships; Whether with Justin Meldal-Johnsen or Elliot Sellers, their collaborations are communicating spiritual bliss with spine bending audiences around the world.

In addition to cultivating a dynamic synergy of the old and new, there is a mutual and genuine exchange of information in the form of delirious ecstasy in the Crystal Fighters world. Their music is a sonic penetration that is txalaparta born and reverberates inside modern ribcages. The only question is, will their main source of inspiration sustain?