Human Nature

 These are somewhat heady days for Brazilian dance-rock band, CSS, as its fourth album, Planta, is also its first without former member and multi-instrumentalist Adrianao Cintra, considered a primary architect of the act’s sound. Recording Planta was a new adventure for CSS, indeed.

“I think the most dramatic difference is actually that for the first time the producer of the record was not actually in the band,” notes guitarist Ana Rezende. “It ended up being a very positive thing because I think it’s very important to have someone from outside looking in at your process and trying to make it better. So, it was a really cool experience. It was such an organic process. It was very different, but it was a very positive thing because it was very cooperative.”

Those “outside ears” belonged to David Sitek, who is also a multi-instrumentalist and a member of TV on the Radio. He’s worked with acts like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars and Beady Eye previously, which made him the perfect producer to help CSS progress artistically.

Having an outsider’s perspective also saved CSS some studio hours. “This record we did in the shortest amount of time, which we did not expect at all,” Rezende adds. The group traveled outside of Brazil to record Planta, which further nudged them away from its comfort zone.

“We decided to go to L.A. to write for two months and not really anticipating that we wanted to do a whole full record,” Rezende recalls. “We just wanted to write a few songs.”

Being away from home must have stirred up CSS’s creative juices, however. “It was so amazing to live in L.A. during that period of time that we ended up staying there for eight months and doing the whole record there,” Rezende reflects.

Lyrically, CSS is not too complicated. The act certainly retains a Shonen Knife-like innocence and an open-hearted love of the simpler things in life. Yet musically, CSS came out of the São Paulo rave scene and then evolved into something more akin to a modern day new wave rock collective. The first single, “Hangover,” mixes synthesized dance sounds with more traditional Caribbean-styled horns. “I’d walk through the gates of hell,” they announce with heartfelt devotion, “as long as I’m with you.” It’s a Toni Basil-directed video that imagines what a rave at TV’s The Office might look like.

“It’s very hard for us because I don’t know,” Rezende responds when asked to describe CSS’s sound. “We never conceptualize what we’re going to do or how we’re going to sound. And we grew up listening to many different kinds of music. We grew up listening to alternative rock from the ’80s and the ’90s, but also a lot of pop music. We also listened to a lot of older rock, like ’60s and ’70s rock. We’ve also listened to a lot of reggae. All these sounds fused into our Brazil brains and it comes out the way it comes out.”
 
www.csssuxxx.com
 
On Stage
Scheduled to perform June 22 at The Summit Music Hall in Colorado.
 

A “Perfect World”
Being from Brazil—a country ravaged by the international Drug War—CSS harbors fairly liberal views when it comes to drug policy. “I think people should be able to choose what they do with its bodies,” guitarist Ana Rezende says. “. . . In a perfect world, I’d like to see all drugs legalized. I fully believe marijuana should be legalized. I don’t see why alcohol is legal and marijuana is not.”