Getting to Know… Sinai Planum | Interview 🎤

For the 151^st Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we gain great insight from the Swiss indie alternative rock band, Sinai Planum. 

“We’re quite focused on the harmonies we get from the singing and the guitars and hopefully those will catch the ears of our new listeners.” Sounds good 🎙 Sinai Planum – sounds good! Sinai Planum are the interviewees on the 151^st Q&A to grace The Musical Hype in our ever compelling Getting to Know… series. Way to plug, right? Right! The Swiss indie alternative rock band is comprised of 🎙 Alex Cionca (vocals), 🎙 Jan (guitar), 🎙 Alex Kawecki (bass), and 🎙 Loïc (drums).  We are fortunate to hear from each member in this interview – pretty sweet.  So, without any further delay, let’s get right into Getting to Know… 🎤 Sinai Planum: Interview #151!

Starting things off right, for those who may not be familiar with Sinai Planum, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 We try to be as creative as we can, spending hours on the mixing and mastering to make sure we are happy with every little detail. We’re quite focused on the harmonies we get from the singing and the guitars and hopefully those will catch the ears of our new listeners.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did your Sinai Planum form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

🎤 Jan: It all started when we used to play with friends in a small studio provided by our school. At that time the band was formed by 🎙 Alex Cionca (singer), 🎙 Loïc (drummer), other friends and me (guitarist). In High School, Alex Cionca and I formed another band as Loïc moved to a different school, so we went out of touch a little. After we decided to break it up, we met again to jam with Loïc in 2016. We finally needed a bass player, and we thought about 🎙 Alex Kawecki, whom we met in our high school music class. After some jams and covers, we decided to be more serious and make our own songs. Now it’s been three years and we feel fortunate to have a great chemistry, even if each member has its own musical taste, which, as we think, is ultimately a strength.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

🎤 For sure. When we started, it was mostly jams and having fun. We didn’t really expect that one day we would all get so involved in the band. So yes, we set some goals over time and next on our list is releasing the best songs we can do in terms of both composition and mix. We hope that our EP, which will certainly be released in January 2021, will help us find gigs and give us other opportunities.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 Loïc: We all love the Queens of the Stone Age a lot. I think it’s safe to say that they are the ones that gave us the motivation and desire to play together but otherwise we also love some newer bands like All Them Witches, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Apart from those bands, each of us has its own music taste which gets mixed in our own works.

 Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

🎤 We have this one crazy story. We were playing an outside gig, very cozy, great atmosphere, great people and suddenly we realized that a guitar was slightly out of tune, but the tuner was showing that it was all good. We realized a little later that one of the pedals was the problem and quickly recovered. For those who know, as it has happened to people before, it was a whammy that was slightly tilted.

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

🎤 Jan: At the moment, 🎵 “Circles” is my favorite song to play with the band. It’s so much fun for me to play my parts and also, singing with Alex during the chorus. 🎵 “Visions” is definitely the song that people like the most because you can easily sing along and we have the pleasure to have 🎙 Tim Spörli, a skilled trumpet player and friend of ours during the break.

🎤 Alex K.: We recently wrote a new song called 🎵 “Who Owns This Place” and it’s very straightforward and boogie-ish. It just makes you want to jump around.

🎤 Alex C.: In 🎵 “Rocket Fuel” and “Circles” I have the freedom to easily add some little variations to the guitar part and both of them allow me to really express myself on the vocals as well. Also, their heavy riffs really are prone to some “onstage craziness”.

🎤 Loïc: I love playing “Visions” because the chorus has a tendency to make people sing along and we adapted the ending to make it a real concert finale.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

🎤 Well, Loïc, our drummer was so keen to play live that he organized, all by himself, a whole festival for us and other people to play. It was crazy, he did it in three weeks only. People loved it, we had a great time, and we were all so proud of him for doing that.

Closing things out, what is Sinai Planum currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

🎤 We’re finishing an EP we’ve been working on for more than a year. As we’re 100% independent, it takes a lot of time and we really want to have a perfect sound in order to start with solid foundations. This EP is planned for January 2021. Otherwise, we are already working on a series of singles that we would like to release but we won’t give you the song names right away 😉.

Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

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[📷: Sinai Planum, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype; Icons made by flaticon]