The first record by Cansei De Ser Sexy (in Portuguese, literally: “I got tired of being sexy”), boasted indie dancefloor fave “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above”, while “Music is My Hot Hot Sex” was featured in ads for both iPod Touch and rival Zune. Ira Trevisan, the Brazilian indie-electro outfit’s bassist is fresh from recording their second record, at home in Sao Paolo.
You’ve just toured The UK on the NME Awards tour. The British scene has been pivotal to your success, would you agree? Yes, we love the UK really. But we definitely learned had to learn how to. It’s not easy like Australia, being pleasant and sunny and lots of nature. UK is kind of a tough country. But when you get used to it and get to know people, they’re so nice to us and so special. There is something about the English people. It’s always great to play shows in the UK. It’s hard to tell, one show we didn’t like cos they are really into music and there’s a lot of music culture, it’s impressive.
Your biggest song is “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above”. Have you heard from the guys of Death from Above? What do they think of the song? They like it. We met one of them in Toronto and the other one at a festival in France. They were really nice, they said “I really like the song, thank you for naming the band”. Ironically they broke up one month after we started touring and the song broke, so it was nearly a farewell.
The fact that they rose and broke up so quickly adds to the songs’ timeless appeal. It’s good because we have the guarantee they will never turn into a shitty band that we are ashamed to have their name in our song.
It’s safe to say Brazil has been enjoying the musical limelight lately, with the whole baile funk sound. Are you forwarding an indie-electro movement in Brazil? Yes, but I think that it’s something kind of creepy, because everything is turning so universal. I don’t know if that is due to internet and how fast music spreads and fashion spreads. It’s weird when kids on the street are dressed like people in London, which [includes] our style in a way. [But] it’s not a CSS phenomena. We’re not big in Brazil. We are underground and only on the internet here.
French band Phoenix’s broken English adds charm to their songs. What will happen when CSS’s pronunciation of the English language becomes too good. We’ll always have accents. It’s really enriching for the English language. It’s a different point of view on English. The terms we use and the information we use is new for English. It’s really refreshing in a way you hear English with a different ear. Words sound in a way you are not used to listen to it. This is something that adds to the music. It’s charming, I do see it with Phoenix, to see a French person speaking in English. It’s important to keep your rhythm. Our English can get better but our rhythm is always going to be more close to the Portuguese and this is something that adds to the music.
You were in Australia as a first time traveller what surprised you about the country? The first city we went to was Melbourne and I love Melbourne. It’s really laid-back with a San Francisco vibe, with artists. And the landscape is really beautiful. And we played on a beach. I don’t remember the name, but the road one of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever been to, really close to the ocean with amazing houses. It was really inspiring. I love the food too, you have great seafood. I had tonnes of oysters.
You’ll be here again for the V Festival. Who are you most looking forward to seeing? I really want to see Air, I was close to seeing them in Coachella. I also want to see Queens of the Stone Age I think they’ll have a really good show.
Lastly, will you ever truly tire of being sexy? Ah, no I don’t think so.
Yes, we’re the lucky few, You and I. CSS is out now on Subpop.
They play V Festival Sydney on Sat 29 Mar, Gold Coast Sun 30 Mar, Melbourne Sat 5 April, Perth Sun 6. Tix $131+bf (Perth $126+bf). WIN V Festival tix and campervan rental – see p22 for details and visit
