Minneapolis transplants Strange Names have brought to NYC a swagger and confidence most of the local hipsters cannot emanate even if they tried. Their style flirts with the clean, stylized sounds and imagery of the pop of the ’80s – heck, their singers kinda looks like a young Simon Le Bon! – but their music, uptempo in a catchy but edgy way, is by no means simple: layers of electric, percussive and electronic sounds intersect with each other (and with the vocals) creating intriguing and often rather complex sonic webs, which must have required a certain amount of production in the studio. Our friends at Delicious Audio had the opportunity to ask guitarist Francis Ximenez where all these sounds – and the band’s inspiration – come from, see link below.
