‘Life is not The X-Factor…’ | Valdet Luboteni

You describe your music as 'indie dream pop'. How does the 'dream' part of this come into play in your music? Or, at least, what led you to settle on this particular word to describe your sound?

You often hear how musicians are reluctant to label their music, but we don't care. In the beginning, people would mostly describe our music as dreamy, so why not use that word? Only later did I find out it was a proper genre. Indie is short for independent, pop used to be great, so indie dream pop does it for us. Lately we have even been using the word acoustic to go with it. Actually, come to think of it, acoustic should come first. Meaning, it would have to be: acoustic dream pop indie.

What are some of your key influences?

I have always been fond of singer songwriter stuff, but it wasn't until I really got into Bon Iver and The Antlers that I really started thinking of doing something like this. I came to realise that it wasn't so much for the acoustic element as it was for simplicity. I loved the idea of starting something from scratch and having the final product in a few days, which we did with our first single, called Venice On The Inside. It literally took about 10 hours to write it, record it and release it.

Do you find it challenging to pursue a musical career in today's world? How do you survive as musicians?

Pursuing any career in today's world is challenging. Things move so fast. There is always this pressure, mostly self-imposed, that you need to make it fast and once you don't it means game is over. Some things really do take time. You need to grow, learn, improve. It's not The X-Factor. 

When it comes to surviving as musicians, yes, that is a good question. In order to survive we do need to keep a proper job. I think a large number of musicians around the globe have to deal with that kind of situation. However, surviving without music... that would be much more difficult.

What kind of dynamic do you have, as a duo? What is your songwriting process usually like?

We have a totally different background. I am part of a band called The Orange Strips, we have been fully functioning for 11 years now. It is a guitar band, mostly influenced by British and American indie bands, like The Smiths, Oasis, R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins, and so on. Dino, on the other hand, has another band called East-ra, which is psychedelic crazy something, not sure how he would describe it, honestly.

So, when we started Trees Of Maine, the idea was to just play and see what happens. What happened was that my songs relied heavily on what I would usually do, and Dino's songs were exactly what he would usually do. They were totally different. Currently my side is winning so Trees Of Maine is more pop. Maybe we create another outlet for his side, we'll see.

Are you looking forward to playing in Malta?

Well, sure, who wouldn't be? This time it will only be me playing, because this concert is part of the tour where I play acoustic versions of Trees Of Maine songs, with a few of The Orange Strips' songs added. It is getting very cold on the continent so I am definitely looking forward to visiting Malta.

Plus, I really want to see those cool buses you have there. 

Doors open at 21:00