Guillem Peeters was born in Barcelona but currently spends his time in South London; the texture of his adopted home is all over the music he makes under the moniker Eterna. His brand of ethereal, downcast indie rock is perfect for drizzly, grey days and endless cups of tea with a ton of sugar and milk. His newest single “Highbury Grunge” is a slow motion banger whose title, we learned, comes from an inside joke. Give it a listen and read our chat with Eterna below. His album Debunker comes out January 31 on section1.

Tell us about your upcoming record.

It was written across a whole year so the songs were transformed several times from the first demo to the final version. I think I was also trying for every song to be very different from each other. The album speaks about travelling, about being alone, alone surrounded by people, at work, around large groups of friends, and sometimes even around those who you love. It talks about feeling impassive or immobile when you know you should be excited. 

With the writing I worked to place characters on a staged space and write around them, having them stay the same and having the space around them change. You stand still and people and places move and change and from your perspective, you stay the same while watching it all happen. You don’t notice you are changing as well.

How has living in London affected your musical output?

I think it has made it colder outside, warmer inside. I don't mean necessarily more sad or difficult than before, but more introverted. Colder because that's just how the city is and because everyone around me here is always working on something. Sometimes it is very boring to talk about what you are working on, so you just lock yourself in and do it. It got warmer because I met people that believe in me, sometimes more than I believe in myself, and that is comforting and gives me confidence. 

“Highbury Grunge” is an intriguing track title. Could you talk about any meaning behind it? 

The title is just an inside joke, nothing more! The song partially talks about current friends and is quite present-time focused so the small joke seemed to have its place.

How did your collaborations with Amalcrossing come about? What about NINA? Rita P?

Amal was my flatmate while I was making the music for the Audi EP and we ended up doing many songs together—some fit on Audi, some on Wardrove and some are probably still in a hard disk somewhere. I met Rita P and NINA through playing shows together and this turned into writing music together as well. Rita P and I have a project called Messy, but we’ve only played one show and haven’t released anything as a band. 

What are your feelings about genre?

I think genre in music has its place. I think it belongs in conversations with friends about music as a way of creating some frame of reference. But I don't think any band is only one genre nor do I have any notion of genre while making music. I don't think it should be used for a permanent tag or label, just as a relative frame of context only meaningful inside a conversation, everyone has different ideas of what each genre means so I don't think it translates well. I acknowledge I’ve drifted from one genre to another across the years but I can’t put my finger on when this change took place, it just drifted.

When is the best time to make music?

Any time really, or in January when everyone disappears, or probably the most rewarding time is after you haven't been able to for a long time. 

What kind of music have you been listening to lately?

 

Team Sleep, The Field Mice, Enrique Morente, Guv’ner, Hood, Drumcorps & Aaron Spectre, Loren Connors & Jim O’Rourke as I write this.