The past few weeks have been busy indeed for Brazil’s CSS. For starters, they released their fourth studio album, Planta, on June 5th and their first since 2011’s La Liberacion. It was also the band’s first release since Adriano Cintra’s exit, who along with guitar duties, served as producer for the band’s first three albums. And just a few days following the release, CSS took to the road for a two month long tour.
With their producer gone, CSS looked for outside help with Planta. They turned to TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek to fill in, and along with Sitek the album features a number of notable guests including Rancid’s Tim Armstrong and The Gossip’s Hannah Billie.
Prior to Planta’s release and the band hitting the road, I chatted with Luiza Sa, CSS’s guitarist and drummer about the new album and working with Dave Sitek, the changes since Cintra’s exit, and more.
What was is like working with Dave Sitek as producer?
Amazing. He is like family to us and it was just a big, fun experience. He makes you feel confident enough to do things you wouldn’t normally do. He doesn’t follow rules and just makes it really interesting and creates this great place to work in.
Tim Armstrong has also been announced as a co-writer on the album. How did you guys link up with him?
He contacted us because he liked the band. It was very casual and easy to work with Tim, he’s great.
Hannah Billie from The Gossip is also a guest drummer on a track on the album. Are there any other guests on the LP?
There are some other friends here and there playing different things—drums, horns, or singing harmonies. We wrote “Into The Sun” with our friend Kathryn Anne Davis.
What kind of influences from Sitek, Armstrong, and Billie can be heard on the new songs?
Sitek produced the whole album so he is all over it, but for some songs he was not very invasive. In fact, for some songs he just took a couple of things off. For other songs, we reworked a lot more. Whatever made sense. “Frankie Goes to North Hollywood” was initiated by him, he had those beats and the concept.
Hannah Billie plays drums on “Dynamite” and it sounds perfect for that track. We wrote it on a drum machine so it was awesome to hear it with her excellent drumming. It took her one or two takes.
Tim Armstrong wrote “Hangover.” If you know Tim’s work you can easily see it. We wanted to do a dancehall kind of thing and he came up with the music part really fast. Then we added another part with him and Sitek produced it, so then it’s a track that we really collaborated on—us, Armstrong, and Sitek—and you can hear all of us in there.
What challenges arose in the songwriting process while working with Sitek and Armstrong?
We had never really worked in both situations—writing with someone or being produced by someone from outside the band—and lucky for us it didn’t really feel like a challenge and it was just fun and easy. It was really meant to be.
What can we expect on Planta?
It’s an electronic music record that was made at a very happy point in our lives, so it focuses more on that California, positive feeling. But, of course, it has elements from all kinds of music, like punk, pop, reggae.
When did you move to Los Angeles to begin working on the new album?
Around March 2012.
Was this your first album recorded in the US?
Yes.
How have you guys changed as a band from La Liberacion?
One of the members left the band. He was the main songwriter and producer, so it was a big change. Our process changed.
How did the exit of Adriano Cintra affect CSS?
The way we write and produce music changed. Somehow, it became more collective.
What plans do you guys have once the June/July tour is over?
More touring and other things.
What was your favorite thing to do in LA outside of making music? Least favorite?
I can’t think of a least favorite. LA was very kind to us. From surfing to eating tacos, LA is just great.
Any plans to full move to the US?
We love the US!
Planta is in stores now. For dates and venues of all upcoming stops on CSS’s current tour head here.
