FUSE TV - CSS Talk Turning 30, Working With Dave Sitek & Lamb Chop Tattoos

Eight years after the release of their eponymous debut, Brazilian dance-rock group CSS have started over. 

In 2012, one year after band co-founder Adriano Cintra left the band, the group decamped to Los Angeles to record their fourth album Planta with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek. It was both their first album recorded outside of Brazil and first with an outside producer. "We had friends telling us we should work together," says guitarist Luiza Sa. "We tried to do one song together to see how it felt and ended up just staying."

Fuse sat down with Sa and singer Lovefoxxx (who also gave us their 5 Favorite South American musicians) to discuss working with Sitek, lamb chop tattoos and the dread and joy of turning 30.

You’ve said recently that since Adriano left, the group feels more "synced." What did you mean by that?

Lovefoxxx:  We got really involved in making the music. It was something that was very different before. Just by talking through the songs together and making them together, you get in sync with each other. One thing that was very good on this album was that there were songs that I made where I said, "There's nothing else I can do in it" and you pass it along and you know it's going to get finished. It was easier and everyone was together. It was like being in another band.

Luiza Sa: The thing is that Adriano was a producer, so the way he worked was, in a way, going all the way to the final product really fast. Sometimes that didn't leave space...

LF: The departure of Adriano really made things fresh for us again and more exciting.

What was the first time meeting Dave Sitek like? Did you click immediately or was there a "Getting to know you" period?

LF: Overall, we are kind of antisocial. When we're in a festival, we're never trying to talk with other bands. I don't know why, but that is how we are. When we hung out with Dave for the first time, it was a big stretch to get out of our comfort zone. We had never been in that situation before. I was so nervous I could barely speak, but we really clicked a lot in our humor. Humor is such an important thing in life and art and people usually take it for granted. So we got along pretty well. We were only going to do two songs together, but the second time we were there, Dave was like, "I want to do the full length."

What was the work process like?

LS: We started at 3 PM and went until 4 AM. Then swimming in the pool.

LF: Swimming at night and looking at stars.

LS: We would do meetings in the pool and ask, "What do you think about that YouTube video?" for three hours.