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CSS are back with their second album 'Donkey', two years after their debut 'Cansei de Ser Sexy' found its way into people's hearts.

CSS have made no secret of the traumatic last year, which saw their bass player Iracema quit, and the band part ways with their manager. Songwriter and drummer Adriano is now the live bassist, with Jon Harper, previously of The Cooper Temple Clause, joining them on live drums. We speak to Adriano and guitarist Carolina about how the band operate now, the frustrations of their old touring schedule, and how 'Donkey' came to be the album it is.

Adriano, how are you settling in as bass player?
Adriano: It's much better. I hated playing the drums! In my first band I played the drums, and I don't like playing the drums.
Carolina: I think it's because we ended up playing so many shows. In the beginning it was fun.
Adriano: Yeah, and then when I had to play the drums every day, I couldn't drink too much otherwise I would screw up.
Carolina: And he would get so sweaty he would have to take a shower straight afterwards!
Adriano: I could never enjoy the show because I could never watch what was going on - I had to concentrate.

How is it having Jon Harper [ex-Cooper Temple Clause] as your new live drummer?
Adriano: He's amazing. He's a drummer! He's really nice. We're friends, and he had toured before with us, as on the December tour he was my drum tech. So we already knew him. We knew that he was a really responsible person - he doesn't drink, he doesn't do drugs, he doesn't go crazy. So that's what we needed - a really good drummer, responsible and friendly!

Did you feel much pressure when it came to start work on your second album?
Carolina: No, as I think it was so much of a straight road - natural. We didn't even stop properly to start thinking about the pressure.
Adriano: Because there was already so much pressure. We were playing constantly, we were practically homeless, living in very cheap hotels. It was very turbulent.
Carolina: We were doing songs while we were on the road, so when we stopped to record it...
Adriano: We just had to choose between the songs I had made. I was thinking, any time we will have to stop to do this next album, so I'd better work straight away! See, what would've been more pressure would've been "oh you have two months to deliver an album". From scratch. Then we would go crazy! We would not work that way. If we were going to stop, we would need one year! And then we would go to a farm! But you know, that's impossible.

Did you have the intention of deliberately not repeating your debut?
Carolina: It wasn't thinking shall we do the same, or not do the same - it was such a completely different moment. We couldn't do anything else.
Adriano: Because the first album, we didn't know what we were doing - we weren't a proper band when we recorded the album.
Carolina: Things changed - we became more of a band, from touring so much. In the beginning we didn't have... you know, Adriano would play the drums, sometimes I would play the drums, even Luiza would play the drums. But then, when we started playing everyday it became more like, oh now I play the guitar.
Adriano: It influenced how the album sounded. Because I think the first album is much more a producer album, and this album is a band album. Even though I produced both of the albums, this time I knew I could rely on the band to play the songs! In the first album I couldn't because I didn't even know how the band was going to be! It sounds more rock, anyway.

You've spoken already about the hard times of the last year - are things a lot better for you now?
Adriano: Ah, it's good to have a house.
Carolina: It's good to know that you have people working for you that are thinking about your career, rather than just doing easy money. Like I think some places we over-toured, like the UK or Europe. We could've played other places.
Adriano: We have a plan now, that's the difference. We had a whole year, up until August, when we got rid of the problem we had, we knew we were going to play a lot, but we looked at the calendar and it was "oh my god, we're playing London five times this month, we're not going to America, we're not going to Germany".
Carolina: At the time we weren't thinking about anything as we were so tired. It was like another show, another show, and we weren't "oh, this is bad for us". Now we've got a base in London, we've got houses we can leave our stuff.
Adriano: We don't have to travel with 32 kilos of cases!

Which of the songs on 'Donkey' mean the most to you?
Adriano: We had so many songs ready for the album, and of all of those, these eleven were the ones we liked the most. But my favourite to play is 'Reggae All Night' - it's easy to play, and funny. Luiza plays the cowbell! It's a little moment in the show!
Carolina: We all like the last song 'Air Painter' as it's different to the others. It's beautiful and it has feeling.
Adriano: It's an emo song!

Why the title 'Donkey'?
Adriano: We wanted a short name, and we have a friend called Roberta. She's Brazilian but she lives in LA - she has this really peculiar English. She calls people donkey - "don't put it there you donkey", like this.
Carolina: She's from a part of Brazil that has a really strong, peculiar accent, so it's really funny for us! She translates every single expression from Portugese to English literally, so donkey is stupid, dumbass. She toured with us a lot last year, and she was our dancer. We stuck with it!

Even though you've had a hectic schedule since your debut album, what were the highlights?
Adriano: All the big festivals in the summer were.
Carolina: Reading was amazing.
Adriano: Benicassim.
Carolina: Playing Brixton Academy.
Adriano: The show in LA, when Donita from L7 joined us and sang 'Pretend We're Dead'.

What's been the most important thing you've learnt since being in the band?
Adriano: Take care of each other.
Carolina: Have a sense of community.

Becky Reed

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