Smokey, Sultry, and Cinematic: A Q&A With Cigarettes After Sex Frontman Ahead of the Band's Aug 21 Gig at Tango 3F

Few band names are as original or memorable as Cigarettes After Sex. One might assume that the name is a cheeky, metaphorical allusion to something else, especially when you consider the subtly poetic lyrics penned by frontman Greg Gonzalez. However, he says that moniker came from exactly the sort of situation you'd expect.

"It was literally what we were doing at that moment. I had had a 'friends with privileges' relationship with a girl at the time, and she used to always smoke after we were together," Gonzalez recalls of the circa-2008 fling that inspired his band's name, during an interview ahead of Cigarettes After Sex's August 21 gig at Tango 3F. He goes on to recount how: "I used to join her for a cigarette, and found that I really liked the feeling of it. There was something special being shared in that moment of calm. One night we had just been together and were smoking after, and the name just flashed in my mind."

Despite the origins of its name, many of the El Paso, Texas dream pop troop's songs are far less straightforward. Take “Apocalypse,” a deep cut from their eponymous 2017 debut LP. Its lyrics brutally describe widespread destruction, despite the song's gently gorgeous melodies.

Such contrasts aren't strange for Gonzalez, however, who explains the lyrical juxtaposition came from nearly as straightforward a source as his band's name. "All of the songs are about real people, and some of them are basically memoirs in that everything in the lyrics really happened." He adds that some of those lines are based on real relationships and scenarios while others. Like “Apocalypse,” which uses "more imaginative imagery to tell their story. The events in that particular song didn’t really happen to me – it’s more like describing a dream you had about someone back to them."

It's an ethereal answer to my question, one that's not only akin to Gonzalez's lyrics but also his vocal delivery. That singing style is one of the band's biggest hallmarks, even more than its sensual moniker. Reason being: Gonzalez's adopts an unmistakably androgynous tone at the microphone, sounding as much like classic R&B stars like Sade as any of his indie rock contemporaries. A similar approach was famously used by Rhye, another young dream pop outfit fronted by a man – in this case, Mike Milosh – singing in a sultry, feminine tone, which came to prominence in 2013 for the aptly titled album Woman.

However, Gonzalez's doesn't list Rhye among his primary influences, instead pointing to French chanteuse Françoise Hardy as his primary inspiration. "I took a lot from the gentle and passionate purity of her voice," Gonzalez says of Hardy's impact on him, adding: "It was exactly the feeling I wanted to get across in my own singing, the way she sings on a song like 'Doigts,' or 'All Over the World.'”

When it comes to male influences, Gonzalez says he's long been affected by the works of Bob Dylan and Miles Davis. But the one man who may very well have had the greatest impact on him was none other than Gonzalez's father. That's because young Greg would, as a boy, look up to his old man, a video store retailer. Gonzalez went on to operate a small movie theater of his own years later. None of that should come as a surprise, though, especially because his band's name evokes vintage noirs while the lyrics depict scenes that would fit the script of any art house flick.

"I’m as passionate about film as I am about music," Gonzalez says. "I grew up with a huge collection of VHS tapes as a kid that made me fall in love with all kinds of films at a young age. As time grew on, I got older, that love has only grown deeper."

Lately, Gonzalez says he can't stop watching The Bad and the Beautiful (a 1952 drama starring Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas) and Children of Paradise (a classic, pre-Technicolor French film from 1945). They're both the sort of movie selections that one would expect from a fellow a musician who chooses album artwork as starkly black and white as a vintage matinee and sings in the timeless, smokey quality of a mysterious dame waiting to deliver literary lines. Fans are sure to expect an equally atmospheric, cinematic experience from Gonzalez and his bandmates when they take to Tango's stage on August 21.

Cigarettes After Sex will play Tango 3F on August 21. Tickets cost RMB 220 or RMB 180 in advance.

Photos: Petrie Inventory, Billboard, Juice Online, i.ytimg.com