Alejandra Deheza of School of Seven Bells readily admits responsibility for her band's name, attributing it to a PBS documentary she caught one night about "very elaborate shoplifting rings."
"In the '90s they would go into a store like Old Navy and steal something like ten thousand dollars worth of stuff," she said. "The theory was that they developed the skills at this South American collective called the School of Seven Bells. The final examination was to pick the pockets of one of the instructors without ringing any of the seven bells he would be wearing. No one really knows whether it actually existed."
Myths like those are a theme on the band's new album, "Alpinisms," whose complex and ethereal atmosphere seem akin to rock informed mysticism.
Recently, The Eagle had the opportunity to meet up with twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and Benjamin Curtis to discuss pick-pocketing, David Archuleta and their new densely melodic album out now on Ghostly International.
The group first met in 2004 while on tour supporting Interpol. Claudia and Alejandra were members of New York based On!Air!Library!, while Curtis was playing guitar for rock outfit Secret Machines. Both bands eventually broke up, leaving the trio free to collaborate.
After releasing a healthy batch of singles, the band dropped debut album "Alpinisms" this month and are touring in support of it. But being on the road hasn't completely slowed the band down creatively.
"During sound-check sometimes we'll try new things," Alejandra said. "At this point the tour is mainly about trying to get people familiar with the songs, though."
This seems to be working out well for them. Critics have been unilaterally impressed by the band's synthesis of fuzzy, shoegaze guitar with the siren song dynamic of the Deheza sister's vocals.
The tracks on "Alpinisms" are composed of a series of incredibly layered and complex melodies, the product of constant collaboration.
"We start with a sound, then the three of us work on creating songs," Alejandra said. "It's basically a chain reaction."
The band individually builds the parts of each track, adding and subtracting in constant rounds of editing that they admit can become quite complicated.
Alejandra said she specifically wanted to "challenge myself, and make no creative decisions based on habit. I was really trying to think what's the obvious thing to do, and avoid it."
"Alejandra will put something down, then I'll be inspired by that and add something really different," Claudia said. "The hard part is calling it done. You have to know when to quit."
Though the tour will keep them busy for the next few months, the band is currently working on the soundtrack to a friend's film project.
"We're always doing collaborations artistically and musically," Curtis said. "2009 should be very busy for us, too."
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
