Your influences range from LCD Soundsystem to Talking Heads \u2014 artists known for reinvention and curiosity. Who else has shaped your sonic identity, especially in terms of posture and experimentation?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been writing music my whole life, pretty much, with some slips over the years.\u00a0 Throughout that journey, I\u2019ve dipped my toes into pretty much every genre.\u00a0 Electronic, Folk, Punk-Rock, Acoustic Fingerstyle, Lo-fi Garage, Surf Rock\u2026 hell, even Ambient.\u00a0 I got bored really easily and was always in search of the next thing that would spark my curiosity.\u00a0 For years, I thought it was a weakness.\u00a0 I thought that if I could just get good at one style, then everything else would flow.\u00a0 But, here we are now, and I\u2019m still not nailed down.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finding artists like Bowie, James Murphy & King Gizzard really helped open my eyes.\u00a0 It was a lightbulb moment where I realized I didn\u2019t have to be just one thing, much to the chagrin of radio\/labels.\u00a0 I\u2019m free to be an explorer without a destination.\u00a0 That\u2019s where the good life lies, I think, and it\u2019s incredibly exciting.\u00a0 The moment monotony rears its beige head, I know I need to switch it up.\u00a0 Being independent has its perks.<\/p>\n
Growing up between London and the U.S. gave you a unique cultural vantage point. How has that outsider perspective shaped your writing, production, and artistic identity?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that I moved around a lot.\u00a0 I was exposed to a lot of different beliefs, interests, and even disappointments.\u00a0 I\u2019m grateful for that.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard for me to \u201csettle down\u201d, both literally and creatively, but I think I\u2019ve found people to call home here in Brooklyn.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s influenced my production style.\u00a0 Writing wise, I guess it influences the words I borrow?\u00a0 Some of my lyrics are quite unconventional.\u00a0 I think any form of travel – by choice or otherwise – is good for the soul.\u00a0 It helps you understand that there\u2019s always more than one side to a story, which helps me as an artist see things more holistically.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before going solo, you toured internationally as Sid Simons\u2019 bassist. What did those experiences teach you, and how did they prepare you for launching your own project?<\/p>\n
Man, that was a great time.\u00a0 Touring can be tough, but at the end of the day, you’re just getting in a van with your best friends, driving around and playing music.\u00a0 It\u2019s an adventure for sure.\u00a0 It taught me a lot about what it takes to pull off a gauntlet tour, how to bring your best to the stage no matter what, and how to use individual strengths to help the group.\u00a0 There\u2019s so much behind the scenes stuff that the audience never sees, so I feel a lot more prepared for the future.\u00a0 Also, learning how to take better photos didn\u2019t hurt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Europe leg was especially grueling – I think it was 24 shows in 25 days? – something like that.\u00a0 Some countries were a bit of a blur, but once you push past a certain comfort level, a second wind kicks in and then it\u2019s over before you know it.\u00a0 I\u2019m very thankful to Sid & the band.\u00a0 Best summer of my life, and I wouldn\u2019t trade it for the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You handle everything yourself \u2014 producing, recording, mixing, and mastering at Parasol Studios. What does complete creative control allow you to achieve that collaboration might not?<\/p>\n
First and foremost it\u2019s convenient.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve got the studio setup, the liveroom, the mics and whatnot, why not use them?\u00a0 I\u2019m really comfortable in my own environment, which leads to being looser and experimenting more.\u00a0 There\u2019s also the side to it that recording\/producing\/mixing\/mastering my own stuff is really a practice of going mad.\u00a0 If I subjected my bandmates to listening to the same riff for hours on end they\u2019d probably form an angry mob with pitchforks outside the studio doors.\u00a0 It\u2019s easier to get in the flow state without worrying about other people\u2019s comfort\/boredom.\u00a0 Part of it is an exercise in control, probably, which isn\u2019t the healthiest.\u00a0 I get obsessive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All this is not to say that there\u2019s zero collaboration.\u00a0 I find it really valuable to get another set of ears on something after you\u2019ve listened to it a bajillion times.\u00a0 Fresh perspectives from my colleagues both inside & outside of the studio have helped me a ton when I\u2019m stuck like a skipping vinyl.\u00a0 I prefer to do the gruntwork myself, though, as I really get to know the songs inside and out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Your singles explore very different emotional territories \u2014 from the prophecy themes of \u201cAnasia\u201d to the generational weight of \u201cLittle Falls.\u201d How do you decide where each song needs to go sonically and emotionally?<\/p>\n
The simple answer is that I don\u2019t decide.\u00a0 There\u2019s always a beginning – a lyric, a guitar riff, a drum groove.\u00a0 It starts like a block of marble, and the more you chisel away at it, the more a sculpture emerges, but the fact is that the sculpture was there the whole time.\u00a0 I let a song become what it wants to be, and try to take myself out of the equation.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s spiritual woo-woo, but it\u2019s really the best way I know how to write.\u00a0 It taps into something – source, subconscious, whatever you want to call it – that\u2019s hard to describe, but I think every creative person knows what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The caveat is that even when practicing this, there\u2019s always a piece of yourself that makes it in.\u00a0 Sometimes the song ends up being super out-there, sometimes it forms into something deeply personal.\u00a0 Sometimes, both.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle Falls\u201d draws on your grandfather\u2019s story and generational trauma. How important is personal history in shaping the narratives you build in your music?<\/p>\n
It really depends on the song.\u00a0 For \u201cLittle Falls\u201d, I was going through a dark period, even if I didn\u2019t know it at the time.\u00a0 I was struggling with feelings that I kept making the same mistakes over and over again.\u00a0 My grandparents passed away some years back, and I guess my grandfather in particular was on my mind, as were his struggles.\u00a0 Often families pass on things that were left unresolved within their own lives.\u00a0 Maybe being human is just a constant cycle of trying to break the cycle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019re all different people throughout our lives, and a song is a way of capturing that moment, much like a photograph.\u00a0 I was talking with a friend on the phone the other week about music & art, and I think she put it beautifully.\u00a0 She said that music is \u201cthe gift of the sacred mirror\u201d.\u00a0 You capture a snapshot of the person you were, and present it as a gift of self-knowing, so that the listener can see themselves more clearly.\u00a0 It\u2019s beautiful because it\u2019s so temporary.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your influences range from LCD Soundsystem to Talking Heads \u2014 artists known for reinvention and curiosity. Who else…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-304123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}