Interview: Damian B
‘I’d been essentially locked away in my bedroom writing for a year at the expense of my social life. I really wanted to get my head down and focus.’
You could say it’s a breath of fresh air. Or that it’s close to your heart…
Lung puns aside, the new album Wait Less Suspense is simply crystal, diverse D&B, peppered with diverse collabs and influences, rammed with fresh ideas and drawn deep from the man’s deepest, fleshy recesses.
But what does that curious title mean?
Whenever I choose a title for a track I always like to leave it open to interpretation, and the same applied when I was thinking of a title for the album. It has its own meaning for me, but for others it may be different and I like that. Music is art, and all art is open to interpretation – people will develop their own thoughts, feelings and opinions and I think it’s something that should be encouraged – there’s nothing more mundane than having everything spelt out in black and white. I like to play on imagination and let people come up with their own ideas.
I still don’t know what the title means!
It’s really just a play on words but I loved the way it sounded and the many different ways in which it could be interpreted. I’d be more interested in hearing your interpretation of it, what does it mean to
you?
Getting sick and tired of being sick and tired maybe? That’s my take. Overall it sounds like you got into a pretty comfortable place with this album, was it an enjoyable experience?
Overall, definitely. It’s with hindsight that I’m now able to look over the past year or so and remember the enjoyable parts of writing the album. The most difficult aspect of the writing process was actually forming the basis of the album, which didn’t happen until I essentially ‘binned’ a load of tracks that I’d written and wasn’t happy with at all.
I’d been essentially locked away in my bedroom writing for a year at the expense of my social life. I really wanted to get my head down and focus. I’m sure there’ll be certain tracks that aren’t to everyone’s taste but this album was about fulfilling my own artistic needs. I need to be challenging myself and constantly learning to feel fulfilled, and this album had it’s challenging moments – that’s for sure, but the feeling of having finished it now is really rewarding and I’m looking forward to the next challenge.
There’s a Shakespeare connection to one of the tunes. May I add a big, frilly, Elizabethan ‘WTF?’
My dad is a huge Shakespeare fan, and understandably so. The title of the track ‘Stars, Hide Your Fires!’ comes from the line ‘Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires’ from Macbeth. I love that play. It’s relevance to the lyrical content of the track, however, is minimal – if any at all.
And there’s verily an exclusive here, I hear?
The track title was also the name of my band in my high school years. A little bit of Lung trivia for you, right there…
How about this tracks with titles like Ghosts With Skin? This implies both a deep thinking and also a veiled comment about the state of the world… Is that true?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZrArK5FQF8
Actually I find it much more interesting hearing other people’s interpretations of the titles – or what the songs mean to them as individuals. I really wanted to express myself as honestly as I could with regards to this album. I didn’t want it to sound like just a collection of singles – I wanted it to flow and take the listener on a journey through tempo and style whilst still retaining my ‘sound’ or some level of sonic consistency.
As a person with tons to say, is the album format still relevant to you?
I think an album is the perfect platform to explore all of this as I’m interested in all kinds of different music and I wanted to tie in my influences in my own way without being constrained to the boundaries of a specific tempo or genre. I also didn’t want to collaborate with anyone who’s anyone just for the sake of it. Everyone who I worked with on this album has been someone who I’ve a great deal of respect for, be that as artists and musicians, singers and songwriters within their own rights – people with which I’ve felt a real musical connection and it made writing the tracks together really enjoyable.
So about the collabs… they sure contribute to a wonderful tapestry. Who are some of these people on Wait Less Suspense?
I worked with three vocalists on this album; Rachel K Collier, Sarah Howells of Paper Aeroplanes and Anastasia Tiiu. Although I used to write songs and lyrics myself prior to getting involved within electronic music, I always like to let whoever is writing vocals come up with their own lyrics based on the instrumental of the track at hand.
All three vocalists have such distinct voices and complimented their respective tracks perfectly. Rach had featured on a previous release of mine Why Does Anyone Ever Do Anything? and I’ve known her for a few years now – it’s been great to have her involved again and she contributed some incredible vocals to the album, and so quickly too! She’s a real pleasure to work with and definitely someone to look out for… particularly in the UK charts at the moment!
Sarah is one half of the duo Paper Aeroplanes, Rich being the second half who played guitar on In Bloom. We had a great session in the Hospital studios in London. Sarah has a real poeticism to her lyrical content and a beautiful voice, she’s also featured on some big trance releases.
Anastasia is based in St. Petersburg in Russia and possesses arguably the most distinct voice of all. We’d been wanting to work together on a track for a long time and the opportunity arose and she delivered an amazing vocal, both lyrically and sonically and brought the track to a completely new level. Her tune Stars, Hide Your Fires! is quite possibly my favourite track on the entire album.
You are known for your overall organic vibe, so there’s some suitably lovely ambience and electronica/soundscape elements to the album. Particularly this one…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hViT2wOdbQs
….you must take time crafting these elements, do you?
Soundscaping has always been a big part of what I do. I love to create a sense of atmosphere and space within the music I write. I remember being particularly influenced by ASC’s self released Sci-Files singles and EPs – most notably a track called Epiphany. It’s an incredibly beautiful piece of electronic music, although soundscape or ambience would probably describe it more accurately. There’s something really emotive about that track and I guess it left quite an impression on me since I first heard it those years ago. So yeah, I guess I take quite a lot of time focusing on the overall space and feel of my own music, especially when I’m thinking about a body of tracks, such as the album, throughout which I wanted to maintain a sense of place and atmosphere, as if the whole album was written in one space. Or maybe it’s just OCD.
Anything exclusive about the album you can tell us?
Yes, during the writing process I found myself experimenting with recording alot of the percussion myself. For instance, some of the percussion in Stars, Hide Your Fires! is actually a recording of a can of Coke. Flicking the can with varying amounts of liquid in it allowed for some interesting percussive hits. You’ll have to listen carefully to the track, but you’ll hear it in different sections adding to the swing of things.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSHNRJa3P3s
Also, there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in Crystal Ball Gazing where, for a split second, you can hear the wonderful sound of my girlfriend burping. I was writing this track whilst she was preparing her portfolio for university and, as the tune was a little different from my “norm”, I thought it’d be fun to mess around recording some weird noises for use in the track. I just hope she’s not expecting any royalties (and that she won’t be angry at me for mentioning this!)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p60whEcAmno
Stepping outside the album, what music has been buzzing about your head in recent months?
Well, the new Phaeleh album is great and I’d thoroughly recommend it. Also the new Anile release on CIA Deep Kut is lovely! I’ve also been listening to a lot of Sweatson Klank, Merz, Solar Bears, Paul White, Rone, Kelpe – I could go on.
Overall it will be amazing to hear this live… hint hint? Less on the suspense/waiting front for us?
I have a few gigs from the end of September which I’m very excited about – starting with Hospitality at the O2 Academy in Brixton on the 27th, followed by a string of Hospitality dates passing through Bristol, Brighton, and Med School’s first stand-alone event at Plan B in Brixton on October the 11th! I’ll also be playing in Falmouth in Cornwall on the 10th – I love Cornwall!