Demdike Stare - at It Again

Of all the contempo discoveries The Quietus have fabricated, Demdike Stare are one of our favourites. Hither, Rory Gibb talks to Miles Whittaker to find out exactly what makes the dark practitioners tick

Demdike Stare's music is concerned with opposing forces: decay and resurrection, loss and discovery, past and futurity, beauty and ugliness. Information technology'south about inevitable, given that it's informed by the duo'southward previous work in two ostensibly opposite musical fields. Miles Whittaker has spent years making grainy and often annoying techno as MLZ and one half of Pendle Coven, and more recently has been responsible for a series of hybrid dancefloor tracks that unite dubstep's sprawling sense of the urbane with dub-techno's rickety intensity; Sean Canty works for the Finders Keepers label, unearthing ancient and lost recordings and giving them a new lease of life. And then while ane one-half of the duo appears defiantly futurist, tapping into a lineage that began with Detroit techno'southward obsession with dystopian future worlds, the other's work is concerned with tunneling backwards into the past. Their records teem with the sounds of that credible contraction, but reconcile its two halves into a form that's strikingly coherent.

On a number of levels, then, Demdike Stare practice a particularly potent form of mod witchcraft. Every bit obsessive record collectors, they use acquisition of musical knowledge like weaponry, writing music by assembling it, layer upon layer, from samples and the rickety creak of hardware. This procedure of unearthing onetime recordings and reanimating them in new shapes carries with it an intrinsically arcane ability; past passing the phantoms trapped in these records through a modernistic lens, Whittaker and Canty resurrect and re-contextualise the ghosts of the past. The results veer wildly from clouds of dense, well-nigh impenetrably dark ambient to long-form tracks that could virtually piece of work on a dancefloor, powered by the incessant heartbeat thud of a bass drum.

Combined with their jet black, occult-referencing artwork and fearsome reputation of their namesake (Demdike was the virtually famous of the Pendle witches), the complete aesthetic the duo project is tied to a uniquely British sort of horror: all Wicker Man rituals, Shakespearian witches and wicked, sarcastic humour. In that sense, they're tightly bound to a host of other musicians, working across a range of different fields, who tap into the modern world's stiff sense of political and social unease to reimagine the nervous dread of early on post-punk and avant-funk. Every bit with people like Shackleton, Actress, Raime, T++, Philip Jeck and Mordant Music, their music screams of different times and cultures colliding – thanks in part to their grab-all utilise of samples, from onetime psych-rock records to techno, through complimentary jazz, dub and world musics – but twists them into forms that skillfully paste over cracks and tensions that might otherwise appear. The spiritual outcry of final year'southward 'Hashashin Chant' is a perfect case; ane of Demdike Stare'south finest moments, its incessantly looped voices trapped in perpetual movement draw a sort of abstruse existential terror, as bleak as it is oddly beautiful.

After the release of debut album Symbiosis in 2009, final year was particularly prolific for the duo: they recorded and released iii vinyl-merely records on Modern Love. Each – the pitch drone of Forest Of Evil, the stark techno of Liberation Through Hearing and Voices Of Dust's skeletal dub – was able to stand alone, while too feeling tightly linked into a greater body of work formed when the trio were placed alongside one some other. The recent release of the Tryptych compilation, which gathers all three together forth with a raft of bonus tracks, bears out the strong sense of continuation between each record. However, as Whittaker explained when nosotros spoke to him about its origins, Tryptych'southward cocky-contained majesty was less a matter of design than of gradual realization.

Tryptych is a compilation of the iii records you released last year, alongside extra fabric. Was it always your intention to release final yr's 3 records every bit a CD, or did that develop equally it went forth?

Miles Whittaker: It basically just happened as we went along. We'd been thinking nigh what to exercise with the CD release, because we wanted to do something a picayune scrap special, rather than simply compiling the releases. So nosotros sat down after we'd scheduled the first record and worked out what other cloth we still had from last twelvemonth, and that was where Tryptych came from really - we chose the bonus tracks for each CD.

That'southward interesting, because it's very coherent as you listen through it. At that place'south a sense that information technology holds together actually well, fifty-fifty though each individual disc is quite unique in itself. Did you take a similar arroyo when recording each album?

MW: Kind of. It'south basically a really good document of the evolution of Sean and myself working together. The first, Symbiosis, was probably a piffling bit more random, I suppose. We were still finding our way around what kind of sound we were looking to come up with, whereas last yr nosotros were on a fire a petty chip more than and we knew exactly what we wanted to do.

That's one matter: listening to the progression from Symbiosis through the last three, your music feels like a far more complete synthesis – information technology seems to hold together amend. I suppose that'south unsurprising given that you've been working together constantly since and so.

MW: Truthful, but and then me and Sean take known each other for about xx years, and in the concluding four years we've probably spoken every day well-nigh records. I suppose you lot'd almost say that if one of us was female we'd be married! That'southward the kind of human relationship we've had, merely Sean'southward held off producing any music for a number of years. He was the catalyst that got Demdike Stare together, because he turned effectually to me later years of me trying to get him to practice something, and said 'We've got to write a tape now, we're ready'.

Originally information technology was just a soundtrack to a nonexistent horror moving picture. That was the thought - we were but writing music for ourselves to listen to. We were finding picayune bits of music that actually represented both of the states – on a rock record there'd be one track, on a jazz tape at that place'd be another track…

So do y'all recall that the audio of Demdike Stare is something that's establish its own manner every bit it's gone on?

MW: Yeah, of grade. It's as well come through being more honest with 1 another. Me and Sean come from really different types of music, but there are sure records that cross over betwixt both of us, and those are the records that have drawn us together to write music. And with the corporeality of music that we listen to – we listen to absolutely everything! – it was quite difficult to condense that into the sort of sound we were looking for. But because nosotros stuck to soundtracks we could be a lot more open up minded. It just allowed us to do whatever we wanted to do. And the funny affair is that we've evolved fifty-fifty further with some of the new material, we've decided to take some other road.

Probably the best way to describe it is that the primary dominion we have when buying records is that we don't stand notwithstanding. We're not allowed to dwell for too long on, or get too far into, ane thing. We have to keep moving because it keeps it fresh, it keeps the states enthusiastic - and I retrieve information technology'due south exactly the same with producing music. We don't want to step backwards or stay in the same place. This twelvemonth, at present, we but want to go somewhere completely different.

That makes sense: I read an interview with yous, where you spoke about one of the themes behind Demdike Stare being futurism. Information technology's interesting, because I tin hear in your music this sense of the futuristic, just at the same fourth dimension that 'futurism' is being created from old music. There'due south a really prissy tension to that, which I find very appealing.

MW: That's exactly what we're all about: me and Sean wait for old records that are relevant now. Information technology'due south the passing of fourth dimension that makes things relevant. When things are released, they don't necessarily sit well with what's going on at the fourth dimension, but you lot tin look backwards and merely exist completely inspired to write new music. That's i of the things a lot of people tend to forget when they get into music product. They're unremarkably emulating their heroes, for desire of doing something, rather than looking forward. And I'm not saying that we're 'looking forward' in any way at all, simply we look backwards in order to move frontward, if y'all volition. That'southward definitely at the eye of what we do.

Your experience as obsessive record collectors must really assist that mentality. I guess it'southward something you run into all the time when you detect old records, and think 'wow, this has and so much more meaning now, compared to when it was first released withal many years ago'.

MW: Exactly. A lot of it's almost context. And there's personal context too. For years Sean's tried to get me to listen to certain things simply I just can't hear information technology, you know? I'd say 'Look, I'm not in that location – it'southward not part of me, at that place's something there I'one thousand merely not ready for'. Merely a few years downwardly the line, I'll just get 'this is amazing!'

It'due south crazy, y'all tin can't predict information technology, but more and more our identity is coming out of buying records. That's Demdike Stare, really: it'southward the records which we purchase, that's what influences u.s.a..

What's the working procedure you lot take when you're making records out of records, and then? Because you exercise include sounds from hardware too, don't y'all?

MW: Yeah. Some of the tracks are pure hardware; that's the flipside. I'1000 a tape collector, but Sean's a tape collector who's on another level. He'south obsessive. He basically puts me onto everything, I don't accept time to become out looking hard. The other side is that's what I'chiliad similar with hardware – I'm obsessed with it. It's where I know my true beloved lies, merely plugging stuff in and making it play itself.

Nosotros don't actually tend to sit down down and write anything in particular, but we'll basically collate a few samples together and play around with them. It's trial and mistake, but basically Sean will compile a load of tracks from certain records, just to go me to mind to, exist influenced by and/or sample. We've got to be a bit careful with the sampling thing...

I tin can imagine.

MW: Information technology's but a tricky surface area. But everything's obfuscated, in that location'due south nix really obvious in any of the tracks at all, and nosotros plainly don't sample from major labels. That'd just exist pointless. Though last year I Shazam'd 1 of our tracks, only to see what information technology'd recognize, and it came up as the original record it was sampled from!

There'southward a lot of inherent gamble in sample-based music, specially now.

MW: Intellectual property laws are getting kind of insane on this planet at present. I don't want to be compromising in any mode for what we do. It'due south not like we're writing re-edits of famous tracks to make money. That's the complete reverse of what we do. We're only trying to create music out of building blocks similar anybody else, just you've got to be careful what building blocks y'all utilise.

If you're blatantly doing re-edits for money it's fairly obvious. But if you've sampled a string to build another string line, yous really shouldn't be chased downward. I think a lot of information technology has to practise with the whole music industry. The major labels are failing crazily, they're all a scrap bitter now, and they just want to jump on everybody else'south back in society to salvage a little more money. That's not what we do. The music manufacture as we know it is akin to the motor manufacture to united states of america: we don't have anything to exercise with it.

On that field of study: you've got a long running relationship with [record label] Modern Love, don't you?

MW: Completely. They're similar my all-time friends. We get the accented freedom to do what nosotros want, which is why we consistently work with them. A lot of people really tin't say that nearly their labels!

And I retrieve there are more labels doing that now. They don't actually care, they might release in what could be construed as an actual genre, merely then they'll simply flip out. For me anyway, final twelvemonth was an uber exciting year for new music. Information technology was an amazing year, at that place'southward so much that seems to be happening and coming to the fore. And information technology seems like we're part of it, which merely makes me feel really humble and happy. Two years before that, I was getting a bit jaded with new music. Sure things weren't moving on, and it just seemed to be aforementioned thing over and once more. But last year information technology really picked up.

Information technology'southward good to hear that coming from the perspective of someone like yourself, who's been collecting records for far longer than I have, considering for me last yr felt really interesting. This feeling that barriers were being broken down a chip, people weren't caring as well much nigh whether they were conforming to sure established patterns.

MW: That'southward exactly the reason why. You lot're getting a lot of young producers now who accept grown upwards with a lot of different types of music. In the 90s- peculiarly the early on 90s - it was a scrap more difficult, because firm music was firm music, techno was techno… You lot concluded up with clubs but playing that i type of music, whereas at present it's getting more and more diverse, fifty-fifty within the sort of shows nosotros're playing at. Information technology's similar you say, boundaries coming down and things crossing over – terminal year was killer for that.

I observe myself wondering whether information technology'due south the fact that the internet has democratised the distribution of music to the indicate where young people getting involved in making music don't accept any real expectations to make money out of it – then why bother befitting?

MW: I'd hope so. To be honest mate, that'south a crucial mindset. Information technology'southward 1 of the hardest things to exercise once you commencement working within music, but I effort to keep that mindset all the damn time. Once yous start thinking about making money yous've changed exactly what you set out to do in the commencement identify. I do it because I love it. I don't exercise it for anyone else – non in a selfish way, but I just do it for the sake of information technology, because I love and savor doing it.

The internet's got a hell of a lot to say too. I recollect it's probably the best truthful reflection of human nature, considering it brings out the very worst and the very best in people. That's why I'm actually confronting all these net laws about monitoring traffic – information technology's the last chalkboard where we can all shout at one another with no ane actually stabbing anybody! All they're doing right at present is trying to quell human nature, which is incommunicable.

They merely starting time to push things secret in the same way as they do in the real earth, I suppose. Things merely sink deeper and deeper.

MW: That'southward exactly right. Just the funny affair is that I still consider Demdike Stare to exist really underground music – but because we're all over the place, we're not really tied to genres or annihilation. Merely the surreptitious seems to exist coming overground, simply considering of the net. A few weeks ago I was talking about how, when the miner's strikes happened, to become them organized took a month. Information technology took time and effort for people to telephone each other up and send letters, whereas you tin can Twitter that now and everyone will be there within 24 hours. Word'south passed on really fast. And that helps - anything that'due south good gets exposed really quickly on the internet. There can be downsides but at that place are upsides, especially for communication, on that level it's astonishing.

It's really great to think that your music is being heard past people across the globe, far faster than information technology would ever accept been before. Which I imagine is evidently brilliant for you guys.

MW: Yeah, it's crazy! Some of the gigs we've been offered this year accept been off the wall – China and stuff like that.

It also indicates that there's an audience for the sort of music you lot make that stretches fashion across what you might imagine, an audience was previously limited by technology and access.

MW: I retrieve the same tin exist said for anything. A lot of governments see the danger in that kind of thing, I retrieve. Simply it's a worry to major labels as well. They act in the same mode equally all the corporations and they run across a danger in it. We're eating away at their music business concern, considering everyone who's not on their label is putting out amend music. They're doing music for the sake of it, it's not a product, it'due south a love thing, and that shows through in a lot of music. That's one matter I call back the major labels especially never had.

You've spoken previously virtually how you felt mixtapes were central to the spread of music culture. Is that an attitude that comes out in your music, exercise you retrieve? When I heed to Demdike Stare, I experience like it'southward cut from the same cloth as a mixtape – it's based effectually pieces of other music, only all brought together into something coherent.

MW: I of the things we're really trying to do is blur the line between a mixtape and a release. I dearest setting myself issues and and so overcoming them. I actually write a lot of music doing it that style, considering information technology almost turns out as a by-product. Especially in this day and age, I can sit – where beforehand I probably would take spent two hours with my records, practicing mixes then spending an 60 minutes recording – in three hours I can do a mix that'due south twice as long, loop 5 out of the xxx tracks, create little edits for the mix, and stick a load of furnishings on. The scope is limitless. I'm really a fan, these days, of trying to blur that line.

Nosotros've released two mix CDs already, and we did a couple of podcasts last year which were starting to become down that route, so hopefully the adjacent one might be a little step further. I really desire people to exist similar 'that really reminds me of something, merely I don't exactly know what it is!' Just by taking a really unobvious loop out of something and using it for something else. I actually similar that, because information technology makes people look and dig for music. I don't care if they're doing it on YouTube or in a record bin - it's non about format wars or anything like that, information technology'southward just well-nigh getting people interested in looking for new music themselves.

Because that'south what we exercise now, we're trying to observe records that no-one else has found and used that way. It might be a rock tape which all these rock collectors collect, just they're all buying it because it'south this really big psych tape, and there'll be a lilliputian electronic track on it which is merely bonkers and doesn't really fit on there. That'southward what nosotros're really looking for, you know - something people might have missed because a record was labeled wrongly. So yes, mixtapes are uber important.

What I find quite astonishing about your music is that information technology'southward quite genreless. People try to tag it with different names but it doesn't really fit into any of them, and I wonder – no, actually, I'm sure – that information technology's because information technology takes this mixtape approach of bringing together music not by genre but more past mood, or by shared traits that stretch across genre.

MW: Identity. It'due south all about identity for us. That'southward one of those crucial things, in the mixtapes again - information technology allows more freedom. And hopefully it'll permeate into more than areas also, so if yous go into a techno club y'all won't just hear techno music. I got tired of that. I used to go booked quite a lot under my MLZ moniker and I'd merely plough up and play everything, you know – and people would exist similar 'what is he doing?' Just it's nonetheless at that place: I'm referencing techno by playing a garage rails, because information technology'due south notwithstanding got 303s, or something. You lot just think, 'look, everything'southward the same, it's all music!'

You can't be too extreme with people, but you lot tin subtly nudge them into another area. And if I could have 1 goal, it would be that every time somebody listens to our music they become interested in something they weren't interested in before. That's what me and Sean are like, actually. It'due south only near beingness interested, going out in that location and exploring for yourself.

The funny matter is that you tin can become too far into it, and actually amerce yourself from people. You've just got to remember to exist able to reference it to peoples' context, considering you can't patronize people either. I'm a big believer that every bit soon as you start doing that, you'll lose more people than you gain. You lot've got to practise it in a way that's friendly. But again, it'due south just interesting – if I play you an ambient drone tape from the eighties, I'm trying to point you in the direction of certain things. Just it's also about not being obvious: we don't put whatever names on the tracklists for our mixes, or annihilation similar that. It's all anonymous.

Every bit you say, it'due south nearly getting people to think a little flake more about where the music came from and where they might find information technology, or even where they might accept institute it earlier the cyberspace made it so like shooting fish in a barrel to.

MW: That's the thing these days. ten years agone we couldn't really have shopped like we shop now. Me and Sean go booked all over Europe, and the first dominion, before we even ask about payment, we ask, 'are there any tape shops in the town you desire u.s. to play in?' And if the reply'south aye, it's like, 'correct, nosotros'll negotiate' [laughs].

Equally long every bit there'southward somewhere to go crate digging before the testify…

MW: It's likewise with the internet. I've just bought a record from South korea today, and I couldn't accept done that 10 or fifteen years ago. I'd accept had to known a record dealer who went over at that place, or have gone to a tape fair in Europe or something. But now you can buy annihilation. If people point yous in the right direction, you lot should exist able to find it. Honestly, YouTube is probably one of the best reference places ever. It's nuts. So much of what Sean and I exercise is send each other links. We like trying to notice things that are outside of genres, finding lost tracks on different records – that'due south where all the fun is these days. Because everything seems to exist being dug at the moment, anybody's discovering everything.

I got this book, The Acid Archive, about pressings in America which came out between 1965 and 1982 or something, and it's amazing, it'due south got all these pictures of all these crazy, obscure records by hippies and all sorts. And it was basically stating that in the last fifteen years more of these records have turned up and get famous than ever earlier, because of the spread of the internet and the spread of data. So loads of the records in this book accept only been discovered in the last 15 years. I observe that amazing, especially in America, which is a actually heavily dug musical land – there's nonetheless so much out there to be discovered.

I find that fascinating in itself: the fact that a record tin can be released by a person or a grouping of people, be bought by a few people, and then almost disappear as though it never existed. And and then suddenly simply reappear at some indeterminate fourth dimension in the hereafter.

MW: Information technology happens all the time. Me and Sean are wondering where we can go to find music that hasn't been dug then well. And then we're booking a show in the Philippines, and at that place'll be some really amazing stuff out at that place, anti-government music and the like. You lot look to the cloak-and-dagger for that sort of thing.

Manifestly at that place'south a big connection to horror movies and the occult in both the music and the aesthetic you present as Demdike Stare. I guess that comes in function from the fact that at that place'southward something quite arcane or mystical almost unearthing all these old records, these sometime sounds, these ghosts of people trapped in recording form, and reworking them into something new, giving them a new lease of life.

MW: Of course. As long equally you don't mention hauntology - that's a misnomer right at that place. Simply it tin can exist explained really basically: if yous look at what witches did, which was conjure spells out of certain ingredients, that's exactly what we're doing. Hopefully we can inject some form of hidden gene that makes the stop result more than the sum of its parts. Information technology'southward virtually like a spell in that sense, where you go a load of ingredients, throw them all into a cauldron, set fire to it and see what happens.

There's one record that came out last year which, more than any other, I tend to marshal with yours, which was the Wireless EP past T++ [the techno pseudonym of Berlin's Torsten Pröfrock]. Taken entirely aside from hauntology, it'south again similar a spell, taking these ancient African recordings and giving them this new, weird lease of life, where they're both sometime and new at the same time.

MW: Torsten's a wizard. He'due south merely one of the all-time producers on the planet for me, he's astonishing. He'south 15 years in forepart of nearly people. It's funny actually, I'grand just glad he gets the props he does these days, because it's pretty hard music to wrap your caput around. He'southward out there on his ain. He's always been plugging away, and has always been very individual near his music, and very careful near releasing it. That's fantastic because then many people out there put out a record a week - which is nuts, because they're stopping other music from being heard, as far as I'k concerned. Torsten's a model, and he's in a actually great place for what he's doing, being at [Berlin record shop] Hardwax. They're a mainstay of my musical history. I've been buying from that record shop for at least 15 years.

They're a hub.

MW: Very much so. For the Berlin scene, especially, and right down to vinyl pressing at Dubplates & Mastering, which is where nosotros cut all of our stuff. That place is magical. Y'all should hear our tracks before we transport them there! They're very item about their sound, which I'yard very thankful for. They really add the fifth dimension to whatever you practice. They polish it up so well – specially with our music, where there's a lot of groundwork racket, which we love, it's part and parcel – but there's an awful lot of stuff we don't even notice is in our tracks. They'll come back from being mastered, and we'll listen and realise we didn't even know these sounds were in there!

That merely seems wonderful to me: that the creators of music like yours, which has that sort of effect on listeners anyhow, however discover new sounds in their own records.

MW: I'g a bit funny like that. I have a rule that once a rails's finished I don't heed to it, I endeavour to cutting myself off from it. Simply because if you don't move on, you lot don't move on - and I'm not one of those people who can engineer a howdy-hat for two hours. I recollect that's insane – a hello-chapeau's a hullo-hat, you're either happy or you lot're not, only permit it go. But I inverse my mind when nosotros started doing Demdike Stare, because we wrote the music for ourselves. That was the principal thought, we weren't giving information technology to a label, and I was just happy that afterwards ten years of badgering him Sean had finally come up circular to the idea of making music. So Sean actually forced me to sit down and heed to Tryptych when we got the CDs back about a calendar month ago, and it just fucking blew my head off. Considering I hadn't heard a lot of information technology for so long, I but couldn't believe we'd put out something with so much music in it.

Information technology's a great body of work, and an easy anthology to sit and mind to the whole way through. In that location aren't that many records that yous can be happy to sit through three CDs in a row of.

MW: That's exactly what I said! It really scared me because I just started thinking 'what are we going to do next yr?' We're planning to practise some interesting things, considering me and Sean love different formats, peculiarly vinyl. That's our dear really. We're non besides worried nearly the music, because nosotros practice take some stuff we're both really happy with at the moment. So at present it'due south a discussion about formats and how nosotros're going to go the design gear up.

The 1 thing well-nigh Demdike Stare I don't recall I've mentioned in any interviews I've done, i thing which has grown organically, is the ring itself: it's actually grown bigger. Andy Votel is basically a fellow member of Demdike Stare simply because his artwork is absolutely perfect for what nosotros're doing. Also, our live evidence is audiovisual, where we basically sample VHS like we sample records. The guy who chooses all the footage is another friend of ours called Jonny Redman, who's a massive VHS collector – he's another honorary member. Besides Shlom at Modern Love as well, simply because he's the man, none of this would really have happened without him. So at that place are now five people in Demdike Stare.

Which I suppose moves Demdike Stare out of the realms of a group limited in music, and more than into an entity that represents a broader artistic intent.

MW: Completely. Information technology's just because everybody'south friends, and when Modern Love was started that was the entire thought backside the label: we'll only work with friends. And that'southward non saying that we wouldn't work with new artists, the bespeak is that you lot become friends with them, then yous piece of work with them. Then y'all're on such a dissimilar level, there's none of this legality getting involved, at that place'southward no hassle with money, considering it's not about that. We get other labels asking if we desire to do a record for them, and we're similar 'not really, we don't need to!'

Are y'all performing a lot more than alive this yr? Information technology seems like there are quite a few more shows turning up on your schedule.

MW: Nosotros seem to exist. Nosotros did a lot of shows concluding year, only quite far afield. We've got quite a few more booked for the Uk. We're non really big fans of playing in the UK merely some of the shows nosotros've got booked are going to exist genius. We're playing with Raime in London, and they've got the same kind of mood as us - they're trying to notice the same things we are, the essence. Nosotros probably sound more than organic and older than they do. I call back the all-time description is that they're purer. Purer downwardly that route of generalness!

Which is always a expert mode for things to become...

MW: Of grade! Everything's good mate, I shout at people all the time almost this. It's music, it's the aforementioned damn thing, don't get defenseless up in everything or in 1 thing, because there'southward so much more out there that will fire you on and go along your enthusiasm burning.

[Looks out the window, laughs] Information technology's really grim up here! That's probably another reason why Demdike Stare sounds like it does.

The whole 'it's grim upwardly north' thing?

MW: Yeah, especially because I live out in the countryside, so it's really bleak upwardly here. In that location's no forests or anything, it'due south just moors.

In that location definitely is something peculiarly British about the kind of occult imagery you use. That sort of Wicker Man, rolling hills, Shakespearian, ritual thing… Which then ties into folk music lineages as well.

MW: Of course, yes. To us that'south probably a actually apt description, because two hundred years ago people similar me would have been writing folk music and singing about local myths. Where I live is then steeped in witch civilisation – literally I can walk for a mile in one direction and reach a stone circle, and a mile in the other direction there's a Roman fort. Information technology'southward everywhere upward hither, historic culture, so why non draw your influence from it?

I really don't like where I live, but the music wouldn't sound exactly similar it does if I lived in Espana, information technology actually wouldn't. It's weird because I didn't realise that for a few years. I was but writing music, and you don't necessarily realise how much your environs affects or influences yous. When people started asking usa well-nigh it, information technology was like, 'Oh yeah, now you mention information technology…' [laughs]. Apparently when you're a bit younger as well, you lot don't realise what's driving yous to brand stuff and why you make music that sounds like you lot exercise. There are really obvious influences like Bones Aqueduct or Lord's day Ra or something like that, but there are more subtle influences that creep in.

Not-musical influences also, they don't necessarily become enough credit.

MW: Of course. I don't really know that much about the cultural history around hither, but I exercise know that at that place'due south a wealth of it, and I like to go out and have a chip of a discovery. I do field recordings in caves and that sort of thing, for atmospherics, and that all gets thrown into the mix when nosotros make tracks.

It shows, audibly - if that makes any sense. There are so many layers going on that information technology'due south ofttimes incommunicable to unpick.

MW: That's the idea, really. We're not standing still. Probably one of the worst things yous can do is stagnate, and that'south a metaphor for life too every bit music I suppose!

On that note, exercise you have much planned for this year?

MW: Yeah. Nosotros are looking at certain areas, and our music's moving onward. It's difficult to say exactly, considering anything I say might raise wrong expectations, so maybe I'll just leave it at 'farther out there'.

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Source: https://thequietus.com/articles/05699-demdike-stare-interview

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