Islet’s debut album, Illuminated People, marked the beginning of 2012 for Bowlegs. The Cardiff band’s DIY and experimental flow was more than evident on their previously released EP’s, Celebrate this Place and Wimmy, but this was on a whole new level. In fact we felt we had little choice but to get in touch with band member Emma Daman and fire some questions her way.
Bowlegs: We’re loving your album – it feels like a rebirth of some kind,
revitalising live experimental music. Would you go along with that?
Emma: Thanks very much. To us this record is not so much of a rebirth than a continuation of what we’ve been doing for the last couple of years. We’ve had a couple of ‘mini-albums’ out, so to us this is record number three. It just happens to be a bit longer.
Bowlegs: How did the sound of the band evolve?
Emma: When we first started we filled a rehearsal space with loads of instruments and percussion and wandered round playing what we felt like playing until some songs emerged. As time has gone on we have stripped away some heavy objects for practical reasons. This record in particular is different to the first two (which we recorded ourselves) because we worked with a producer, engineer and a lot more microphones! Also it’s the first record where we hadn’t played any of the songs live before the recording, we were stepping into the unknown.
Bowlegs: Did you start out with an idea of what you didn’t want to sound
like?
Emma: We started out with a positive idea about how the music and bands we love make us feel – we wanted to communicate that feeling. It’s easy to be negative, but it’s not terribly helpful in making things happen! We wanted to play every gig like it was the biggest gig of our lives, we wanted to have fun and for that to come across in the music.
Bowlegs: Who’s the most prescriptive band member, or are you all intolerant of musical rubbish?
Emma: One of the things that I most appreciate about this group of friends is that none of them are prescriptive at all. None of us would be like “What! You’ve never heard of such and such band? You have to check them out!” because we don’t believe that anyone has to listen to any music. I have an innate dislike of being told what to do and in my experience music geek bossiness crushes any nascent interest in me. So, in my opinion, anyone can listen to anything – if it makes them happy, that’s fine by me!
Bowlegs: Each sound has a place almost like a sample – it doesn’t matter how it got there, or who plays it. And it seems to give new life to things like drum kits and guitars. Are you conscious of the effect you’re having over these instruments?
Emma: I like the fact that it doesn’t really matter who plays what. There are so many limitations in the traditional set-up of having a set instrument and a job to do, so it’s great to be free of that, and I know that whatever peculiar suggestion I might have, it may not work, but at least the others will be up for trying it out.
In Islet we have no hierarchy of instrumentation, the person playing the tom drum and the person playing the guitar are just as important. You’ve got to immerse yourself and really believe in whatever you’re playing. Whether you play every note spot on is here nor there, but the vibe in the room is what it’s about. And as we don’t have as much time to spend together making music or playing gigs as we’d ideally like, when we actually do it can tend to build up and effervesce in over-excitedness!
Bowlegs: What’s the Cardiff scene like? Does it matter where you come from? Do you feel like outsiders?
Emma: I’ve lived here for nine years, so it definitely feels like home! I think Cardiff is welcoming wherever you’re from, it certainly was to me, and we’re used to a steady influx of people coming from all over to go to uni. As the capital, it’s the city with the most gigs and record labels in Wales, but it’s small enough to travel about and get to know people. So I recommend moving to Cardiff. Croeso i Gaerdydd!
Bowlegs: The album cover seems to suggest the point where the bubble burst in that aspirational type of culture. Hands in the air while the markets crash. There’s a lulling quality in your music that feels like the calm after the storm somehow. Do you think events around you can ever impact on the sound of your music? Or is it that you exist in a bubble?
Emma: That’s an interesting point. The sleeve began with a tiny photo of 60s hippies going free, which I was drawn to because of the hedonistic optimism and a the ship-going-down poignancy … but I wasn’t aiming to reflect the wider socio-political shit-storm we’re in, because I personally don’t feel informed enough to make a useful point.
In terms of what we write our songs about, we all have jobs and meet a lot of people who have very different lives to us, and three of us are family so there’s plenty of that in there. Musically, there’s a balance between planning ‘let’s do a song that makes me feel like X band does’ and whatever on earth actually happens to come out when we all get in a room together! Islet was started in some ways to be our own island, where we try as much as possible to be kind to one another and to not do anything that might make us want to vom.
Bowlegs: Sometimes you seem to collapse several stylistic elements into a song. Does that feel like a challenge both to yourselves to be able to pull that kind of thing off, and to your audience?
Emma: Sometimes we may decide to write a song that is quite consistent, then we won’t be able to resist wedging in a bit of another jam and we end up enjoying it a whole lot more. I think that’s how Entwined Pines and What We Done Wrong came about, for example. It’s not a challenge, it’s what comes most freely to us, which I guess is why some people dig it. But if they don’t, I can perfectly understand why we might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Bowlegs: Finally, what’s next? Where are Islet headed this year?
Emma: We’ve got our first gig in Japan at the end of January. Our friend Ewan Jones Morris, a filmmaker who made our last two videos (and is in the process of making a new one right now), is coming with us, and he’s going to shoot an experimental documentary during the trip, like a 21st century Sans Soleil. Then we’re planning on doing some gigs in UK and Europe, making some new tunes, zines, gifs and 3-D photos along the way and hopefully emerge bright-eyed bushytailed at the other end.
-Interview by Julian Tardo-
