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When you started releasing music in the early 2010s, its this era of very heightened, bubblegum pop.
And years later, I feel like music has shifted to your vision darker and more ambient harmonically rich.
After that, people started to copy it, which happens to a lot of musicians.
Were in a state of constant recontextualization and borrowing.
That made me a bit insecure.
I was just like,Fuck, Im probably never going to be accepted in pop music really.
And yet here we are, pop music sounds like that shit and Im not even doing that anymore.
So wheres my place in pop music?
Maybe I dont have one or maybe it was always on the outskirts looking in.
Now I just want to write good songs.
I just like making music.
I love making music with other people.
Theres a kind of physical and spiritual component.
Harmonies in vocals and chords resonate with me almost more than anything else.
Its a four-chord loop.
And yet theres still a lot of chordal richness.Youre starting on the chord four of the key.
Already youre kind of in motion.
And then youre going straight to the fifth, which wants to resolve somewhere.
And that somewhere else is the start of this chord sequence again.
So thats how you end up in a never-ending loop.
I cant take credit for that chord progression, but I can say what it makes me feel.
It reminded me of the world of Retrograde.
The piano and the humming and the cold world that it lives in felt like revisiting a feeling.
Its kind of apocalyptic.
Its kind of late night.
Its a bit misty.
Its a little bit romantic.
It takes us the whole length of that section to get us to where were going to land.
What is happening there?The music was an improvisation, from start to finish that I chopped up.
It was almost like filming a whole thing.
But the improv would have just been based on feeling and how my fingers just naturally move.
The I know this feeling too well line came first and then I added verses.
What do you think that style of playing does?
Its probably quite a pedigree for my personality.
I think musicians often like chasing new experiences and new highs, and were also chasing spiritual concerns.
I find contentment and bliss in a chord progression, but its fleeting.
These moments of bliss really only come into your vision for a few seconds at a time.
You experienced this incredible, pure feeling of peace.
Im definitely hearing that on this record, as much as there is still some harmonic wandering.
Theres certainly a lot more confidence and command over what youre saying.Yeah.
I mean, is that just your early 30s?
I think it might be.
Its funny because I did all this fucking therapy.
And then I remember my mum said to me … And I was like, No, its all this work Ive been doing.
