MALPAS: WARPISH FOLKTRONICA FROM BIRMINGHAM
Your music has been described variously as ‘Electronica-Folk’, ‘Warpish Folktronica’ and as ‘Beirut meets M83 and Aphex Twin’ – how much do you agree with these descriptions, and more importantly, how would you describe yourselves?
I guess if you’re going to make music using synthesizers alongside mandolins it’s inevitable you’ll get tagged as ‘folktronica’ or something similar – I think we’ve made our peace with that! Personally I don’t think we sound entirely like anything else out there, so when describing our sound I probably would say it fell somewhere between a couple of artists at opposite ends of the acoustic-electronic spectrum. There’s plenty of different influences knocking around in our music and if people pick out similarities to Aphex Twin and Beirut that’s flattering, they’re great artists. Also I am a big fan of the adjective ‘warpish’ and will always try to use it when describing our music.
One of the most intriguing things (to me at least) about your band is the stressed importance of the collaborative efforts between songwriter and producer – something you often don’t see much emphasis of outside of Hip-Hop – how do you personally see this relationship (in terms of overall importance and bearing on the sound) and do you see the songwriter/producer relationship as something that should be more emphasised in the recording/writing processes of artists as a whole?
The collaboration between the 2 of us is pretty integral to the whole project. From early doors the writing and recording processes were happening simultaneously – if Andy or I had an idea we’d get it down quickly and send it to the other, who would work on it a bit and send it back, and so on. I think the fact that one of us is more of a producer, the other a writer meant that the music often took unexpected turns, and the songs evolved in a very organic, creative way – much more so than if I had just written the songs on an acoustic and brought them to Andy with set-in-stone arrangements. The other major benefit one of us being a producer is it obviously gives us a lot of self-sufficiency when it comes to making a record.
Following on from the above, how do you think your different experiences (especially in terms of working in the different aspects of the music) have informed your overall outlook when it comes to creating and controlling the music you make, and are there any mistakes that you have seen in others that have shaped how you approach Malpas yourselves?
Well both of us have had plenty of experience of a more traditional band/producer setup – we very much approached Malpas wanting to try something different to that. Also we were pretty strict with quality control; a common pitfall is when a writer or writers get too attached to something they’ve written and become unwilling to alter their creations at the suggestion of a bandmate or producer. I think past experience plus the ‘do something, pass it on’ approach meant that neither of us got too precious about anything, which allowed the songs to unfold in the way they did and also allowed us to quickly jettison any material which wasn’t working or wasn’t up to scratch.
Andy – Malpas is a departure from your role behind the mixing desk as a producer, what would you say are the biggest factors that pulled you out, and did you find any difficulty in acclimatising to the change in role?
To be honest it was a bit of an accident starting a musical project of my own. Me and Ali started working together on a couple of tracks and we were so happy with the results we decided to start Malpas. So really, my decision was all to do with my belief in the music me and Ali were making together rather than any burning desire to be an artist in my own right. I was in bands before getting in to studio work so the transition was about remembering what that experience was like rather than learning anything completely new – It’s been a lot of fun getting out there again!
Prior to Malpas, what kinds of acts were you involved in – I’ve heard mention that you were in bands together previously?
Ha! Thankfully that was all pre-social media so there’s no evidence of it. We were in a couple of bands together years ago, the first of which featured a fresh-out-of-uni Mr. Hudson, another was a pop-punk outfit. Much has changed. We went our separate ways for a while and hooked up again to start Malpas.
What were the biggest deciding factors in choosing to work together when you formed Malpas?
For me it was mainly Andy’s general demeanour, although he does have an excellent array of vintage synthesizers and his wealth of production knowledge does come in handy.
One thing that caught my eye is that the band is obviously split between London and Birmingham – what are the implications of that in terms of geographical viability of working together on music, and how has the geographical split affected the writing and recording processes for you?
It certainly hasn’t hindered us. It has meant that maybe half the writing/recording for the album has been done over email, but it turns out that has its merits and has kept things fresh from a creative point of view. London is only a couple of hours on the train from Brum anyway, and if anything it’s meant that when we have managed to get in the same room together to work on stuff, we’ve been pretty focused and productive.
Continuing on the theme from above, how much autonomy are you afforded when creating a track, and what would you say is the average “creative process” behind any given song?
By each other? As much as we want really – if one of us grabs hold of an idea, does loads of work and turns it into an absolute banger then great! What has tended to happen more often on this record, as for example on the song ‘Under Her Sails’ which was the first thing we wrote together, is one of us will record a verse or verse and chorus, then the whole back-and-forth approach described above happens, with each of us taking turns to add layers, take stuff out, chop it around. Usually once it gets to a certain stage we’ll get together and finish it off, then Andy has the mammoth task of mixing it.
Geographical positioning seems to be a pretty strong formative influence on acts these days, especially in regards to the media championing a particular ‘scene’ at any time (much like the current/recent championing of ‘B-town’) – have you found yourselves lumped in with any current movements or scenes, and in addition has the geographical split in the band afforded you any particular influences in the style of songs you make or subjects that you tackle lyrically?
Not particularly, we have been mentioned in the same breath as ‘B-Town’ before but I don’t even know what that means really – there are and always have been decent bands knocking around in Brum, it just hasn’t always been fashionable to point it out. Unless there’s some underground electro-dream-folk movement going on that I don’t know about I think we’re pretty safe from being associated with a scene. I don’t think the geographical split has influenced things all that much… one of our songs does mention Bennett’s Hill and New Street though.
And, additionally, what would you say are the biggest benefits of being located in both Birmingham and London?
London is obviously great for access to the industry, and having one of us located there has definitely helped in that regard. Birmingham is great if you want to tour, you can pretty much get anywhere in Britain and back within a day. Also having one of us based in Brum has let us build a rehearsal/recording space, something which would have been extremely difficult to do in London.
In terms of sound you exhibit a very refreshing mix of electronica and folk, without miring too deep into one or the other. In regards to this sound, what were your biggest influences in making it, and as a fairly experimental act are there any avenues that you could see yourselves exploring in future?
I’m not sure if I can pick out anything specific, we certainly didn’t aim to make it sound like anything else in particular – I’d say that my influences maybe include more of the folkier side of things e.g. Dylan, Fairport Convention whereas Andy’s probably more into Talk Talk and The Beta Band, but there’s a huge amount of common ground between. I wouldn’t rule anything out for future explorations, we may steer clear of funk though.
Many of your songs on the upcoming debut album are described lyrically as ‘simple songs of love, loss, loneliness and finding freedom in the imagination’ – what were your biggest influences in the writing processes, and do you see the songs as containing more abstract or personal meanings to you personally?
Probably a mixture, I think I tend to write lyrics fairly abstractly but then always go back and discover meanings so perhaps they come out subconsciously. In any case I kind of like finding my own meanings in other people’s lyrics so I guess it’s not a bad thing. I’m not a fan of lyrics that are too literal and leave no room for interpretation.
What are your personal highlights of the album, in terms of full songs or watermark moments?
The bit where the beat drops on ‘Us Afloat’ is one of my favourite moments on ours or any album! ‘Sea Decide’ is also up there for me.
This album is released not 8 months after your initial EP (the critically acclaimed ‘Promise’, released in November 2014), was it a deliberate choice to chase the predecessor and strike while the iron was hot, as it were, or was it just a natural progression to move onto a full length release in such a small frame of time?
Yeah, the album was already finished at the time of the Promise EP, and the online reaction we got from that was great so we were keen to move on to releasing the album as soon as we could.
In terms of live shows, how do you go about choosing a line-up, and how do you think the songs benefit/change in the process of moving from record to stage?
Currently it’s just the two of us onstage, and at times making the transition from the record has been pretty challenging, as the music is often quite dense and multi-layered, and impossible for two people to re-create exactly. But necessity is the mother of invention and in places we’ve altered the material considerably to work better in a live setting, and hopefully it gives the audience a different experience to listening to the record.
Do you have any personal favourites when it comes to performing live, and any songs which you would like to play but haven’t had the opportunity to yet?
We’ve yet to tackle ‘Spiders’ live, there has been talk of turning it into a 7 minute monstrosity. ‘Promise’ is always enjoyable to play as it ends up in total synth mayhem.
Malpas is a collaboration between two members, do you see this as a constant going forward or would you be interested in adding other elements to the mix? Additionally, who would be your ideal dream collaborators?
The project will definitely be continuing as is going forward, although we’re not averse to working with other people and the album features a few performances by musicians other than Andy and myself. In terms of dream collaborators I dunno… maybe someone who does visuals – Danny Boyle?
And lastly, what is next for you, both as a band and as professional musicians?
We’re hoping to get over to NYC for the CMJ festival. Our label over there is running a stage so we’re keen to go and play it. We’re also going to be touring more in the autumn. In terms of new material we’re already well into making album 2. We’ve got a whole bunch of ideas about how we can evolve the music so are really excited about our new direction. Hopefully we’ll be releasing it next year.
(Andy): I’m still producing other artists and I’m really excited about some of the new acts I’m working with. It’s pretty hectic squeezing everything in but I’m really enjoying the variety putting on different hats for different projects.
Malpas’ debut album ‘Rain River Sea’ is out via Killing Moon Records
