Trash Kit’s music is a view into the future and by the sounds of it, the future isn’t looking too bleak after all, even if a BJ becomes PM.
How excited are you for the new album to come out? What songs are you most excited for people to hear?
I think we are all really excited, its been a long time coming and it’s our first record with Gill. Some of these songs we’ve been playing live for coming up to 5 years now so it’s exciting to finally release them into the world and see what people think.
I don’t have a particular song I’m most excited for people to hear because I’m so proud and happy with the whole album. I think this is the most time we’ve taken to think about how we want an album to sound, it still feels very much live, but it feels like a real step up. We’ve had saxophone on our two other records before but this has a cello, viola, harp, a bit of synth, saxophone of course, percussion bits and a choir!
Can you talk to us about the writing process of the album? What themes are at play? Was there a specific concept you wanted the album to revolve around?
We don’t have a set way of writing, when we practise someone will either bring something they’ve been working on or someone will start playing something and we’ll all start playing and see where it goes. Some songs will come together quickly and others may take longer for us to refine and figure out. But when it came to recording we pretty much had all the songs structured. We then recorded the drums, guitar, bass and vocals and then we had a long period in between, then we added the overdubs. We all live in different places right now and are busy with other projects so it made it quite tricky.
Rachel Aggs and I had an initial brainstorming together when she was in London and we played around with things in Logic. In regards to the other instruments included there were just some things I knew I wanted to add, for example the string parts in ‘Coasting’, they just came into my head and I knew who I could get to play them. Our songwriting is also about being economical about what we have to work with and thinking about what friends we could rope into playing and singing.
It’s a sci-fi sounding record as well right? What is it about sci-fi that intrigues you?
Sci-fi is a great genre to explore all sorts of ideas about humans and society but in an incredibly creative and fantastical way. There are no limits, and sci-fi films always have the best outfits!
It’s also mentioned it’s a record that looks to the future – what about the future that excites you, despite the current world we’re living in?
I think it’s very easy to see all the terrible things that happen in the world and become disillusioned, but good and bad things have been happening all throughout human history. But if we are talking about looking to the future, then I think the recent climate change protests by school children and students have been really inspiring. It’s a bit of a cheesy cliche but humans have a lot of potential to do good things when we work together. So I look forward to making more music with these guys and hopefully within my lifetime living in a society where everyone has the time to follow their imaginations.
Words by Johnny Rogerson
