Part 2

Can you talk about a breakthrough work, event or performance in your career? Why does it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

I think my album Unflesh was a breakthrough for me in many ways, as a creative individual and performer, as well as a human! It was developed over several years, and was very much about the after-effects of trauma. I had no idea what I was going to write about until I had done it, and it felt like I’d been able to let some long-held secrets loose into the world.


There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? What supports this ideal state of mind and what are distractions? Are there strategies to enter into this state more easily?

I said earlier that I keep my music and ideas in the seat of my mind at all times. This is key for me really, domestic life and creative life should not be separate, you have to live things to a certain extent. So I keep my eyes and ears open all the time where possible, and I make extensive notes on my phone when ideas come up, so that when I get a chance to get into the studio, I can blast through all these ideas and get them out.


Music and sounds can heal, but they can also hurt. Do you personally have experiences with either or both of these? Where do you personally see the biggest need and potential for music as a tool for healing?

Yes. When I mentioned Unflesh, that process of writing was simultaneously traumatic and healing. I was taking ownership of that past and giving it agency. This is what is at the heart of creativity, of all art, in my opinion. Those experiences can be vastly different but the process of using them to make marks or sounds or expressions, is an amazing, essential thing.


There is a fine line between cultural exchange and appropriation. What are your thoughts on the limits of copying, using cultural signs and symbols and the cultural/social/gender specificity of art?

It’s important to allow oneself to be influenced and inspired by anything and everything. But it requires care in how it’s used and delivered. It can be tricky territory for sure. I generally avoid art/music that I think has been rehashed from another culture, without any comment or attempt to acknowledge the origins. I need to be especially mindful of that and suspicious of things that aren’t. You cannot ignore how colonialism still affects the world.


Our sense of hearing shares intriguing connections to other senses. From your experience, what are some of the most inspiring overlaps between different senses - and what do they tell us about the way our senses work?

I’m always interested in experiences that are uncanny and it takes all the senses to experience that. Voice can often be an uncanny, especially when put through electronics that warp or distort it. This is something that endlessly fascinates me. I think it can transport me to different places as a performer and affect audience perception.


Art can be a purpose in its own right, but it can also directly feed back into everyday life, take on a social and political role and lead to more engagement. Can you describe your approach to art and being an artist?

All I can ever really seek to do is to experience life as deeply and consciously as possible and reflect it back through art, with my own version of things. Sometimes that’s deeply personal, and sometimes it just happens to be more relatable and universal. This is a simple description but to get more complex than that would be hard to describe and I’m not as well equipped as others at describing art and what it’s for or how we should interpret it. I think music is felt more physically than visual things, but I would say that, I’m a musician. A painter or sculptor might disagree. Ultimately, art that can reach into us and move, inspire or propel us into action, without explanation, is usually the most powerful.


What can music express about life and death which words alone may not?

Well it’s impossible to say, as I’d have to use words! I get feelings and experiences from music that are akin to being lifted up out of my body, into the vastness of space and time, where the physical body drops away. I could never recreate that feeling with words alone.