Name: Sam Eastgate (LA Priest, Late of the Pier, Soft Hair)
Nationality: British
Occupation: musician
Current Release: Fase Luna on Domino
Recommendation: There’s a nice film about Oarfish on "Best Documentary" channel that I'm watching now, if you're into that sort of thing/ If you want something more arty then I recommend Beksinski or Devo playing Gates of Steel on Live on Fridays, depending on what mood you're in.
If you enjoyed this interview with LA Priest, visit his website earthwindow.org for more information about new releases and shows.
When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?
I don't think about it much but I do that colour thing somewhere in the back of my mind. I think it helps me to categorise songs in my memory. I like to get into it and close my eyes and listen to music and bang into things.
What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?
I started properly when I was 12 using a midi thing called evolution audio. I used all the notes I could and every sound, especially all the drum sounds and just made a massive racket. I remember most of the stuff I made but I don't have any of it, it was good. Since then I've found it easier to use real instruments. I never saw it as a good thing to make any progress or improvement in how I made music. I always listen to whatever silence I could find and try to hear the thing that nobody else could hear. Then keep listening while it gets clearer in my mind.
According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?
Well that was when I was starting Late of the Pier, now I don't need to be as frantic as I used to be, but sometimes it's nice to get worked up on a song. I think the next stuff I do will be like that - more stompy.
Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?
I look for the things that I'm not doing for the audience. I tend to ignore the good things I can do and that motivates me to get a reaction I never got from them before. I think re-evaluating the guitar / synth (or acoustic / electronic) roles every time I make a recording has been good - I don't see them as having the same purpose in my music for any two songs in a row.
Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?
I just listen from other people's perspective - as I've usually listened to every second of it too many times on my own - so I can only learn when other people listen to it, and I usually hear it completely differently then. My favourite thing is to not listen to it for a long time though. I love it a lot more when I do that.
Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?
The fact that a lot of them are impossible to really transpose or mix into our own music is what makes them so good to hear. I've recorded some really good bird songs from different places I've lived in but I could never work them into my own music - it wouldn't be as freeing to listen to the sounds of nature if we used them like that I think. I was going to record waves for this album I just did because a lot of it was about the sea, but I realised that it didn't really need it, the most valuable way I can do the sea is with my own interpretation not a recording.
From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?
I do like a good contrast. I only produced for other artists a couple of times but one of the things I often do is if a song feels too tame I like to just put one sound in that on its own would be painful and that usually ends up being the best bit of the song. If you make a whole song out of soft beautiful sounds, you can't really tell that until you hear something really the opposite next to them. Doesn't always need to be done but most of the time it works.
From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?
I do a lot of different things. Really what works best for me is to do whatever I didn't do last time. If I know how I started a really good idea and I want to write another really good idea, it never works for me to do the same thing again. It feels like inspiration is given to you when you have the courage to go beyond what you know. I think it's a reward kind of thing. But you have to know how to do that again, so you are always on a knife edge where you could lose this skill at any time. You just have to trust that it will come back again.
Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?
Well I can tell you how I created a song yes. I'll choose one that I haven't talked about. “Rubber Sky”. I had just started doing live shows and I built a new vocal effect box after my first tour. I was testing it out with all the different effects turned up all the way. I think I was just feeling a bit lost or not sure where I was going after travelling a lot and being back at home in this cold house and I started singing the whole vocal thing. I left that recording on the shelf for about 3 years and then made the most stripped back recording possible.There’s only a bass drum on that song no other drums and that was because I was fed up with overcomplicating a lot of things I had been working on at that time. Then it's just one bass synth and a couple of guitar parts and the vocal with all those effects. Most of the time it's best to just sing the song and bash out the quickest thing you can with sounds that are personal to you.
Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?
Yeah, but only if I need to make something and the science happens by accident. I learn a lot of things when I have to repeat a really good accident. I recently had to turn some nearly 10-year-old accidental sounds into effect pedals so I can finally play old songs live. When I'm trying to take a room full of instruments and wires and put them in a tiny box it forces me to learn how things happened. I only use parts that have been round since the 60s too, so it's mad when you work out that there are things nobody has done that could have been done 50 years ago.
How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?
Yes, but most of it is about patience and enjoying what's good around you. You can't use the same brute force approach that sometimes works in music in the rest of your life. It's easy to live peacefully when you are just playing around with early ideas because you are very free mentally. But it can be hard to let go of the state you are in towards the end of a project because it often becomes very technical and that mental state doesn't really apply to the rest of your life so you have to get rid of that when you leave the studio.
Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more mundane tasks?
Well it's not really different in one sense, you can put a bit of love into anything and you can also forget to put love into anything you do. Most people need to sing though. Not necessarily with their voice, you can sing with the way you drive a car for example. It's that prolonged expression that is done to sort of signal what you are about.
Every time I listen to 'Albedo 0.39' by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?
Yeah, a lot my favourite songs are hard to explain. I reckon we can't remember some really important abstract feelings or memories very well unless we tie them to things we can remember. So, if you enjoy a song, your brain probably hits you with a memory or feeling you are about to lose and then it's kind of preserved with the song.
If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?
I'd like for everyone to stop using shit software song writing tools for one thing. I can hear that everywhere and it's so bad because these developers are taking trends that are already a few years old and cementing them into the future of music. To put that more positively - I wish for everyone to find their own imagination, it's always there, you've just got to use it.
