Name: Laila Sakini
Nationality: Australian
Occupation: Producer, DJ, musician
Current Release: Laila Sakini's Paloma is out via Modern Love October 21st 2022.
Recommendations: Pier Paolo Pasolini - Roman poems (book); Krzysztof Kieślowski - Three Colours trilogy (film)
If you enjoyed this interview with Laila Sakini aka Princess Diana of Wales and would like to know more about her work, visit her on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.
When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?
It was pre-cognitive memory. I was 3 when I got my first keyboard but was playing instruments before that. Apparently I played it everyday and then finally age 6 I started piano lessons (for 8 years).
I was obviously learning classical music which I really enjoyed but my theory was lacking and I was slow to read music - I compensated by getting good at playing by ear. The last few years of lessons I started to get my teacher to integrate blues scales and other non-classical material into my lessons, I was interested in improv and black sabbath (all on blues scale). At first she was stunned but let me continue whilst she helped with my phrasing and technique.
I suppose I became a bedroom musician after that and starting going to events etc. It wasn’t until my late teens / early twenties that I could even conceive of the production whole songs - via a 4 track or whatever.
I probably started producing early 20s and spent many many years getting my head around Ableton.
When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?
My response when listening to music depends on the music: if I’m really into it and the intentions / mood wins me over I just go through the motions of the song whether that is dancing, feeling moved, empathising, etc … if I’m unconvinced or don’t understand the rationale or purpose of the music I usually go into analysis mode and it becomes more about my mind.
Creatively I endeavour to make the former (type of music) so I suppose I’ve noted that when I have an embodied reaction to a sound I should probably go with that / note that.
How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?
I don’t think I understood what a personal voice was for a long time. I think it just took years of producing music and then almost giving up and doing something just for me: or perhaps, just about me - even the “uncool” stuff. This was a bit scary at first but I feel it was necessary for me.
The resultant work Vivienne seemed to reach people and everything in it is true. But I don’t think it’s cool. I had to give up that stuff.
Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.
Huge question - I don’t know. It’s symbiotic I’d say, but again, my identity feels very in flux (in terms of the discourse around identity) - I think I kind of answered this best in the embodiment point above.
What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?
Musical problems require musical solutions. I don’t like to think or work on the actual music outside of the studio - it’s tempting, but it’s a principle of mine I’ve found helpful.
I also almost never writen music when I’m tired or feel like I’m “trying” too much. I’ve gotten used to clocking off and giving up for the day if it isn’t flowing.
How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?
Reading this question again and I don’t think I entirely understand why originality and perfection are posed as either / or options. What I make reflects who I am simply because I made it. The rest is based on audience responses / reactions that happen retroactively so I feel it’s not my my business to comment.
Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?
Anything I can get my hands on and get a sound out of. Piano is my core instrument followed probably by voice. I think experimentation, call and response, free form and free association yield instresting results. Recording techniques and mistakes / random production tricks can reveal magical and unpredictable things.
Trying things live - as in without the ability to hit pause - can be an exciting and tactile way to experience a venue and the sounds in it. I think finding sound (found sound) live has been pretty interesting for me.
Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.
Wake up
Put on hot water bottle
Listen to nice morning song
Check emails and Australia messages
Coffee
Go for walk
Work / admin
Work / meetings
Walk around - groceries and If necessary go and buy flowers
Work / creative
Work / whatever other work
Check Aus stuff again
Work till about 8 or 10pm
Do home stuff / cleaning / or go to Cafe Oto for a gig
Watch whatever to help me sleep/unwind
Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?
Hmm. Ok so the process now is different but for Vivienne I meticulously wrote out all these interlacing melodies and kept a very orderly practice. I worked on it everyday, but just in the morning. Like I mentioned earlier I do really like to just think about melodies or music in the studio, but also after I completed the works I totally knew what I was referencing, why I did certain things, I understood the feelings and it was linked to a specific event. Creatively I stayed very naive and I’m glad I did because listening back to it later and understand how many feelings the music could hold - was pretty interesting.
With the current album, Paloma, the process of writing was over a longer period and more dispersed. It involved drawing from material I produced for live works and it addressed concepts of hope via the use of visual imagery / sound / symbolism in music .
This project saw me work more with imagery in practice, production and presentation than before: video, graphic notation, film, small video works, sketches and subsequently I made videos to accompany the release in addition to designing the album art. I drew from the film “The Double Life of Veronique” by Krzysztof Kieslowski which has a beautiful interplay of sound, diegetic and non-diegetic music, visual motifs and symbolism (a must seee film).
Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?
I prefer to work solo, even on a collab I like doing my parts at home. Creativity (for me) requires a particular kind of focus that can be hard to engender when there are distractions.
I’m also a very social person so I’d probably be inclined to mingle rather than work. Playing collaboratively live is different though - the third wall is a helpful limitation in this regard.
How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?
“What is the role of music on society” - dare I say it’s outside of remit to comment.
In terms of the first part of the question, again it seems too broad for me to be specific … my work relates to the world because I'm in it - any deductions from that point are based on other peoples value judgements and ideology I suppose.
Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?
On many occasions, to varying degrees.
How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?
I have not read enough current empirical studies to have an informed view on this I think.
Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. 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?
Leaving the coffee analogy aside ... I think adequately recounting the impact of an experience, using sound, primative or developed, relieves some of the explanatory burden, for the person who is doing the sound making. Words come out one at time whereas sound can be layered, like imagine a word soup, each ingredient adding nuance and texture and altering the entire sum. I think in that way sound provides a wider scope for expression which may be more apt or useful when trying to describe complex emotions.
I suppose that’s the way I think of it although I’m often described as musician who is mysterious or beguiling but perhaps sometimes I'm expressing things that actually aren’t clear - even to me. I’m hesistant to truly try and demistify how music operates sometimes though - I like to let it be a bit.
I do need some magic outside of the discourse, analysis and routinisation patterns of life.
Further reading: Aeon: Music is in your brain and your body and your life
Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?
It’s a sense. Like sight or smell, we apply meanings to sounds and we also have visceral access to sound. I suppose I can’t and wouldn’t dare try and explain how sound is meaningful as it must be variable and understood individually ...
But I think if you consider the role of sight and how integral that is to our functioning, you can begin to draw parallels to sound - senses are how we experience and understand life.
