Firstly to return with such a bold statement of intent as ‘Hidden’ at the start of this year was incredible news, we all absolutely love it. With so long since the 2010 debut Feed Forward, the first question would be why now? When was the decision made to return and start working on new material?
Well, for starters, we want to make it clear that this is not a follow up to ‘Feed Forward’. The follow ups were Function ‘Incubation’ on Ostgut Ton and Silent Servant ‘Negative Fascination’ on Hospital. Those were the best Sandwell District records and they weren’t even on the label.
We never really wanted to do a new album. That was Juan’s idea which stemmed from the ‘Feed Forward’ reissue and the ‘Where Next?’ compilation.
But the whole idea of reuniting and revisiting everything came from the late Mark Lanegan… He had been a long-time fan and him and Karl struck up a friendship through the Point Of Departure label owner, Rich Machin from Soulsavers, who had worked extensively with the likes of Mark, Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode, Mike Patton, etc.
It’s amazing how this has all come back together. In true Sandwell District fashion to be honest—looking beyond the dance floor. Mark had invited Karl to one of his shows at the Roundhouse in London, and as Karl was walking into his dressing room, John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin was walking out. It’s all so insane. Mark Lanegan, King of Grunge, of the Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age, Kurt Cobain’s best friend… massive fan of Regis, Function, Silent Servant, Sandwell District and Voices From The Lake.
When they met, he urged him to really consider us to get back together, for us to revisit Sandwell District and get back onstage together. To get over ourselves and do it for the collective and what it means to our fans. It took over two years of this before Karl and I actually spoke. In the interim we communicated everything through Juan. I kept having these intuitive nudges to wait until the right moment arose where we could meet face to face. Finally, that time came when a mutual friend urged me to meet him at an Eros show Karl was doing at Globus in Berlin for Kuboraum. It was an intense surreal experience after not being in direct contact for nearly 10 years. It was a killer show that night. Like a scene out of ‘Wings Of Desire’. I could see how focused he was and wanted to respect his space. So I had our mutual friends checking on the situation so as to not disturb him in the dressing room. It almost didn’t happen but as I was deciding to leave, I walked past the stage and he was packing up. So I did it. I walked up and said hi. You have to understand the years of tension between us, it wasn’t easy. But it had to be done this way—in person. And it was ace! Finally…
From there we started making plans. But honestly, this album wasn’t part of them (laughs).
Alongside yourselves, Regis and Function, the album also features a host of other producers such as Rrose, Rivet, Mønic and Sarah Wreath. Can you tell us a bit about how the collaborative process worked?
Dave: When we finally decided to move ahead with a new album we started sharing ideas and sessions. Karl sent over loads of things him and Simon (Mønic) had been working on. But you know how it goes with our schedules and touring always getting in the way… on the tour that never stops. It’s not like with bands, where time is reserved for recording. But we were approaching this as a band, especially with the label [Point Of Departure] we signed to and how Rich [Machin], the label owner, was A&Ring it—really encouraging a bigger production. So getting things off the ground took a while. I’d say this period was from around April 2023. But then I was on the road for months at a time and couldn’t find it right to record remotely. Then we played our first show together in 10 years, just the two of us, at Rural Festival in Japan (Sandwell as a touring act was always just the two of us). This was also the first time we hung out extensively in person since reuniting. We did the show and then went back to our chalet to discuss everything going forward.
In the months and year prior, I had become very close friends with Sarah (Wreath). I was in awe of the music she was doing and was helping develop her as an artist and arranging for her first release which later came out on Bunker. As we sat and talked, I put the music on and told Karl about her. He loved it! Then he was like “ok, so you work together in Berlin with Sarah and I’ll work together with Simon in London and then start sharing sessions”.
We started working like this for months. At one point I had an idea to ask Rrose to contribute one of his classic drones so he can have a cameo as a Sandwell District alumni. Juan was also around Berlin and would pop by to play strings, give advice and input but unfortunately, he passed away during this process.
Over the following months, now mourning the loss of our dear friend and band member - an unimaginable process - we kept writing and forming demos. But something was still missing.
From the onset Rich was encouraging us to mix the album with a proper engineer to reign it all in. Names were being kicked around as the demo sat on a shelf fermenting for a few months. Then Karl came to me in a Eureka moment saying “trust me, I got it!”, presenting me with Mika Hallbäck’s new album as Rivet (for Mego Editions). From there, we handed everything over to him and his studio partner, Alexander Salomonsen, and the rest is history.
Tracks like ‘Will You Be Safe?’ have a very live kinetic energy. Can you tell us a bit about the production process and what equipment were you using?
Dave: We don’t really like talking about equipment. It doesn’t matter what we use. It’s all smoke and mirrors. We like to leave it to people’s imaginations and not demystify things. I mean, over the years we had people try to break down our production process thinking we were using two-inch tape machines and massive, expensive mixing desks on certain tracks only to tell them it was done on a laptop with no plug ins and on laptop speakers.
Print the legend.
Though, yes, ‘Will You Be Safe?’ absolutely has kinetic energy. Psychic and mystical energies as well. It’s communicating with Juan. When we sent the full album into mastering the label kept coming back saying this track wasn’t included when it definitely was on our end. This happened four times.
You have made an exclusive 12” for Bleep featuring demo recordings from the End Beginnings sessions. These tracks have more of an early electro / Drexciya-n quality, was this something that was a big influence on the project?
Not necessarily. I mean, Drexciya’s been a massive influence on all of us, haven’t they? I think what influenced us most was losing Juan. The album and demos are all about our respective friendships and losing him in the middle of the reunion and recording a new album. The last track is called ‘The Silent Servant’ and the album is dedicated to him. You can feel the loss in that track. Like Karl has said, when you lose a friend part of you dies as well. Everything changed when we lost him and that was effortlessly reflected in the whole package. Again, it was the unimaginable. And this is our way of expressing it (along with the way we are promoting the album, with things like our recent podcast for RA that reflects all of the aforementioned). We simply couldn’t engage in the media circus surrounding it all when it happened.
Are there any artists, labels or particular releases you have heard recently that you rate highly?
Yes, 100%! And we don’t have to look any further than the current Sandwell District collective to find them. All of the artists involved in the production of ‘End Beginnings’ have new or recently released records out. Mønic, Rivet, Sarah Wreath and Rrose – and they’re all killer! Simon’s new Future Materials ‘Fixate’ on Osiris Music is another release that’s completely consistent with his blinding style of deep, reduced ambient/drone dubstep. Tip! Mika (Rivet) has an incredible new album, Peck Glamour, on Mego Editions, which is the record that inspired Karl to have him mix the album, which is coincidentally out around the same time as ours. Then there’s Sarah’s beautifully crafted debut album, Integration, that came out on The Bunker New York back in October. A stunning masterpiece of meditative ambient psychedelia, complete with remixes by both myself and Patrick Russell. Finally, there’s new Rrose 12”, ‘2 or 3 Drops of Height Have Nothing to do With Savagery’ on T4T Luv Energy. Both ‘Triplicate’ and ‘Silhouettes’ are everything we’ve come to know and love from the master of dance floor hypnotica. Get lost in the sound!
I also wanted to make an honorable mention about Nastia Reigel’s rock solid new 4 track EP of techno bangers, ‘Over And’, out now on Falling Ethics. She’s such an incredible emerging artist and is on the periphery of the collective, having recently released an album of her post-punk pseudonym, Rosa Damask, on Downwards and is set to release a very special project as Nastia Reigel on Infrastructure in the coming months. Keep your eyes peeled!
And we can’t forget to mention Surgeon’s new album, Shell~Wave, out on Tresor on May 2nd. We’ve been playing it out in every set recently and it destroys!
