10 minute read
WALT DISCO
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WALT DISCO
After two years of creative experimentation from within the four walls of their flat in Glasgow, Walt Disco has emerged clutching a treasure made from glitter and steel - their debut album, ‘Unlearning’.
We caught up with James, the frontman of the six-headed hydra that is Walt Disco, just as they stepped off a ferry to Belfast, the ‘Unlearning’ tour now only recently underway. Talking to James on the eve of the band’s debut album release set for April 1st, and on day two of a tour that started in Walt Disco’s hometown of Glasgow the night before, we were privy to an exhilarating and exclusive moment in time, as though convening with an athlete, seconds off the starting blocks, the gunshot still ringing in their ears.
A project that started during lockdown in 2020, ‘Unlearning’ is an album that has been a long time in the making, and for James to finally release it has felt surreal. “It feels weird!” they laugh, “I can't believe it's finally gonna happen. it's been coming for so long and now it's here.”
As ‘Unlearning’ has spent the first two years of life existing largely within the minds and hard drives of the six, for James, the public reception has been especially interesting to follow. “Every time a review comes in it's like ooh, what's it gonna say?” It’s not surprising that reviews have been glowing.
Like for many artists, lockdown was a time of intense creativity for Walt Disco, who spent a lot of the creative process for ‘Unlearning’ within the four walls of their flat in Glasgow. Without access to recording studios due to the covid restrictions, the band improvised, setting up a makeshift studio within one of the bedrooms. The crude setup and developing production skills were far from a hindrance for the six, instead, it opened the floor for sheer and untethered creativity. “[The creative process] was very crude with a limited set up so it forced us to think outside of the box to create the sound we wanted.” A recent obsession with electronica influenced these sessions and proved the perfect match for their DIY setup. “Experimenting with electronica was kind of the way we achieved that. It just so happened we were listening to a lot of experimental electronic music at the time, Playing with a lot of sounds and techniques that were relatively new to the band meant Walt Disco had no rule book. They knew only what they liked and what they didn’t, and as a result the sound that is ‘Unlearning’, and now synonymous with Walt Disco, is untethered and brilliantly unique.
“We're quite childlike in terms of, well I don’t want to say in attention span,” James laughs, “but in the way that we’re always intrigued by new things and in the way sounds just fascinate us. We are always just looking for a new one to get drawn in on. On this album, we were definitely drawn to a certain type of metallic sound, like clanks and bonks. And synths that are quite cold and like lightning, and reverbs like, I don't know … like a wet cave almost,” they laugh again. It is perhaps comforting to know that James also struggles to put the Walt Disco sound into words. It is as though their sound can only really be quantified by sound itself, or by conjured atmospheres like the cool damp dark of a cave, complete with an underground spring and stalactites. It's not something one can grasp purely through spoken word, it really must be heard to be believed.
There are elements of 80s British glam rock with glittering synths and vibrato vocals the sort we associate with Bowie and Roxy Music, intertwined with the glitz and glamour intrinsic to the genre. There is also something of Sisters of Mercy in the gravitas of the vocals and clamouring drums. It is clear they have tapped into the complex musical repertoire that is Britain's audible history. However, this is done in a manner that is fundamentally unique and audaciously “Walt Disco”. Their music warps into soundscapes that transport you from fairground to haunted house, to a burlesque show. There are many elements of the theatrical and the two-minute instrumental track titled ‘The Costume Change’ enforces this theme. It can be subtle and heartwrenchingly poignant in one moment and then indulgently cacophonous in the next. Tessellating reverb and synth make this shift seamless. “We always knew what an ‘Unlearning’ sound was,” James explains. One can only imagine how it felt the moment they finally isolated the album’s DNA.
Additionally, the visual aesthetics are very important to the Walt Disco experience. In their music videos, photoshoots and Instagram feeds, the band cultivates a visual aesthetic that is harlequin, gothic romantic, club kid and more. James shouts out stylists Jack Shanks and Gus Sharp who have put together some of the group's recent iconic photoshoot looks and lists Bowie, Saint Vincent, and the New Romantic scene as current influences. However, inspiration also comes from within.
“Finley [the keyboard player] is a very maximalist person when it comes to fashion and I’m quite into knitwear and Scandi stuff at the moment. It’s just kind of always evolving and we’re always talking to each other about fashion and music and going shopping together.”
The variety of elements of Walt Disco’s music and visual style can largely be attributed to the fact that there are six of them: James on vocals, Finlay on the keyboard, Charlie on bass guitar, Lewis on guitar, Dave on drums, and Jack on Synths. “I think the six-piece informs the sound.” James says, “I think it is more like six minds than necessarily six players, especially because a lot of the album isn't all six people playing instruments at the same
Of course, with so many creative minds in play, one would imagine creative visions could at times clash, but James assures us this is not the case. “I think we just know how to disagree.” James explains, “And I think when we get to the final product, most people can see where we're coming from. We always agree it sounds right at the end.”
Aside from the excitement of Walt Disco’s musical and visual identity, the music itself tackles themes that are often personal and raw. In the opening track ‘Weightless’ we listen as James comes to terms with their own expression of gender identity and in doing so this acts as an invitation to others to do the same. In another case, ‘Those Kept Close’ is about the fear of losing loved ones, as James faces not being able to see their mother over lockdown, something which many of us if not all can relate to. Both tracks and multiple others were entirely self-produced, and the intimate creative process influenced the personal nature of the tracks and the extent to which James could make such raw expressions.
“When we were producing in the house I think I was comfortable enough to write quite honestly. Maybe if I was in with a producer that I didn't know as well, it might have been hard to do that way.”
‘Macilent’ was written alongside Jessica Winter in response to the violence that queer and trans people face daily. After three trans women were attacked in Hollywood in August 2020, they wanted to convey the anger and disgust that they felt in the wake of learning about this incident and others like it. “We wrote ‘Macilent’ the day after those trans people were attacked in Hollywood and I suppose I think ourselves and Jessica were just quite tired of seeing that sort of headline or news story. Yeah, we felt strongly enough to write about it and that They call for a universal change in the way we as human beings treat each other.
“We definitely wanted the chorus to be sort of like a cry out to everyone just being like, the world could get on so much better but there's so much violence everywhere in people's hearts and minds.”
While most of the tracks Walt Disco were hands on from the first writing sessions to the final production, the song ‘How Cool Are You?’ was written by Callum Rankine in 2015. The son of Allan Rankine of ‘The Associates’ gifted the bones of the song to the band and then the six went to town giving it that Walt Disco flair.
“He wrote it so long ago and then when he first saw us play live, he was like, oh they’d be so good at that. And then I just, for some reason, never got around working on it but then in lockdown, we had enough time. It went through various different structures and kind of got shortened a bit and we flipped some sections around and then added the ‘la, la, la’ chorus and then it felt like very us. And it's definitely a fun one to do live.”
Kicking off the ‘Unlearning’ tour in their hometown of Glasgow the night before, a place infamous for an electric crowd atmosphere was amazing, said James. The experimental nature of the tracks meant they required some adaptation for live performance, but James was happy with the outcome. “Yeah, I think we nailed it last night, it was amazing.”
“And having a good-sized band helps to recreate that sound when we play it live. So yeah, I think we definitely had to think outside the box in terms of recreating the sounds that were made on the album.”
Glasgow has a special place in Walt Disco’s history, having spent much of their early days playing gigs in the city. It hosts many grassroots venues and has an established music scene with an exciting pulse for new music and talent. James feels the pandemic has affected the social aspect of the scene somewhat, but they also speak to the network of talent that continues to emanate from the city.
“I think the pandemic definitely has led to less socialising with other groups. There's kind of just been the six of us and our manager and then the people we work with on videos. And obviously videographers and photographers like Eric and Casper from Humble Film who make amazing videos for us and other bands. They have done things for Belle and Sebastian, and Fauves and stuff like that.”
Humble Film is responsible for many of Walt Disco’s visually awesome music videos including the one for ‘How Cool Are You’, which sees the band skating around an ice rink dressed in harlequin-esque garb. “They're amazing. We've just made our fifth video with them for the album and it's incredible.”
“Rosie Schofield is a great photographer who was taking photos at a gig last night. And then there were lots of people at the gig from the scene like producer Bobby who worked on the album, Lizzie Reed who's incredible, Scarlett Randall, Russell Stewart, FAUNA was supporting. So yeah, it is really supportive. It was nice to see everyone again, after a long-time kind of in the shadows. Yeah, it was a nice moment.”
We finish back where we started, on the phone with James who has just touched down in Belfast with the rest of the band, ready for day two of the European tour. I get the impression that this tour is a homecoming to the band, not only because it started in Glasgow but because it is a return to live music and to their fans and friends in the industry. With their long-anticipated debut ‘Unlearning’, Walt Disco has emerged from the shadows and onto the stage in style.
To read the full version of this magazine you can buy print copies delivered direct to you from our Bandcamp or support us via Patreon for even more exclusive goodies!
Just click on the links below:
