An interview with Mothlite

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Photograph by Sonny Malhotra

This week saw the eagerly awaited release of Mothite’s debut The Flax of Reverie. Having only played two live shows so far them have already amassed a solid following. To find out where they have come from and where they plan on going to next I caught up with Daniel O’Sullivan and Antti Uusimaki, the creative duo behind Mothlite’s epic sound.

So it has been just over two months since we last caught up with you guys, what have you been getting up to since?
Daniel: Well we’ve been busying laying down demos for the new Mothlite stuff. We have a lot of new material, it is way more poppy, but not in an obvious way. I have always played in weird, avant-garde bands and have only recently discovered good pop music. I’ve always had a soft spot for it but I’ve always just been hiding away in this bleak universe of dissonance.

What have pop music have you discovered recently then?
Daniel: David Sylvian was a big thing for me, his voice is just so cold and exposed. It doesn’t matter that he is very cheesy sometimes, because he has decided to expose himself without hiding behind layers of reverb and delay like I do!

Antti: I don’t think people shouldn’t be afraid of the word pop though, we are just creating less hidden, less obscure music. Although I’m sure there will definitely be an esoteric edge to it, we just haven’t found it yet.

What other music have you discovered recently, old or current that you love?
Antti: Fast Four or Ulver

Daniel: Dennis Wilson, you know the only beach boy that could surf, his album is really beautiful. Other than that I can’t really think of anything. I just end up listening to the same records all the time really: Tin Drum by Japan, Spirit of Eden, Talk Talk, Hands of Love. Nothing that is really current I’m afraid!

What has the response been to your album so far?
Antti: Its all been good but it has been quite delayed in our minds because we finished recording this album in November last year, but the core of the music we probably finished around 6 months before that.

I saw you play your second show at Corsica Studios but how did you find your first gig at the Scala?
Daniel: Well we were a bit nervous. I don’t really get jittery any more. I wouldn’t go on stage if I didn’t feel the music was confidently enough rehearsed, unless I was improvising. And because we got the gig through Earth, the headline band, there was quite a relaxed, friendly, atmosphere.

Antti: But I think if you are not nervous at all then you are just a bit complacent.

What are your plans for future shows?
Daniel: Urm…well we don’t really know. We’ll probably do the classic, get a booking agent and do the whole European thing. I don’t want to over-saturate London with shows. I just don’t think we are the kind of band that is going to explode onto the London circuit; Mothlite is much more of a slow burner, a more subliminal thing. It will find it’s place in time.

How would you compare crowds over here to European crowds then?
Daniel: Europe is far more preferable to be in anyway, for me, while you are on the road. In America and Europe it is just way cooler to be in a band, you get a little more sympathy and a little more credibility, like you are doing something worthwhile.

Antti: Well, when I played with Panic DHH I mainly played to homeless people and Anarchists so I have to say Mothlite is a very different experience. In terms of different countries though I prefer Europe; people are a bit more open-minded.

Do you feel like you have a solid UK fan base?
Daniel: Well I think we have just collected fans from other bands we are involved in, but Mothlite starting to cultivate its own sphere of people, which is great because we want to get out of this underground rut we have been stuck in. Things are definitely looking good for the future.

What do you like to do when you are not recording or playing live?
Daniel: Well to be honest I love spending time with my girlfriend, as Antti does with his. But for me it is all about being on tour, some of the best memories I have are from being on the road, just hanging out with my band mates.

How long have you been involved in the world of music?
Daniel: I have been playing in various bands since I was about 14, including Sunn0 and Guapo.

Antti: Not very long really, Mothlite is my second real band. I used to play in Panic DHH, which was a digital hardcore band but because I work more on the engineering side I never truly got into playing music until then.

How did you guys meet? How did Mothlite get started?
Daniel: Well I had the original idea to do Mothlite ages ago, or at least a loose conception of it and when Guapo did a show with Panic DHH I just got our drummer to ask Antti if he was interested and that was that.

What gave you the original idea to start Mothlite?

Daniel: One of the things was just being able to be totally spontaneous, so there is no conception of the piece from beginning to end, you just start and it is becomes automatic, like automatic writing. I wanted to allow the music to have its own life force, allow it to surprise us. Other than that there are many films and books that have inspired and influenced me.

Do any specific ones spring to mind?
Daniel: Night of the Hunter, the guy who made it, Charles Laughton only made one film, well because this was a big flop but I think it is an amazing piece of cinematography. It is about being in childlike, inflated dream world, where nothing is quite as it seems. James Joyce’s writings as well have inspired me, as he takes the tiniest macrocosm and explores it to such depths.

What about you Antti, what attracted you to play in Mothlite?
Antti: Well after Dan asked me do to it we just started messing around and it kind of worked so I guess it was just a natural progression, a natural chemistry.

Daniel: The essence of Mothlite is very effortless. Although we did get stuck on lyrics and vocals sometimes, because prior to this I wasn’t really a singer, I mean except for in the shower of course.

Antti: At the time Dan asked me to join him I was having some difficulties with my band and I needed some balance. Mothlite reminded me of influences I used to have before Panic DHH, and had lost but now I get to revisit them which is so nice.

If you had to site one influence, musical wise or other wise what would it be?
Both: Talk, Talk.

Antti: Or Kate Bush

Daniel: I can relate to how Talk Talk put music together more than Kate Bush though. I can imagine them in the most opulent studio in London, just being baked and getting lost in great music.

On your website there is a paragraph about Moths and the Industrial Revolution and I was just wondering what that is actually all about?
Daniel: I think I’m actually going to remove that from the website as it is being very much misconstrued. The album is not a concept album about the Industrial Revolution. I just asked my friend Mark Pilkington if he could write something for us, and I think he came up with a beautifully written analogy. Someone said it was pretentious, but its not pretending, Moths really did evolve in the Industrial Revolution.

Mothlite on MySpace