Winterval Wonderland : Best Fit speaks to Sam Willis

- Photograph: Robert Bellamy

Despite being involved in making music – and remixing other people’s – for some time, this month sees the release of the debut album from Sam Willis. As a blogger, podcaster and remixer, as a DJ with the Allez-Allez collective, or as one half – with Banjo or Freakout’s Alessio Natalizia – of the highly acclaimed Walls, Willis has been busy servicing us with fine music so he could be forgiven for not having much time to himself. All this experience has clearly influenced the music on Winterval, a record that even after a few listens is well on its way to being one of the best dance music records in recent years. Rather than concentrating solely on beats, Willis gives the listener a clear narrative through tone, varying textures and emotions, and takes us on journey that is enhanced by the album’s timeless and evocative artwork. To find out what took Willis so long to release a solo record under his own name, Best Fit caught up with him to ask a few pertinent questions.

Recalling classic early 90s ambient – but not minimal – dance/house music I ask Sam if touchstones such as Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works and Sabres of Paradise’s magnificent-yet-strangely-forgotten Haunted Dancehall are a fair comparison to the music on Winterval: “Yes, I’d say that’s fair,” he agrees “Aphex’s Selected Ambient Works series and Sabres Of Paradise’s Haunted Dancehall amongst others had a huge emotional impact on me as a teenager, as well as DJ Shadow‘s Endtroducing.” And it turns out it’s not just the sound of those records that have influenced Willis’ solo work: “All of those records are dripping with mood, emotion and great melodies, so yeah, that’s definitely been a big influence on how I think about music.”

It seems, to keep it as basic as possible, that Sam is the “dance” guy in Walls, so I ask if the solo release is an outlet for something that’s more straight-ahead dancefloor or DJ-related than people might expect from Walls? “We’ve always seen Walls as being based within the dance world, as opposed to the indie world,” states Sam, “since we’ve really only released two albums, and no stand alone singles. People have tended to focus on the fact that our sound has been quite eclectic, but one of the main things that has inspired us has been playing our songs live and getting people to dance – that definitely fed back into how Coracle sounded, and will continue to do so on our new material.”

Staying with Walls for a moment, Sam discusses collaboration versus solo work: he seems, on the surface, to work a lot with other people, so it’s clearly something he enjoys doing then? “It’s fun to collaborate!” he responds. “Although I should point out, working with Alessio in Walls was and is my first collaboration – when I did Allez-Allez with Steve Nolan that was a DJ collective, the music and remixes were all done by me.” Was it important, then, that his solo release was under his own name to ensure people know it’s simply Sam Willis, and no-one else? “As for me doing this solo release, it just felt like it was time,” he says. “I had these tracks, some older, some new that I felt gelled really well into an album, and with regards to using my name for it, it just felt natural, as opposed to starting yet another alias!”

Continuing on this theme, Sam discusses the record being released on Half Machine rather than Kompakt; is this again down to keeping things separate from Walls? “Half Machine is the reason why Walls exists!” reveals Sam. “Richard who runs the label is the guy who asked me to remix (as Allez-Allez) Alessio’s Banjo Or Freakout project, which led to us collaborating.” And it actually turns out the connections to Kompakt are difficult to shake: “It’s funny, as I distinctly remember getting the parts, sitting down to work on it, and thinking, right, I’d like to do a Kompakt style remix! We subsequently began to collaborate and generally get on really well, so it was a natural continuation to start Walls as a project. So yeah, releasing this album with Richard just feels right.”

Something which struck me on listening to Winterval was that it’s clear there’s a narrative evolving not just across the record as a whole, but on each track individually. From the gentle, near-choral opening of ‘Dear Wendy’, through the pulsating banger that is ‘Frozen/Cirrus’ to the epic and expansive title track and sinister closer ‘Twirled With Your Slight Fingers’, it’s been a long time since the dance music scene produced such an expansive and moving album. Telling a story can be incredibly hard to achieve on instrumental music generally but even more so on a dance record, so was it a conscious effort on Sam’s part to attempt this? “I’m glad that you felt that! That’s always been something that I’ve tried to do, whether it’s a DJ set, or an album tracklisting,” he affirms. So it’s not just about beat-building then? “I studied creative writing and university and have always been obsessed by film, so perhaps that’s an influence on it also.”

Loosely staying with the album theme, the beauty of the album artwork is tricking, as is the way it avoids using the – not wishing to generalise – traditional fractals or angular design of dance music sleeves. The cliffs and waves seem to fit the chilly mood of the music on Winterval, so I ask Sam if this was all part of creating an artistic whole: “Yes! Did you see the calligraphy on the back?” Sadly I’ve not yet seen this; a drawback of reviewing and interviewing on downloads alone. Sam goes on to explain: “It was done by my grandmother, she has this wonderful, elegant old fashioned handwriting that I’ve always been fascinated with since I was a child, so once I found the image, which is around 100 years old from a slide, the idea occurred to me to have her involved. I’m really pleased with how the whole thing has turned out, as I wanted to create a feeling of solidity and timelessness to frame the music.”

Photograph: Robert Bellamy

Although Willis has had wide acclaim for his work in Walls with Alessio Natalizia, there’s always been a hint of suspicion about the kudos the band has accrued due to his background as a DJ, blogger and being something of an ‘industry man’. I want to know if this bothers him, or if it spurs him on to make better and better music. “The biggest advantage that I’ve had as someone who’s worked in the industry is being surrounded by music every day,” says Willis, “and constantly being introduced to great music of all different kinds, and getting to interact and learn from working with and chatting to the likes of Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, El-P, Madlib.” Willis goes on to explain that he doesn’t feel that at the level he’s at, there’s much he can do to influence his career: “There are no strings to be pulled in my opinion – maybe that works on a bigger, major label level, where you’re buying advertising or paying off radio playlist people…” Does it help that he’s maybe best known for working with someone who’s already got a critically acclaimed musical career? “Working with Alessio is great, in that he’s someone who I have huge respect for, and admiration for his talent. He’ll pull an idea that I’ve had in a completely different direction. I feel so lucky to be in a band with him, and feel like we’ve still got so much to say and do together creatively.”

Willis is also known for being a fine DJ; he’s part of the aforementioned Allez-Allez, a keen remixer and so I can’t miss the opportunity to ask about that part of his artistic output. So, what’s the deal when he DJs – is it his own music, or does he play to the occasion. “Sometimes it’s my own music, yes,” he confirms. “It’s always fun to be able to put your music into a context with other tracks that you feel fit.” And, given the controversy over Deadmau5’s “press play” comments, does Willis stick to doing it “live”? “Recently I’ve taken to playing DJ sets with vinyl again, and although it’s really restrictive in terms of your options, it’s so much more tactile and focussed as a result, as opposed to being overwhelmed with all the options within your collection when using Traktor or Serato.” Is this what he prefers though? “Yeah, this means that although you’re more limited in terms of the moods that you can create, but since you’re committed, in my opinion it comes across much better as you have to enforce your ideas on the dancefloor, as opposed to pandering to a crowd too much in an attempt to woo them.” And that seems the perfect way to sum up Willis’ approach to music: no single releases as part of Walls, pure commitment to the album format and the need to take the listener on a journey, and, most of all, not to bow down to what the audience wants or expects from him.

And there’s much more to come from Willis, something I discover after asking what’s next from him: “Alessio and I are working on lots of new music, for both Walls and other special projects – keep an eye out for details!” While you wait for that, you really do need Winterval in your life; quite possibly the best house record you’re likely to hear this year, and for some time.

Winterval is available now through Half Machine