London duo Lung Dart are prepared to blow your mind with debut EP Ebbs

We caught up with the boys to discuss their origins, found sounds, double meanings, and life after death (or lack thereof).

How did you guys meet and start making music together?

We met at University in Leeds through our mate Liam. We didn’t start properly making music until we both moved in together in Bow in 2012.

At the start we would spend ages showing each other loads of YouTube videos, then one of us would show the other a Logic project and the other one of us would like it and then we’d work on it together. Actually that’s pretty much still what we do.

What instruments do you play/have experience with?

We’re both most comfortable playing guitar, it’s what we’re probably best at overall, but it got to the point where writing seemed impossible because it was so familiar. So we both try our best to play piano and keyboard, which we can do to the extent of making up chords and melodies. Other than that, Tim plays drums and James plays the saxophone and clarinet.

In the recordings we try to include as many different instruments as we can, so we’ve recorded things like a Balafon, Gamelan, Kalimba, Angklung, Balalaika etc. Mostly to expand our palette of sounds; we don’t really know how to play any of them particularly well. Hopefully we’ll find the time to make some instruments soon too.

There’s a lot of horns on this record. Have you guys always loved horns? When and where did that start?

James’ favourite album as a child was called Sax Moods. It was a collection of ballads like "Careless Whisper" and "Unchained Melody" covered on saxophone. We’re both of the opinion that most songs can be improved by adding a sax, like most meals can be improved by adding an egg.

In addition to the instruments, you incorporate tons of field recordings into your music. Are you recording the sounds around you all the time, or just when something piques your interest?

All the time, definitely. Everywhere we go really we’ll be listening out for anything that is somehow mesmerising. We don’t constantly record things, it’s just when the world aligns and this amazing sound is presented to you. It must be annoying for our girlfriends.

Speaking of those sounds, I love what I’m assuming is the broken washing machine spoken of in the press release at the end of "A Home". How do you decide where these sounds go?

The sound at the end of "A Home" is actually the sound of a phone falling into a box of knives. We both used to work in hospitality jobs setting up tables, etc. and we’d carry round big buckets of cutlery to each table. James was recording people rummaging around in one of those buckets and managed to drop his phone. The broken washing machine is used on "B. OK" and sounds a bit like a helicopter.

Deciding on the placement of each sound varies from song to song. Sometimes a sound can be the first thing we put on a track because of its rhythm or because it just sounds interesting and we want to work off it. Other times it can be to fill a space and add a certain frequency or it can be used as a storytelling device in conjunction with or opposition to the lyrics.

On a related note, some songs feature traditional melodies ("B. OK", for instance, which has that underlying R&B/rock chord progression) that are overrun by these warped pop songs. Do you often start with something basic and build and experiment from there? Does the vocal modulation happen later? If we heard an unmodified demo of "B. OK", would it sound like neo-soul?

All things start in different ways, whether it’s a melody you’ve had in your head, a noise you recorded, a percussive loop you’ve made on Logic or a chord sequence. They all just build from one thing that sparked an interest.

Pop songs can act as a really good vessel for more abstract ideas, whether you communicate them lyrically or otherwise. In a way it’s a similar concept to experimental producers using a 4x4 beat to achieve a sense of familiarity. The first ever demo of what became "B. OK" was just James and a guitar. It sounded so much like Prince that it was called Prince, and it had a guitar solo at the end.

Continuing with the songwriting theme, is it difficult to organize all the different live tracks and samples that you’re incorporating? What software do you use?

The tracks grow organically in Logic. So in terms of organising, it’s fine. As long as we bus things and keep everything labelled, we’re okay. We do come into a bit of trouble when songs start to have over 50 tracks. Our computers are both over 5 years old, so they can’t quite handle everything sometimes. If anyone wants to become a Lung Dart benefactor we’d appreciate a new computer. Or two.

Your name is basically a euphemism, a slang term for cigarettes. Some of the songs on Ebbs could’ve made fine synth-pop (or any other type of pop, really) tunes. Do you spend much time thinking about dual meanings, conception vs. reality, etc?

With the name, we just wanted to sound like a punk band. Which obviously we’re not. We just like the way it sounds and looks written down, which wasn’t true of many of our other options.

We’ve been interested in things like the Ethiopian tradition of Wax and Gold in poetry and music for a while, where “Wax” is the obvious, literal meaning of something and “Gold” is the hidden, underlying meaning. With "B. OK", a lot of people have been saying it’d make a good breakup song but it wasn’t intended like that at all. It’s quite aggressive and selfish and manipulative. Maybe some breakups are like that, but you wouldn’t want to relate to the character in that song.

To answer the synth-pop bit. We have always been aware that we like to write loads of different types of songs and take inspiration from a lot of disparate places. So because of that we spent a lot of time developing our processes so we knew that everything we made would sound like us, meaning we could write a '50s rock and roll song, or a shoegaze thing, a straight up R&B pop song, a non linear melodic piece, or some plainchant and it would still retain enough qualities to sound like us. I dunno, maybe we just think we have done that but others may not agree, hopefully that will become clearer as we release more stuff.

Despite the organic recordings that run through the EP, the songs (particularly "Paradise Turns") sometimes take ghostly, otherworldly turns. Do you find yourselves looking over your shoulders as you’re remixing and remastering?

JR: I like the company.
TC: Not with Lung Dart stuff, but I get like that with other peoples music. If you walk home late listening to The Caretaker or something.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Beatrice Dillon, Moondog, Money, Television, Alan Lomax, Rezzett, General Strike, Eliane Radigue. The Charlie Bones show + Japan Blues on NTS.

What happens when we die?

After life there is nothing. It doesn’t hurt, you’re not aware, it’s like how the two of us remember the year 1972, or anyone alive remembers 1054, it’s just a void.

You can listen to the EP (due 27 April via Happy Valley Records) below. Preorder Ebbs digitally or on vinyl. You can catch the boys at the Ebbs EP launch party at Rye Wax London.