Strong Asian Mothers open up about new EP Animal

The four-track release follows last year's beautifully hyperactive short-player Lynx Africa, which boasts tracks such as "Out Of Love" and "The More That I".

"After the runaway, global success of the Lynx Africa EP, the pressure on us to deliver again was enormous," say the band. "It was all too much for Josh, who picked up a filthy burger habit and started listening to jazz again. We realised at that point we had to take matters into our own hands - we did a £237.34p Sainsbury's shop and escaped to our friend's mum's house in leafy Oxfordshire for a week and wrote this. The Animal EP is the sound of us taking our destiny back into our own hands and reconnecting with our true, pre-Lynx Africa selves."

Can you tell us about the Animal EP?

As with all our stuff it's kind of a mix bag of sounds, influences, and instincts, but always with the intention of creating danceable music!

"Animal" for instance began as a jam in a rehearsal studio and is peppered with elephant shrieks, a recording of us opening a can of fizzy pop and saying 'aaah' and a seriously fuzzy baseline that just seemed right.

The majority of it was written in our secret writing bunker in the depths of Oxford. We find that a cheeky Strong Asian excursion away from the world always helps us hone our ideas, and being away from the messiness of London allows us to really get lost in the tracks. "Just Another" is actually about being one human bean lost in a sea of other human beans and feeling like just another lost voice in a sea of opinions.

What song came together easiest? Which was hardest?

"Just Another" probably came together the easiest and all in the space of a week. It started as a forgotten chord progression at the end of one of Amer's projects and Josh heard it by accident and brought it to life by peppering it with a melody that eventually became thebass line that drives the beast. Then Khushi came along with some extra ideas and the lyrics... true collaboration! It always felt like it was a solid song for us, so it was just a question of finishing it!

As for the hardest? Probably "Animal". It gave us instant of joy when the first demo was smashed out, but it was one that needed really specific production to sound as juicy and bouncy as we heard it in our heads! We went through various bassline sounds and ideas and synth patterns and it took a lot of experimenting. But we got there! Especially with the additional help of producer Chris 'the Zane train' Zane!

What's the EP about?

It's a concept EP about Josh struggling and then eventually coming to terms with zoo animals after an early childhood trauma. He loves the zoo now.

What does it sound like to you?

"It's sounds very much like professional music..." - Balwant Kaur Chadha (Amer's grandma), 2017. True quote.

How does it advance from the ideas on Lynx Africa?

Well our first EP was quite a slap in the face sonically; we felt it was right to be loud and bold. This time we wanted to sneak some less-in-your-face ideas in there, so a song like "Sober" still incorporates all our favourite ideas but it's more of a grower in terms of dynamic. We also wanted it to be better than the last one, so we made it better.

What's next for Strong Asian Mothers?

We've bought an island with the money we made from Lynx Africa so when the paper starts rolling in from Animal, that should pay for the yacht so we can actually go there.

What excites you about the year ahead?

We've booked Glastonbury and one of our tunes is gonna be on Made In Chelsea so that's pretty much all our dreams right there.

What scares you about the year ahead?

Spiders - fuck 'em.