Charlotte Foulkes had the chance to speak to Arthur Leadbetter, the keyboardist from Squid, the kraut-infused post punk outfit from Brighton, after their latest album release O Monolith.
I had caught their entrancing set at Green Man a couple weeks prior – flowing seamlessly from one song to another, intertwining new and old innovatively. My third time seeing them, and definitely the best. I was very excited to learn about their experience playing their new material, and the reception of the new album. I seemed to have caught Arthur at a bad time, however - he was just painting over the mould in his bedroom – glamorous life of a kraut-rock-star eh?
They’ve been on quite an extensive summer circuit – from Boomtown, to Green Man to EU fests in Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and France. Are you back home from the festival circuit now? "Yeah, just back for the next few days and then going abroad again. It’s nice being back here but you get in a rhythm on tour, and then come home and have to do actual life stuff."
I mentioned that I saw them at Green Man, on the Far Out stage – Did you like it? "Yeah, it was brilliant’, replied Arthur. ‘We've had a really interesting summer where we started off with some real stinkers from our side. It was really hard, you know – with the new album, we were just trying to get the new music to go with the old. But I feel like throughout the course of the summer we've really nailed it. And after two or three shows this summer we were feeling much better, and we've had some really amazing shows this summer. Green Man was definitely a highlight."
Did you see anyone else at Green Man, any particularly good sets?
"My highlight of the festival was Yabba, Glaswegian noise punk band – such good songs. Etran de l’air too, Saharan Blues. Really fun. Really good."
You mention it took a few tries to sort out mixing new and old, did you change the setlists around often for the different fests? "Yeah, we have to really because you get such a variety of set lengths doing festivals. We try things out a lot and sometimes it doesn't quite work. Like, we an interesting intro, or new transitions, someone might improvise something on stage and it might work really, really well, and so we're like, okay, we need to do that again, or it just completely bombs so we don't do that ever again. We’re always changing it."
Do you like improvising, or more of a stick to your guns type? "I can play the same things every day and not get bored because I really enjoy the songs we’ve written, but also some of my favourite parts of the performance are when you go off trail and you don’t know where it’s going – it just makes everyone feel excited."
We spoke about the toss-up between festivals and tours. It’s a very different feeling, getting half an hour in the afternoon in a field in Europe to an hour and half of undivided attention from your biggest fans. "Festivals encourage bands to be snappy and captivating – every artist is just them saying ‘don’t leave! The next songs really good’ . Their Green Man set seemed exhausting to play even from the audience, with at least 6 songs flowing into each other with no breaks – they seemed to do it with ease, but Arthur confirmed it is sometimes intense and tiring. ‘I like a headline show because people have longer attention spans usually, and they will watch the whole set and you can go slower."
They had a lot of dates that flip-flopped between the UK and abroad. "Festival circuits do feel a bit shit when you’re flying back and forth, environmentally speaking. A longer tour means that we will drive around Europe going logically from countries – and you also build up a good rhythm."
I saw you at the Shacklewell Arms (a 200-capacity venue in Dalston), and you’ve done some in-store shows like Resident Brighton – do you prefer the intimate, or the larger shows?
"I do like the feeling of playing to a larger audience. But what I miss about the smaller shows was meeting people, I loved playing Windmill, Shacklewell, Green Door Store –they felt so special to us when we used to play them I really miss that feeling,. The larger shows do feel a bit more sterile sometimes, but to be honest is nice to hide in a green room before you play, get a bit of downtime!"
Squid recorded O Monolith in Peter Gabriel’s studio in Wiltshire, in the heart of nature, a stark contrast to South London, where they recorded Bright Green Field. O Monolith feels very nature-adjacent, they created soundscapes with hints of birdsong and quite animalistic noises resonating from their instruments. They kept the producer the same however, sticking with London’s favourite, Dan Carey.
What was it like being closer to nature this time, did the choice of studio influence the recording process or vice versa?
"In that studio, you can sit in the centre of the world, with the huge expanse of studio, and the desk is infront of you. There are huge floor-to-ceiling windows kind of opening up like a spaceship into the garden and a pond in front of it, and there's ducks swimming and lily pads and stuff. It's incredibly beautiful. So I think that setting and that feeling of playing this music and writing it, it really elevated the whole experience. Even our lunch breaks, you know, was going to feed the sheep and going stargazing at night. It was super wholesome.’
Do you have a favourite monolith around the world?
‘The Salmon Stone, it was a 10 min walk from the Green Man site, in Crickhowell’
(I’m upset I didn’t go and see it while I was there, but I will have to check it out next time)
View of the Fish Stone, Penmyarth Park from RCAHMW.
I know Dan Carey is obviously a master on the production side, but how much does Dan influence your recording process, and the actual final product? Does it change much from what you originally conceived in your head or does he stick with your ideas?
‘We have a lovely relationsip with Dan because we push each other in a way and we share a common vision. It's very easy for his influence to kind of come in and become a sixth member.’
Arthur spoke to me about Siphon Song in particular. They weren't sure whether they were going to put it on the album, and then Dan just chopped it in half and said, don't play the first half, only the second, and that his advice had a massive impact on the song. ‘The way he makes us perform while we are recording is centred around embracing imperfections and allowing the recording to be a very delicate and exciting thing. It’s a huge part of his process and I think really comes across in the way that the record came out.’
I love the order of the songs, it feels meticulous and they move into each other. How did you choose it? – He paused and thought for a minute, not quite being able to remember. The buried memory came back to him – perhaps buried for a reason. ‘It was a tedious process of arguments’, he recalled. ‘You write out so many versions and then you decide on one and completely forget about all the arguments, or that there were even other versions.’
Do you listen to it much? ‘It’s quite difficult to enjoy it straight after the recording process, I tend to just think about what could’ve been done differently, but after a while I can properly enjoy it.’
We spoke about records, and the O Monolith one, Arthur doesn’t collect them anymore, but he gave a copy to his parents (who don’t own a record player, haha), but he mentioned that he holds a Squid archive dear to him. A memory stick he has compiled that that holds all of the recordings from live sessions, or when they do a recording on radio, he keeps that along with all their vinyl at home.
Do you have a favourite piece of merch?
‘Yes, the scarf ‘(This has just come out by the way, only available on their upcoming tour dates!) and ‘the hats are pretty cool too’.
What was the decision behind the typography, a different move to the BGF artwork?
‘The designer that we were working with, Oscar Torrens, he just came up with loads of different ideas and slowly we decided that the different people doing the shapes was the best option. We're really happy with it and pleased to work with Oscar.’
Finally, any bands that we should be looking out for?
‘Check out Deliluh if you haven’t already, and Minor Conflict.’
Thank you Arthur for a lovely chat, and if you haven’t, PLEASE listen to O Monolith, and catch them on their tour.
Charlotte Foulkes
Edited by Natalie Howarth
Featured Images Credited in article. Cover Image Courtesy of the Official Squid Facebook Page.
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