Squid are all about the process

tom morgan
Squid interview

It feels apt to open a description of inventive, unusual and accomplished UK art rockers Squid with a comparison to the works of the late, great David Lynch. In his review of Lynch’s masterpiece Mulholland Drive, film critic Robbie Collin utilized a doozy of an image to describe the 2001 surrealist classic, one that also surmises the singular musical palette of Squid. “It’s like you’ve been presented with a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces. No matter how you assemble it, there’s always something left over,” enthused Collin.

The Brighton-based five-piece are an equally overflowing puzzle box, one whose endless array of ideas feels like gleefully drowning in colorful pieces. On their upcoming third studio album Cowards, the Warp Records signees are drawing on a host of new and novel concepts, from songs inspired by works of transgressive fiction (including dark fairytale Lapvona and brutal cannibal tale Tender Is The Flesh) to eclectic collaborations with the likes of Clarissa Connelly, Rusi Brook of post-punk act Pozi and Jonny Greenwood collaborators the Ruisi Quartet. 

Yet, what’s perhaps most striking (and in itself unusual) about Cowards is Squid’s lucid songwriting. Compared to the complexities of previous full-length O Monolith, these nine tracks are a more to-the-point and strangely accessible collection. It’s a thrilling leap forward, one that nonetheless sees the band continue to revel in blending emotional tones and musical color to copious, dazzling effect. 

Treble spoke with Squid’s Ollie Judge (lead vocals/drums) and Arthur Leadbetter (keyboard/percussion) to discuss literary inspirations, “new sonic motifs” and the importance of the creative process.


Treble: What does the title of this album refer to or imply?

Ollie Judge: It’s very much open to interpretation. We’re not finger pointing. But I find the nuance in the word interesting, how you can imply it to different things that people do. The most interesting thing to me is that you can be too anxious to do something and get called a coward for it, but can also be a really horrible insult.

Treble: I’m intrigued by the selection of books that tracks on this album are referencing. What recently drew you to this type of transgressive fiction?

OJ: I’ve always been drawn to doomy, gloomy books. I’m not sure why. I’d rather read something that’s not real, the opposite of real being something you could never imagine yourself doing, like being a murderer or living in space. It’s a weird form of escapism.

Treble: What does adopting different characters in your lyrics allow you to do?

OJ: Get away with murder? (laughs) I’m a normal person who likes to watch TV and cook, which isn’t always that interesting. So it’s nice to take yourself out of your day-to-day life and imagine being something else.

Treble: What are you currently reading?

OJ: A book called All Fours. Some friends were reading it and I saw good reviews, so I picked it up. It’s been hailed as “the first classic for the pre-menopausal woman” (laughs). I’m really enjoying it but I can’t always relate. It’s good to widen your knowledge.

Treble: Does the finished album resemble the thing you imagined when you were writing and recording it?

Arthur Leadbetter: For me, an album never sounds like it does when you imagine it. I have a very visual relationship with sound and imagination. If I imagine it, I get really fixated on trying to make it sound like how I see it in my head and it almost never happens as I imagined it. I can be better, or different. But it’s never quite as I thought, that’s what makes it beautiful.

OJ: We were recently chatting about, what do we call it Arthur?

AL: “Demo-titis!” We didn’t come up with it, but it’s a proven diagnosis (laughs).

OJ: We were saying that a recording on our phones can be amazing and we’ll never be able to replicate it. It’s this endless chase. You have to let yourself succumb to whatever version ends up. The chase is important.

Treble: That’s counterintuitive to what that AI executive recently said, about how supposedly no one enjoys creating music.

AL: What the fuck?

OJ: Yeah I saw that today. I saw it right next to a quote from David Lynch about how people need to enjoy the process because it’s the most fun part.

AL: I couldn’t agree more, it’s all about the process.

Treble: The press materials for this album talks about “the energy devoted to establishing new sonic motifs for this record.” Can you talk a bit about what that means and maybe give some examples?

AL: Basically, we use percussion a lot. On this album I was really keen for the percussion to feel like an ensemble, to have personality. I don’t know if we achieved it, but whenever there’s percussion, it doesn’t come in on its own. There are, say, three different types. The idea was for it to be like this troupe of musicians entering and then exiting. Some of it was edited out, but you can still see mirages of the idea.

OJ: With the vocals, the extra vocalists felt like a recurring thing across the record. That was fun, to have the same recurring voices come back on multiple tracks.

Treble: With those external contributors, how early down the line did you plan on using them. Or did the ideas arise as you were developing the songs?

OJ: We had ideas about having more vocalists and a string quartet, but finalising it came quite late in the day. A lot of tracks felt quite skeletal and they were dealt with by whoever was heading a certain idea, like Louis (Borlase, guitar) was sorting out the trio of voices. I didn’t know what they were going to sound like, so there was a lot of surprise and total trust in people’s ideas. It made it all really exciting.

Treble: I feel like this is your most easy to grasp or clearest, that’s the word I had anyway, album. Do you share that feeling?

AL: I’m really glad you said that. It feels like that to us too. It feels like ever since we met as a band we’ve been trying so many things out and loving them all, but to get those stylistic meanderings into one album, I feel like we’ve made something that is to us is direct and, as someone said the other day, “hemmed-in.”

Treble: Is that why you’ve described this as your best album yet?

OJ: Because we have to (laughs)? No, I think it’s because, as mentioned, it’s more direct and accessible in comparison to some of the stuff we’ve previously done. It’s the first record that we’ve written via taking a chunk of time off. I think you can hear it in how the record flows. I think that’s why I think it’s my favorite. It was just really fun. Making records can be stressful, but I look back really fondly on this one.


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