Alex Tearle
After listening to their upcoming album ‘Unlearning’, which will be released on 1st April 2022, Alex Tearle sat down with James and Finlay of Walt Disco to discuss their inspirations, being part of the LGBTQ+ community within the music scene and their upcoming tour.
Walt Disco are one of the most exciting up and coming bands at the minute, with a feature on ‘Rough Trade on the Rise’ and some excellent releases, particularly their fantastic EP ‘Dancing Shoes Won’t Fix My Mind’ and the thoroughly entertaining single Selfish Lover. They are clearly a band that are confident in their style, with both members speaking about their music with a confident and assured manner, and it was clear the band knew they were onto something good with ‘Unlearning’, seeming excited to talk about the record.
James explains that they listened to a lot of “30s to 50s music” as a main inspiration, highlighting how sonically interesting ‘Unlearning’ truly is
The album is stylistically diverse and unique, so I was interested in learning about the band’s musical inspirations. “There was a bit of a mish mash, wasn’t there, James?” Finlay nods to his bandmate. “Obviously a lot of hyper pop… and industrial stuff like Nine Inch Nails”. If this wasn’t already diverse enough, James explains that they listened to a lot of “30s to 50s music” as a main inspiration, highlighting how sonically interesting ‘Unlearning’ truly is. “In terms of finding melody”, James explains, “I like those kind of… whimsical and long lost romance type melodies and all that, I think they’re just great. We listened to just everything!”, a really unique influence for a modern alternative band.
James describes their love for this genre of music, “I really like the lyrics from that sort of era, they’re so poetic… great words too, stuff like ‘entranced’, just a great word you would never use in conversation but that sound great”. Finlay also adds, “We had the usual influences as well you know, Depeche Mode and associates, The Blue Nile and stuff”, rounding out an eclectic mix of inspirations, that can absolutely be seen in ‘Unlearning’. These influences are clear in the single Macilent, a word I had to Google, despite studying English. “I don’t know if I’ve met anyone yet who knew what it meant,” James laughs, “we’re out here expanding people’s vocabularies”.
Macilent is an important track, covering LGBT issues, specifically the struggles transgender people face. “When we wrote it the news had [broken] about three transgender women being attacked in Hollywood,” James explains, “We were really down about that and how it keeps happening, so we wrote the verses out of frustration and fear. The chorus is saying that the world and people could work together but there is so much violence”. This type of discussion is paramount in promoting the issues of such an underrepresented group, and Walt Disco do this with poise and maturity in Macilent.
I think as a young person going to a festival and seeing lots of different types of people and potentially those like you before you know what you’re like is really important
I asked the band about the music industry’s treatment of LGBT people, and what should be done to promote better attitudes. “Festival bookers haven’t even got enough women on line-ups, so we give them another job to make sure they include LGBTQ people too. I think as a young person going to a festival and seeing lots of different types of people and potentially those like you before you know what you’re like is really important. You start going to festivals when you’re 16… anyone in a position of power that can influence new music and tastemakers need to do their best to be picking LGBT music but I think it is getting better”. With so many festivals neglecting female fronted and queer bands, James and Finlay’s views seem accurate and it feels even more important to get a variety of representation at festivals. “Some festivals in the UK are shocking at it!” James remarked, a view that is completely understandable when looking at the line-ups of this year’s biggest festivals.
I asked the band about their favourite track on the album, both to produce and play, and they agreed they enjoyed Those Kept Close the most, so I was keen to see how they wrote and recorded it. “We came about the barebones of the song in four hours really… the final production has barely changed. We sketched out the ending but wanted to record it there and then. We didn’t really own enough mics, so we just set up iPhone for voice memos in different parts of the room… we just used three or four iPhones at different distances… iPhone mics are great!”. These inventive methods allow Walt Disco to create such a polished sound, as a listener you would never have guessed this was how the record was produced. “You’ve gotta make do!” Finlay explains, highlighting the difficulties in producing records for up and coming bands, but also the inventiveness that makes Walt Disco great.
“Even the more tender songs need to have their big resonating moments in them”
Walt Disco’s sound is unique and genre-bending, which I’m sure will sound great live. Finlay describes the influence live music had on their song-writing, explaining that their music “was meant to be played live. We always think, how would this sound in front of a massive crowd? Even the more tender songs need to have their big resonating moments in them”, an idea that shines through in ‘Unlearning’. Songs like Selfish Lover were clearly meant to be played live, with a bouncy and entertaining chorus. “It’s the kind of song you cant fall asleep to!” Finlay jokes, a fantastic summary of a really excellent single.
I finished by asking the band about their tour, during which they will play the Bodega in Nottingham on the 11th April. “We’ve been to the Bodega three times now, it’s a fantastic stage. The last time we played was at Dot to Dot festival, the whole thing was chaos in the best way possible, the room was packed before we even started playing and the crowd chanted back our sound checks – more of that please Nottingham!” Walt Disco are a band that shouldn’t be missed, and their excitement at being back on tour was evident. Make sure to listen to their debut album ‘Unlearning’ on the 1st April, and catch them live at the Bodega on the 11th April for what I’m sure will be a fantastic show.
Alex Tearle
Featured image courtesy of Neelam Khan. Permission to use granted to Impact. No changes made to this image.
In-article images courtesy of @waltdisco via instagram.com. No changes made to these images.
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