In The Studio With : SWEAT
SWEAT are a self-sufficient operation – from creating genre-bending music out of their DIY South London studio to coding their own VR nightclub, this 5-piece do not disappoint.
All photos by EVA PENTEL
Last week we sat down with Gam (keyboards and strings), Matt (drummer), Dante (singer and guitarist), David (bassist and guitarist) and Wafah (guitarist) to discuss their experimental sound, how they’ve pioneered a new way of appreciating live music and their soundtracks to sanity.
If I were an alien & just landed on earth having never listened to music before – how would you describe SWEAT’s sound to me?
Gam: Electronic...
Dante: Warped, kind of degraded, unhinged – it’s kind of sensual?
Matt: Movement is key!
David: The live and recorded experiences are quite different –the recorded music has slightly more nuance which we sacrifice for energy when live.
It sounds like there are so many different influences in your music, both musically and cinematically. Where do you find inspiration?
Dante: You’re right to pick up on the intersection between the cinematics and sonics of the music. We don't play a specific genre, so the reference points are all over the place. It has to be new – a new idea or sound done in a way which we haven’t heard before. We listen to lots of Bollywood and Arabic pop, hip-hop, techno, 2000s pop, and actually – Britney sounds a lot like Nine Inch Nails or a contemporary Arabic pop tune a lot of the time.
David: The reference points are pretty disparate and not instantly identifiable, but it’s about finding a lineage between them.
Gam: The fact that it’s an electronic process means the music can be quite wide-reaching in terms of its influences and it also means that on the record, we can push the production somewhere more imaginary than real.
Your lyrics are very picturesque, painting a clear image of what you're trying to express, like there’s a foot in reality – is this what you’re aiming for? For example, with What Men Want – am I right to think that’s about toxic masculinity?
Dante: What Men Want is an interesting example because it got written a long time ago –
between it getting written and released, all the Weinstein allegations were in the news so it resonated with that subject in a much more potent way. Originally, it was a cinematised and abstracted story based on the conversations I’ve had with a lot of women in the arts industries, and it felt like something had to be written about it, so with the music video we were like, ‘let’s go for it! Let’s take it down!’
With the music video in mind – how did you find yourselves in a field at night? Was this always an idea you wanted to explore?
Matt: We just woke up and found ourselves there!
Dante: The video was based on a weird dream I had – Gam was running and I was fleeing from a combine harvester. It seemed like the ultimate example of taking the piss out of this macho thing with both the hyper-masculine car garage setting, as well as having two brothers, kind of like Cain and Abel, resort to violence because they’re unable to have a conversation. Also, combine harvesters just look terrifying at night – it was a good image of danger and running away from something.
You worked with Dashni Morad, the Kurdish musician and activist – how did that come about and what was the process like working with her?
Dante: She came to our show at Corsica Studios and was really into it. We started chatting and saying how we should get into the studio together, so we asked her to do some vocals on one of our tracks. And the rest is history…
[On designing their own VR nightclub] "There was something kind of self-destructive about it because you’re putting all this energy into something which could make the main heart of what you do redundant!"
These past months have been very different to what we’re used to – what’s been the soundtrack to your sanity?
Matt: I went back to a simpler time – I couldn't help but listen to songs from my childhood.
David: I had a country fortnight – it’s very wide-ranging, and as they're mostly about huge journeys it was interesting to listen to whilst stuck in my room.
Dante: Lots of ambient and instrumental music – Haruomi Hosono, Riyuichi Sakamoto, music that you could read – stuff you could simultaneously read and listen to.
Gam: I re-discovered classical music for about a week – a bit of Schubert and Haydn.
Wafah: The Cure, a lot of post-punk.
Some people felt pretty unproductive over lockdown, but you coded a VR nightclub! Was this in the making for a while or did the spurt of genius just suddenly hit?
Gam: In March, I got quite ill so I spent a lot time in my room, getting really into coding. The idea was originally just to do a 3D music video but by the end I’d sank thousands of hours into the project, and the whole thing expanded from there.
Dante: It was just supposed to be a 3D video shown in a small room but then we thought, ‘let’s actually design a club!’ Once we’d built the space, we knew we had to put on nights because gigs weren’t happening. We curated a line-up with a common thread of electronic, experimental music which existed more online than in a specific scene in reality (acts included PVA, Haich Ber Na, Lynkks Africa and Jessica Winter)
David: People realised it was very different to what everyone else was doing for gigs – it was hard to get people excited about it because it wasn’t like what other musicians seemed to be doing.
Dante: There was something kind of self-destructive about it because you’re putting all this energy into something which could make the main heart of what you do redundant – obviously it never happened but the whole time we were a bit worried. That’s why we wanted to make it like a fundraiser – all our gigs were free but you could donate to Save Our Venues. It’s almost like we were trying to put ourselves out of business!
Speaking of the past, what’s the most memorable gig you’ve played?
David: We like to play gigs in odd places like DIY, risky environments – people respond differently as well in these situations.
Dante: We did this gig in a guardian place where I used to live which was great. The building was set to be demolished after that weekend, so there was a massive party with loads of other bands playing and because everyone knew it was going to get destroyed they all just lost it.
Quick-fire!
Sweat in 3 words?
Long pauses ensue
Dante: Hot, indefinable, imaginary.
Ideal lockdown housemate?
Matt: Someone like the athlete Colin Jackson – he’s really active and seems like a nice guy.
You can only play real or electronic instruments for the rest of your life – what do you choose?
Unanimous: Real
SWEAT’s music as an emotion?
Dante: Something about being hopeful? That’s our aim but it’s not quite there yet…
Wafah: Hot!
You’re on the Last Bus home from your first gig back –what are you listening to?
Matt: Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
Dante: Sleeping with Ghosts by Placebo
David: Sensual World by Kate Bush
Gam: Dreams by Fleetwood Mac
Wafah: Scott Walker
The music’s ready to go, but alas we must wait for the release of SWEAT’s upcoming EP Sentimental Sunset. Until then, we highly recommend heading to their artist’s page, where you can bide your time with their fantastic existing material.