Meet Our 'Strange Neighbours
Strange Neighbours has been in the works for a while, and finally we can bear witness to the wonderful brainchild of Sam Abbo, whose basslines avid Opus Kink listeners may also pick up on. Using the past year to fully let the creativity flow, the newest EP from Strange Neighbours is host to a diverse range of guests vocalists, or perhaps…strange neighbours.
STRANGE NEIGHBOURS COVER ART BY
We’ll set the scene: you’ve wound up on a street with no sign, and as you pass from window to window, a different sound floats out of each apartment. With a Brexiteer brewing a cuppa in one, and a bored lover in the next (we won’t spoil the rest), this is a street party you won’t want to miss. With that, let us introduce you to the brains behind the project…
How did Strange Neighbours come to be?
It’s been in the works for a while – since I was 18, I’ve been fiddling around with an electronic drum kit and synths and combining them with live instruments. I was listening to a lot of LCD Soundsystem at the time, as well as a lot of electronic live band hybrid music coming out of New York. I wanted to start a project where I was making music but getting different people to guest on the album. I shelved it for a long time, but lockdown got it going again.
How do you decide on collaborations?
At the moment it’s just been friends I wanted to work with but may never work with because you’re in separate bands.
There’s so many different genres on the album. Was this intentional?
It was unintentional at first but then as it developed I realised that was exactly what wanted – to create a street where singers and musicians I know could poke their head out of a different house in the form of Strange Neighbours.
Is there one story you can elaborate on?
I really enjoyed working with Johnny on Shake Down. That’s about a patriotic British Brexiteer dragged down to the Brighton shoreline and cleansed in the waters. I don’t know how we ended up writing it – the music was all there, we were singing random stuff and then it all just came together. There’s also Aburrida, which is about a woman bored with her lover. To tie it all together, there’s a big thumping kick drum that continues through the album.
Sam by Sean Hawkey
Are you good at knowing when a song is finished?
It’s interesting because of lockdown, I thought songs were finished so many times, but then they keep developing …so no…I’m not good – things are never finished!
It’s hard, especially when you’re working with something so personal!
Exactly, listening back to it now – it’s been a few months since it was released but I think it’ll be at least a year until I sit and relax, so I’m not going listen to it…I’ll just move onto the next thing.
When you listen to music, is there a specific element you latch onto and want to channel into your music?
I try and listen to a wide range of genres…taking lots of elements and shoving them together into a weird mish-mash.
Going forward, are there any specific sound or genre you want to try your hand at?
The last track on the EP is Aburrida and I love playing my Flamenco guitar on it. I’ve become obsessed with playing folk music and want to incorporate that to this repetitive dance sound I’ve created.
Over the past year, is there a specific lesson you’ve learnt about your creative process?
SN has allowed me to give my little babies away to someone else – it’s hard at first but eventually you relax and if it doesn’t work then it doesn’t work, but just freeing myself up to let others add to what I’ve been creating.
Do you have any ideal collaborators in the future?
Fake Turins, Heart Worms, Angus from Opus Kink – keeping things in the family.
Are you planning on taking Strange Neighbours into the live world?
There’s so much going on, it would need a lot of working out…but at some point I want to have a Strange Neighbours house party.
Whilst we wait for the government to lift regulations, you can get the street party started by listening to the Strange Neighbours EP here.