Out of the ashes of Snakadaktal, emerges an immersive electronic project in the form of Two People.
Joey Clough and Phoebe Lou, are either side of a new music exploration that’s already turning heads.
“The ideas for the project formed quite a few years ago, and even now, in the making of the record, all the visuals behind it; we’re always going back to that initial plan we had,” states Lou.
But winding back to the beginning, before there was ‘Two People’; there were two people in need of a new project. This prompted the writing of a manifesto which would guide their future actions.
“I mean. It’s a classic manifesto. Having come out of Snaka, we thought that was really important to lay down the law,” Lou explains. “We wanted to make sure that it was going to be sustainable.
“[The manifesto] was more focused on the process; how we wanted to do things. We wanted to be heavily involved in all parts of it: from the writing to productions, creating the art, and music videos. Also just how we think about things. Trying keep up good energy, as we do things and not get too bogged down, or worry about details,” Clough elaborates.
First Body is an electronic album with hypnotic vocals, on cinematic instrumentation that creates an atmospheric environment within its tracklist.
“A lot of the time we focus on just writing songs that are probably more traditional structure, and a lot of ambience and dramatic stuff comes from experimentation in the studio.” Clough describes the production process “Sort of ‘after the fact’, off of the main parts of the song.
“Sometimes we have a loop that has a real strong feeling in it and then we evolve into a song” Phoebe interjects before adding with a giggle “There’s no rules here.”
First Body is mixed by the acclaimed Rodaidh McDonald. Already credited on projects with: Sampha, King Krule, and The xx, and admired by the band prior to the collaboration.
“He was on the manifesto for like five years before it happened,” Clough announces with pride before Lou interjects, “But as a dream, you know. We didn’t think it would actually happen.”
“When he said he was keen to do it, it gave us a lot of confidence … He’s just the best mixer we’ve ever worked with,” Lou continues. “There’s something really special about the way he can improve a track, without changing it on a technical level.”
Once they had begun to finish the album it was important they considered how it would be translated live.
“[First Body] was a studio record. We hadn’t played it live before recording the songs. It’s more production heavy, and the songs haven’t lived and breathed in a real space,” Lou says. “[The process] was like rewriting the songs into a different language.
“The kind of music that it is, is tricky to come up with a live show, but we were just determined to do something that was interesting,” Clough continues.
“We didn’t want it to be like karaoke style. So, having a lot of live instruments and a lot of improvisational elements in the set was really important to keep up ‘the scariness’ in playing live,” Lou says. “For it to feel worth doing; it had to feel like ‘I’m human’, and we just thought people would connect with that.”
This project marks new beginnings for the duo, who now have an ignited passion to follow the project up and start something new and eclectic.
“I think [the album] will lend to that type of music that’s coming next,” Lou says. “Now we’re kind of excited about just doing this whole process again, but differently.”
Two People’s debut album First Body is out on Friday January 18 via Terrible Records.
