Start Listening To: Moreish Idols

Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

Im Tom, from Moreish Idols. Me and Sol are from the North of England, Jude, Caspar and Dylan are all from the South.
We make a slightly confusing and ever changing combination of alternative rock, krautrock, jazz and post punk. In truth we don’t really know what to call it, better leave that to you guys.

How did Moreish Idols form?

We all met at university at Falmouth through the fertile DIY music scene there. Mutual friendships and random encounters brought us together initially and that slowly spawned us into a band. We moved though a few different lineups at Falmouth and eventually settled as us five when we moved to London in 2018. It’s funny because although we’ve been a band for a long time, it feels as if we’ve lived through these episodic stages where our music has turned various corners.
One of which was within covid. Float, was born then and it almost felt like we formed again in that time and started fresh.

How are you feeling about releasing your debut EP Float?

Honestly, it’s mad. We’ve all followed the goings on of our label, Speedy Wunderground, since back when we started, so joining the ranks now with music we really feel confident about is brilliant. It’s given us a lot of faith in our process and anticipation for what’s to come. This music took time to get right, mainly because we feel we’ve started learning our craft with it. Before we lacked a singular focus, this music united us as a band and it’s only fitting that it should be our first label debut and first 12’’ record.

How do you produce your music?

We used to produce ourselves, using a mixture of brief studio time for drum recording for example and then mixed home recording/mixing. Now though, our label happens to be founded by Dan Carey, so all production is through him and Alexis Smith at Dans studio in Streatham. The recording experience with them is fantastic, immediate and focused.
You have to be tight before recording or it doesn’t work, but if you know your tunes then it’s great, you get to focus entirely on the sound and the performance.

There’s lots of emphasis on the directness of the sound. We tracked straight to tape so a lot of the preparation was about making sure what was going in was almost in a mixed/great sounding state pre the actual recording. This meant on the first listen back you had this almost finished sounding song, which was trippy. For tracking vocals, and overdubs especially, it gave us so much confidence because you can hear the final result as if it’s there already.

What advice would you give for anyone trying to achieve a similar sound to your music?

That’s a hard one. We’re all into such varied music so I think that’s why it comes out the way it does. We like to use contrasting sounds a lot, for example our guitars are often designed to juxtapose, like I might be totally dry sounding and Jude might have a massive expansive delay sound for his guitar or vice versa.

We also try and always leave the recordings in a state in which we can actually play it live. It sounds obvious but you can easily go down the rabbit hole of doubling everything or adding a wall of synths that you’re too short on limbs to play at a gig. Mr Carey has lots of trademark tricks of course, but id never spill the beans on them!

Can you tell us more about the lyrical themes on this EP?

I share this role with Jude, so I can’t speak fully for him. That being said we’re always sharing our ideas and discussing where we’re going with the themes. Sometimes we’re both singing on the same track and we have to sort of find a similar route into the theme. Sometimes that makes the meanings a little less obvious, but it’s always great in a chaotic, cryptic way. When it’s just one of us, I find we often dig a little deeper into something more personal. Having both results on a record I think creates this intimate and ever changing atmosphere that we really like. We often return to nautical themes such as fish, boats or body’s of water, it’s a landscape we seem to just gravitate towards within our visual language. The title, Float, we feel really encapsulated that.

What was your favourite & least favourite part of making your new EP?

The favourite I’d say for me was day three or recording, I was lying on the floor of Dans studio, all of us on headphones, listening to Dylan blast through the whole EP on his sax from start to finish. Dan ran a few effects sends through some modular equipment, lots of granular delays, things we blended in and out later. I just lay there with my eyes closed hearing the whole thing happen. Basically everything else was recorded by then so it was like hearing Float being born right there and then out of some aquatic wormhole or something.

Least fave, maybe just the waiting. We had the recording pencilled in for like 6/7 months so the anticipation was almost like torture. That and right before recording one of us got covid and we very nearly couldn’t record.

What’s it like working with Speedy Wunderground?

It’s been only positive. Pierre who manages the label is always a phone call away for anything and Dan and Lex are always on hand for anything music or recording related. We have freedom in our writing and it’s inspiring knowing they’re pumped about our music. It’s a great combination of a small team with a vast array of connections, so we’re enjoying that.

How has the London music scene influenced you as artists?

We’re lucky because we have very inspiring people everywhere here in London, some we’re fortunate to call friends.
It’s important to go to gigs, rather than get stuck obsessing over our own stuff. We’re constantly humbled by shows we see week in week out and it fuels us as we go. It can be a bit claustrophobic though. There’s like three bands on every street here now so it’s almost music overexposure sometimes, but ultimately it’s a blessing.

What do you love right now?

Kyoto Kyoto, Caroline, Snapped Ankles, Keg, The Smile.

What do you hate right now?

Moreish Ido- kidding!

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s important to you?

I still listen to Grace by Jeff Buckley a lot. It’s one my mum would always have on in the car or the house and it blows me away now as much as then. It probably inspired my guitar playing as much as anything.

Is there any new music from 2022 you have been enjoying?

So much. Caroline’s album really stuck with me, as have everything black midi have churned out for their album Hellfire.
I also really enjoyed Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal, the Pavement reissue and also the Smiles debut album.