UK producer and artist Darker Thoughts is an elusive and distinct creative of our time. With music spanning back through the years, the sound is consistently experimental, but always in keeping with this artistically rooted, avantgarde approach to exploring and expressing some of the most complex human emotions and ideas.
We were blessed with the chance to interview the mysterious and unmistakable Darker Thoughts, to find out more about the music, the creative process, what his plans are for the future, and plenty more. Here’s the conversation in full.
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Darker Thoughts – it’s a pleasure to talk with you. I’m intrigued by the music and keen to know more about your creative process. For those new to your work, how would you personally describe your sound?
Thank you for having me, I’ve got to say, I’m excited to answer some of these questions!
I honestly don’t really know where I fit in musically, I take a lot of inspiration from the Industrial genre, as that’s where some of my favourite artists come from, i.e. PIG, SOW, Einstürzende Neubauten, Skinny Puppy, Circle Of Dust, etc. I just feel you can do a lot with that style of music.
I also class it as Experimental, Abstract & Avantgarde, because that’s how I make music, through experimenting with sounds. Probably not in the conventional way of doing things.
Transmission is a strong example of the kind of intense ambient sound-play that guides your creative approach. On the one hand we get a pulsating groove with vocal fragments and a simple rise and fall progression. On the other, the mix is somewhat gritty, perhaps retro and notably distorted – almost like old-school cinema. What would you say were the first sources of inspiration for you when starting to carve out a creative lane of this nature?
To be honest, you hit the nail on the head there, I wanted it to sound like a broken transmission that someone is trying to decipher. Originally Transmission had a slightly different sound, I only added the synth to it very late in its creative cycle. It was one of those songs I just wasn’t happy with at the time, but it was my sister’s favourite, so I had to try and get it right. All I can say is I’m glad how it’s turned out now.
The evolution of the track is hypnotic, chaotic and captivating – what were you hoping to artistically encapsulate with this growth towards the spiralling downpour of voices and details that make up the final fifth?
I wanted it to sound overbearing, like it was getting harder to decipher, like it was becoming too much for the listener.
Your earlier work To Pierce in My Mind is an instrumental, lyric-free composition. The style is still notably distinct as Darker Thoughts. Where in the process do you decide whether to add vocals, and how do you choose what ideas or topics you want to explore?
This is a tough one to answer… Sometimes I can just tell if I want a track to be instrumental, whereas I’ll test the vocal ones with a instrumental demo to see if it fts, if it does, then great! If not, then I’ll try another set of lyrics, if I still can’t get it right then I will keep it as an instrumental. The ideas/topics come from my writing, I’ll be doing something like working, reading, listening to music, or (most of the time) after the shower, then I’ll get a few words in my head that I need to write down straight away (before I forget it), then 9 times out of 10 the lyrics will just flow. I guess, sometimes the topics will correspond to how I’m feeling at the time, or it will be a story.
Tell me about the track Why Am I Worthless – what was your mindset when making this, and where do you imagine is the best setting for listeners to connect with the idea and feeling?
Why Am I Worthless? This track will always be a very personal one for me, again I had already made the instrumental & given it that name, before I even added lyrics to it, this song was one of those rare cases, where I made the lyrics after, I think I wanted to encapsulate the feeling of depression, I remember the first time I showed this song to my Mum, it brought her to tears…
Setting wise, that’s an interesting question, I’m always listening to music & looking for new artists and sounds. Sometimes, I’ll have Spotify on in the background while I’m playing a game, reading or working on things, to be honest, that was what I did the first time I listened to the Precursor EP. So, it’s probably best enjoyed playing in the background, in a dark room with a glass of wine.
Why Am I Worthless is notably gentler than Transmission – are the two from completely different intentions, and is there a story or album-like concept that threads all recent tracks together?
Transmission & Worthless both come from different albums, Why Am I Worthless? comes from the Precursor EP, whereas Transmission (Listen_To_Me) comes from The King Of Lies Album, yet they both share a similar concept lyric wise, again both tracks focus on depression, on the thoughts I feel inside my head, yet I feel they do have a different sound. There are a lot of lyrics that I’ve written that will harken back to earlier songs, there is so much music that I have planned, over the next few years those connections will probably be explored more…
For Every Shade of Night there’s a somewhat minimalist set of layers paving the way. On the technical side of things, are you a multi-instrumentalist, and what are your go-to creative must-haves in terms of hardware and software?
Honestly, I don’t really know what I’m doing music wise, I’m sort of learning as I go along. I don’t really know how to play any instruments, as I never learnt when I was younger, I was never really interested in it. It’s like I hated reading & writing poetry in school, yet I love it now. I don’t know why, I just starting writing in 2019, from there, I planned a bunch of albums & I started experimenting with sound in 2021, To Pierce My Mind & Electric Fairytale were the first two songs I made in 2022. My musical must have is definitely Bandlab, I also have a little Casio SA-1 keyboard that I will try things with as well.
You describe your music as Industrial, Experimental, Gothic, Abstract, among other things – is there much of a scene for this style where you’re based, and does live performance feel like something you are working towards?
I would love to perform live at some point in the future, I already have a list of the songs I would want to do, they are all mainly from an album that I’m currently working on. Scene wise yes, there’s a big Industrial & Gothic scene, I just haven’t really found a fanbase yet, I honestly think the hardest bit about making music is promoting it.
Your biography addresses the listener in the following way: “You are the needle piercing deep into my head, my thoughts, my heart’”. Where did this come from, and is it therapeutic for you to release these ideas and feelings to the world?
It came to me when I was trying to decide what to write for my biography, it stems from the idea that when you read the lyrics, or listen to a song, you are consuming a piece of me, of my mind & of my soul.
Yes, I would say it is very therapeutic, if I didn’t have a way to convert this negative (or sometimes positive) energy, then I don’t know what I’d do with myself.
On the same note – How important has poetry or literature, other forms of media and escapism, been in building up your own avantgarde identity as an artist?
I think personally music is the biggest form of escapism for me & the biggest form of inspiration. I don’t really like reading poetry, but I love writing it, I think my musical identity revolves around experimenting with sounds & ideas.
What’s your biggest ambition for the music at this time?
I reckon I have 2 ambitions going forward, one is to find a fanbase, the right audience & the other is to get the album that I’m currently working on right, as this album means a lot to me personally. If I can, it will probably be the next release after the one I’m building towards with the releases: “Half-Human” & Every Shade Of Night.
What’s something about you that listeners might be surprised to hear?
My sister is somewhat annoyed with me, because she was always the musical one when we were growing up. Her & my Mum recalled a conversation that we had with an old-school Gypsy when we were young, she told me that I was very musical & that my sister was creative, it was such an odd thing at the time, given I just was not interested in making music, then one day everything changed.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
If you ever have any feelings, or words that you need to write down, or images that you need to draw or paint, or even sounds that need to be made & distorted into something special, then do it. It might be the start of your artistic journey & it might relieve you of some stress & anxiety.
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Find Darker Thoughts on Bandcamp, Reverbnation, Facebook, YouTube & Instagram.
