“Drive Me To The Sea” is wonderfully done; comparatively upbeat music while the vocals feel more somber and, perhaps, a bit nostalgic. What feeling do you hope to evoke from the listeners with this song?
Kimber: Looking back, ‘Drive Me To The Sea’ was my therapy. I wrote the lyrics in an East London hospital in 2019 during a chaotic time of my life. Initially, it was just an account of my thoughts in an attempt to make sense of what was going on. But after nearly a year of adjusting to the event, I came back to what I’d written and formed the lyrics to ‘Drive Me To The Sea.’ We worked through different versions of the production and, in the end, loved the disparity between the lyrical content and a more upbeat, hopeful vibe. I’ve always loved bands like The Cure, where they have that conflict between lyrics and production, as it allows you to engage at different levels, whatever your mood.
How has being from Yorkshire influenced your sound and musical style?
Kimber: I think our northern, working-class roots have influenced our work ethic and DIY approach to making music. We self-engineer, produce and mix everything, and put money aside each week to slowly build our shared studio. One of the turning points for us was when we’d saved up enough money for our first analog synth (Korg Minilogue). It transformed our productions as we were finally able to create the sounds we’d had in our heads, which we could never quite get to with software.
Your SoundCloud indicates that you were each involved in previous projects before joining forces to create Kimber. What clicked and made you realize that you had the foundation for something special here?
Kimber: Although we’ve both been in different bands, we’ve been writing together for almost 15 years under different guises. Throughout that time, we’ve always experimented with different vibes, just trying to find our sound. ‘House In The Sky’ was one of the first songs written for this project. I’d just bought a Volca Beats and was messing about with different loops when we came up with what’s now the intro loop to this song. Along with the Minilogue, the Volca was our first bit of analog gear, and it sounded so much better than any of the software we’d been using previously. We pretty much ditched everything we’d written to that point, and it became the catalyst for the rest of the EP.
Which song of yours is your favourite to perform live?
Kimber: ‘How We Spent Last Summer’ is our version of a ‘guitar band’ song and probably our favourite to play live. We have an extended intro with our drum machine on loop then we build the song from there. As a 2 piece, we have to get creative live to make a big sound, and a big part of that for ‘How We Spent Last Summer’ is using the Big Muff fuzz pedal on bass guitar. The samples you can hear throughout are from when a friend went traveling around South America. On safari in Brazil, he took a load of field recordings on his Tascam, and the vocal cut is of his tour guide, Elmo.
If you could open for any artist, who would you choose, and why?
Kimber: I think that would have to be Mount Kimbie. As another 2 piece, they’ve been a significant influence for us on how they approach their live setup and blending drum machines and synths with live elements.
Interviewed By Vanessa Siebrass
FOLLOW KIMBER: