INTERVIEW
Aſter their critically acclaimed debut album, Snapped Ankles are back touring their brilliantly outlandish second LP. We decided to have a chat with them, and find out a bit more about the mystical concept that is Snapped Ankles.
Firstly, I must ask- the name, why Snapped Ankles? We got the name from a Wendy who was watching the film Misery by Rob Reiner…we all winced at the name and then thought we better start a band. The Wendy leſt us with wincy name shortly aſter that. How would you describe yourselves as a band? Always the question that makes a band sheepish and awkward_unless they are dressed as Woodwose from the forests of our pagan past sent to remind us that the trees are watching and judging your dance moves.. What albums were the most formative for you? Without giving up the secrets of the forest and filling this page with a discogs wants list__lets go with the classic 1971 self titled Link Wray album recorded in his 3 track shack with the wooden floor as kick drum, Ege Bamyasi by Can, Smell of female by the Cramps, Ride the sky by Lightning Bolt and the Giſt by John Zorn.
What brought you to the concept that is Snapped Ankles? First we built log synths in order to make primitive brutal synth music which grew into a small forest of instruments. We therefore envisaged a totally camouflaged outsider pop group that embraces concepts of invisibility in the age of facial recognition whilst celebrating the fear of idiocy. How do you approach writing music? Is it relatively loose, or more regimental? We have a variety of ways to create new music. There is the process of song writing we call “fermentation” ie improvising as group for hours then picking the 5 seconds on recordings to find the good bits that can be developed slowly over a few months or years! Another way is our own even more organic method, where we’ve set up our forest of synth logs and then perform them as a percussion ensemble as part of short presentations at our
16 / OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2019 /
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Snapped Ankles will be playing the Norwich Arts Centre on Tuesday 15thOctober.
own London Topophobia night _As we aren’t playing our usual instruments we can discover ideas and tunes that otherwise would not have been so obvious..our favourite experimental set up is Log ringing - we stand in a circle like church bell ringing, each with a single oscillator log synth and then we beat out proto techno rhythms that become the basis for a track. You’ve previously listed various films and directors as being strong influences for you, what was the last film you watched? We saw MidSommer recently at the legendary Rio cinema in Dalston. pretty silly and funny yarn. Have you always been musicians? No, when we aren’t in the woods, we are either part time estate agents or tree mechanics. Have you been to Norwich before? Are you looking forwards to it? Yes, we played The Arts Centre as backing band for
a show called Weird Seance by performance artist Daniel Oliver. We’ve didn’t realise until recently that Norwich is the centre of the afro funk reissues so we might go rummaging! What can we expect in the future for Snapped Ankles? Depending how it goes in Norwich on October 15th__we were planning to go out into Thetford woods and make a log camp workshop. What can we expect from your Norwich show? Lights, smoke and logs! How do you stay cool in your massive outfits? Camouflaged Nudity and water..2 ltrs a day! our suits are like beards__keep you cool in summer_and hot in winter. Your video for drink and glide features a lot of yoga, what’s your favourite yoga position? Headstands_ it gets all the blood from your Ankles into your brain….
Words Callum
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