Sometimes things just fit. For Stefan Antoinette, Attu was one of those things. Initially a side project and a songwriting experiment, it quickly developed a life of its own. Now four strong, the band are making waves with Don’t Sleep, a nifty slice of understated electronica that serves as a taster for a new EP set to arrive early next year.
Joining Antoinette are a trio of multi-instrumentalists, including his sister and regular collaborator, Michelle (bass/synths), Chike Newman (samples/laptop) and Timothy Earl (guitar/synth), with the quartet all hailing from the northern reaches of London. Antoinette’s former band, Delta/Alaska, parted ways earlier this year, leaving the door ajar for Attu to step in.
“Initially, it was a side project to another band I was in,” he said. “It was originally just to see if I could do it. I’d never written more than a song by myself, so I wanted to see if I could do it and if people would like it. When I put the first EP out it gained a decent amount of attention. In regards to other bands, I think this one can be taken a lot further. It feels a lot easier. It’s still the same goals, but I have a lot more confidence in it.”
Despite being a relatively new concern, Attu have quickly developed into a unit and are branching out in terms of their collaborative writing approach. Their forthcoming EP features input from all four members, a departure from the first release under the moniker, ‘IV’.
“A lot of other bands I’ve been in, the songwriting process has been hectic,” Antoinette said. “This has been very, very easy. The first EP I wrote pretty much by myself, the second EP is much more of a collaboration.
"Some songs are written by the other members of the band, and I’ve just done the recordings, but generally as a whole, one person will come with the main structure of a song and the rest of us will help fully form it and do the production. We try to make each song have a different kind of feel to it. It’s not disjointed as such, it flows, but it’s all quite different.”
Having moved into the murky world of synths, the band have also had to adapt and overcome in terms of their live show. All four members have served time in various ‘traditional’ bands and are only now getting used to their new setup. Which, in finest Attu fashion, could be set to change in the near future.
“Originally there was no real intention for a live band. A lot of research went into it, a lot of the equipment had to be bought,” Antoinette said. “It’s been interesting to say the least. Very different from anything any of us have ever been in before.
“We’ve all been in various bands, generic three or four pieces: two guitars bass, drums. We run a lot of samples live now so it’s very different, at the moment it’s computer based. We hope to move away from that as we get a bit bigger, we’d like to get a live drummer. We’ll still be very electronic based but a live drummer is our next goal. When you get a good one, you’re made.”
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