Heartbreak And Frustration: Inside The Immersive World Of Aquilo
Monday, 13 June 2016
Written by Milly McMahon
Photo: Harvey Pearson
There is an epic sadness that subtly underpins Aquilo’s cinematic sound. Clicking play on any one of their soothing, orchestral tracks instantly reveals an atmosphere of delicate, poignant melancholy.
Writing poetic ballads about pain, hope, passion, heartbreak and deep hurt, the Lake District duo possess the innate ability to capture emotion with effortless artistic clarity.
Meeting via Soundcloud, Tom Higham and Ben Fletcher became friends and then production buddies. Their sound would become a perfect representation of how love feels. Isolating, overwhelming and completely addictive, the music comes from a place of honesty and deep feeling. Losing You, from their ‘Human’ EP, and Never Seen You Get So Low encapsulate a spiralling failed relationship which will scar the lovers as they fall away from each other.
Accompanying their songs with equally romantic and evocative short films, the storiesAquilo weave together welcome the audience into a secret world of imagined intimacy. Fresh from the studio, where they are rendering their debut album, having worked with producers Sohn and ÓlafurArnalds, we found Tom in bed battling tonsillitis before chatting to both about their creative process and kinship.
How long have you been working without a break now? I read that you recently had an intense six month stint in the studio when you knocked out a huge amount of material.
Ben: That was about a year ago. This album is a funny one. When we signed to Island we probably had enough songs to put it out in its entirety, but we decided that we really wanted to get this first one right. It has taken us this long in our minds to put out an album that we are happy with. We are so excited to release it. It’s so hard when you have all these songs that you can’t show people until the album is ready. We were just itching to put them out.
Was the earlier material you wrote very different to this new stuff? Is there a distinct difference between then and now or is it all just a continuation?
Tom: I suppose we like to think it’s a continuation from one to the other. We are always hearing new things and getting inspired by new things. We are just making what we think is right at the time and enjoying it. Naturally, our sound will change and the way we write songs will change. It is all just down to what we are listening to at the time, so I think the album will be a reflection of the past three years and what we have been listening to and going though. A collection of old and new.
Your respective backgrounds are thrash metal and grunge and I was wondering how you came to calm that sound down and channel a more emotional aesthetic? Was that a conversation previously or was that just what happened when you got together?
Ben: We were both into bands like Explosions in the Sky and we liked the progressive element. Actually, that is what spoke to us. Sad music gives me the deepest feelings.
The sound is so immersive. How did you manage to make music which captures the moment so beautifully?
Ben: We are very particular about our lyrics and we also like to play with powerful imagery. When you combine that with the sonics we put out, you listen to it with more awareness than just being background music.
Tom: We think there is no point in writing a song unless there is something really solid to write about. A good song has to have a good meaning. It’s more enjoyable listening to music that has a good reason behind it. That’s why we like to think the music we have put out to date has real depth to it, so everyone else can relate to it. It’s more us just putting out a point or a statement, but I think that has something to do with it.
Aside from love being the broader topic, what are some of the main themes the songs explore?
Ben: It varies. More often than not, heartbreak and frustration. I can’t think of a time in my life when I have felt really happy and wanted to write a song. It just hasn’t happened. Tom says he is the opposite. Happy songs are hard to write, especially with our kind of sound.
Do you find the songs you are writing when you are very secure and in love are very different to the the songs that you are writing when you are more angsty or heartbroken?
Tom: We like to write about ourselves, but we also like to put ourselves in the position of other people and write about how they feel.
Ben: Every song that we put out sounds like we are constantly moaning. We write songs about people and situations. The people you are writing about don’t even have to be people you are remotely close to. It can sometimes be easier to write that way.
Ben: That was a really weird one. We wrote that song in a day and then I forgot we had even written it. I never thought much of it, then about six or seven months later we were listening to all our MP3s and before we knew it we picked that track out and we’re producing it, preparing for it to be released. That song is self explanatory. It’s about someone getting really low and it’s not nice seeing someone get to that point.
How do you match video treatments to the lyrical sentiments in the tracks? Particularly the overlapping films for Losing You and I Gave it All?
Tom: Basically, directors put forward treatments and come through with different ideas. We decide which set portrays the music and we then work with the director to make sure they match. More often than not we will communicate what kind of video we want it to be. We wanted it to be a two part video because we thought that Losing You and I Gave it All sat quite closely together and that visually it would be good to tie it all in together.
Were you involved with the casting?
Ben: Yes, very much. That was pretty hilarious, actually. There was a white room and lots of actors came in to play a part, some of it was great and some it was horrendous. We were rushing to get it out and it was an exciting cast. We look for real people. We like our music videos to have depth to them and more often than not a story that tells a few different things. We aren’t too keen on performance videos. I don’t really get them, when there is just a band it wouldn’t work for us. The stories suit the songs.
Have any film directors had a direct influence on the music?
Ben: Tom is a massive fan of Drive. We both like Interstellar and Hans Zimmer.
Aquilo Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon October 17 2016 - GLASGOW King Tuts
Tue October 18 2016 - LEEDS Wardrobe
Wed October 19 2016 - MANCHESTER Ruby Lounge
Fri October 21 2016 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute3
Sat October 22 2016 - BRIGHTON Patterns
Mon October 24 2016 - LONDON Scala
Tue October 25 2016 - BRISTOL Thekla
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