The cinematic nature of Low Island’s music is enticing to say the very least. Having been getting airplay on BBC Radio 1 and 6Music, as well as featuring on all the right new music playlists on Spotify, their emotional melodies and hypnotic rhythms are creating a wave of anticipation for what is to come for this new band. They are an exciting prospect indeed – especially after the release of a short film to go alongside the release of their debut EP Just About Somewhere, which perfectly depicts the claustrophobic nature of big cities and the importance of finding your own space in them. Brightonsfinest had to find out more about the band, their ideas and their future, so we got in contact with Jamie (vocals/guitars/keys/electronics) and Carlos (vocals/guitar/keys) from Low Island to question them about their music.

Where did you grow up?
Jamie: We all grew up in Oxford and went to the same school. Carlos, Jacob and Felix were at school together since they were 6, then at 13 I kind of joined their gang. So we have known each other pretty much all our lives. We had always played music together and have been part of various projects together but never had a band that was just us.

What kind of music were you brought up on?
Jamie: When we were 16 Carlos and I started DJing together, taking it seriously for about four/five years. We had a residency at The Warehouse in Leeds and played a few festivals. That’s where our electronic influences come from. The acoustic/indie sound comes from the bands we were into before that, like Foals or Grizzly Bear.

Carlos: We were listening to stuff like Bloc Party and Maximo Park when we were thirteen. Then Jamie’s brother showed us Aphex Twins and Squarepusher a few years later, which then lead us onto acts like Caribou and Jamie xx. Our influences have always come from a broad pallet.

Can you remember the first album you bought?
Jamie: It’s not going to be very good as we would have been eight years old in 2000. I think it was a Sum 41 album.

Carlos: The first album I bought myself was By The Way by Red Hot Chili Peppers. I bought the Sum 41 album after that, so it’s been a downhill slope from then.

How did ­­­­­­­Low Island form?
Jamie: We have played in various bands and projects throughout our teen years. Carlos and myself did a score for a play in Oxford about two years ago by Catriona Kerridge called Fast Track. In doing that, we stumbled on a sound that became the genesis to what is the Low Island project, which started just over a year ago. As we performed the score live, we had all this gear to make this electronic, quite dark and cinematic music. We started making songs from there.

Is there a story behind the name?
Jamie: We went on holiday some time ago to West Cork, on the south coast of Ireland. There are these two big rocks out in the Atlantic, one called High Island and the other Low Island. They don’t really look that impressive – if anything, High Island looks far better than Low Island, but we thought it might give people the wrong idea if we were called High Island. There is a picture of Low Island on Google somewhere but it doesn’t look very good, it’s probably only about the size of half a football pitch.

Tell us a bit about the Just About Somewhere EP?
Carlos: We started writing about a year ago and the first batch of songs we made had this running theme of reflecting on your early 20s and everything that goes with it. We wanted to capture that in the short film as well.

How did the idea of the short film come about?
Jamie: Originally it was going to be just for ‘Anywhere’, the final song on the video. We had the idea to get this crazy looking dude dancing with an inflatable arm waving tube man on a hill to the backdrop of London. We then started to think of about the character and his backstory – what had led this man here.

Will the next release follow a similar concept?
Jamie: As this project started with Carlos and I writing a score for a play, there will be a similar approach in our next video where it will follow a story or narrative – the music will support the film rather than the other way round.

Carlos: As we are a new band, having a short film which features our music from our debut EP gives people discovering our music a window into our world. Whether the next release will have a short film alongside it, we are not sure – it will follow the same approach but you will have to wait and see.

What has been a musical eye-opener?
Carlos: Seeing Radiohead play in Victoria Park, London in 2008 was pretty special. It solidified our desire to make music. More recently – when the Solange album came out in 2016, it opened my eyes to a way of making different styles of music. There is something about the sound of that record I had never considered using in our own music, but realised there is a way of making that work.

Jamie: Discovering Arthur Russell when we were about 17/18 was a really big moment. Not least because he died before he got any notoriety, but because of the crazy and unique way he infused styles and genres. No one had done anything like that before. Discovering him in the noughties meant we could see his influence in the other acts we admired at the time.

Who would be in your ultimate supergroup?
Clive Deamer (Portishead, Radiohead) on drums. Flo Morrissey and Matthew E. White on vocals. Jah Wobble on bass. Jeff Buckley on guitar. Arthur Russell on cello. Floating Points on keys.

If you could work with any artist, who would it be and what would they bring to Low Island?
Carlos: We are all fans of the film Birdman. If Alejandro González Iñárritu could direct a film for our music, that would be amazing.

If you could give a musical award of the year, what would it be for and for whom?
Jamie: We always talk about how we love the way Four Tet operates; the way he handles releases, his shows, even ticketing is really care free and cool. We saw him when he put those two nights on at the Brixton Academy – there was no lighting in there, only anglepoise lamps by the decks, and it was £5 a ticket to see Daphani, Floating Points, Jamie xx and himself. He has won the award for quite literally keeping it real.

What music are you listening to at the moment?
Jamie: The new Flo Morrissey & Matthew E. White covers album, Gentlewoman, Ruby Man, recommended by my mum. I’m still listening to the Solange record, and also catching up on some Death Grips.

Carlos: I have only just seen Synecdoche, New York which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman. There is a song in that called ‘Little Person’ written by Jon Brion. It’s a great film but that song is incredible. I’ve been listening to Matthew Dear’s new single ‘Wrong With Us’ a lot which came out recently.

What are your future plans?
Jamie: We are planning the EP, the next batch of songs and making sure we are happy with them. We are in the middle of dreaming up the next video.

Carlos: We are putting on a club night in London in April where we will perform and then have some of our mates DJing the event. We are doing a small headline tour in June which will be based more up north. We will also be playing The Great Escape Festival 2017.

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