In the loop with Ian Williams

I rang Ian Williams of Battles expecting a simple and definitely interesting interview, but unbeknownst to me the trees around my estate were scheduled to be cut down on that exact morning.

When he answered we got started, but in the background there was a constant grinding sound of saws gnawing on wood, feeding into my laptop's microphone, and coming out of Ian's speakers, into his microphone, and coming back through to mine, just a repulsive feedback loop, and this being an interview with the guitarist of Battles, it only seemed fitting, to have to overcome some sort of loop, all be it, ironic.

“Usually someone sets a loop, and then drums start blaring, and then we try to work out melodies or something like that, and then our neighbour will start pounding on our door because the loop is playing so loud, and they’re like ‘That loop is driving me crazy’. So that’s what we’re up against.”

Battles, are by no means a conventional sounding band, which makes their music very hard to pin down to any genre, with streams of progressive rock, jazz, electronic, and some sort of chemical X; a bit of sugar, spice and everything nice kind of sound.

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