Doom Lounge blends metal, punk, flamenco, folk, and electronica into an evocative sonic journey. In this interview, we explore the project’s origins, soundscapes, and richly layered creative vision.
1. Let’s
begin with the debut single “Cairns.” It’s such a striking blend of metal,
punk, folk, and downtempo electronica. What inspired this fusion?
Punk for me is very direct and factual. If punk could be likened to a
non-fiction essay, a direct punch in the face, Doom Lounge is more like a
fantasy novella. It is more like metal in that way – fantastical, ornate,
moody. But many of its ingredients aren’t traditionally metal either – there
are many folk and gothic influences, and then the layers of synths, drones, and
the pulsing subwoofer bass.
There’s another heaviness altogether with electronica, that of subwoofer bass
way deeper than a bass guitar, and bit-crushed drum machines, the kick tone
that blurs the line between a bass and a drum, and that is as addictive for me
as a searing, slicing guitar tone.
I always had an affinity for the raw, emotionally powerful music created by
people in direct contact with physical instruments. It took me awhile to come
around and allow myself to program beats and play synths, but it’s a joy to
build soundscapes in this way.
2. The description of “The Doom Lounge” as a mystical tavern on a desolate
mesa is compelling. How did this visual narrative shape the project’s identity
and sound?
The “Doom Lounge” is dark and apocalyptic, but also luxurious, sensual,
meditative even. The contradiction exists in the music as well. It balances on
a knife’s edge between heaviness and restraint.
3. Your music is described as both meditative and adventurous. How do you
strike that balance between introspection and momentum in your compositions?
I often write heavy, complex guitar parts. If I don’t hold back they would be
very dense and elaborate. Part of what the synths, drones, and programmed drums
give me is space, to let the composition breathe, to build the story of each
song slowly and evocatively.
4. In “Capela Dos Ossos,” flamenco and Mediterranean melodies meet 808 kicks and synths. Can you walk us through your process of building such rich, layered soundscapes?
I wrote much of the song on the guitar in a Dm open tuning. The flamenco tonalities and chords have become part of my language as a guitarist. By using a less-familiar tuning it forces me to find my own shapes rather than really on familiar progressions.
“Capela Dos Ossos” was one of the first tunes that I added programmed drums to, relishing the crisp trilling hats and drone-like kick. Layering in synths allowed the song breathing space, so the guitars could really build to the heavy ending. When I finished recording it I knew Doom Lounge could come to life, and the project began in earnest.
5. You’re a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner by day. Has your relationship with natural environments influenced the music of Doom Lounge in any way?
Music feels very spatial to me, and I’m very inspired by landscapes – especially vast geological landscapes like the American southwest with its canyons and arroyos, the arid Mediterranean landscapes with their arid bluffs over the sea, and the central Asian steppe.
The music of these kinds of places – western gothic like Wayfarer, African desert blues like Tinariwen, Tuvan throat singing like Huun Huur Tuu, they reflect the landscape in ineffable but real ways. Something about this relationship between place and music is exhilarating to me, and I always want to travel in spirit by listening to music from many places in the world, and creating music that evokes places real and imagined.
It may be the same affinity for landscape that motivates my work as an ecological restoration practitioner, but there I create with palettes of wild plants and their animal communities, rather than with sound.
6. Fingerstyle, flamenco, distorted guitars—your guitar work is very diverse. How has your study with Álvaro Antona in Madrid impacted your playing or writing?
Learning flamenco was always a dream for me – it is so rhythmic, also beautifully melodic and chordal. It is an amalgam of some many different cultural tonalities – Roma, North African/Arabic, Jewish, European art song, jazz… All that layering means lots of interesting intervals, novel chords and scales, an oscillation between minor, major, and Phrygian. There’s a dreaminess and sense of longing in flamenco, duende if you will, and also the directness of the dancefloor and all the eastern and African influence in the rhythms.
Learning flamenco from Álvaro has affected my playing in many ways, especially by widening the way I build chords that have dissonances or near-dissonances in them, and also all the right-hand techniques like rasgueado strumming, tremolos, and many ways of finger-picking arpeggiated chords.
They find their way into Doom Lounge in direct and indirect ways – I would not say I’m playing flamenco, but rather that flamenco is a heavy influence.
7. There’s a distinct cinematic quality to Doom Lounge’s sound. Have film scores or visual media played a role in shaping your musical vision?
I like the epic atmospheres in film music, especially Ennio Morricone and the spaghetti western genre.
For some reason I don’t really watch movies much, maybe because they are so powerful. As for other visual arts – they are absolutely an influence. If I see inspiring art it makes me want to play and compose. It puts me in a creative frame of mind to see evocative photography, illustration, and print-making, because all of us artists are crafting a mood and saying things with varying degrees of directness and emotion.
8. Do you think Doom Lounge exists more as a studio project, or do you envision it growing into a live performance experience as well?
I’ll be playing the first Doom Lounge show at a local anarchic art party in late August. Initially Doom Lounge was just going to be recordings – homemade, in my free time, without much thought to future ambitions. Just for the joy of creating.
But now that it has grown a bit I’m interested in the idea of performing. I don’t yet know what it will be like. Will I play guitar along with pre-recorded tracks of all the other instruments? Could it be a big doomy dance party, where I’m a DJ who happens to play guitar along with the dance tracks? What will happen during the gaps where the guitar is silent? Will I fill space by also playing bells and flutes and kalimba and percussion? Or accept the gaps and breathe with the music? It’s an interesting challenge, so very different from playing in the punk and hardcore bands that have been my experience so far.
9. “Cairns” as a title evokes memory, burial, and pilgrimage. What’s the symbolic significance of that word for this release?
Thanks for asking the question in that way and bringing out a meaning for Cairns that I think was subconscious for me. It’s about traversing imaginal landscapes with a combination of ancestral presences and the unknown future.
A mix of primal human folk music and music created with contemporary, technological means.
10. You also play in Hollow Howl, a post-punk band. How does your approach differ when writing for that project versus Doom Lounge?
Writing for Doom Lounge is so different. Writing and recording take place in the same time and space, and there’s much more of a feeling of collage and spontaneity. With Hollow Howl, I write on the guitar and the other band members weave their parts in to create the whole.
With Doom Lounge, I am playing so many instruments – kalimba, bells, acoustic slide guitar, flamenco guitar, a MicroKorg synth, a Korg Volca drum machine, plus all the computer synth tones, drum machines, and effects available on my laptop and phone. I can freely add, re-arrange, edit, and chop up parts. A lot of writing involves trying something on the spot because I can, I don’t have to wait for others to learn and create parts. It’s very free, and very fun and playful.
11. Your debut feels like a ritual or a journey, both musically and emotionally. What do you hope listeners feel or experience when they step into the Doom Lounge?
I started with something very specific in mind. Sometimes I’m in the mood to listen to heavy, dark music, but don’t want the incredible energy level of something like Bolt Thrower or Wayfarer.
I want something that will slowly elevate people’s energy and inspiration level. For me, something I can listen to while I work on the farm, something partway between meditative and mosh-inducing. I really like the band OM and they are the best example of this I can think of.
I have always liked the mid-tempo, more exploratory pieces from metal bands – the eerie intro to Slayer’s “Seasons in the Abyss”, or the instrumental build of Metallica’s “The Call of Ktulu”. I also adore the epic crust ballads of bands like Sweden’s Swordwielder and of Misery from Minneapolis. The ominous arpeggiated chords and doom-laden drums are so powerful to me.
If there was a dial with “atmosphere” on one side, and “total grinding mayhem” on the other, I’m trying to find a mid-point with Doom Lounge. I’d like to craft an atmosphere people want to inhabit for a long time, as you said a “ritual or journey”, in the sonic realm.
12. With “Cairns” and “Capela Dos Ossos” out now, what’s next for Doom Lounge? Are more releases or collaborations on the horizon?
The next single will be out in September and it’s a “banger”, a bit faster and more dancey than other Doom Lounge tracks. It melds catchy dark electronica with some very Doom Lounge slide guitar. It almost has a phonk or witch house vibe to it, but in my own sideways fashion. It’s called “Inertia Drift” and is a bit of an homage to underground car culture. As an ecological restoration practitioner, perhaps it’s weird to be into cars, but… I really like some things that are fast and loud, and crazy engine sounds tickle the same part of my brain that grindcore and industrial music does. I think bands like Ministry and Einstürzende Neubauten may have aestheticized mechanical and technological sounds for me! There is music everywhere.
Once a few Doom Lounge singles land and people find out about the project, I’d like to put out a tape or record – a physical release of some kind.
Thanks for your insightful and thought-provoking questions and for talking with me about Doom Lounge!
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