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Colchester based producer Dominic Gentry recently made his debut as Attaque with the release of ‘ON LY OU.’ The album features a smooth mix of shoegaze, pop and electronica influences, it’s a chill project with a flawless production.
GroundSounds recently caught up with Attaque to talk about his latest works, musical inspirations and his future with music, check out the exclusive interview below.
For those just discovering Attaque can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started with music?
I got started from a young age actually, when I was 15 I was drumming in a band, somewhere between Sonic Youth, Pavement and Slint I guess.We were doing even sessions for Lamacq and Peel and supported Mogwai and Arab Strap. I guess when that died out I kind of gave up on being in bands and spent a lot of time travelling. I then moved to Sheffield where I studied sound engineering, I had already got into electronic music from going to raves in Essex and in Sheffield I was in a club every weekend.
From that the engineering side got me into production and I started writing dance music. It wasn’t until a few years later when I moved to Brighton that I found my sound and started releasing techno on Bad Life.
How did you ultimately decide on the moniker Attaque?
The word attack is a common word which comes up a lot in music production. I also think music should be an attack on the senses whether it’s emotional or physical.
The actual word attack in English is a bit aggressive though, having it spelt the French way somehow softens it up and looks cooler.
What is life like Colchester? What is one thing every visitor should see or do?
I don’t actually live in Colchester, I live in a small market town surrounded by countryside about 30 minutes from Colchester, I did have a studio there for a while and I mixed the album in a friends studio there. Thats the only time I really go there, it’s still a squadie town and doesn’t really have a music scene which is crazy as its a big place and has a University. The Arts centre there is an amazing venue, its an old Church and has an incredible sound but not many decent bands pass through anymore. There is a group of really creative people down at a warehouse space called The Buffalo Tank, there are people doing 3D mapping, Ambisonics and all sorts of crazy things being built. I would say visit there and pop in for a cup of tea.
Can you tell us about the creative and writing process involved with your latest track “Future Earth?”
Yeah it all started with this classical guitar piece which had some really emotive subtle changes, I spent ages cutting it up and arranging it, I then ran it through some guitar pedals which made its sound like an arpeggio.
I was always a fan of the pitched down burial sounding drums so I went through some old garage records and found a really cool shuffling beat which fit with the classical guitar perfectly.
My manager had played me some Native Young demos and I thought he had such a unique voice so we sent him the demo, I wasn’t sure if it would work as it was already as strange mix of parts.
When Native Young sent the demo over I listened to it about 20 times in a row, he really got the vibe of the track and I was blown away by his vocals.
Having lived with the track for six months I then decided that I wanted to make a different version for the single, I still thought I could get more emotion out of the track to match his vocal.
I wrote some synth and string parts which sounded cool but I knew we had to record real strings to get what I was after.
I have a friend who plays Viola, she got in a Cellist and a Violinist from her quartet.
We went back to Flesh & Bone where I had done some work on the album and they replayed the parts I had written, it immediately sounded great and that was that.
What is it about shoegaze, pop and electronica that attracts you to this sound?
There is something about that big expansive sound of shoe gaze which just draws you in can take you somewhere else, I remember watching Mogwai about 15 years ago at Colchester Arts Centre and everyone in the crowd need up lying down on their backs, what other music would make you do that ? I still love club and electronic music, I love the repetition of club music, there is something about being in a club and being lost in the repetitiveness of a 10 minute techno track, just listen to Moth by Burial & Four get and you will understand what I mean.
What was the inspiration for the track “Change Your Mind?”
I had been writing 4/4 club music at the same tempos for ages and just got so sick of how formulatic dance music has to be, once I decided I was done with that i felt completely free from its restraints and felt inspired to try something new. Change Your Mind is 135 but most of the elements are at half speed, I had also always crammed so much into club tracks that I really wanted to write something with some space and as with the rest of the album I wanted it to be really emotive. I have a friend who plays guitar as Once A Superhero, he is the king of sad so i got him to play guitars which I took away and ran through a Roland Space Echo, so really the inspiration was just the freedom to try all these new ways of working.
You start a touring in mid-November…what do you enjoy most about being on the road?
The best thing about being on the road is just the realness of it all, I still find it hard to get excited about Facebook likes and Youtube hits, so much importance is placed on these things now and to me they are meaningless, its that bit where you have finished playing a song and you hear the applause and can tell how much someone enjoyed it which gets me, like everything in life its about Human connection and this is what I love about touring.
Who came up with the idea and concept behind the music video for “Change Your Mind?” Can you tell us a little bit about the visuals and the story that you were trying to convey?
The idea actually came from my manager Russell, he has put in as much if not more work into the album than I have, he came up wit the story, locations and cast, Jake Gabby fined edited and directed it, he has a really great eye and a very beautiful style of putting images together which world perfectly for me, he has just finished a new video for Future earth which again looks amazing.
What was the most challenging and rewarding parts in regards to bringing your debut album ‘ON LY OU’ to fruition?
I don’t know where to begin on this as its been a year and a half of non stop work and various highs and lows. For me the most rewarding parts was when the demos became real songs as I wasn’t even sure it was something I could do, I had always thought in my head how good it would be to make something as powerful and emotive as a band like Sigor Ros but with feel and grooves of club music. It felt like such an achievement when I got to mix down stage and felt like I had a proper album finished.
Me and my manager decided we would put the album ourselves as we are both control freaks and thought we understood what the album was better than someone else. It’s been a real insight for me as to how it all works and doesn’t work, there is so much music out there the most challenging thing is actually getting heard and breaking through, although once you do that its then a struggle to stay in peoples mind as there is a new band coming through every five minutes to get excited about. I’ve found this side a struggle where as being involved in the videos, live visuals and putting together the band for the show has been really rewarding, I’ve learnt a few lessons and realised I need to just get involved in the parts which excite me and help me be creative rather than chasing things which are of no value.
What is next for Attaque? What can fans look forward to?
We still have a couple of singles to release from the album and some of the album tracks have evolved from playing them live so we will be re recording drums and vocals and getting those out there. I’m currently having a studio built on a farm in the countryside and I plan to get in there as soon as we are back from touring, I’m toying with different ideas to get my music out there, I’m not sure I want to go down the traditional album route again as it would mean a year of not releasing anything, I think the way people consume music now is not reflective of the old model of releasing an album every two years, It doesn’t do the artist or the fans any favours, I’m just looking forward to getting in the studio and upping my game and trying to evolve my sound.
http://www.soundcloud.com/attaque
