Tourist interview: “I felt lost in something that felt positive, not just lost in grief.”
We catch the English electronic songwriter on the verge of album number four
This is your fourth album release, marking 10 years of Tourist. How does that feel?
Most fundamentally, I feel profoundly grateful. If you had told me as a child that this would be my life, I’m not sure I’d have believed you. I’m not a huge artist by any stretch of the imagination, but the idea that other people listen to my music and it marks moments in their lives feels genuinely incredible.
You lost a close friend shortly after you released your last album, ‘Wild’. Would you say this experience has affected your overall sound? Has it coloured how you perceive your older music?
I look back at my older music very often as it helps me understand where feels interesting to go next. I think it’s made me less afraid of being direct, I like to think that many people might hear what feels like an uplifting album, even though it was the result of terrible circumstances. I’ve always tried to channel personal experiences and life events into my music and looking back at those earlier records they are no exception. The weight of imagining my friend listening to it also helped me – I always thought of him saying “you can do better than that!”, which made me laugh.
What was your experience of not being able to see others during isolation like?
In honesty, it was grim. Not being able to be near the people you love is extremely difficult even when nothing dramatic has happened in your life, let alone when you lose someone. If anything, it made me realise that the most important thing in life is other people.
In what ways does making music help with feelings of grief and loneliness, especially when you experience those emotions together? Is it to do with the sort of flow state that arises while making it?
I think that’s quite an interesting point to land on, it was a deeply rewarding distraction. I felt lost in something that felt positive, not just lost in grief. It was something I could do each day to help make sense of my thoughts and feelings.
From most of the tracks on the album, ‘A Dedication’ especially, it sounds like you’re going for something both hard-hitting and weighty, but still emotional. For want of a better term – emo bangers. Was your experience of grief as hard-hitting as the music sounds to us here?
The “emo-banger” is kind of my North Star. I love the juxtaposition of dance music with melancholia. Looking back, when I was around 10 years old I was really drawn to trance, and as much as that could be thought of as slightly naff – there’s something very honest about trance music. It’s trying to be both uplifting, emotional and danceable all at once. That ethos certainly runs through all of my albums and it’s certainly front of centre in this one. Particularly in “A Dedication”.
Where did you source some of the vocal samples? We can hear some indiscernible lyrics in there. Are they directly, lyrically to do with the album’s subject matter, or do you consider them more as an instrumental part of the LP’s emotive ‘wash’?
They are very much a part of the subject matter of the record, I tried to find lyrics and phrases that felt appropriate to how I was feeling during those moments. I really had a no holds barred approach to sampling, whether it was Big Thief, The Mamas and the Papas, Shakespeares Sister, Julianna Barwick or The Durruti Column. They were all lyrics that helped hint at the story of the record. Of course, I’m not much of a songwriter / lyricist so I didn’t want to write long form songs about things, but I like using these semi-songs to help tell a story.
The ‘ephemerality of everything’ is a really interesting theme, as the LP’s got quite an impressionistic sound. Sounds fly in and out of earshot, as though we can’t quite get a grip on what’s being felt, we just feel the emotion through passing time. Is this the right interpretation?
I love that, impressionism is truly one of my biggest influences. When I was at university I discovered the impressionists in art and it really had a monumental influence on how I think about music. I love that feeling of disorientating immersion, whether shoe gaze, ambient, post rock or dance music. I hinted at it on my last record “Wild” but with this one, I wanted it to be front and centre.
We hear a strong influence from future garage, a genre that has a close association with grief and mournfulness. Was this a conscious association for you?
I’d say that UK Garage in general has always been a huge influence on me. A little known fact is that MJ Cole released my first music on his label when I was in my teens. Ever since Burial and post dubstep, I think many people have adopted the trappings of emotional UKG. Around 2001/2002, UK Garage was almost a dirty word due to the invasion on the charts and I think it lost the real heads, but 20 years on it seems it’s being referenced in both club and pop music, which I find really interesting.
What’s your setup / gear like? In making these tunes, did you work mostly in the box or out?
The entire album was written on a laptop, a phone and an OP-1, it was really liberating. As sampling was at the forefront it made for quite a simple work process, using my phone to find samples, recording them into my Mac and then manipulating them with the OP-1. It’s a way of working that I really love.
Do you have plans to perform anytime soon?
I’ve just finished a mini run of shows in the US which was wonderful, and there are plenty more shows this year both festivals and headlines.
Jude Iago James
‘Inside Out’ is out now on digital formats, with vinyl to follow in mid-August
Pre-order the vinyl reissue of ‘Everyday’, click here
Tourist live dates:
July 8th-10 – Ireland – Otherside Music & Arts Festival
July 16 – Portugal – Super Bock Super Rock
Aug 20 – Victoria Park – Field Day
Oct 25 – Berlin, Germany – Maschinenhaus
Oct 27 – Amsterdam, Holland – Paradiso
Oct 28 – Brussels, Belgium – Pilar
Oct 29 – Paris, France – Boule Noire
Nov 04 – London, UK – Electric Brixton
Nov 11- Dublin, Ireland – Button Factory