Index For Working Musik interview – “The stuff underneath was too good to leave buried”

Work it

East London post-punk mavericks kick off a UK tour in Exeter tonight (April 4) in support of their new album Which Direction Goes The Beam, which hit the shelves this week.

We love the band’s often amorphous, fluid approach to post punk, exploring the full corners of what is ultimately more of an appraoch than a style, so we asked Max Oscarnold from the band (as well keyboard player in esteemed nu-Krautrock crew Toy) to answer a few of our ever-probing questions…

First of all, can you tell us where you are right now, and what kind of day you’re having…  Been anywhere already or going anywhere interesting later?

Hi and thanks for your questions. I’m at the studio in East London, where a few of us live. We’ve been getting ready for touring, soldering cables and making sure the equipment is working. Spent the afternoon at a friend’s house cutting copper pipes, making slides.

Your second album Which Direction Goes The Beam is about to drop.  Tell us about that title and what it means…

The title was lifted from a song in the record called ‘Fog’. The beam could well be a search light, and using one in the mist will do the opposite of what it was made for, provoking confusion. We felt that it somehow encapsulated what the record is about. 

Obvious question for album number two, but how has your sound changed since Dragging The Needlework For The Kids At Uphole and the ‘Indexe’e’ EP in 2023?  What do you put those changes down to?

‘Indexe’e’ in a way isn’t just a record but us being another project altogether. There isn’t space for songs or human stuff in there. Also it would be almost impossible to play it outside our studio. So this second record was us writing songs to complete our gigging setlist, imagining what we’d like to play live.

What’s the story of the album’s evolution?  What songs came first and what was last?  Did you set out to write an album or did one form itself around certain songs?

The record has only six songs, these were the first ones to be written and recorded. But when we mixed these we realised that the stuff underneath was too good to leave buried in the mix, so we sampled them and turned them into the different bits of music that ended up not only completing the (12-track) record but also giving its identity. 

Your track titles veer from the very simple – ‘Sister’, ‘Pugilist’ – to the cryptic (‘Halb Lieb I’, ‘Brain Pan Farmer’)…  Are they afterthoughts or integral from the start?

When we were tracking, we had no idea what the songs were about as the lyrics weren’t written yet, so we gave them names of different bird species to recognise them. Magpie, Penguins and so on. The only working title that survived was Sparrows. We had to have the lyrics finished in order to name each song. As to the instrumental ones, these naturally lend themselves to cryptic titles.

The album’s artwork is unique too, with – correct us if we’re wrong here – what looks like a mythical, medieval map.  Where did that idea come from?

It just seemed right as the subject matter of the record touches on the arcane a lot, with past and present as a juxtaposition. A map might be a useful tool for getting out of that conundrum.

You’re heading out on the road soon too – what can you promise audiences?

Fun times we hope…

What’s next for you in the short/medium/long term?  What are you hearing that’s inspiring you?  Any more live or release action we should know about?

Most probably we’ll start recording over the summer. We played some shows with Tenebrous Liar in March, they were pretty amazing to watch. Really recommend their last record, Hell Never Called… The ep that Midding from Wales just released is great too. We’ll be playing more in the UK this summer and in Europe in the Autumn.

Click here to buy your copy of Which Direction Goes The Beam

LIVE DATES

04.04.25 – The Cavern – EXETER
05.04.25 – Le Pub – NEWPORT
06.04.25 – Florence Park Community Centre – OXFORD
07.04.25 – The Lanes – BRISTOL
08.04.25 – The Castle Hotel – MANCHESTER
09.04.25 – Kazimier Stockroom – LIVERPOOL
10.04.25 – Leith Depot – EDINBURGH
11.04.25 – The Glad Cafe – GLASGOW
12.04.25 – Wharf Chambers – LEEDS
13.04.25 – The Golden Lion – TODMORDEN
17.04.25 – The Rossi Bar – BRIGHTON
18.04.25 – The Piper – ST LEONARD’S
19.04.25 – Ramsgate Music Hall – RAMSGATE
20.04.25 – Heartbreakers – SOUTHAMPTON
30.04.25 – La Mécanique Ondulatoire – PARIS
02-05-25 – Pavillons Sauvages – TOULOUSE
 
08.05.25 – The Lexington – LONDON