Thought Forms Mini Interview (they play ATP's End Of An Era Part 2 this November)
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This November ATP will be putting on two final UK holiday camp festivals in Camber Sands, UK under the banner The End Of An Era. The first weekend is sold out, with tickets available now for Weekend 2 curated by ATP & Loop. Tickets and more info on the event are available now from this link. See below for another in a series of mini interviews with bands playing the event. This time Thought Forms from Wiltshire, England have got back to us, and you can check out out a recent track by them named Landing here at our Soundcloud...
Name Of Artist: Thought Forms
Hometown: Wiltshire
Year Formed: 2004
Bio:
Thought Forms started making music together in Wiltshire back in Spring 2004 and 2013 sees the release of their second album for Invada Records, "Ghost Mountain".
It takes all of the first 80 seconds to realise that this is a group who have moved on substantially from their first release for the Bristol based label. Indeed, if their self-titled album from 2009 was about finding the dynamic limits of their atmospheric sound, gently prodding and probing varying elements, then the huge great slab of guitar that greets you instantly on their follow-up roars with the confidence of a band who’ve found their level from which to fully explore their creative expression.
Charlie Romijn (guitars / vocals), Deej Dhariwal (guitars / vocals) and Guy Metcalfe (drums) have already made their mark live – cultivating a colossal sound that bands twice their number would struggle to re-create, with appearances at various ATP events and tour support slots with Portishead and Esben and the Witch in the past year.
The album veers between two opposites, from brisk, scuzzy American garage-rock influenced numbers to brutal, anguished noise constructions of ethereal doom, where it feels like they’re tapping into a similar dark psyche to groups like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Circle. With a psych slant too informing tracks like ‘Afon’ and ‘Burn Me Clean’ – where vocals are almost as though a ritualistic call to on high – the scope of Ghost Mountain’s sonic terrain is vast, the result of a varied approach to song writing where wholes form out of group jams – in the case of ‘Burn Me Clean’ from an improvised set supporting Master Musicians Of Bukkake – or from the chrysalis of an idea presented by just one of the trio.
Thematically, the group are coy on the album’s meanings, though what is clear is that subject matters are extremely personal to a tight-knit band who consider each other “family”. What they do give away is somewhat cryptic; the album’s title comes from a gigantic mountain range as big as the Alps that’s hidden under the Antartic’s ice and snow; song titles are a little more illustrative, both in theme and in clues as to the group’s influences. ‘Afon’ is Welsh for river, the group explaining that it “speaks to us of connections and something which eternally changes yet remaining the same at the core”; ‘Only Hollow’ is a tip of the cap to My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Only Shallow’. Then there’s ‘O’, called that because of the shape of the letter, the group using it to represent what they call “a circle of negativity”.
Negativity would suggest a bleakness to this album, and whilst in much of Ghost Mountain’s fire and brimstone there is plenty that could be construed as despair, the abrasion in it suggests something more conflicted; a battle between shades of dark and light, universal but potent battles between love and hate, of hope and loss. When flung together with the power that Thought Forms has, it makes for a quite formidable proposition.
What are the most recent activities of your band?
We’ve been touring with Portishead and Esben and the Witch, released a new album called “Ghost Mountain” on Invada Records and are currently back in the studio working on new stuff before a summer full of gigs.
How excited are you to play this event?
We’re so ridiculously excited that I’m surprised our vomiting ritual hasn’t already begun.
How do you feel about being asked to play the last ever ATP holiday camp event?
Though we’re sad it’s the last one, we feel extremely honoured and excited to be a part of it. ATP has been such a big part of our lives for a very long time now, it’s a festival we’ve always loved going to and when we were first asked to play at the festival back in 2007 it was a dream come true. To be invited by ATP to play at the last ever one is very special for us and we can’t quite believe it!
Do you have a connection with the curators / an idea why you were chosen to play?
We’ve been lucky enough to play for ATP quite a bit over the years – our first time was at the Portishead curated Nightmare Before Christmas in Minehead, since then we’ve also played events at Alexandra Palace, Ashbury Park and a number of gigs in London.
Which of your releases do you feel ATP attendees should check out first?
“Ghost Mountain” which came out on Invada Records in February.
Is there one of your tracks you think specifically represents you best?
“Burn Me Clean”
Are there any other currently confirmed bands you're excited about seeing?
We’re all very excited to see Mogwai again as we haven’t seen them since they played at Colston Hall in 2009… Tall Firs, who we’re big fans of and, obviously, Loop.
If you were curating, name three bands you'd want to play your event...
Paik
Esben and the Witch
Big Joan
If you could pick one record release in the last year which would you recommend?
“OCDC” by Get The Blessing
And what's the best gig you've seen in the last year?
Pulp, playing a rare homecoming show in Sheffield.
What have your previous experiences at ATP been like? Any favourite memories?
We’ve had so many amazing times at ATP… a few favourite memories include saying hi to Krist Novoselic as he stood staring at the spooky sounding grab machine outside the shop, Stephen O Malley getting excited over our “dippers”, Charlie meeting her husband to be outside Burger King, chatting to David Pajo, being so nervous about playing that we took it in turns vomiting all the way to the stage and Dom from Mogwai stopping us to say that our set was “fuckin’ screamin’”… not including any of the amazing musical experiences we’ve had at ATP!