| One of the more vibrant artists of their generation, Shibashi agreed to speak to New Sounds magazine about their current work, future work, and how Belfast city fit into the belles chansons. EL: What was it like working with Chlöe Howl ? S: It was really great working with Chloe. Her voice is so big! And she was very easy and cool to hang out/work with. Having done so much in the music world already, I was very excited when I heard she was up for the collab! EL: How did the collaboration with Aiofe from Whenyoung come about? S: It was a bit of luck I suppose! We met at a Karaoke bar in Berlin after a show one night. When young were playing Lolla the next day so I was able to go along and just fell in love with Aiofe’s voice. The rest is history…I suppose! EL: Being Irish myself, I can’t escape asking what it was like growing up in Belfast, and how it contributed to your music? S: Yeah, it was the local music scene I suppose which had the biggest influence. Being around people who were into similar music I was is the biggest difference I felt. Club nights like Shine and artists like Bicep and Not Squares made it seem like it was possible for locals to do good music too. EL: What was it like working on a project, amidst covid lockdown? S: It was fun having a project/goal to work on. It was a difficult time in life so it really helped me to have a focus. Recording the vocalists was kind of tough though! Luckily I had the Chloe Howl vocal in the bag pre covid… with Aoife we had to do it remotely which has its challenges. I’ve been able to record some feature vocalists in my studio since restrictions have eased a bit and am very excited to share these soon! EL: Some of your work is evocative of eighties disco-is that a fair assumption? S: I suppose I’m influenced by a lot of that era or maybe more so by artists that are influenced by that era. I definitely find myself drawn to the instruments/synths that were popular back then too so I’m sure the sounds used play a big part in making it feel like that! EL: Would you like to tell us about some of your compositional process? S: I wish I had a process. I’m a bit of a scatter brain generally. Sometimes a song starts with a baseline, another a chord progression, or even just a vocal hook. From there I feel like I wander down a billion different avenues until something resembling a song comes out. The songs originally had my vocals on there too so it’s been fun trying add libs with the vocalists to see where their range can take the songs at times. Where do you see your music heading to next? Do you think you will record an album in the near future? I would just like to be able to keep figuring things out. Maybe find some sort of process! I’d definitely like to experiment with more tempos and beats to see where that leads. I for sure find myself sticking to the alt pop dance world because it’s probably where I’m most drawn to. EL: Can we expect a live show in the future? S: Maybe!? It terrifies me to be honest. I guess it’s lucky I replaced most of my vocals so no one will have to ever watch me try to figure out singing and playing these at the same time… |
