UK duo TenFiveSixty have an EP — called E.P. — on the horizon (tomorrow). Back in February, the band released the single “You Say,” also featured on the new EP. IMPOSE had a chance to speak with TenFiveSixty about that moody first track, and what the rest of the EP will be like. Check out what they have to say below, and be sure to listen to “You Say” ahead of the EP release.
What was the inspiration for “You Say”?
The whole character of the song was inspired by a very simple little lie that involves a four letter word and is spoken the World over countless times every day, often with the best of intentions but sometimes with the worst. We’ll have to leave the rest to your imagination.
How does this song differ or relate to your previous work?
Apart from it being the most synth-led track we have done so far, mainly due to that bassline, it was the first track that we started recording using our home studio. That introduced us to a different way of building a track rather than taking something straight from the rehearsal room to someone else’s studio as we always had done before. We had to take full responsibility for the sound and that came with a whole new set of rules. We are not exactly the most technically minded band you’ve ever met, and once the world of recording opened up in front of us one of the most daunting things was the amount of choice we had with every single sound. Sometimes too much choice can reduce the wonderful feeling of creating something from nothing, so we had to set our own limitations and stick to them. We ended up a better band for it, if not slightly thinner.
How does ‘You Say’ represent the rest of the E.P.?
It’s a pretty good representation of our sound in general, it’s the first track on the E.P. and sets the scene of what TenFiveSixty are. Some tracks we write are more synth-driven and some are more guitar-led but the vocal and guitar sounds are constant throughout everything. We took the idea of limitations further by un-earthing an old drum machine I had when I was fifteen. We hunted it down and eventually found it on the outskirts of Manchester in a box under another box under a bed that hadn’t been slept in for ten years. We opened the box and it just had this look on its dials that said “I knew you’d be back….you took your time though”. We used it over every track. No doubt it will be bringing out its own solo record soon.
What sort of emotions are you hoping people glean from this track?
With any of our tracks there’s always a hope that some kind of feeling of empowerment will be passed on, or change of perception. We both grew up assuming that pop music was something that was there for the greater good, to basically make people feel better about everything and the human condition. Unfortunately as you get older you realise that is not the case, and of course everybody has rent to pay, but as musical idealists we still can’t help dragging round the feeling that it should be. Well, it should. But on a more immediate note we hope it makes people want to dance in a darkened room alongside flashing lights and hot bodies with excited anticipation of not knowing what the night ahead has in store.
What are you most excited for with the release of this track, as well as the E.P.?
Hopefully some offers to play more shows in places we’ve never been, to people who have never seen us. Releasing anything personal into the absolute unknown will always have a huge sense of hope versus fear. Luckily for us hope always wins in the end, we get to make another record and hopefully become someones favourite band in the process.
Can you talk a little about the music video for ‘You Say’? What was the idea behind it and what did that creative process look like?
We wanted to have some kind of performance video, but where we were the secondary performers and not the main focus of attention. Originally we were just thinking of being on a TV screen in the corner. Then early one hot evening we ‘happened’ upon a strip club in Hollywood called Jumbo’s Clown Room. We sat at the bar counting out our single dollar bills and we realised it might be a pretty good setting to do a gig. Unfortunately they couldn’t have bands play, but they let us shoot the video there.
We then spent the weekend out in the deepest darkest gay clubs in downtown L.A., armed with two questions (‘Do you like this song?’ and ‘Have you had your heart broken?’) looking for the most interesting nighttime creatures we could find. We found them, and they were all wonderful.
After the release of the new E.P. on March 31st, what’s up next for you guys?
Writing is the most important thing for us right now, teamed with a few European shows hopefully this Summer. There’s a couple of producers we’d love to work with in America, we are sorting dates with them when we can get back in the studio and do it all again for the next release. And of course checking out multiple strip joints for the next video shoot takes up a surprising amount of our time.
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Keep up with the duo here.
