Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: I was brought up in the 90s and 00s, so Britpop and Indie is a big part of my childhood and teenage years respectively, but I’m also a big fan of classic rock bands. I think that’s a big part of what contributes to the vintage aspect of the band’s sound. 70s more than 80s, as I’ve always been more focussed on the core instruments in rock music.
Growing up in the 90s too I played a lot of video games, and video game music has massively influenced me too, as I love how instrumental compositions create this atmosphere around the visuals. I’ll give a shout out to the Sega Mega Drive game ‘Ecco the Dolphin’ as most influential, as it has beautiful, eerie music in it that’s inspired me a lot. It’s also the most insufferably difficult game I’ve ever played, so I just listen to the soundtrack these days
Q: Can you describe the musical style of Sketchdoll in three words?
A: Progressive, eclectic, funky.
Q: How do you stay connected with your fans, and what role do they play in shaping your musical journey?
A: What’s quite cool these days is that with things like Instagram you can have fans engage with you directly. We’ve recently had some engagement with fans over in Brazil for example, where there is a big progressive scene and they’ve said they’d love to see us play there. We may need to save up some of our streaming revenue to get ourselves there, but it could be something for the future!
Q: You have just released your new album, ‘Afterwildlife’. Is there a story behind it?
A: It’s not a concept album, so I’d say the story of the album is the context of how it was written and recorded. The key things here are the recording of the first album, as it was the process of development we underwent to arrive at where we are now, the COVID lockdowns which halted the process of writing this album, and then the recording process up in Manchester, which went pretty well.
I’d say lyrically most of the album’s songs are generally either about problematic relationships, or about wider society. Musically it’s jazz-infused funk rock music, but we’re still stylistically a bit all over the place, and the variety on the album makes it more multi-dimensional.
Q: What is your favorite track from the album and why?
A: My personal favourite track is ‘You’re Not Done with Me’, as I feel it’s one of the most, if not the most atmospheric track on the album. It has space in the arrangement, the song is simple and yet it’s all the better for it. The song is a semi-sequel to the track ‘Sid & Nancy’ from our debut album which is a story about a couple that can’t live with each other, nor without each other.
I’ll also give a shout out to ‘Letting The Chips Fall’ and ‘Reaching’, while the other band member’s favourites include ‘Sierra Echoes’ (Sinziana), ‘Skysurfer’ (Bernardo) and ‘There’s More of Them Than Us’ (Dom).
Q: Can you walk us through the creative process of producing the album, “Afterwildlife”?
A: With us, songs are either written in a rough structure by me and then Dom and I develop them together, or Dom and I jam, come up with ideas and structure songs from those jams. Our producer fills out the production with his ideas once the songs are recorded.
The new album began work as we were finishing up our debut album ‘See Through Me’. We had new tracks that we were working on and had to think of as work for the next project. We even discussed the idea of recording the song Afterwildlife for our debut, but decided against it as it would delay that album further.
Half the album was written by the time of releasing ‘See Through Me’, then the COVID lockdowns happened and the 2nd half was written both during and after them. With ‘See Through Me’ we were recording tracks in little sessions and then put them together in an album as we were going. With ‘Afterwildlife’ we had reached a point where we accumulated an album’s worth of material and knew what we were going to record and planned it, so on the whole the project was more organised from the get-go.
Q: What has been the most memorable concert or performance for Sketchdoll so far?
A: Two gigs stand out. One of them is the gig we just played, the album launch at The Fox & Firkin, and the other is at The Spice of Life in October 2022. There isn’t much to say other than they were fun gigs with a great atmosphere.
Q: Reflecting on your body of work, each song holding its unique significance, could you share a particular track that stands out to you personally? What makes that specific tune special, and why does it hold a place of pride in your musical journey?
A: I could say a number of different songs for particular reasons, but if I think of the band as a whole then our song ‘Hourglass’ is kind of a centrepiece. I think that song kind of embodies what we’re about, as it’s funky, hooky and has the unorthodox time signature that we feature a lot in our music. I think Dom and I writing that song was a turning point for us. I’d say ‘Hypothermia’ from this album does the same thing as well, which is essentially summing up our sound in one song.
Q: Exploring the diverse creative processes within the music industry is always fascinating. Could you provide insight into Sketchdoll’s unique approach to crafting music? From the initial spark of an idea to the finished song, how do you navigate the creative journey and bring its musical concepts to life?
A: So we essentially have two ways of writing music. One of them I call ‘top-down’, which is where a song is written on a guitar with vocals, and then when taken to the band, the composition is then arranged. ‘Sierra Echoes’ and the title track are examples of this kind of song. The instruments are essentially working within the confines of the composition.
The other is what I call ‘bottom-up’, which is where you start with a jam (guitar and drums or guitar, bass and drums) and then develop a composition from a jam. ‘Fairweather Lover’ and ‘Skysurfer’ are examples of this kind of song. The instruments pretty much are the song, and the compositional structure follows on from the instruments.
I think both approaches have their merits and work for us in different ways. Regarding an initial spark, Noel Gallagher once described writing as like fishing. You play your guitar and can’t dictate when you’ll create anything, you just have to get the rod in the water and see if anything bites. This is exactly what I do when I pick up a guitar. Just trying making things up and see if there are any lightbulb moments.
Q: As we wrap up our conversation, looking ahead, what aspirations or dreams do you have for Sketchdoll, and what message would you like to share with your fans as they continue to accompany you on this musical journey?
A: Thanks for having us! Basically, we enjoy making and playing music, and hope that others enjoy listening to it. I’d love to create a bigger body of work than what we have now, but we’re pleased we’ve now doubled our output with the release of this album. We’re just going to keep going and hopefully release more material in the future.
