Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: As a band we’re based in South-East London, and the drummer and I are from SE London and Kent, while Sinziana is from Romania and Bernardo from Brazil. We largely got into doing this by being inspired by other musicians and wanting the satisfaction of creating the very thing we love for ourselves. If you find yourself inspired by artists from different genres, you often desire to make something that sounds like a bit of a mix of them.
Q: And what other artists have you found yourself listening to lately?
A: Varies across the members. Lo-Fang, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Twenty One Pilots, Faye Webster, QOTSA, Billie Eilish, Arctic Monkeys.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences, and why the name ‘Sketchdoll’?
A: The band name came about while we were trying to find a new one, as we hated our old name! There were words we all liked that we were throwing around and Sketchdoll is basically a compound of two of them. I always wanted a punchy one-word name and feel like we’ve got it.
Q: You have released your single, ‘Hourglass’. Is there a story behind it?
A: Dom and I were having a writing session playing around with different time signatures as an experiment. We developed the gist of it there and then, liking the funky vibe from the off and that lead the way to what we do with time changes now. The earlier draft of the song had different lyrics and title, but we went hookier and more minimalistic with the lyrics in the end. It wasn’t thought of as a lead single at first, but after hearing it mixed, we felt it had an appeal with how punchy it is.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: Hourglass featured on our debut album, ‘See Through Me’, which is on the usual streaming platforms. We’re currently recording our follow-up album to that, which will be titled ‘Afterwildlife’. That’s due out next year and will be accompanied by more singles.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: Bernardo describes the sound as ‘progressive funk’ which is an interesting new fusion of words. The sound is rooted in rock but has a lot of funk and jazz elements that give it it’s flavour. We always try and make the songs go somewhere while at the same time incorporating hooks to try to resonate with the listener as much as possible. It’s important to remember we’re all listeners at the end of the day, even when we’re making the music!
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: We love writing, recording, and playing gigs, which is what we’re doing at the moment, so it is very fulfilling. Of course, we’d love to see how much more we can do of that, what else we could do and how far we can take it, so we ultimately have to take it as it comes.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do you usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: A song usually begins in one of two ways. Either it starts with something I have written on guitar, a chord sequence and some lyrics, and then the song develops from an early draft and becomes more elaborate, or Dom creates a rhythm and then I’ll create chords or riffs around it and we ultimately craft a song around jammed sections and the lyrics come towards the end. As far as lyrics go, you usually have to find a topic that feels right for the song and then elaborate on that with the words.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: I think probably the most challenging thing was the process of getting to the line-up we have today. It’s all very trial and error and it takes time for it all to fit into place. This was taking place even when we were recording our debut.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: We’ve really been enjoying this year with recording our second album up in Manchester and doing the gigs to showcase the material. It would be hard to not include our debut album with the work we put in, so that’s definitely one of the things we’re most proud to come out of this band so far. Ask us this again in half a year and I’m sure we’ll be saying it’s our new record!
