Monday 1 August 2011

Dam Mantle - Interview



Moniker of Tom Marshallsay, Dam Mantle is a Glasgow based electronic project which shows storytelling doesn't need any words. His well executed, sparse brand of electronic music is hard to pigeon hole which is good in a time where sub genres such as 'no-fi' are being created. Former art student, you can tell that Tom Marshallsay is extremely creative which reflects in his choice of album artwork. With new EP 'WE' out, we get some inside thoughts from Tom; 

Do you think Glasgow has influenced the way you make music?
Yeh, in some way. I started focusing on music properly when i started living here. I think place has less of an influence on music now more than ever, but there's a ton of open minded people up here just doing their own thing. 


Where did the name 'Dam Mantle' originate from?
Muttering to myself. 


I like how it doesn't seem to be aligned with a particular language, I met a nice woman in Germany who told me it was very close grammatically to 'female coat' which i liked. It's an outer layer of some sort.


How do you feel your upcoming EP 'We' compares to other material?
How do you think it does? The process behind making it was fairly different, it came from jams and is less sample heavy, maybe darker and more primitive in its use of drum machines and sine waves.


What is the story behind the artwork for the EP?
It was done by a photographer called Harley Weir, when I was making it i saw the tracks as a flight over a landscape, its a fairly pessimistic record, I was thinking a lot about the end of the world a lot, watching apocalypse movies a bit. 


Are there parts of your art degree that you feel transfer to your music?
Yeh, it's all the same thing, just making, reusing, conversing. just executed through a different means.


Are you excited to be playing a show again with Gold Panda in October?
Yeh, we're doing a few. Did some in the States with him a few months back and its always a massive pleasure to travel and play with him, people lose their shit to his stuff.


If you could describe your music as a feeling, what would it be?
It's definitely a feeling, I don't know how to describe it though, that's why I make things into sounds as opposed to writing philosophy.


What's your favourite Glaswegian band?
Fox Gut Daata is the most overlooked treasure that i know of. 

By Aurora Mitchell

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