Neu Glass Vaults: ‘We Love To Play In Sparse Territory’

The title of Glass Vaults’ second EP, ‘Into Clear’, seems to represent the sparsity of the songs’ arrangements and the resulting room in which the band are allowed to experiment. Certainly, there’s enough milling around and playfulness stored inside these tracks (some of which span over six minutes) to suggest that the New Zealand-based group are intent on making something beautiful and far from short-lived. Following on from the triumphant ‘Glass’ release, DIY set out to ask the band about their pastoral inspirations and their work with Signer member Bevan Smith.

You’ve said in another interview that a lot of the ‘Glass’ EP had been written on travels, outside of Wellington. Has this been the case with the ‘Into Clear’ EP too?
Richard: Yeah definitely with parts of it. Travel and nature are especially inspiring and creatively motivating. The title track of the new EP is taken directly from a day swimming with friends at this beautiful (& secret) swimming hole on the Akatarawa river, Upper Hutt New Zealand.
Rowan: We did head off a few times like to my uncles farm just out of Wellington. It’s always nice to get away.

How do these songs differ to the ones on your previous EP?
Richard: The process was similar although we worked more with Bevan Smith this time during recording and production.
Rowan: Yeah having Bevan with us from the get-go has been great, he’s now playing live with us as well. His input into production as well as playing live is really great as he’s produced/mixed some great stuff under his monikers Signer/Aspen and also The Ruby Suns. We culled a few songs we had pretty much ready to go from this release I guess for aesthetic reasons. We felt the songs we left on it fitted together well, as a whole.

Are there any clear concepts/themes at large throughout the EP’s songs?
Rowan: There are images and feelings we definitely had in mind, mainly from song to song but also for the overall. I think this EP is quite sparse in its nature, which is territory we love to play in.
Richard: There are concepts throughout the record, it’s all there for a reason and has to do with meaningful experiences around the time we were writing. Beautiful spaces both internal and external.

Particularly with a song like ‘Gold Star’, I hear an almost pastoral quality to your music. Is that intentional? Are you inspired by a lot of old, traditional forms of music?
Rowan: To me there’s few better things than seeing people working in unison to create rhythm. That simple idea of multiple people working in unified percussion is so enjoyable to watch and to perform. At its bare bones I think that inspires me a lot in music, even though a lot or even most of it is digital in our age I think that’s what it comes back to, for me.
Richard: There was definitely still an intention to keep the songs simple, stripping back to base elements and exposing vocal melodies and simple but strong drum patterns. Folk music is also definitely a big inspiration for me especially in vocal melodies and simplicity of instrumentation and rhythm.

How’s work going on the debut full-length?
Richard: We have a few left over songs from working on this EP that we intend to put towards the next record… although we are unsure what length that will take. A full length is something we really want to produce sometime soon!

Glass Vaults - Into Clear EP [JUKBOXR004] by JUKBOXR-label