Features Youthfall: ‘Influences Can Be In Any Shape Or Form’

A pair of fresh, London-bred faces are appearing, sporting few clues as to their identity, their background or their intentions. So far, we’re as clued up as to reveal that Youthfall are sonically adventurous, far from finding a comfort zone towards any particular sound of theme. We’ve seen them sway from a delicate, Burial-inspired underground feel to one of a higher tempo and a greater sense of exploration. Anything that comes from here onwards is bound to be daring enough to keep us intrigued, that’s for sure. DIY’s First On section spoke one half of the twins (we weren’t told which), to unearth at least some of the substance beneath the mystery.

Guard It Like A Fortress by Youthfall

Word has it that you’re twins. What kind of music did you grow up listening to? Has any of it had an impact on what you make now?
Growing up, apart from being fed the classics at an early age, we both were really into the Smashing Pumpkins - to the disdain of our older brother who insisted they were shit. It was moody, dreamlike music and it served my teenage purposes.

Do you both have very differing tastes nowadays or do you read from the same page?
I think again, we’re into similar stuff. We’re constantly seeking out new music and showing it to each other… we might differ in opinions on certain things but collectively we read from the same musical page.

What’s your recording process like? Elaborate? Low-budget?
It is low-budget of course, elaborately low. Over the past year or so we’ve been in different cities so recording has naturally been situated between two different bedrooms. Sending over bits and pieces we’ve been independently working on, and then finally when we had the chance to get together we would record/produce and get something finished. Now we’re in the same location so things work a little more smoothly. Sort of.

Are there any contemporary influences on the music you make?
Yeah there’s plenty of current gems keeping me going, and we love hearing new stuff that makes us want to change our sound - almost every other day. I keep going back to is Beach House’s last record, I think that album really stands out over the past few years. It’s so rich and well written. Got love for WU LYF, their album is amazing and they can show it all live too. Influences are too contrived though, to me they can be in any shape or form. And that’s probably why I’m easily influenced.

There’s a diverse range of instrumentation / ideas floating around in your songs - do you always set out to make something completely different each time you record?
Well that’s kinda the idea. We’re into a whole heap of things so we find it difficult not to stray into varying sounds. But we’re only pups and we’re still searching. So you may see us reaching a point where we sound the same forever and ever. Hopefully not though.

Any aspirations for the next 12 months? An EP? Playing live?
Release an EP early next year, and then tell momma we’re off out to play.

Secular Child by Youthfall