Fresh from releasing their debut single in their reincarnated form, Twelve Ballet are back with This City, a brooding, atmospheric ode to escapism.
Made up of siblings Ben and Sam Hope, the cairns duo have been making huge sonic strides in recent months. Steering away from the folky avenues of their previous project, Glider Pilots, This City sees the Hopes crafting a far more mature sound, with dark, dreamy inflections reminiscent of The xx and The Paper Kites.
We caught up with Ben to talk about their newfound affinity for synths and drums machines, their recent name change and the darkness that dwells within This City.
We caught up with Twelve Ballet to talk about their newfound affinity for synths and drums machines, their recent name change and the darkness that dwells within This City.
HAPPY: Hey Ben, how’s it going? What are you up to at the moment?
BEN: It’s going well, mostly just spending many sleepless nights working on music because of my unhealthy obsession with it – appropriate considering the themes behind This City.
HAPPY: True. The track takes a much darker route than anything you’ve done before. Was this a path you carved from the start, or did it emerge as you pieced the track together?
BEN: It started off dark from beginning. The first synth sound I had in my head always had this sort of brooding atmosphere to it. It really started to come together once I started working
on the percussion, which I just sampled from Sam’s playing to begin with, then chopped it up a bunch to get an almost industrial sound out of an otherwise acoustic sounding kit.
In a way all the sounds are meant to reflect this idea of a loud city beaming in through a window, not in an entirely literal sense, but kinda how I feel a busy mind would look like.
HAPPY: The track was very much an independant production right? Can you tell us a bit about your background as a producer/engineer?
BEN: Both Sam and I can be massive control freaks, for better or worse who knows. I started recording music while I was still in high school, messing around with guitar and writing exclusively on it. I was mainly creating ambient songs and that sort of thing just to practice mixing and mastering, not at all like Twelve Ballet stuff though, it sounded like the sorta of thing you would find in a spa. When I got sick of that I asked sam to sing for me and its just grown from there.
HAPPY: In terms of production who are some key touch-points for Twelve Ballet?
BEN: I love Alt-j, so from a production stand point I’m always amazed by the work on their music, the way their music is produced, mixed, mastered is perfect. Well, all of it is perfect really. The xx was also a heavy inspiration earlier on when I started recording and mixing music, I’ve always liked their minimalist style.
HAPPY: There are some really interesting little flourishes throughout This City – particularly in the percussion. Can you tell us a bit about the gear you used on?
BEN: The percussion is kinda interesting, we don’t have room for a full acoustic kit, so we ended up building this Frankenstein drum kit, it’s just a piccolo snare and a Korg Vocla Kick – sounds huge.
Then we have the main snare sound in the song which was Sam’s snare with a tremolo added onto it during mixing, I knew I wanted the snare to have an almost industrial vibe to it whilst still sounding natural in a way.
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HAPPY: Tell us a bit about the recording process – is this a bedroom production or were you working in a studio? Tell us about the space and how it influenced the track?
BEN: We have a home studio that we do all our music in. Usually dimly lit, instruments lying around everywhere. We like keeping everything accessible and ready to go so if Sam or I have an idea we can just record it there and then.
Everything is kept as analogue as possible. I don’t like digging through menus on a computer, for writing and performance especially, so at the end of the day I’m just using Ableton as a mixer. I’m much more inspired when there are cables going everywhere.
When it comes to what instruments we are using at the moment, pretty much all synths and piano sounds are done on our Korg Minilogue, I swap back and forth between my Jazzmaster and Strat for guitar parts. Sam plays drums and I do the sampling which is the closest I get to using Ableton the way you would expect.
HAPPY: Sonically, Twelve Ballet is fairly far-removed from your previous project Glider Pilots – what spurred the change?
BEN: Its just what we started writing really, I think we have wanted to have a change for a while but sub-consciously the old name was holding it back from any major changes we wanted to make in way. Starting a new project inspired us to write from a different place I guess and it’s always good to have a change. I despise getting in a rut so we try to keep ourselves on our toes and evolve as much as we can.
HAPPY: How have you found working with synths and drum machines over acoustic instruments has affected your songwriting?
BEN: It’s endlessly inspiring. I tend to think from a more “vibey” standpoint when it comes to music, so everything I write has a feeling or place associated with it, whereas Sam is more of a story teller. So it works nicely, as working with synths really feels like setting the scene for Sam’s vocals and lyrics to take place in. Plus they always look beastly.
HAPPY: What’s next on the cards for you and Sam?
BEN: We are focusing individual tracks at the moment, really defining what Twelve Ballet is and how it sounds. There is more music coming.
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