Interview with Naut, ArcTanGent

Interview

5 Sep

It’s Saturday morning and the field is buzzing with energy for the final big day of ArcTanGent Festival. The Bristol-based four piece drum machine rock band NAUT are gearing up for the first set of the morning as people filter into the tent ready to dance. Lucky for them, NAUT is about to bring the perfect blend of dark ambience, impactful lyrics and gentle beats to the PX3 stage.

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26 Aug 2023

Kelly, Director

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Kelly, Director

Touching on themes of mental paralysis, impending doom and divided peoples, NAUT’s music combines danceable beats, melodic synths, driving bass and scything guitars. We met up with the Naut crew - comprised of Gavin Laubscher (vocals, drum programming), Jack Welch (guitar), Andi Effe (bass), and Laura Taylor (synths/keys) - after their set to chat all about their influences, latest album and what’s on the horizon.

Naut! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. You’re a Bristol-based band so this is something of a hometown festival for you right?

Gavin Laubscher (GL): Yeah, very much. So.

Jack Welch (JW): Yeah, absolutely it is. It's one we've not actually been to but all our friends come every year. So playing it is a really nice way to to do. So we'll be back I think.

(GL): I dare say.

You’re here most of the weekend right? And played this morning, how was that?

(GL): It's been pretty good, treated really well. It's just a nice mix of bands and everyone here is really chill as well.

(JW): I saw Swans! And I love Swans and I’ve not seen them since before COVID. It was nice to just sort of zone out to that for a bit.

(GL): There’s something almost sort of spiritual about it. It reminded me a little bit of when you see Jim Morrison on peak form, when you watch back old festivals. There’s a certain magic there, so its a nice experience.

(JW): And it’s been great to play it. Our set went really smooth. Well I say smooth, my guitar broke 20 minutes before but before we went on stage, but we had a backup. But it was really tight and a good crowd for 11am. A lot of dancing

(GL): A little pick me up on Saturday morning.

I think I've already seen more dancing this morning than I have the last two days.

Laura Taylor (LT): We’re glad that there was such a big crowd for us so early. And the sound team were really professional and really well organised.

(GL): Just takes all the stress out of it when you know that everything's gonna be like, a well-oiled machine. We can just focus on doing what we’re meant to be doing rather than trying to problem solve

(JW): Like fixing a broken guitar!

For anyone finding your music for the first time, how would you describe yourselves and your sound?

(GL): We started using the descriptor of “drum machine rock”. I think people have struggled to give us a genre - is it goth, is it post-punk? But actually it's kind of just rock music that borrows from all sorts of guitar-based music. But the obvious thing that's less common is the drum machine. So that's kind of where that came from, as it's just a little bit of a soundbite that we can use that sort of sums things up a little bit.

I think it is very much that kind of traditional kind of goth / post-punk stuff that was coming out of the UK late-70s early-80s. But it's also got a bit of a classic rock and metal vibe as well. We're really into Blue Oyster Cult, Judas Priest, Motörhead, that kind of thing. So we try and bring a bit more of that energy.

(JW): It's about post-punk with the emphasis on the punk. For our live show, we move around a lot and there’s a lot of energy. But then I like black metal so there’s the odd riff thrown in so we go from really melodic to quite discordant and strange. Which I think is why it fits into a festival ATG. It's not straight kind of poppy, there's like a dark undercurrent to it.

Andi Effe (AE): It's just been a pretty amazing experience playing here. Had a lot of fun and great seeing people move while we were playing. Makes it all kind of all worth it really.

What is it about that like, 70s / 80s eras that inspired you or that you wanted to bring into your own music?

(GL): I think for me, it's what I've grown up on. It's the music my mum used to listen to so I've always been around that. I've been influenced by people like Jim Morrison, Motörhead, stuff like that. If you listened to what Andrew Eldritch was clearly listening to, it's that same sort of stuff, you know. A slightly different angle, but you get how they ended up where they are. So it’s more the sound that just comes naturally.

We didn't set out to be a goth band. We didn't set out to be a post-punk band. We just started writing riffs, and the sound is just what happened. I think we're quite authentically us. And if it sounds a bit like other people, that's because we genuinely like. Not as a tick box exercise needing to do X, Y and Z.

(JW): It's also like, because that's just what post-punk music sounds like, right? That's the music we like in that genre, so that's what we want to create. We don't add too much more to it because then it wouldn't be what we like.

(GL): Exactly. It's a fine line between finding your own place with it but also still having it makes sense.

You had your debut album come out earlier this year! What can you tell us about it?

(JW): Yeah so we signed to Season of Mist, they’ve been great. Obviously a lot of black metal and quite dark metal. But they saw something in what we do, I think there's a current of darkness kind of in the music. I'm from a black and death metal background and so that comes through. The first album came our 24 February and now we’re already like halfway through the second album/

(GL): It was quite refreshing to see how many people “get it”, if that makes sense? Coming out from a more extreme label, and the kind of space that puts us in we were a bit I guess nervous of how it was going to go. But everyone’s just really got it? So that's been really refreshing.

And it's spurred us on. As Jack said, we’re already pretty close to being in a good spot for recording album two. And it's just coming easily. We feel like we're on the right track. We're on the right path. We just need to keep forging forward.

(JW): We’ve got, about the bone to 10 tracks so far, and probably about four or five worked out properly.

(GL): I mean, to write some lyrics.

(JW): Yeah, musically, it's mostly me and Gav, we get together and yeah, we've hash through the riffs.

(GL): It's becoming easier. There's been a few little niggly bits, but by and large, it's been really smooth experience. It means you could just enjoy the process rather than having to be fighting every step of the way to get something out.

(JW): We're trying to strike while the iron is hot; while we've got inspiration for it.

I read a bit about your process, it sounds like it’s riffs first, then adding layers. Do you feel like you have a set process or is it more just what’s happened organically?

(JW): Usually music first isn’t it?

(GL): Usually one of us will come up with the nucleus of something. And then the other will listen to say, “well it needs to do that next”. Jack might have a guitar riff or a bass line and I can immediately start to pick out the verse or hear a drumbeat to add. And suddenly it starts to flesh itself out. And that's kind of how we tend to go with things.

And then I like to let the music suggest what the theme of the song is lyrically. I'm always writing lines and ideas and stuff, and then I start to kind of piece those together. That matches up with the feeling of this song, that line goes over to form that song.

I totally understand that. It's like, pulling the pieces of your puzzle of writing together.

(JW): I do like it that way. Instead of writing to the lyrics, I like the idea of pulling something out of the ether and then seeing what it sparks in your head. Lyrically, it’s quite a nice way of doing it.

(GL): Exactly, cuz music should make you feel, so what does it make you feel? Then that's what the song is about.

Your single, “Damocles”, starts to explore some new space tonally. Is that maybe something we’ll see more of in the full album or something you’ll return to?

(GL): Yeah, I think it opened us up to doing something that is a little bit softer, a bit more poppy. It's quite Depeche Mode, you know, and that's a band we all really like everyone's. All into sort of that new wave kind of stuff. So we’ve started to incorporate a bit of that. Myself and Andy for example, are really into old school EBM, so we’re trying to bring some of that in as well from the other angle.

It's kind of like, from this foundation, what else can we add to it? Tapping into those other tangential cultures to bring what we love into what we’re doing. “Damocles” was a step in that direction for us.

(JW): A bit softer and a bit cleaner, but still got a bit of an epic ending. We've got a new track as well which is similar in a way. And we want to use real piano and violin, get some orchestration. It’s definitely helped us widen our sound a bit.

(GL): Laura is a really talented flute player and we want to incorporate that. We've got these skills in our band, we should use it.

We’re talked with a lot of groups who mention those different skills, be it musically or organisationally, and using everything you have at your disposal.

(GL): Exactly. Yeah, we're quite lucky. We’re in jobs that require a lot of organisation so that helps running things as well. You don't always see that, obviously, but actually, that can be the what makes or breaks a band.

(JW): We also do all the artwork by ourselves. So far, anyway. Partly because of budget, but also because we have a vision. All the artwork, the layout, photography, everything has been sort of directed or designed by us. Filmed by us, a lot of it. It's nice to keep it in house. Feels more authentically us.

(GL): I think we will leverage other people and skills when it feels right, rather than just as a necessity. We want it to be a conscious choice. We’ve got a vision for a video for the next album, and it’s an idea I’ve had for many years, which I'm really looking forward to doing. But then also, I'd really like to hand over a track to someone who’s creative vision we trust.

For any listeners finding your music for the first time, is there anything you’d want them to take away with them?

(JW): Riffs? Yeah, as a guitar player, you know, it's all about the riffs. That's what life is, it's a constant search for the next riff or the best riff. And I just want people to dance and see something in it. Maybe look into the lyrics, look into the kind of symbolism that we use.

(GL): I think that's it for me is. I put quite a lot of effort into making sure that there's a meaning for everything and there's a reason for everything. So even if what someone takes away from it isn't what I think I’ve put into it, I just want them to take something away. I want it to be music that makes you think and feel, not just throw away.

(LT): I think it's so interesting that people have such different reactions and interpretations of our music and compare us to such different bands that we wouldn't have even thought of. It's really varied the feedback that we've had, which is really interesting, yeah.

(AE): Just music that makes people move. That’s something I find really exciting.