âSalmon Cat wouldnât work if we werenât independent. The whole point is that thereâs no restrictions or inhibitions. We make whatever we want to.â Lloyd Macdonald, the South London bandâs producer and vocalist â alongside singer Jess Smyth and guitarists Alfie Jackson and Harry Hayman â is reflecting on the âcreatively-freeingâ benefits of remaining unsigned and staying DIY three years in.
Having previously been in thrash metal bands, hip-hop and R&B groups, the four friends spontaneously came together in 2017 from âdifferent corners of the same sceneâ. Jess came into the picture when, whilst visiting Lloyd at his house, she added a vocal to an instrumental for what would become their first song, âTrip to DĂŒsseldorfâ.
Originally, the vocals were going to be made up of Lloyd and Alfieâs random phone conversations, so everyone was understandably happy/relieved to have Jess onboard. âI started to write over it, sang my verse and hook,â she remembers. âWe showed it to the guys, they really liked it and said, âfuck it, shall we start a band?â
The four-piece kept making music together â mostly in Lloydâs bedroom â inspired by, as Jess summarises, âthe mood of the day and our surroundingsâ. âIt always starts with us sitting down together, normally drinking, talking about shit,â Lloyd laughs of their chilled-out set-up.
Harry chips in: âEverything is written and recorded within the session. We donât go back and properly work on songs, we just start new ones.â This raw and unpolished first-take approach explains how theyâve ended up with an albumâs worth of material already. âThere hasnât been one session where we’ve not come out having made something,â Jess adds. And thatâs largely because the band found its sound – âbittersweet and euphoricâ, according to Harry – early on.
This week they are self-releasing their debut EP, âWhaâppened?â Across its five summer-ready tracks, they fuse hazy guitar riffs, dreamy production and Jessâ softly sweet vocals to create a dreamy, nostalgic soundscape of their own that sits somewhere between Superorganism and Sorry.
Rather than sounding like the next anyone, though, the band are more focused on building stories. âThe songs are quite conceptual, theyâre very idea-based,â Lloyd considers, citing âFortune 500â as an example, with its soundbites of Jess talking about 80s US TV show âDallasâ. âThereâs this Americana influence that I think really underlines Salmon Cat, but weâve never really spoken about it. The fourth song on the EP is even called âCalamity Janeâ…â
But releasing an EP is something they never intended to do in the first place. It was only when they noticed that âTripâ was doing well on their SoundCloud page, that the idea came about. âClairo put it on a mix back in 2017 when we first put it online,â Jess remembers; âI think that would have opened us up to a bigger audience.â Itâs follow-up, âFortune 500â â found its way onto Spotifyâs taste-making New Music Friday playlist.
Despite not having played live yet (gig plans, including the idea of wearing veils onstage, were being made pre-coronavirus), theyâve received interest from âa small indie labelâ. But, perhaps bravely in the current climate, theyâve decided to remain independent. âThereâs the sense that itâs just the four of us and that itâs really our thing,â Alfie says.
âWeâre not really interested in somebody else having an input because it would stunt what we have – the carefree way of doing things. Iâm sure there will come a day when weâll welcome the industry helping us out, but we donât want it to feel like a job to make the music.â More than anything, though, being independent âtakes the pressure off,â Jess considers. âEspecially when weâre in Lloydâs room, it just feels really comfortable, like we can really let go.â
Salmon Catâs debut EP ‘Wha’ppened?â is out now
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