Dystopian Future Movies are a Post Metal trio from Nottingham, although with such diverse sounds and influences, there is no easy way to describe this band, so I thought I would ask them directly! The band have two fantastic EPs under their belt and are gearing up for a UK tour with Fvnerals starting in October and a debut full length to follow!
I chatted with Caroline Cawley, Emily Azadpour and Bill Fisher about Irish Folk music, Nottinghamshire and of course, dystopian future movies!
Photo Credit: Elmore Photography
How did the three of you come together to form Dystopian Future Movies?
Caroline: I had been writing some basic song ideas and looking for a drummer to collaborate with when I met Bill. Emily and I had been friends for a while, she had always wanted to play bass... So with similar taste in music it made sense for us to get together.
You have a diverse sound that takes elements of Post Metal, Atmospheric Rock and Indie, how would you describe your sound in your own words?
Bill: Caroline describes it as ‘detrimental’. Not detrimental to anything, just ‘detrimental’. Which somehow does make sense.
Caroline: I think our sound is dark, atmospheric and dynamic. The melodic vocal brings a spooky element, it hooks you into the darker elements.
Who do you consider to be your biggest music influences?
Caroline: I heard everything from Rush and Thin Lizzy to Julie Tzuke as I toddled round my house from a very young age so I have a broad palette where influences are concerned! The delicacy and heart on sleeve nature of contemporary Irish folk music was something that made a massive impression. My dad and I would travel to see Mary Black in concert when I was 9 years old and I'd sing every word. Her interpretations of Noel Brazil’s Sparks Might Fly and Columbus have stuck with me since I was a small child. Heartbreaking and vulnerable lyrically, a wistfulness drawn out by her pure vocal. I am drawn to troubling chords, dissonance, whether in subject matter or musically. Crushingly heavy riffs were something I got into more as teenager. Memorably, hearing a track called All Is Forgiven on San Francisco band Jellyfish’s second album blew my mind wide open and showed me that intense melody can be fused with cacophonous noise to incredible effect.
Bill: Drummers that have influenced my approach to this band would include old favourites such as Billy Cobham and Jimmy Chamberlain, and notably Hozoji Matheson-Margullis of Helms Alee, who has a really unusual approach. Caroline always frowns at straight rock beats, so I’m always looking to add something more off-kilter. Bill Ward said he tried to play like an orchestral percussionist, thinking in terms of dynamics and texture, which I try to apply to this music. When we get to the arrangement stage in DFM, I try to keep Hounds of Love (Kate Bush album) in mind. It’s sonically very different, but the structures are often based around one pattern or riff which repeats and builds to awesome crescendos.
Emily: That’s a tough one! I grew up in a small seaside town in Scotland where dance music was popular, along with Britpop.. It was only when I left for university that I was introduced by friends to a whole new world of other genres. Neil Young, Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, Jeff Buckley, Pavement and the Pixies are just a few of the bands I remember coming to quite late on, hearing them for the first time and feeling an affinity with that music that I’d never felt before listening to anything else.
DFM is based in Nottingham, what is the music and arts scene like there?
Emily: There is a thriving independent music and art scene in Nottingham. We have some great DIY venues including the Chameleon, JT Soar and the Lofthouse in collaboration with passionate local independent promoters such as Buttonpusher, I’m Not From London, Default This and Thee Cosmic Goat. Nottingham feels like a very exciting place to be creating music at the moment and we feel lucky to be part of such a diverse yet inclusive and supportive artistic community.
Your latest EP "NYD" is fantastic, how did you find the writing and recording process?
Caroline: Thank you! NYD was written very quickly in one sitting. It came from a very raw place lyrically and seemed to just flow out of me that morning as I sat strumming a melody I had come up with a few days previous. It evolved an apocalyptic ending when I took it to Bill and Emily at band practice. Hopefully the emotional confusion of the song comes across in the ebb and flow.
Bill: NYD and Nova were both recorded with Joff Spittlehouse in The Old Library [in Nottinghamshire] which has a large theatre room. This gave us great natural reverb and thus a huge drum sound.
Emily: After recording the first four track EP ourselves, it was a new and exciting experience to work in another studio with someone else engineering. It was interesting to have the input of someone outside of the band and discover the different ways that could influence the recording outcome. Joff was amazing, very patient and accommodating, we really felt at home recording in his studio.
Name some of your favourite dystopian future movies, and can you explain how they influence your music?
DFM: La Jetee (the precursor for 12 Monkeys), Brazil, Children of Men, Blade Runner, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Dr Strangelove and Network are a few that come to mind. Movies such as this have a sinister edge, they have a visual as well as a sonic dissonance. There is notable light and shadow and we feel that contrast is similar to our musical dynamic. People have described our music as cinematic or like a soundtrack. Maybe we will have the opportunity to work on a movie in the future.
Bill: It’s really the feeling that these types of film create which is similar to our sound. Darkness, epicness, claustrophobia, ‘detriment’...
What else influences you outside of music and film?
Caroline: Words. Patti Smith’s Just Kids came to me at a significant turning point in my life and threw some doors open for me. Having surrounded myself in other people’s art; be it film or music all of life, after reading that book I suddenly felt capable or that anything was possible and that maybe my own artistic story was just beginning. I think as I've gotten older I've realised that self expression, creativity and the self-awareness they bring are fundamental to our happiness and functionality. I am also hugely inspired by the kids I teach. My class are only 8 and come from very diverse cultural and religious backgrounds but amid the current political turmoil; the hope, enthusiasm and accepting nature of my kids is a much more positive reality to get up for every day!
Emily: Lots of things really! Friends, teachers, films and books that I stumble upon or people recommend. I developed an interest in photography relatively recently having lived in Berlin whilst studying a Liberal Arts course. I was introduced to analogue photography and discovered a love for the dark room and the feeling that film photography evokes. Living in Berlin was very inspiring to me because of how rich the city is in terms of culture and history. That whole experience was very influential, I met some amazing and inspiring people and rediscovered a desire to be involved in doing something creative as part of a group. That want had lain dormant for a long time and I hadn’t realised how much it was lacking in my life. I’m so happy to have the opportunity to play bass with two of my closest friends.
You have shows announced all over the UK, what are you looking forward to most on this tour?
Emily: Playing some of our new songs and trying out a new set. I am really looking forward to seeing parts of the country I’ve not seen before. Hanging with Fvnerals again, of course!
Bill: We’ve not played many southern venues before as our previous tour was just the midlands and the north. It will be great to be touring with Fvnerals again as they are awesome people and an amazing band. You hear nightmare tour stories where bands fall out but everyone involved is really chilled and genuinely professional.
Caroline: We both really like each other’s bands and it’s pretty exciting to see one of your favourite bands play every night and watch them evolve.
Your music is available digitally and on CD. Physical music is seeing a welcome resurgence now, what are your personal favourite formats to listen to music on?
Caroline: As I was growing up it was tape and then I moved on to cd when I could buy music myself with pocket money. Over 15 years I collected hundreds of CDs! Because I mainly listen to music on the go now, it’s mainly digital. I do really miss the artwork and liner notes, when I can afford it, I’d love to buy my favourite albums on vinyl.
Bill: We are going to release our first album on vinyl.
Caroline: We have already discussed the artwork, I’d love to include the lyrics.
What does the future hold for DFM, and what are your plans after the tour is finished?
Bill: We have just recorded our first full length album in-house [home studio] and it is sounding massive! It is due for release on CD and vinyl early next year. We will tour and do some festivals on the back of that release, hopefully in Europe.
With all the uncertainty in British politics right now, do you feel like a dystopia lays in our future, or are we already in a dystopia?
Bill: The prophesies of many dystopian movies and novels have undoubtedly come true however we are still fortunate enough to be able to create art and music. May that continue.
...And to leave on a more positive note, what would each of you describe as being your perfect day off work?
Bill: Sitting down in a sunny beer garden.
Caroline: Amazing live music, nice beers, great friends and laughter.
Emily: I like to nap, daytime naps are good, and food, so those things, preferably with good friends in the sunshine near the sea and a dog or two..
Thank you to Dystopian Future Movies for taking the time to chat. Here are their upcoming tour dates!
Thank you to Dystopian Future Movies for taking the time to chat. Here are their upcoming tour dates!
