Interviewing Splendour: Fostering Cultural Difference and Community

Picture above taken by https://www.instagram.com/gabriel_forrest_?igsh=cDA1eW9ld3dldHhv

How would you articulate your genre?

Nimi - There’s 7 of us in the band so there’s a mixture of very different sounds and backgrounds in the band - we’ve played things that sound like R&B, rock, reggae. We’re still trying to hone our sound.

Louis - Neo-soul is definitely an overarching theme but as a sound it mixes lots of other genres so we definitely play lots of different stuff.

Jan - We usually prioritise jazzy chords, crunchy sounds and close harmony things. Since college our sound has taken a shift and we’re appreciating more complex sounds. 

Sol - We have songs that are a lot slower but also songs that are more funky thus faster. I’d say neo-soul/funk. 

Is there a specific artist that has helped to shape your sound?

Jan - I think an artist that we have mainly prioritised is Daniel Caesar. We’ve featured and covered some of his stuff in shows. 

Sol - I really idolise Vulfpeck and they have a lot of members, each individual member has a voice which is something we try to replicate. It’s not about saying ‘you play this’ and ‘I’ll play that’, it’s about letting everyone put their own little spin on things. 

Louis - To answer the question as well, I really like Cory Wong who is really similar to Vulfpeck.

What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced so far as a new band in the music industry? 

Nimi - A big issue we’ve faced was deciding what we were doing after college because we’ve all ended up in different university cities across the UK. We’ve had to seek out opportunities so that it is worth staying in the band - we’ve had to create a lot of our own opportunities. As a band you want to be gigging consistently and it's hard not being able to do that currently. Where there’s a will there’s a way though.

Jan - In terms of the recording side of things there have been challenges too. Our song ‘Femme Fatale’ was recorded in multiple places because we were all away at different universities - we don’t have a studio so we’re working with what we have. I think that allows us to produce music that is authentic and raw though which is a good thing. It’s quite interesting how we had a lot of good feedback on that song specifically. 

Sol - In terms of starting out in the music industry, it’s been a challenge building our platform and finding a consistency that plays up to the social media algorithms. Splendour is definitely a seasonal band - in the summer when we’re all back from uni we are able to create a lot more content and post frequently. 

Photo Credits: @graphic.cal on instagram

Can you tell me about the creative process behind your song ‘Femme Fatale’? 

Nimi - We had a gig at the Ainsworth Festival, which wasn’t a great one because I was really ill at the time. Sorry to be graphic - but I went to the toilet and this riff was just playing over in my head whilst I was in there. It kept playing on - the good thing about there being 7 of us is that you can build a song quite quickly. Sol finished the riff and everyone was able to add in their own little bits. The recording process as we said was a long, convoluted process. 

Louis - That’s news to me what you’ve just said Nimi.

Nimi - In terms of the lyrics, I don’t think we were aiming for God-tier lyricism. I don’t like to force the process so I’m normally influenced by what it is that I’m listening to at the time. I think Kiwi by Harry Styles was big, and I was listening to a lot of Wetleg. It’s a very satirical song, I’d also just read ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ in English Lit so that was at the forefront of my head. 

Sol - I love how simple the song is lyrically which I think is the reason why it’s so charming. It’s fun, short and has a catchy riff. It’s nice that you can hear everyone’s little titbits. 

Louis - It’s simple but during gigs we will play around with it and go in different directions with it. 

What would success look like for ‘Splendour’?

Sol - I guess doing a few gigs a month throughout the UK - that’s a very realistic success. Ideally, though, it’s a project that makes millions and takes us around the world.

Jan - My favourite part of Splendour is the recording and process of making songs - logistically the timespan between recording songs is quite long as everyone is in uni. I’d like there to be a point in time where we can all record when we want to - to have our own studio and space to finetune our sound.

Nimi - I’ve always had one rule with Splendour, I’d like it to stay fun. The moment, if that comes, where it stops being fun I think it would be hard to keep up the band. At the end of the day we’re all friends, we’re family - we come to rehearsals but don’t always rehearse. 

Jan - We often use each other’s skills and bounce off of each other. I think each of us use songwriting as a creative outlet, we’ve created a little community between us - it’s more than a band. 

Nimi - Personally, to me it would be a waste for us to have created a group (which includes such different people from distinct backgrounds and with their own unique perspectives) and to not tell our stories. 

What projects are you working on at the minute, when can we expect to see more from you in the future?

Nimi - We’ve got a few gigs coming up and will be doing some more recording. But the big thing that we’ve got in the works is ‘Attic’ which is a collective that we are dropping. It’s about being more than a band and so this upcoming project is about building a platform for ourselves and fellow artists. We’ve seen what it’s like to be the band and your own promoter which is difficult. We create everything in Sol’s attic and that’s where we are drawing inspiration from for this new creative space that is being built. It’ll be open for artists to showcase their talents, connect with others and promote their art. 

Louis - We’ve got a song in the works too but that’s staying under wraps for now. 

Sol - Just going back to the concept of ‘Attic’, it’s a grassroots-style project. When we were first trying to book gigs we had to awkwardly ask favours of people - graphic designers, photographers. ‘Attic’ is meant to be a one-stop-shop, where we can help to foster an artistic community rather than gatekeep connections. 

Nimi - We’re in a world now where the arts are ‘dying’. The creatives seem to be disappearing. It’s especially important to us to showcase artists from the North, there’s a big artistic community up here. 

Ending on a fun question - if you could open for any artist (dead or alive) on tour, who would you pick and why?

Sol - I would go with Vulfpeck.

Jan - I would pick Olivia Dean, she’s just starting up but I love her stuff and think we would match nicely.

Louis - I mentioned Cory Wong before, so I’ll say him again.

Nimi - I think Bruno Mars - it would be really fun to watch him after opening.