Unlearning, the debut album by Glasgow’s WALT DISCO is something pretty special. Full of grand ideas it’s the sound of a band aiming to play classical venues whilst using a creative palette that includes heavy synths, lush orchestrations and piercing industrial soundscapes. Setting out to tour the album, including dates in Newcastle and at Stockton Calling, Damian Robinson caught up with the band to find out more. Congratulations on the album, it’s such an interesting record. Could you tell us a little about it? Thank you so much, yeah it’s finally here and we’re very excited that it’s finished. Essentially, it’s a record full of the kind of influences we like in a design that’s got emotional themes running throughout. The early press reviews have been exceptional. Does that influence you at all? It’d be hard to say no, and these are all nice to read, but really reviews from other people aren’t the reason we make music. In a way we make music because we sort of have to, it’s what we feel inspired to do more than anything else, so the reviews are certainly encouraging but what’s more important to us is that we’re happy with the album. With parts of the record being so layered and well produced, how are you looking to recreate this in a live setting? Ha, yeah good question, well I guess the main thing to say is that we’re all really busy on stage and there’s certainly a lot for us to do. The other side of the answer though is that we don’t write songs with the idea of how we can play them live, it’s almost like we get to those questions only once we’re happy with the songs themselves and that’s where the fun starts. Will there be a slight change in your sound when you play live in that case? Perhaps a little, yeah, we probably lean on the heavier sounds of the songs sometimes when they’re played live, which means it’s normally a really huge sound which uses equipment that we set up like live symbols to create some of the more beefy elements. And then it’s both a Newcastle and Stockton show as part of the album tour- the Newcastle show you’re headlining and the Stockton show you’re doing as part of Stockton Calling. That’s exciting. Yeah, absolutely, we love playing live and can’t wait to get out on tour, especially now that the album is out. We played Stockton recently and really enjoyed it, it was crazy, and we love Newcastle too, we think the North East of England is just as crazy as Glasgow- which is saying something. |
Walt Disco’s debut album, Unlearning, is out now.
UPCOMING UK TOUR DATES:
Apr 6th 2022 – Newcastle UK @ The Cluny
Apr 16th 2022 – Stockton Calling