London-based artist/producer William Arcane returns with his 'Hourglass' EP - a four track collection of soulful, downtempo, pop songs written straight from the heart. 'Hourglass' shows Arcane laying his emotions bare. Having been living in London, working behind the scenes for other artists (Nao, Rosie Lowe and Denai Moore) and composing for film and television, Arcane echoes a more personal and vulnerable course this time around. Arcane's trademark tender compositions are filled with soft-edged rhythms and textures. His delicate vocal sits atop innovative production, resulting in a bold and crisp, affective collection of songs… We talk to William Arcane about stepping out of his comfort zone, collaboration and being nourished by nature...
TSH: What do you feel has been at the heart of your current songwriting sessions?
William: Mostly I’d say just documenting thoughts and getting stuff down as it comes into my mind. Sometimes you can overthink everything that you’re trying to create and that can be fine if you’re making conceptual work but I think the best stuff comes out really quickly when you are in that ‘creative flow’. There are so many different roles that I play and each role can distract from the other such as engineer and songwriter for example. When writing recently I have been making conscious efforts not to get wrapped up in tweaking the sounds and twiddling. Instead I’m separating all these different roles I have when making a song into different times of my day.
TSH: For this latest EP, you booked a small cottage in Wales and spent 3 weeks in isolation – how did this impact the EP primarily?
William: It was the first time I’d been out of London for a long while and I think it gave me time to reflect on where I was in life at that moment and everything that had been going on recently. I hate to say the cliché thing but London can feel like a rat race at times and you feel this pressure to always be creating something better and pushing all the time (and you have expensive rent to pay and worry about). Stepping out of that I suddenly felt like I had all this time and everything slowed down until there was a lot more clarity. I think this made the songs a lot more reflective and also temporally a lot slower as well. Getting away helped me a lot and I now make sure that I remember to go away regularly so I have some headspace.
TSH: Were you drawn to different types of compositional styles and instrumentation?
William: I think I have definitely found my palette of sound that inspires me and that I’m drawn to. I was certainly drawn to new recording mediums on this release after having listened to a lot of William Basinski, Ian William Craig and various other acts that are using old magnetic tape as a recording medium. It has this slightly degraded quality that my ears just seem to adore and obsess over. I definitely wanted some organic elements on the release and the piano really helped that. Listening back now I’d still love to add more organic instruments and I think that will be a mainstay for future work.
TSH: What were the benefits in writing on piano?
William: I worked with my friend Jens Kuross not so long ago and we were talking about how if the song can hold it’s own and sound good when it’s just singing and piano, then that’s when you know it’s a great song. What I love about the piano is how linear it is, all the theory is laid out in front of you. I’m not a virtuoso pianist or anything but I know a lot of the theory and really enjoy piecing all the intervals together when they are laid out so easily in front of you. I tend to hear different top lines when I am on an actual piano as opposed to a computer. There’s something about the resonance of the notes hanging in the air around you that inspires me in a different way.
TSH: Do you still prefer the results that analogue synthesisers give you?
William: Yeah, and I think I always will. I’m quite a snob about it actually! I don’t use any digital synthesisers in my songs at all. I don’t like the digital sound; it’s too cold for my liking.
TSH: What does a track like ‘Hourglass’ convey to you?
William: There’s a mixed bag of feelings in that track and it was written at quite a low point for me. Listening to it now and the whole EP it’s all quite melancholic and there’s this feeling of a longing throughout. However, it’s a longing that you are now at peace with. It conveys a sense of time fading on a certain chapter or a certain someone.
TSH: Furthermore, what sort of direction were you aiming for as you fleshed out ‘Until I Forget’?
William: I just wanted there to be this gentle exposed and vulnerable self that is struggling with moving on from a relationship just after it’s happened. That struggle gradually grows into chaos and inordinate passion and emotion before settling back into peacefulness. I wanted it to mirror an end of a relationship I guess.
TSH: What are the ideas behind the song ‘Chariot’?
William: ‘Chariot’ is mainly about the window of time just after leaving that one person who in your head has played the role of being the only one true partner for you in life. The one who would probably root for you all the way to the finish line in whatever you do. In that window of time your decisions haunt you and you keep asking yourself the same questions over and over.
TSH: When you approach a remix, do you have rules in mind?
William: I have no rules! I love remixes, I tend to just find an element in the stems of the song that really stand out to me and that I find inspiring and build around that. I tend not to destroy the vocal too much as it contains a lot of feeling and personality and I think that should always come across in the song. I usually just use it as an excuse to play with my toys and I usually end up doing so much sound design for it!
TSH: What’s been the biggest obstacle to your development as a musician over the last few years?
William: That’s a really good question. I’d say anxiety and self-doubt. I have found ways to battle through that now but there was a good year and a half or so where I lost sight and got very down about everything. I learnt the true meaning of when people say ‘oh I love music because you learn so much about yourself’. For me, it was learning about all my insecurities and how they were affecting my output and my workflow. I’d also say the music industry mentality held me back a bit as well. I used to love just making songs and putting them straight up online. Now you have to hold back for so long and loads of people say no to your music before they think it’s right and then ‘the best ones’ are picked out. I hated that process at first and found it really difficult, but I’m used to it now.
TSH: How essential has the collaborating factor been for you?
William: I love collaborating and have learnt so much from working with others. You develop a special kind of connection with other musicians and learn so much from each other. My favourite parts of sessions are often when you’ll just sit for an hour or two talking about your creative processes, how you mentally gear yourself up to things, and how you get inspired and get through the tougher times that music often presents to you. You can take so much away from that and it stays with you forever. I feel like you become creatively wiser from the more collaborating you do. I am deeply grateful to all the musicians I’ve worked with for any slither of insight they have given me to further my creative consciousness.
TSH: Does music bring balance to your everyday life and lifestyle?
William: I haven’t worked out a balance in my everyday life yet, haha! I spend all my time thinking about music and planning what I’m going to do next and living in the studio. If I’m not being creative or having an inspired patch I get really annoyed and mopey about it. My creative output controls my mood and my everyday life. When I’m inspired and it’s flowing I drop everything and skip meals and all sorts! It’s a maddening obsession. I have a pretty hermetic lifestyle for the most part and spend a lot of time in solitude, which I quite enjoy.
TSH: You’ve been giving 35mm photography a go for a while on your Canon AE-1. Is photography something that pleases you a lot outside of music?
William: Yeah, it’s a recent obsession that takes me away from the studio and out into the fresh air, which I definitely need! I love the excitement of the whole process and not knowing what you’re going to get when you take the film to be developed, it’s like Christmas day going to the developers! I’m also searching for some kind of aesthetic for everything I’m doing, not quite sure what it is yet but I’m definitely drawn to more analogue mediums and older things. It also made me look for inspiration from visual stimuli that in turn inspire the music.
TSH: What can you tell us about going on some great Pembrokeshire coastal walks in recent times…
William: I think mainly I just became aware of how much time you are willing to spend in a city without giving your self time and space to think. Going on those walks I realised as humans we need to be nourished by nature every now and then, especially when you are living in a city. You can get so caught up in everything that you forget to just appreciate something as simple as a walk!
TSH: What’s been getting played most frequently on your YouTube binges?
William: I haven’t had a YouTube binge for a while. Last one I had though was when I was trying to learn Photoshop. Just watching hours and hours of tutorials learning really pointless things like how to make someone’s face look like it is cracked and made of stone. Maybe one day I will make myself an evil villain for some artwork, who knows!
TSH: It’s great to see you bring to light the Support Act refugee campaign, is this something particularly close to your heart, aside from music?
William: I just hate to see what it’s all coming to and really admire small companies like Support Act who are all busy individuals taking time out of their lives to dedicate it to a greater good and support something larger than themselves. I admire anyone that has that epiphany moment and are driven to help others. This particular movement of migrants seem miniscule in comparison to when severe draught starts occurring and we get multiple nations on the move to more resourceful countries. We need to loosen up our ideas of nations and borders and start thinking collectively as one race, the human race, and start looking out for one another in the darker times to come.
TSH: Finally, what brings you most clarity in such a crazy world?
William: Meditation and exercise! If I don’t do either for a while there is too much noise!
