On this interview, Flame opens up in regards to the deeply emotive core of Satisfaction of the Lamb, an EP that embraces vulnerability, introspection, and the uncooked depth of human emotion. With a soundscape influenced by the atmospheric depths of Thom Yorke, which carries the cinematic contact of Ramin Djawadi, Flame crafts music that resonates with those that search a profound connection via sound. We discover how manufacturing methods, vocal expression, and thematic storytelling form the EP’s immersive influence, in addition to the position of resilience and self-reflection in Flame’s songwriting. From discussing the affect of Porcupine Tree and Alice In Chains to revealing the artistic course of behind capturing such expressive depth, this dialog presents perception into the layers of that means woven all through Satisfaction of the Lamb.
Flame, welcome to A&R Manufacturing facility, it’s a pleasure to have you ever with us to debate your new EP, Satisfaction of the Lamb, and the emotive themes you’ve instilled into your music. Your reflective fashion resonates with deeply expressive vocals, and it’s fascinating how your compositions echo the atmospheric affect of Thom Yorke and the sweeping cinematic qualities harking back to Ramin Djawadi. From the primary observe, there’s a way of uncooked honesty in your strategy, hinting at an intent to attach with listeners on a shared emotional wavelength. How do you seize the tenderly reflective tone that defines your sound, and what key parts do you suppose contribute most to establishing that emotional depth?
Hiya Amelia,
Thanks a lot for having me. And thanks for such valuable compliments!
The making of Satisfaction of the Lamb was a really intense and emotional journey. It’s the very first physique of labor wherein I made a decision to get misplaced with out essentially looking for a method out. I believe that sense of decided journeying was key to making a visceral emotional bond with each ingredient of the music.
Manufacturing was one other stage of the artistic journey the place I discovered a path to creating that intense emotional depth and a connection between myself and my viewers. Throughout manufacturing, I sought to create an area with my music the place feelings might flourish and be free – I’d envisage this darkish, virtually void-like area, which might then be lit up by a thousand shades of color reflective of the feelings passing via my lyrics and vocals. I used to be chasing this concept of an area that may very well be infinite but intimate on the similar time; composing and performing in a method that felt proper in capturing the expression of my soul.
Your vocals carry intense emotive weight. Is there a technique or mindset you undertake to make sure your voice stays genuinely expressive fairly than merely polished?
Earlier than recording the vocals for every tune, my producer, Etain Sweeney, would discuss me via the that means of my tune. And as I sat on the ground, or on her mattress, or within the studio the place all these conversations passed off, I’d discover myself spiralling, looking for an ideal reply to her query as a result of it was by no means one I had requested myself. My focus had at all times been the conjuring and exorcism of the feelings I used to be feeling fairly than a transparent trigger or single that means.
However her questions prompted higher introspection – taking me again to the purpose of creation and inspecting the conditions and occasions that prompted the feelings I felt. I believe is what retains the vocals so deliberately primal, uncooked and unpolished, that emotionally centered mindset, fairly than the one in every of creating excellent notes. Typically, overthinking isn’t essentially a foul factor!
When did the ideas of resilience, grace and progress grow to be the focal factors in your songwriting, and did you face any inside resistance whereas exploring such honesty?
The realisation of these ideas didn’t happen to me till a lot later within the manufacturing of this EP. Though the songs have been written in numerous moments of my life, I at all times felt that there was one thing connecting them – a pink thread working all through that solely appeared after I stepped again to view the tapestry of the work as a complete. That thread was the issue I confronted in connecting these moments, the painful recollections that glue them collectively.
I assume these focal factors have been virtually a results of the issue I discovered in expressing my feelings in such a uncooked and unvarnished method. I used to be excited to carry one thing new to the world, and but that one thing got here on account of heartache, solitude, therapeutic, and a pure journey of resilience, grace, and progress.
Who’re your essential influences, and the way do you stability these influences with out overshadowing the distinctive nuances that make your sonic signature distinct?
I’ve many various influences, with Porcupine Tree, Alice In Chains, Dave Matthews Band, and The Cranberries being the main ones.
Regardless of being very completely different sonic landscapes from one another and from my very own, I attempt to concentrate on what’s actual about their music. My thoughts typically displays on how, when, what and why they – amongst many different artists – wrote what they wrote. I soak my soul in what their music leaves me, and I attempt to do the very same in my very own world and phrases, despite the fact that I do sometimes take the freedom of including somewhat referral Easter egg.
In what methods do you employ instrumentation, association, or manufacturing methods to create an immersive sense of empathy and reflection in your viewers?
I like the concept of utilizing many intertwining layers that might complement one another’s presence via reverberation. It’s how these layers talk with one another that offers area for empathy and feelings. Automations and customised plug-ins are nice for this stuff.
I additionally experimented with completely different acoustic areas, recreating the environment of explicit locations like McEwan’s Corridor in Edinburgh via impulse responses and convulsions to totally immerse the viewers in my world. It sounded great, however I selected a unique route for this launch, as though it completely echoed the feelings I used to be aiming to recreate, the vocals and instrumentation misplaced a number of the color which I felt extra importantly fostered that emotional empathy and connection in my viewers.
Nevertheless, I’ve been working rather a lot in Dolby Atmos and convolutions for upcoming music, and this experimentation brings feelings on a complete new, immersive stage.
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You contact on uncooked emotion and self-discovery via ache. How do you keep open to those themes in your day-to-day life, and what compels you to channel them into music?
I don’t at all times discover it straightforward to confront sure feelings or themes in my day-to-day life, however I’ve realised over the course of this EP, that it’s essential and elementary to what I do. I resonate rather a lot with Shakespeare in perceiving artwork as holding up a mirror to ourselves, and this unflinching musical honesty offers me a kind of power to really really feel, look at, and face these difficulties in my each day existence. I’m who I’m, may as nicely face it to embrace it. It’s truly sort of humorous the best way that in and after the manufacturing, I felt myself charged with a lot love and appreciation for all of the folks that stayed and which can be in my life. I’m eternally grateful to have the ability to love and really feel beloved.
And that it’s precisely what pushes me to not simply tune write for myself, however share my music, is the concept of someone on the market feeling what I really feel, and might relate, in order that once they hear my phrases, they don’t really feel like they need to face no matter problem or dream could be in entrance of them alone.
Do you strategy songwriting as a type of storytelling, and the way do you retain the tales cohesive throughout a complete EP?
Songwriting has at all times been my emotional outlet, however I didn’t totally embrace it till about 6 years in the past. My strategy to songwriting features as a technique of carving these emotional encounters into my reminiscences, encounters which could be introduced again to life any time I play these songs once more.
With this intention, I’ve discovered that whereas the creation or manufacturing of a tune could fade into distant reminiscence, the lingering style of the emotional expertise that triggered it stays. Additionally it is fascinating how, in some instances, the preliminary that means evolves into one thing extra relatable to occasions nearer to the current time, bringing a complete new emotional expertise to the desk.
As I discussed earlier, though the songs have been written at completely different occasions, they’d that becoming a member of pink thread which stored a kind of narrative flowing via, a cohesive theme which has been an elusive will o’ the wisp for me to place a reputation to.
The EP as a complete is just not a lot a storytelling piece however an exploration of the method of opening as much as individuals who then, via no matter means, betray that vulnerability and fade out of your life with out ever taking accountability for the ache they brought about. After I take a step again to have a look at the work now, I see extra than simply ache, however progress from my unique headspace and progress in my willingness to like unconditionally.
‘On Tape’ is the conceptual closure of the EP, coming in spite of everything that ache that’s been let loose. I’m simply glad I used to be capable of create one thing out of it. It’s what I take away with me when paths divide.
Satisfaction of the Lamb feels notably private. Would you say it marks a turning level in how keen you’re to share the weak features of your individual life, or has that honesty at all times been on the core of your artistry?
Satisfaction of the Lamb was truly the final tune I wrote on the EP, and also you’re proper; it is vitally private and makes me really feel very weak.
It talks in regards to the sensation of house, which, to me, typically looks like being a spectator in each someone else’s life and my very own. It displays on that fixed ache—the need to maneuver backward or ahead in time, to alter issues, to skip the current—caught within the delusion that we alone might in some way alter the course of issues.
Ultimately, I do know the alternatives of others aren’t mine to make. All I can do is face my very own reflection with braveness and honesty whereas watching them construct their lives in their very own method.
Stream the Satisfaction of the Lamb EP on Spotify now. Discover different methods to attach with Flame through this hyperlink.
Interview by Amelia Vandergast
