Q&A: SACRED SPACES AND SONIC THREADS: INSIDE LUCY GOOCH’S ‘DESERT WINDOW’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY DANY MIRELES ☆
Photo By Juliet Klottrup
On her brand new album, Lucy Gooch invites listeners into a world that feels vast - a space where fragile and close-mic’d vocals float with reverberant textures. Built over two and a half years with producers Alistair Lax and Oliver Andrews, the record is a collection of tracks where each layer of harmony is stitched with care. Drawing inspiration from band music and minimalism this is music that doesn’t just fill up a room, it alters the world.
The Luna Collective spoke with Lucy Gooch about crafting a spiritually-charged landscape, the art of collaboration, and how they’ve come to trust the integrity of her voice.
Photo By Juliet Klottrup
LUNA: Your debut album has a very soft, enveloping quality, like it’s inviting us into a quiet, sacred space. What kind of atmosphere did you hope to create when you first started working on it?
GOOCH: I definitely wanted it to feel like an intimate listening experience in terms of the way I used my voice. Maybe it has a more fragile quality on this record, but I still wanted the sound world surrounding it to be rich and expansive. The atmosphere I was after had the sacred, communal quality you hear in rounds or plainchant - something enveloping, where the listener becomes part of a singing circle. Or, they’re just waiting around somewhere at the back of a village hall, but there’s this feeling of anticipation
LUNA: The vocal layering on "Like Clay" and "Night Widow Part One" is stunning, but also feels very intimate. What was the process for arranging and producing these vocal textures?
GOOCH: There was a lot of back and forth, of Alistair Lax (who produced the album) helping to pick out key melodies and to rationalise the structures I was creating and hitting upon with my layers and lead lines. So, it was a collaborative process. Alistair was exacting in overseeing quality control of my vocal recordings, whilst I tend to work messily (building up lots of layers and keeping it improvisational as much as possible).
I was keen to use less reverb where possible and to be more human, however, as songs were developed reverb came more to the fore. It was a process of lots of listening between me, Alistair, and [my partner] Oliver Andrews. Lots of time passed between drafts during which we’d try to “cleanse” our ears. Sometimes things would be abandoned, but other times we’d find the right balance of layers. It was a lot of close listening and a lot of needlework-like edits over a period of two and a half years.
LUNA: Speaking of production, how did you approach the overall production of this album? Was there a concept you were following, or did it evolve track by track?
GOOCH: I wanted the production to help build a rich and evocative sound world in which my voice could take on a closer, more narrative role - less ambient basically. So that was my main production focus, whilst Alistair worked to oversee that my voice was not lost amongst the mass of string arrangements and invited musicians. I am involved in the production, but full credit must go to Alistair for his attention to detail and for his momentum in overseeing the sound of this album.
LUNA: This album feels like it exists in a world of its own. What was the creative vision that guided you as the record took shape?
GOOCH: I was very inspired by band music, I listened to a lot of “Talk Talk.” In some ways I think I tried to make a band record but without a band. The addition of musicians I admire across tracks really lent a plurality to the project - each song sounds quite singular, especially those where I invited musicians I admire to contribute.
LUNA: Much of these tracks sit between atmosphere, sensation, and songwriting. What do you think about storytelling in your music?
GOOCH: That’s cool, I like that. I love the atmosphere, it’s very important to me but my relationship to it keeps changing. Sensation is interesting because that seems more personal, I think that’s totally what I was chasing on this record, trying to create these big atmospheres but retaining a human voice amongst it. I love storytelling but it’s not something I’m very good at, so I think my music does sit somewhere more opaque.
LUNA: What kind of emotions were you trying to evoke through these songs?
GOOCH: I’m not sure I was trying to invoke emotions to be honest, the initial ideas would have come out of emotions that then warped and evolved as my collaborators came into the process! I think ultimately I do want to make escapist music, but this record has a more serious feel to it, which deepened over time.
LUNA: When you're writing a song, do you start from a feeling, a sound, or something more conceptual?
GOOCH: I’m not sure, I think maybe my good ideas tend to come from the atmosphere, the atmosphere of my internal world and my surroundings. I have made music when I’ve been sparkling with ideas, like truly a concept, or a particular song structure I want to try. And other times more recently since wrapping Desert Window, I like to be almost half asleep playing guitar, so it’s more of a subconscious thing. But, I do find my mood will change when I then go to develop something, I then tend to be more viscerally engaged.
LUNA: Your use of layered harmonies and different instruments feels choral and even spiritual, which gives these songs a sense of depth. What draws you to this kind of arrangement, and what do you hope to communicate to listeners?
GOOCH: My sister said to me the last time she saw me play in our hometown, Norwich, she was moved by some of my songs but then also on the verge of laughter because of how religious the influences are. It’s never been intentional and I’m not religious at all, so it’s funny and actually something I really feel good about. I love Mark Hollis and so much of his music has religious imagery and words. I use it all lightly and not in a literal way. I think it’s that spiritual feeling I’m reaching for all the time in music.
LUNA: Now that the album is about to be out in the world, how has it changed the way you think about your voice and sound going forward?
GOOCH: I am proud of the album, I learned a lot from the experience. It was challenging, but I have more faith in my voice now, and in performance. That’s what I want to focus on now, the integrity of the voice and the space that surrounds it. I want to honor that space as much as I can.
