York-born Teleost showcases their bold evolution with Three Originals, blending raw live energy, nature-inspired themes, and post-doom experimentation. Dive into their journey and unapologetic creative direction.
1.
Congratulations on Three Originals! How does this EP reflect your growth as a
band since your early days in York?
Thank you! I think the new EP reflects a boost in confidence. When we’d
recorded in the past, I think we made some concessions that we probably should
have fought harder for. Not to say we are disappointed with previous efforts!
But they have all been compromises to a certain degree, and I think our new EP
is the least compromising of them. I think it shows we’ve had the confidence to
do something our own way, as well as more confident songwriting. It’s easy
sometimes to let a song do its own thing for 10-15 minutes, but with a tone as
big as ours it sometimes takes confidence to bring a song in to land at the
5-minute mark.
2. What
inspired the themes of nature, freedom, and transcendence in the tracks? How do
these ideas resonate with your personal lives or creative vision?
The freedom of nature is just something that we both love anyway. The name
Teleost itself was picked for its association with nature, evolution, the
mysterious deep sea, etc. Neither of us are enamoured of technology or
politics, or 9-5 jobs, or anything like that, so to go into a room full of loud
amps and yell about wading into the ocean and not coming back, floating in the
clouds, or shamans atop mountains is kind of a catharsis. Especially with the
world being the way it is at the minute!
3.
Recording live at The Audio Lounge in Glasgow sounds intense and authentic.
What motivated this approach, and how did it shape the EP’s sound?
We were motivated to take this approach when I read that Sabbath recorded
Paranoid in, like, two days. I thought if a four-piece can do it, a two-piece
can! Like I said before, we really wanted to take the sound into our own hands
by using gear we’re familiar with and just playing the songs how we do in
rehearsal. Conventional recording usually involves trusting decisions made by
the engineer (because you don’t know how a part is going to sound until it’s
mixed) and playing the songs in an unfamiliar way (i.e. part by part). Live,
however, it sounds how it sounds and you just rely on the mics and the engineer
to capture it, and there’s only so much they can do. It’s great. The EP has a
very stripped back sound as a result, but the guitar tone and the live energy
are the stars of the show, not the production.
4.
You’ve described Three Originals as a departure from conventional metal. How
would you define the unique sound you’ve crafted for this release?
I think it’s part of a trend that started with the Melvins, really. They
popularised the combination of metal tone, distortion and feedback with super
slow tempos and weird chord changes. In a similar vein, bands like ourselves,
Om, and Floor took the idea of slow, heavy riffs and combined them with a new
element. In Om’s case, eastern religious music. In Floor’s case, power-pop. In
our case, apart from our technically unusual setup, we bring in influences from
grunge as well as traditional folk music and even sea shanties. Of course, we
are heavily inspired by bands like those ones or Slomatics, but I’d say that we
are part of ‘lineage’ that diverged from your average ‘Electric Wizard doom’
back in the 90s. I guess you could call it ‘post-doom’.
5. Can you share the story behind one of the tracks on the EP? What makes it stand out to you personally?
I’ll tell you about Throwaway. It’s the last track on the EP, and the first of ours to feature Cat (the drummer) on lead vocals.
We met at an open mic night in York in 2018. We got talking and it turned out
we were both into heavy stuff, and were both between bands: her band had split
up a few years before, and my then-band PAK40 was on a bit of a hiatus. We had
a jam with me on drums and her on guitar going through a Roland guitar synth
(with one of those funny hexaphonic pickups). The first song we wrote was
Throwaway, and that project became our band Redfyrn (2018-2022).
The song
ended up on the EP because it was originally going to be collection of covers.
One Redfyrn cover, one PAK40 cover, and one Cream cover. We decided against it,
and ‘Three Covers’ became ‘Three Originals’.
The song
really stands out to me because, like I said, it’s Cat’s first doing lead
vocals, and my first where I get to just chug away without worrying about
singing. It really reminds me of the early days in York when I first started
playing music, being in bands and meeting new people.
6. What role did Glasgow as a city and The Audio Lounge as a space play in
the creative process for this release?
I’m not sure the bricks and mortar of Glasgow made much difference, but I think
moving here from York definitely did. The fact we moved at all gave us the
confidence to just... get it done, and get it done our way without thinking
twice.
In terms of the Audio Lounge, one room there is probably the same size as all the rooms at the Jam Factory in York put together. The gear is bigger, and better... and it’s cheaper. So, we can rehearse more, and with the bigger amps we can really lean on the tone and volume and play slower. It’s always harder to play slow when you’re quiet.
7. How does Three Originals balance experimentation with the heaviness fans expect from Teleost? Was there a particular track where this balance was most evident?
This one definitely weighs more on the heavy side rather than experimental. I guess the whole experiment with this one is whether we could get away without experimenting! We tried a couple of new things like having Cat singing and having shorter songs, but beyond that the point of the album is to be a punch to the gut, not food for thought.
8. Your decision to record most parts live with minimal takes is bold. Did this approach present any challenges, and what were the standout moments during the session?
No. On the contrary, it was a relief to be constrained to 3 takes per song. Often an engineer will insist on ‘just one more, for luck’. But after take three I stop hearing the difference. The first couple of takes might have mistakes but they have the energy, which is lost progressively with each take as the mistakes are ironed out.
So, there
are some flubs here and there but they’re minor, and well worth it for the
overall energy the EP has captured. The songs sound exuberant to me, not a
tired take, number 7. I think you can definitely hear boredom in a track, so
we’ll avoid it where we can.
Honestly the standout moment was sitting down in the control room and hearing
the tracks back and being blown away by how they sounded. Sometimes when you
hear an unmixed session you have to have faith that it’s going to sound good
further down the line. This time they sounded incredible straight away: I
remember us looking at each other, like, ‘holy shit’.
9. Catherine takes on lead vocals for the first time on this EP. How did
that shift influence the dynamic of the band and the overall feel of the
release?
It’s been great for Cat to have an extra role in the band. She’s a great singer
and guitarist in her own right so it’s good that she’s not solely relegated to
drums. She also wrote a lot of the riffs and the drum beat for Ether, the
second track on the EP. She comes up with melodies I would never think of, so
it’s definitely giving the band an extra flavour.
It also gives me time to be a little bit more technical with my guitar playing
too seeing as I don’t have to sing; it’s great fun to play the Throwaway riff
without needing to be in range of a mic.
10. With influences like Floor and Om, how do you incorporate their stylistic elements while maintaining Teleost’s unique identity?
I mean, Om is in my blood. I ‘hated metal’ until I heard Om when I was 21, and that’s been me ever since. Just the way they reduce the energy of a whole song to a single two-chord progression, and still keep it interesting for 10 minutes is a wonder. That’s something I’m always striving to achieve, but never have the confidence to do, to just play 2 notes for 10 minutes. Keep it simple. That’s the dream!
I discovered Floor only last year on recommendation of Dave from Slomatics. I honestly think I’ve never listened to an album more than Oblation. The way it combines punishingly heavy riffs, melodic vocals, and a weird technical approach really changed the way I thought about heavy music, and kind of made me feel like Teleost was on the right path. Some Floor-y bits in the EP would be the last riff in Forget, the way the bottom string drops in for that massive chug is totally me trying to rip them off.
In terms of our musical identity, whatever we make will always have our fingerprints all over it.
11. As you prepare for the EP’s release, what are your hopes for how Three Originals will resonate with your audience?
We really hope that everybody appreciates it the same way we do. I’m sure it’ll be a bit rough and ready for some people, but I hope that the raw, live energy will win them over. Plus, I may say that these are great songs and some of the catchiest we’ve written, so I hope to that they’ll resonate that way.
Primarily though, I hope this album will appeal to a broader audience beyond the people in the doom scene. The copious feedback might be a bit rough for some people, but it’s a big warm tone with good vocal melodies, and I hope that that will win favour beyond the genre!
12. Looking ahead, what’s next for Teleost? Can fans expect a continuation of this creative direction or new surprises in future projects?
Well, we have two more releases in the pipeline already. We recorded a full-length album at Foel Studio, Wales in 2023 that we’ve been waiting for the right time to release, and there’s enough leftover songs from those sessions for another EP after that. So, eyes on the skies for those two! Once they are out, then yes, we will more than likely return to a more rough and ready approach.
In fact, I just bought a Tascam Dictaphone for recording rehearsals and I
really love how those recordings sound. So maybe that’s what the future looks
like for us...
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