UK band Squid brings unpredictable sound to Seoul

The U.K. band Squid / Courtesy of Alex Kurunis

The music of U.K.-based band Squid is not easy to pin down. From their early dance-punk oddities, the band has continued to expand their musical universe to include elements of post-rock, math, jazz, trip-hop, ambient and just about every other sonically dense genre you can name. Their erratic, kitchen-sink approach has seen them labeled as one of the world's most exciting groups. Ahead of a world tour with stops in Europe, North America and Asia (including a date in Seoul), Squid member Louis Borlase talked to The Korea Times about their unwieldy sound.

Squid's recent album, "O Monolith," drops in on a variety of genres, but Borlase said any connection to a specific style is entirely incidental. "Our approach is pretty loose, I think," said Borlase, guitarist, bassist and backing vocalist of Squid, explaining the band's many-headed sound. "I think one of the last things we're ever thinking about when making music is where that fits stylistically. It isn't important to us to consider those kinds of boundaries. We're far more preoccupied with thinking about how you can get from one kind of particular energy to another in a sort of 'snakes and ladders-esque' move."

Despite the title of their recent album, Squid is, in fact, not a monolith. Each member contributes to the writing and formation of the band's music. "There are five people writing," Borlase said. "It's a very collective compositional process. So, for us, it's less about style and a bit more about how we can find a way to represent everyone's musical personality."

While Squid doesn't consciously make an effort to subvert genre, there is one aspect of writing where they have to mentally check themselves — and that's being too safe.

"Sometimes, we have to take a look at something we've produced and ask ourselves, 'Have we just done the easy option here?' 'This is good, but can we do better?' Often, it comes down to saying, 'Yes, this part is nice, but it's a bit too nice, too sweet.' For us, something feeling too nice or sweet feels problematic," Borlase said. "Then, we have to ask ourselves: can we make something that's a little bit more nasty, a little bit more uncanny?"

This interest in pushing boundaries will not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the evolution of Squid's sound. The band has never been a straightforward listen, even from their early Krautrock-focused days. Yet, since then, they have continuously moved away from musical formulas.

"An important part of our evolution was us trying to turn our music into something that was rhythmically more formidable. At the heart of the band, you've got a singing drummer who has this very kinetic relationship between singing on the drums and moving all four limbs. On our first album, 'Bright Green Field,' there's a track called '2010,' which was the first time we played with unusual time signatures — that track in 7/8. That was kind of big, you know, Ollie being like, 'Oh God, this is gonna be so hard,'" Borlase said.

"But by the time we were doing our new album, songs like 'Swing in a Dream,' 'After the Flash,' 'Bull's Swimming Attempt,' 'The Blades.' They're all in what we call compound time signatures in that they are unnatural. It's not something that's a straight beat to dance to. But for us, it's a really nice way to make kind of these wider passages that are built out of kind of smaller groups of numbers."

A big part of the band's erratic sound is their singer-drummer Ollie Judge's vocals, which inject a frantic energy into everything they do. This unique singing style wasn't part of the band's plan, though, and came almost by accident. "When we first started playing gigs, he could never hear his own voice on stage. So the only way that he could hear it above the really loud guitars and trumpets was just to shriek at the top of his lungs," Borlase said.

Surprisingly, this singing style stands in contrast to Ollie's usual voice. "Ollie is a pretty quiet guy, usually. He's got a reputation for being quite soft-spoken, and after seeing him live, people are often pretty surprised by how quietly he speaks. But when he gets on stage, you can see the veins in the side of his neck as he shouts way louder than he ever would when not performing. It's his way of communicating his lyrics," Borlase said.

"Actually, he's also loud when he laughs. He has a very loud laugh."

Despite the acclaim for their recordings, Borlase insists that they are a band that people enjoy more live. It's easy to see why. Their energy is palpable, and their shows are just as unpredictable as their music. "It's quite a visual performance from us. There's a lot of movement and a lot of instruments on stage. When people listen to our records, they often question where a sound came from or a particular part, like who is playing this and on what, and how. And when you see Squid live, it creates a visual that answers many questions," Borlase said.

"So much of what we do as a band is down to improvisation, like free jamming with one another, and that doesn't get translated so well on a record. I think we're fun live, and people are usually surprised."

The busy boys have visited countless countries around Europe, Asia and North America. But which one has been their favorite so far? "Well, I think I can speak for all of us when I say that one of the most special gigs we've done was in Tokyo," Borlase said. "That was amazing. Recently, we played a headline show in Italy for the first time, and that was a sold-out gig of amazing fans who just brought such an amazing energy. That was mad for us because, for multiple reasons, we've never found ourselves heading to Italy much, and it was a bit of a pleasant surprise to get such a great response."

Another live highlight came just last year as the band played a televised Glastonbury performance. "Yeah, that was an amazing one. It was really nerve-wracking, actually. Occasionally a gig comes along, and you just feel fucking nervous about it beforehand. And that was one of them. It was televised, too, so you got the whole additional pressure of cameras. We're all super happy we did it. That was high up there on the ranking of some of the best shows we've made."

Despite touring all over the world, this November will mark Squid's first show in Korea. "Yeah, we're coming for the first time. It will be one of the last shows of this tour. We're doing Jakarta, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Seoul," Borlase said.

"I'm really looking forward to trying true Korean fried chicken. I'm going to try and ask for some to be in the dressing room. So when we're in, in Korea, we're really looking forward to having some barbecue, some really good bokkeumbap. Also, me and Ollie are big into sweets, so we definitely want to see what Korea has to offer."

More than anything, though, the band is looking forward to introducing Korean audiences to a wild Squid performance. But what can people expect from seeing them live? "People can expect to see a lot of swapping around of instruments," Borlase said. A lot of strange movement on stage, and a lot of us building some interesting sounds around a big vocal performance from Ollie. I think that's the real highlight of the show. He's got some crazy facial expressions. I've known him for such a long time, and sometimes when I'm watching him play live, I'm like, 'I've never seen your face make that shape before.' I think people coming to see a Squid gig at this point in time are seeing us in a real point of transition in our music where we're always changing our style and musicality. Everything is kind of in transition. So it's a good time to come and see the band."

Squid will perform at western Seoul's Musinsa Garage this Thursday at 8 p.m. Tickets cost 77,000 won.

Visit squidband.uk for more about the band, or highjinkx.com/squid for information about the tour, including ticket reservations.

Jamie Finn is chief editor of Platform Magazine.