Future Plays: Jacquard Looms

Music
Interview
3 minute read

A follow up to their 2020 EP 'Too Cold 2 Snow', London-based trio Jacquard Looms return as BasementApproved's latest Future Play.

Evolving as all great artists do, Joey, Spike and Tom of Jacquard Looms have been busy refining their sound. Following on from EP, Too Cold 2 Snow, and standout track ‘Moth‘, the trio have pushed beyond the hip hop sound that defined their earlier releases. The result? Harmonious new single, ‘Where I Belong’. Released alongside a DIY visual shot on the streets of London (and featuring some familiar Basement faces), ‘Where I Belong’, is less rap heavy than the Looms’ previous work in favour of something more contemplative and melodic.

Reminiscent of The Streets, Jacquard Looms combine and remix genres – spanning rap, indie, hip hop, rock, and beyond – to stretch the elasticity of music in an age where bedroom productions give us some of the most intimate and personal music we’ve ever heard. After all, you’re never more yourself when you’re where you belong.

Ahead of the single’s release, BasementApproved sat down with Jacquard Looms to talk about their new sound, their creative process, and finding their name on Wikipedia.

Give us a brief introduction to yourself: where are you from and what do you do?

We’re Joey, Spike and Tommy: Jacquard Looms. We’ve all been either best mates or brothers since birth. We grew up together just outside of London, always living a ten minute walk apart. Every single sound and visual is produced by us. We’ve always loved creating everything together from scratch and ultimately just love what we do. It’s never been something we’ve had to think about, we’ve each just always felt a need to create music and art and here we are still at it.

Tell us about the new track, 'Where I Belong'?

It’s one of the tracks we created during lockdown, and we didn’t really see it going anywhere until Spike tried out this kind of skiffle snare over the top of the riff. Suddenly the whole song just lifted. We never really remember how we create our songs; we get lost in them. Two days later we just sort of step back and realise we’ve made a new song. It’s definitely one of the most uplifting songs we’ve made, shifting between light and dark. It’s the beginning of a new sound for us.

How do you feel your backgrounds have influence the music?

We’ve each had our fair share of things to cope with and overcome growing up, as I’m sure most people have. Ultimately we think everything you ever experience will affect your music somehow. We have musical families and have grown up listening to every kind of music under the sun, which has hugely contributed to our passion for music and given us an ability to appreciate all genres. Spike and Joey’s dad was a drummer and we grew up watching him gig, and Tommy’s mum is an incredible singer and we all used to go watch her sing.

Where does your name come from?

Wikipedia.

Who or what are some of your biggest sources of inspiration - not necessarily just from the music space?

We’re massively into films, literature and other forms of art as well as music. The inspirations are endless and contribute to all aspects of our work. But to name a few, we’re currently really into Nils Frahm, Suicideboys, Jack Kerouac. Oh also Shannon Murphy – recently we all felt an immediate affinity with her film, Babyteeth.

What are some of the biggest challenges in your journey so far?

Social media. None of us have ever been particularly public with our thoughts and lives and it’s kind of strange having to use social media everyday now. But we’ve learnt that it’s an incredible tool where we can connect with people that we would have never been in touch with if it weren’t for social media. We’ve had some beautiful conversations with people all over the world who are hit by our music. In terms of the scene, we have a feeling that a creative explosion is imminent; we can feel it bubbling under the surface right now.

What do you think of the music scene at the moment?

We have a feeling that a creative explosion is imminent; we can feel it bubbling under the surface right now.

Dream collaboration?

Thom Yorke, Gunna, Joni Mitchell. All on one song.

What does the future look like for Jacquard Looms?

Who knows. We try to live in the present as much as we can. We just wanna keep producing music and putting it out there. Also really excited to start playing live again!

Future Plays is a weekly spotlight of fresh new artists curated for the community, by the community.