South London ensemble WOOM discuss their group’s evolution, symbiotic relationship and their new EP, “To Slow You”. 

Somewhere between a collective, band and a vocal ensemble, unique and enduring South London outfit WOOM nestle neatly into a league of their own. 2021 debut EP “Into the Rest” saw the group tackle an amalgamation of covers and originals, winding together a tapestry of approaches to create a bountiful, delicate body of music. 

This brand new second body of music, “To Slow You”, is a completely different beast. The five-pronged EP is made up of all their own compositions, brimming with gorgeous four-part harmonies, stripped-back instrumental palettes, and gentle, thoughtful songwriting. Unlike anything else, a refreshing, unboxed presence in the London scene, WOOM are maturing with aplomb. Wonderland catch up with the group, talking origins, their new EP, and upcoming show at the ICA in London.

Listen to the EP…

Read the interview…

Hey Woom! How’s your summer going?

Hello Wonderland! Summer has been great so far, flown by as it always seems to. We’ve enjoyed some trips away, the Women’s Euros and also have a few of our birthdays in summer,  so lots of celebration all round. We’ve got a couple of festivals left and have begun rehearsing for our headline show at ICA in September, which we’re super excited for!

Talk us through the origins of you as a group? How has what WOOM is changed and adapted through the years?

We actually started WOOM with no intention of being a band. We were all solo singers in separate projects in the South East London music scene and really craved collective singing and the experience that comes with it. It turned out we were all big fans of each other’s voices and had a deep desire to sing with each other, and make the voice the main focus. 

At the beginning we started by re-arranging existing songs that we loved, intricately using our voices to recreate the songs and parts that might be by other instruments. Our friend and festival runner Marina heard we were working together and booked us for our first shows at Brainchild Festival and off the back of those, we began our journey as a group! Arranging songs and playing lots of shows established our sound and way of working together, and over time our practice has organically developed to writing and producing all of our own music, this new EP being our first full example of that. 

You’re often described as a band-meets-choir — how does the fluidity and uniqueness help you in your progression? Do you feel it hinders you in any way?

Whilst our sound will always center our collective voice, we all feel really open and drawn to constantly adapting and evolving our sound together. In many ways treading the lines between definitions keeps the practice open, and how it’s defined can almost be up to the listener. You could say the model of WOOM began more like a traditional choir, arranging songs and harmonies. And now with this new chapter we have bled more into the “band” territory with original and more experimentally produced material. Our desire and drive to develop our practice and evolve with it will always lead us to different places, and we want to follow that. So who knows what we will do next… 

Who would you musically file yourself next to?

We’d probably file ourselves next to artists who also stay open to subverting traditional form and definitions, who are playing with expectations or exploring collective practices. We all feel really inspired by so many of our peers who we have had the pleasure of singing with such as; Hana Stretton and Clarissa Connelly. Other inspirations that come to mind include artists like Bjork, Dirty Projectors, Sade, Laurie Anderson and vocal groups like the Roches.

Congratulations on your forthcoming EP, “To Slow You”! How are you feeling about the release? 

Thank you, we are feeling so excited to share and release it into the world, it’s like a process of letting go and watching it fly the nest! We are so proud of this body of work, and have been meticulously crafting it for over 4 years – written, recorded and produced by ourselves – so it feels really special to share this new chapter.

What inspired the sonic direction of the new EP? 

For us, the inspiration to make this EP came from a desire to see what we were capable of – a way to play with production and push the boundaries of what we had created before – using the voice as an instrument of production, practicing different techniques and effects. Without much of a plan we jumped into seeing what came out – trusting our intuition, following what felt good and excited us. We did this by heading to uninterrupted spaces away from distraction; trips in country cottages, fields and chapels and set up our equipment for what would become hours of improvising and looping vocals and melodies. These then became a collection of captured feelings and sounds that we would pull from, taking our favourite parts to build upon in our garden studio at home, using the computer as an added tool of arrangement.

How does the new work show a progression from your 2021 debut EP, “Into The Rest”? 

Our 4 voices and harmony remain at the heart of this EP, but this time shapeshifting into different guises. Our previous EP was a collection of mostly live one take performances of our arrangements. Almost every song was able to be performed as is, and the record was about capturing the energy and the work we had finessed up until that point, through our practice and countless live shows. 

With this new terrain of all original and self produced material, we have delved deeper into our songwriting, our skill set and had a lot of fun with production. We also introduced new instrumentation (bass, saxophone and strings) played by our very talented friends Evie, Emma, Ant and Arthur. 

Through making this record we feel we have expanded sonically and further into the world of who we are as a group and for us it’s such an exciting body of work to be putting out.

What does the new EP say, in terms of its lyricism and thematic content? 

Thematically this record reflects the micro and macro of our experiences; from very personal and intimate feelings of connection and isolation, to the wider feelings of life and existence, landing in new places and seeing the world anew. The lyrics consist of visceral descriptions of intimacy, vulnerability, wild nature and solitude. Surrealism is scattered across the 5 tracks, with images of invisibility, giving up your ghost, and a “reforming” earth, alongside symbolic objects and dreamlike scenes including light behind windows, dark rooms and moving needles. It also describes feelings and landscapes that make you acutely aware of your own self and body: landing on earth, welts on the skin, a beating heart, a crashing sea. 

What does the project mean to you? What do you hope listeners take from the work? 

The project is special to all of us in many ways. It’s not only a way to collaborate – to share together, express and develop our craft – but I think we all really admire and are inspired by each other and each other’s skills, so we constantly feel really lucky to be able to work together and hang out. 

In a lot of ways our practice is a deconstruction of the ego and an antithesis to the lone artist, who does everything alone and owns everything – something we have all experienced and still continue to in our solo projects. WOOM however, is about merging together, borrowing and giving back. Teaching each other and exploring the things that we have to share as a group. The collective mechanism may not exist endlessly but capturing it in its current form is exciting. We hope that this feeling of the collective is something that is translated to the listener, and also our passion for the simple power of the voice. 

What else is to come from you — this year and beyond? 

We play Smugglers Festival on the 31st of September, and then our London show at The ICA on the 26th of September which we are so excited for. It will be our first headline show in over 2 years and a celebration of the new release, so it’s going to be a special one. We have the wonderful Tony Njoku as support and a DJ soon to be announced. Beyond that we’ll be heading on a UK tour later this year, and heading to Europe and festivals next year. Along with making as much new music as possible!