The sound of the summer has come to the depths of Hackney in the form of fuzzy surf-rockers Splashh. Within a few weeks of the band relocating from various sunny locations to East London last February, Splashh played their first show — with only a handful of bedroom recordings under their belt — to great acclaim. Now with a US tour behind them, and a summer of festivals ahead, the guys talk to Wonderland about their forthcoming album ‘Comfort’, how jellyfish are cool and the powers of watching ‘Notting Hill’.

Who are Splashh?

Splashh is Sasha Carlson, Toto Vivian, Jacob Moore and Tom Beal. Four friends who met on our travels and ended up making music together.

You hail from all over (Australia, New Zealand, Wolverhampton). What drew you to London, and what’s the best thing about living here? 

We all watched that movie Notting Hill and decided to move over! The best thing about being in London is being in the thick of it.

In your videos and pictures, you look like you’re having a lot of fun. How long have you all known each other for?

Some longer than others. Sasha and I (Jacob) are old friends from NZ and Toto and Beal have been playing music together for years. As a band we’ve been together for a year now and we get on well and just have a laugh. Best not to take yourself too seriously.

The title of your latest track, ‘Sun Kissed Bliss,’ seems to sum up your aesthetic — is this an atmosphere you’ve consciously been trying to create with your music? 

Yes .with this song. But this won’t be the only aesthetic we conjure up. Comfort is collection of tunes made either at home or longing for home, so that’s why the aesthetic has been so specifically sunny.

Your music has an undeniable sun-drenched vibe, but there is a darker twist to your songs – which bands are you influenced by?

We like Dark Psychedelia and Punk as well as appreciating great pop craft. Our major influences are The Beatles, Primal Scream, New Order, Deerhunter, The Clean plus whatever we heard as kids growing up. That top 40 stuff seeps in without you realising it and probably influences people more than they’d like to admit.

I saw on twitter that your new video was filmed at an Aquarium: why there? What was your favourite fish? 

People go to those places to escape. Plus we wanted to see some Sharks. Jellyfish are cool.

The first gig you played was very shortly after you started writing in London. Have you always been eager to get out there and share your music with live shows?

Of course! That’s what musicians do.

What’s the best thing about playing live?

There are two halves to being a musician. The writing/recording side and the performance. Both are equally fulfilling but where the writing/recording part is an exercise in design, the performance is a more visceral experience. A feeling rather than a thought.

You’ve just played a bunch of shows in the States — what did you love most about the trip? And now you’ve played over there, are Splashh set for world take over? 

America is an amazing world of its own full of interesting, passionate people. The food! The drink! Every time we play we get more comfortable and more confident. I don’t know about world takeover but people seem to be enjoying our sets wherever we go.

Splashh’s debut album ‘Comfort’ is out September 2nd. Catch them June 4th at Cargo, London.

Words: Laura Isabella 

The post New Noise: Splashh appeared first on Wonderland.

Describe Diver, your new album. Was writing material for it easy?

Writing material is always the easy part for us, it's then making sure that everything sounds as good as possible which is the difficult part. Sound-wise the album is pretty sensual, clean and pure.

What defines ‘pop’ music? What's your take on it?

I think when you're listening to pop music, it's the unconscious act of experiencing pleasure.

What do you want people to do with your music? Is it for dancing in clubs or thinking deeply about?

I think we all wish that our music was for dancing in clubs to, but the reality is it's never going to be on Clubbing TV. Our music is maybe for driving to, or for dancing in your apartment to in the dark, or even just for listening on headphones to.

You have a lot of influences that've changed over time. What would you say your main ones are right now?

Right now I'm listening to a lot of Boddika and Joy Orbison, and really enjoying the way in which they are moving away from garage-influences and more towards the clean techno sound. Techno is something that is having a big influence on me musically, also the electro breaks used by artist like Pariah and Scuba.

You said on your website that with your new album, you’re more focussed on “speaking to your heart than blowing your mind”. What made you turn away from the kind of music that got you started?

Quite simply, there wasn't anywhere further to go with psychedelia. The universe is shrinking in on itself and there are no more avenues to go with this sort of noise music, which ultimately wasn't challenging anymore for us. When I make music I want it to be transcendental for the right reasons, and really it came down to the fact that I wanted to see if I could write melodies that people can sing along to – I see this as the ultimate challenge.

What was it like moving from San Francisco to Brooklyn, NY?

It felt really easy and delightful. I remember we arrived in New York on our first day in October to a flurry of snow and it was so daunting. But everything happened really easily for us, we all found apartments really quickly and fell into jobs. Also whenever I'm travelling I realise how amazing the music scene is in New York, and how there's not really anywhere like it. There aren't many places where any night of the week you can see 4 totally amazing and intriguing acts on the line-up.

What was the scene in SF like, when you first started out? How did it affect your music?

There was a huge party scene that lasted for two years – a friend put on huge warehouse parties called Gentleman's Techno. Essentially the scene was all the punk kids making dance music.

Diver is out now. lemonadesounds.net

Words: Zing Tsjeng

The post LEMONADE: Dive deep into nimble, hedonistic pop appeared first on Wonderland.