Deptford Goth, aka London-based electronic musician Daniel Woolhouse, recently released his acclaimed debut album Life After Defo. He is one of 70 acts playing Salford’s festival of new music, Sounds From The Other City, on 5 May.
Life After Defo has received near universal praise. How does that make you feel?
It’s more of a relief than anything. A lot of other people have put in hard work, so it’s definitely a good feeling that they have got something to show for having put faith in you. That you actually ended up making an album. You didn’t run away.
Does the haunting, melancholic quality of Life After Defo reflect your mental state when creating the album?
Yeah, it does. I wrote it over a six-month period and it came from introspection and writing about people close to me. But it wasn’t a decision that I made. It was just that I started writing and recording stuff and then that became the content of the songs.
When you first worked on the album did you have a strong idea of what form you wanted it to take?
I definitely wanted to make more of a song-led record, rather than the (preceding Youth II) EP, which was more about experimenting with sounds. I wanted to spend a lot more time developing the songwriting and making a cohesive record in that sense. Once I got to the stage where I had four or five tracks that glued together, they became a blueprint for the rest of the album.
There is a wealth of innovative electronic music being made in the UK at present. Who do you consider among your peers?
The comparisons that get made a lot are James Blake and The XX. We share sensibilities, but I don’t think musically there is a direct link…to even be linked to people like The XX, it’s a massive compliment. But when you are making something it’s not something that you really consider. You don’t think, ‘What am I making? What genre is this?’ You have to wait for a journalist to come up with a satisfying genre or tag.
RICHARD SMIRKE
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