Boxed In interview: A prolific stage of my creative career

Oli Bayston spoke about his burgeoning project, latest record 'Melt' and outside influence ahead of winter tour dates.

Ben Smith

Last updated: 2nd Nov 2016

Image: Boxed In

Since a 2012 inception, the critically acclaimed Boxed In have gone from strength to strength. Oli Bayston, the quartet’s prominent creative force, has harnessed his depth of knowledge in restrained, introverted electronica to hone in on a definitive style.

His palette of off-kilter pop, house and krautrock is melded under a luxurious sheath of production - culminating at a rhythmic and nuanced end product.

Impressive levels of productivity are clear; the London-based producer has recently dropped a second album only a year after releasing a debut and in between a host of tour dates.

Now on the cusp of winter shows, Jordan Foster caught up with the pioneer to discover more about his burgeoning project, how to maintain upward momentum and 2am service stations.

Boxed In play Birmingham's Hare and Hound's on Wednesday 8th February and Manchester's Deaf Institute on Thursday 9th February - Find tickets.

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What inspired the name Boxed In?

It’s a loose definition based on a painting by Francis Bacon called Head IV. A book described it as ‘the operation through which the entire body escapes through the mouth’. To me that is creativity and singing, so I took the phrase ‘Boxed In’ to be a loose description of that.

Your debut album was released only last year, how did you churn out a second so quickly?

I have no idea! I’m in quite a prolific stage of my creative career, whether or not it's all good, I’m writing a lot of music at the moment. Most of Melt comes from the last year; at least one of the songs is really old. A song called 'Oxbow' has been around for about eight years and this felt like the right space to release it in, then a lot of the songs came during the touring process of the last album.

In fact two of them were written by me and the whole band together for the first time, which was a really nice natural progression to include them in the songwriting.

So would you say that this project began as your brainchild, before slowly integrating the rest of the band into the writing process?

Yeah, I mean I’m still the source of it but I wanted to include the band more as we go along. The way that we play together as a band is a really important part of the sound now and it’s sort of the reason why people come and see us live.

I really wanted to integrate that because they are such good players who react really well off each other. It feels like everyone’s a bit more included and it’s a really special thing between us now.

I read that Melt’s initial track 'Jist' describes you not making sense of the world around you - with its prominent hook "just cant get the jist of it". Does this notion tie in with an overarching concept in the record?

The overarching theme comes up in a few tracks – 'Jist.' 'Melt', 'Open Ended' – it’s the feeling of confusion and disparity in the way that I see the world at this point in my life. I think those songs are my way of dealing with it. But beyond that there are some more specific issues – I didn’t want to focus on a purely conceptual record.

There’s an eclectic range of styles in Melt – some of the album reminds me of intricate indie-pop from bands like Dutch Uncles, whilst parts of it seem closer to house music. Can you pick out a few particular influences of your blend?

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Yeah so the piano part from 'Jist' - a kind of percussive looping piano synth which I use quite a lot – is inspired by the piano part in Velvet Underground’s 'All Tomorrow’s Parties' and though it's not normally considered to be a heavily rhythm-based track - its more psychedelic, washed-out rock’n’roll - I incorporated that rhythmic piano and turned it something more danceable. That (method) kind of features throughout the sound of Boxed In.

Also one of my favourite house producers is Pépé Bradock and he’s always been a huge influence on the way that I produce records. Some of the more housey moments have probably been inspired by his productions.

You featured in George Fitzgerald’s debut house record and I notice a strong crossover between Melt and his material. The synths and textures in 'London Lights' and 'Up to You/ Down to Me' seem very similar to those in Fading Love. Has he had much of an influence?

Yeah we are continuing to work together at the moment and I think both our styles of production have lent things off each other. It feels like the music we’ve made together has really helped our styles independently and together.

Electronic music these days can convey so much emotion and depth. Back when the genre was emerging in the 70s/80s it was criticised for being soulless, but its getting harder and harder for people to say that. As a synth-dominant band, how do you make your music evocative?

By being honest. I just respond to a feeling that I have while I’m creating it. Using synthesisers is a really great way of evoking a whole different array of emotions. I think in recent years people have started to realise the depth and complexity you can achieve from electronic music and that it doesn’t just need to be homogenised and boring. There’s actually a lot you can play with to evoke emotions that you’re trying to portray.

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So you’ve got some live dates coming up soon, how easy have you found converting your new tracks to the live format?

It hasn’t been too bad actually! There’s definitely been a change, I’ve added a couple of new toys to the set – more synths, a little bit more percussion, and we’ve beefed up the sound of the first album to go hand-in-hand with the second.

We’re absolutely loving playing this record live and it seems to be being responded to really well by our fans and by anyone that may not have seen us before.

What are the best and worst things about touring?

I think getting to meet the people who buy the record (is the best thing). It’s a genuinely lovely thing to actually have conversations with people about what parts of the music they enjoy and how they first came to know about the band – it’s what it's all about really, getting to meet people that like the music that you make.

I’ve recently had the chance to have some proper conversations with people afterwards and they’re all so nice and it feels like a lot of them have come to see us a lot of times now.

The worst thing? When I have another cold, out of date sandwich at 2am from a dark and dingy service station. We need to get our own catering services…

What new music are you really excited about at the moment?

I’m really loving the new Crooked Man album from BFA records. Also there’s a really good artist called Hudson Scott, he’s released a few singles recently.

Finally, there’s a strong emphasis on ‘the next big thing’ in the media these days. Often bands are over-sensationalised before coming crashing down. How do you plan on evolving Boxed In?

Well having gone down to a few shows with this new album and speaking to people that have gone to festivals and seen us a number of times, we seem to have quite a loyal fanbase. The response we’ve had to this second album in relation to the first is that people seem to have really enjoyed the development.

I’m not gonna be led by the desires of the fans as to what sound they want us to make in the future, I’m just gonna keep doing what I’m doing and hope that people enjoy the music that we release.