L-space/ Post-Coal Prom Queen-Interview International Woman's Day #4

Words by Josephine Sillars

Q:Hello Lily! So, for someone unfamiliar with L-space/Post Coal Prom Queen, how would you describe your sound? 

A:We have been trying to find good genre terms for a while, and it's hard to know which ones to use! Synth-pop, electro-pop, post-cyberpunk-neo-aesthetic-console-futurism-dream-pop?? We are using alt-pop right now as it is vague enough... But otherwise I would say we sound varied, electronic, sometimes dreamy, sometimes harsh, and exploring utopias and dystopias, current and futuristic. We have recently been compare to Broadcast and Portishead.

Q:You guys have some incredible looking shows coming up including two shows in Tokyo! How did that come about and what are you most looking forward to about the trip?

A:We discovered a great band called Macaroom from Tokyo (check them out!) and asked if we could collaborate with them. We are making some music together, and also playing some gigs they organised for us to play together in Tokyo. I am so excited to bring our music to new audiences and work with Macaroom, with the backdrop of an amazing city, but there is a big possibility we might not be able to go now due to the Covid-19 virus. It is possible we won't be able to get to Japan, or would get quarantined if we arrive. Great topic for a song, but I'd rather play the gigs and eat sushi...

Q:Music For Megastructures is a really interesting album with its instrumental and experimental nature almost being reminiscent of musique concrète. How did your creative approach differ between this album and your first album, Kipple Arcadia?

A:Gordon started working on it over Christmas when he had some spare time. I heard what he was making and loved it, and wrote some music for the project too. Dickson then contributed some basslines. The sound came from playing with different synths with overlapping and interlaced melodies. We wanted to try putting an emphasis on making the sounds and textures convey an atmosphere rather than words. When I was writing for it, in my head I had images of a futuristic city, with lots of different scenes of different lives happening inside it. I used this to pick out the textures I felt fit the visual scene, and melodies to emulate the mood. This was in some ways different to writing for Kipple Arcadia, as it didn't need the structure, or direction of a standard song. It could take its own journey and meander and experiment. As well as needing to establish mood without words, relying instead on the sounds and melodies.

Q:With International Women’s Day having just past, and with festivals world wide coming under scrutiny for gender equal line ups, how do you feel women are represented within the music industry today?

A:They are not represented fairly. A common rebuttal to that is that festivals should book according to talent, not gender. This is what we all ultimately want; no-one actually likes quotas. However, the fact that there is such a disparity, where the population of the world is not even nearly represented in the pool of people booked, shows that someone is actually caring about gender, and it is in a preference for men. There are just as many talented artists that aren't male, but the image of the tortured musical genius, the troubadour, the bard, the people's hero with a guitar sharing his personal and political troubles, is a leftover image from the past that is very male. We are still in the historical hangover. As a music culture (and actually in other industries, and intersectionally), we need to temporarily change the way we think about gig and festival line ups in order to break the cycle. Once the cycle is broken, and the icon of talented musician is as female as it is male, or even genderless, then it won't even need much thought to book balanced line ups as it will come naturally. Until then, the way for music industry people to show they care about music, musicians and justice is to attempt gender balanced line-ups. They don't have to: they can just care about money and not change their way of thinking at all, but they will be judged for that. Q:And finally, anything to plug? What’s next for L-space/Post-Coal Prom Queen?

A:L-space are morphing into Post-Coal Prom Queen, which is similar music and some of the same songs, but as a more electronic duo and experimenting more with how we put out music and different sounds. We are working on an EP to show the world the beginning of our next project! We are hoping to do a tour, if it isn't cancelled by the pandemic, with gigs in Tokyo, Glasgow, London, and Carlisle. We have halted booking any more stops on the tour for the moment. However, even if we cannot play gigs due to the end of the world coming, we will still be sitting in our bedrooms writing songs right up until the end.