Words by Annie Barber
Photos by Kyle Berger
LA band Dummy’s visionary approach to music positions them as fundamentally anti-AI. For the group, the process of creating is the essence of being an artist, as well as an essential part of what it means to be human. Having generated a lot of industry attention over the years for their inventive approach, they have now returned with an exciting new album, called ‘do you love the colour of the sky?’, which sees the band adopt a lighter sound and more vulnerable lyricism. Though the songs also have an electronic sound, it was achieved by recording only on guitars and then chopping them up to make something almost completely new. This innovative method led to them having to deconstruct and reshape the songs for the stage. Ahead of their third album’s release, the band answered some of Karma!’s burning questions about its making and the process of getting it ready for touring.
AB: The album’s name, ‘do you love the colour of the sky?’, is a repeated refrain in the opening song, ‘April Limousine’. What drew you to that as a title and how did it come about?
Dummy: We’d like to keep the title as a phrase you can interpret any way you want. We have ideas of its meaning, but we leave it up to the audience to take from it what they will.
AB: The songs are a fusion of dance and electronic with guitar-driven music. Why did you want to combine those particular sounds?
Dummy: There was a time when genuine rock music/rock instruments were being fused with dance, rave and experimental electronic music in the 90s, before it was stamped out by something a lil more sonically conservative. Now, when rock music and electronic music fuse it’s, majority of the time, more brooding, male, aggro. We wanted to make something more oceanic, dreamy, earnest and immersive while still making pop music. It also just excited/challenged us to warp guitars.
AB: What were the main musical influences behind the album?
Dummy: Drone, IDM, jungle, drum n bass, guitar pop and what we’d call ambient rock.
AB: ‘do you love the colour of the sky?’ has a lighter, more ethereal sound, and the lyrics are more vulnerable than on your first two albums. Why did you want to go down that route this time?
Dummy: We are always trying to move forward, expand and get inspired all over again. We don’t wanna keep rehashing what we’ve done in the past, that’s not how art should be [approached] and it’s quite boring for us, and ultimately we are pleasing ourselves first and if people continue to enjoy it, that’s awesome.
AB: Although the album has that electronic sound, you achieved it by starting with a guitar and then reshaping it until it produced something almost entirely different. What draws you to those sorts of experimental arrangements?
Dummy: Just being bored with synth and feeling more [drawn] to the visceral nature of playing/warping what sounds a guitar can make.
AB: How did the creative process unfold when making ‘do you love the colour of the sky?’, and how did it differ to your first two albums?
Dummy: It was written mostly in between all of our touring on ‘Free Energy’ — two or three songs here and there. We’d get a burst of creative energy, but we didn’t have time to work on them in a live setting. We learned them all backwards, which on previous records we played about half of the songs live before they were recorded.
AB: Now that you’re about to embark on a tour, you’re having to reconstruct the album so that it can be played live. How is that process unfolding?
Dummy: It’s been very difficult because we are dogmatic about not going the easy route of using a DAW live. It’s all based on guitars and electronic hardware/sampling. It’s very tricky to do — we are still figuring it out, [it’s] easier to do on tour.
AB: ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ and ‘Omen Globe’ feel like standout tracks. Could you briefly take us through the making of them?
Dummy: ‘Omen Globe’ was, I believe, the second song we wrote for the record. It was all based around the beat and rhythmic tremolo. ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ was a more dense/blow out song that we peeled the layers back until we got to where it is now — it’s still aggro but has more space for Emma [to] yell at everyone about how AI is pillaging human creativity.
AB: The length of the songs varies throughout the album, with the shortest at 1 and a half minutes, and the longest at 6 and a half minutes. How did you decide how long you wanted each song to be — was it quite an intuitive decision?
Dummy: The songs just naturally evolve to the lengths they are. We were more open to letting songs breathe and expand past our previous stuff.
AB: Lastly, I want to turn to the visuals for the album, in particular its cover and the video for ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ by Post Man. How important is it to you to collaborate with visual artists on an album campaign and have that human input, considering that AI is becoming so pervasive in the creative industries?
Dummy: Emma normally does everything, and she’s a graphic designer and now, I’d consider a music video director. Working with Post Man was new cuz we had a budget. We care about art, and AI is anti-art and loser shit.
While we may not know the true meaning of the phrase ‘do you love the colour of the sky?’, it is clear that the album is a true celebration of creativity and humanity. Each song on it proves that their dedication to reinventing themselves and finding joy in the messiness of making art has all been worthwhile.
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