Affair have recently released their brand-new EP “Clouds” – which is now available to stream on Spotify!
After releasing their lead single from the EP “Higher Still” back in August, we are now able to hear “Clouds” in full. What’s interesting the most about Affair is the story of how they got here. They first released music eight years ago however, after this caught the attention of major record labels, music blogs, and a large amount of press attention, they seemed to have just…disappeared. Until now.
We wanted to know more about the “Clouds,” what happened all those years ago, and what Affair have planned in the future. Check out our interview below!:
Hey guys! Thanks for answering our questions. First of all, we just want to see how you are doing during these crazy times? How have you been able to keep motivated during lockdown?
Hi About the Noise! Like everyone else, it’s not always been plain sailing and it’s definitely hasn’t been fun. We do miss going to the pub or just out without having to think about health and safety logistics and it’s the first time that we’ve found ourselves hating nice weather! Having something to focus on has definitely helped and lockdown was part of the reason why we managed to get this EP ready by the end of it.
Let’s talk about your most recent EP “Clouds.” What can you tell us about it? How did it come about?
Mike: The EP is a collection of our first songs together and within them are themes of introspection, hope, friendship, escapism and trying to find one’s place in the world.
Kirsty: The process of writing melody came from a stream of consciousness whilst writing, which became a way of jamming and recording live our subconscious thoughts. I was left vulnerable but we captured a very real expression of that moment in time and place.
Mike: Sound-wise the concept of the EP was that we play hands-on with electronic instruments rather than using the computer as our main instrument, which lead us to put together a custom made MIDI sequencer to trigger synths and samples on the fly. It was that sequencer triggering a sampler that started most of the jams and most of the synths are recorded through an analog console.
You’ve just released your single “Higher Still.” What was it about this track that you decided would make the perfect single ahead of the EP release?
We thought that its euphoria and optimism reflect the general positive energy of the EP. We also thought it was a good epilogue for the songs because it talks about inspiration but also about how perception changes the meaning of something, like how you get different answers to the same question by changing the focus on a camera lens.
For people that may not have heard your music before, how would you describe your sound?
We’ll go with introverted, wistful, experimental electronic dream pop.
You have quite an interesting story to tell. You released music eight years ago which started to gain some attention from important people, but you didn’t quite know how to handle it. What made you want to release music again so long after? Can you tell us a bit more about that time in more depth?
We decided to release one of our first songs that we were happy about online and before we knew it it got picked up by a small – and then a super major blog. In the next week we were having people messaging us on our social media asking for meetings and interviews. We actually got an interview with Vice UK via a DM! Any song we would then release would get hundreds of streams a day and we ended up in places like a music lawyer’s office, and a major label’s A&R office in Kensington. People were asking us ‘what is going on with you’, which we knew as much about as they did. We did a few good gigs including supporting Blackbird Blackbird in Hackney, which we quite enjoyed. Have we had a manager at the time, who knows what might have happened. But we’re generally quite introverted, so our natural response to all this was then to just go back to the studio and make more music.
The result was lots of music that never got released. Kirsty moved to Cornwall and we didn’t get together until early 2020 after discussing making music again. During lockdown we realised that all this previous work needs to be out there: the music was good and listening back to it we realised that it’s a significant amount of finished work that we’re actually quite proud of and it should be out to be listened to.
With everything that you’ve learned about that experience, what advice would you give to someone who may be dealing with the same situation?
Try to convince your outgoing mate to spend half a year learning how to manage you. You’ll both end up better off for trying it in the end.
Finally, what are you currently working on? Can you tell us of any future plans?
Clouds is part of a coupled EP release, with the second EP coming out soon and including songs that came after this initial burst and that are slightly different in sound and vibes. We also have brand new material coming out in the new year, which again is very different and we’re very excited to share.
We wish Affair the best of luck with the new music! The full track list for “Clouds” can be found below, and be sure to follow Affair on Facebook and Instagram for more updates.
Tracklist:
- To Get
- Finger Tight
- Lead To One
- Sideways
- 712
- Shoulder Length
- Higher Still
What did you think of “Clouds”? Let us know what your favourite track was over on our Twitter! – @AboutThe_Noise