Introducing: House of Black Lanterns & his debut album, Kill The Lights

Artists with a well-rounded vision are the people that tend to stick out the most. It’s not really intended to be a criticism of the people, producers and musicians that surround them; it’s more a simple fact. And that’s one of the main reasons our Houndstooth imprint exists, with the artists facilitating it doing what it does. The first artist who the Houndstooth team have been able to properly present and represent fully, is House of Black Lanterns. A new endeavour from Dylan Richards (formerly King Cannibal when recording on Ninja Tune and ‘ZILLA’ from long before that), the recently released Kill The Lights is his debut long player under the moniker. The album is the result of a personal growth and, as a direct consequence, the album material segues from scenic dystopia to other mental integrity testing tracks numerous times over during it’s running time with tracks like ‘You, Me, Metropolis’ lamenting Richards’ relationship with his environment and other songs representing other sorts of his internal monologues. Simply put, HoBL’s sound is very much a more personal project and it’s one that’s benefitted from Richards’ own attachment to the music. As King Cannibal, at times it felt like he was assaulting you, testing you with everything he’s got whilst wearing that little knowing smile he wears when he performs as a kind of armour, but as House of Black Lanterns, it feels like he’s trying to make you understand his actual position a little bit more. And whilst it’s impossible to trim this introduction of bias or any kind of dual interest, we simply wanted the opportunity to properly introduce the work of the first artist who’s been comfortable enough with us to let us build a home for his output. So we went and asked him a few questions… So I guess the first, most obvious thing we should really talk about is the new project title. After working as King Cannibal and Zilla - what does ‘House of Black Lanterns’ signify? Like do you think each name has different traits to its music? Do you section it off like that? There are certainly different properties for each alias, but mostly they are dictated by chapters in my life which lead to me write in a certain style. I don't think I could sit down a write a King Cannibal piece at the moment, as I am in a different situation which means I don't want to write something so brutal. Crossovers in sounds and themes do tend to happen as these different periods in life are slow progressions and there are writing conventions and sound pallets that come natural to me. House of Black Lanterns is about freedom and what I want to make today. I mean there’s always been a darkness to the music you make, regardless of the name you put on it. Why do you think you’re drawn to that? I don't know if it is something I'm consciously drawn to really - it just comes out that way. I don't sit down to try and make dark music; I just try and write the best I can. Other people seem to really pick up on its darkness. If music was mapped to a tonal pallet there is a lot more evil tunes and acts I could point people towards, but perhaps most haven't been exposed to as much Digital Hardcore Recordings, White House or Throbbing Gristle as I have been over the years. If I am conscious of being influenced by a sound It is probably most from late nineties drum & bass. I think if I am this dark soundscape character, there are certainly enough people making overly happy party time music out there and those kinds of parties were never the places I wanted to go to. I'm not wearing smart shoes out to go to a club; it will mess them up for the next funeral I have to go to. Historically you’ve previously released on these real bastions of UK electronic music, Warp, Ninja aka the guys who are revered now for being game changing. What’s your experience of that sort of culture in electronic music? It has been interesting seeing where things have gone, what trends have taken hold and what have passed. Increasingly it is harder to just cut off and focus soley on the UK when looking at electronic music as it is now very much an online community. I wasn't someone who was in and out of clubs every weekend, so I didn't experience a lot on the ground level. Most of my understanding comes from years of reading about it, or working in record shops, distribution or promotion. It is interesting to see young people and producers eyes opening to things which seem well worn to me, but as long as someone steps up with a fresh take on things that can only be a good thing. Electronic music is about innovation - Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Phuture… Its innovation and the push for developing and experimentation drove all these cornerstones of dance music. Notable labels are built on this ethos, and while there are other important elements in running a label, you will stay on people's lips if you seek out to develop new artists, working with them from the ground up. Where do you think things are at now? Do you feel like there’s much support for the experimental sounds? Up to a level, yeah. Press seem open to a lot of experimental material at the moment, you just need to look at labels like PAN, L.I.E.S and Blackestever Black to see that they do well with online press, although it feels like there is a glass ceiling of sorts - I mean there is the 'arts' market as such which opens out to the trend led crowd and college radio. The difficulty seems to be with getting past that in to the wider forum in a way that Laurie Anderson did with ‘Oh Superman’. Something you can really hear that other reviewers have picked up on is the impact that Berlin has had on the album. It really has been big phenomenon of late, of the city so strongly influencing what artists produce – why did you decide to make the move over there? It does seem to be the place to talk about right now, and not just in musical terms as there is quite the 'start up' tech company boom here too. What I find interesting is that the majority of this album was written either in South London or Brighton, before I moved over to Germany. It was mixture of economics and knowing a few people here already that really drove the decision to move. What can you pick out about the city that has been the big things that have affected you? I've been trying to pull my emotions and write about the things I have been experiencing during the course of the album. 'You Me Metropolis' was very much about how I felt about this city when initially relocating here, it was seemed a great big new exciting place waiting to be explored. I never really grew up knowing anyone else who made electronic music, and it was exciting to know that there was a large amount electronic artists based here as it could offer a chance to exchange ideas and communicate with other people doing what I do on a one to one level. As it goes, I've not really found much of a community here though, which seems sad - there is certainly a 'scene', but that exists in the four walls of a club. It isn't exactly a collaborative social forum in the way I found L.A. for the brief period I was there, or what I am told about Bristol. When you have that experimentation with people coming together that have different ideas and influences; that is when really exciting music can get made and whole healthy communities can develop. It has just resulted in me mixing with less and less musicians and just getting on with doing what it is I want to do: to write music that interests me. Can you tell us about how the album came together? There have been a lot of comparisons made between the album and film scores and it really does have this fantasy filmic quality to it – was that something you were working towards when recording it? It isn't something that I purposefully put in to the music, I think people pick up on it as a result of the drum & bass elements to my sound and the attention to detail in the sound textures and sound effects. I find my music a tad underdeveloped if I don't include the small details in my productions - it probably also falls in to what people would term as sound design. The music I like most sounds different and alien and I try and do my best to further that in my own work. You’ve performed both at Boiler Room and in RM 2 for the launch of Houndstooth were you happy with how the live set’s been working out in terms of presenting the album? Definitely so. Up until this point I’d only been billed as a live performer once, which was for a one off performance of a reworking of one of Witold Lutoslawski's string concertos. I've been deejaying for a long time now, and taking things towards more of a live performance is filling me with excitement that perhaps was starting to get lost slightly in my deejay sets. I think there is a long road of development ahead in order to fully turn this in to a fully live experience, but that is a prospect I am excited by. I've never been very good at deejaying my own material, as there is a lot of good music I’m buying and occasionally my enthusiasm for those new sounds can get in the way of hearing my own tunes once more, despite the fact that people no doubt want to hear me play them. This way I can fully present the material and only need to keep a spare eye on the dancefloor, as people are more forgiving when they come to see a live show - it isn't going to be wall to wall bangers, and if you expect that then frankly you have come to see the wrong guy. Where do you see this project going next, now you’ve got an album down do you think HoBL will develop further or do you feel another project coming along? I'm looking at developing it in to a full audio visual experience too and hopefully expanding out the performance aspect of the work, as that is important to the music and album themes and something that will help take my shows out of clubs. I've been in and out of clubs for a long time and I’m ready to welcome the next step. As for the writing, I’m just trying not to over think things and see what I want to make when I hit the studio tonight. House of Black Lanterns debut album Kill The Lights is out now on Houndstooth. Order you copy here. You can download a mixtape HoBL made in honour of the album over at Clash Music and stream his performance from Houndstooth's Boiler Room takeover below: