Alex James Taylor: Hi, how are you? Did you have a good New Year’s?
Sonny Kilfoyle: I’m doing well, thank you. I had a great New Year’s. For the first time in about ten years I wasn’t able to stay awake until midnight. The whole partying while ringing in the New Year got kind of boring to me. I’d rather wake up at 7am on New Year’s Day and go for a walk.

Alex James Taylor: How was 2013 for you?
Sonny Kilfoyle: 2013 was one of my favourite years. Looking back there are so many interesting things that happened. It was great to put out Tides End and get to travel to Tokyo and play in Japan. I’m a little bit frightened of the future and all of this internet/technology/digital music thing going on. Sometimes I feel like the hipsters are trying to take over, and I sincerely wish someone would stop them.

Alex James Taylor: MINKS is essentially just you, with friends used as session musicians right? Do you find this suits you rather than being in a band?
Sonny Kilfoyle: Early on MINKS was myself with some friends helping out in the studio a little bit, but mostly live. There was a time when it felt like it was veering a bit towards a full band, but it didn’t feel right to me. I like the idea of being a composer/arranger and having other people play my music, but this usually doesn’t work for a few reasons. One is that I can’t afford to pay them enough to just play exactly what I want without complaint. The second issue is that rock based musicians always want to make their own mark and write music. It’s hard to tell someone they are a better player than they are a writer, so now I’m just not going to deal with it. Do painters paint in groups, or do writers write books in groups? Not so much. I’m stubborn and obsessive and don’t work well with others.

Alex James Taylor: How did MINKS begin?
Sonny Kilfoyle: MINKS began with an aesthetic and an idea that turned into a few songs. I had the opportunity early on to release Funeral Song with Captured Tracks, and that was the beginning. I was and am still very connected to the ideas and philosophies that Captured Tracks stands for. It’s kind of like a record club to me rather than a label, and the importance of creativity and art are still highly valued.

Alex James Taylor: You released your second album Tides End back in August last year, it’s often said that the second album is the trickiest, did you find this?
Sonny Kilfoyle: I guess it depends what you mean. If you mean in terms of the creative process, I didn’t find it to be that tricky. If anything I felt I had a clearer idea and the patience to be meticulous. I didn’t exactly feel a loyalty to recreate a second version of the first album.

If you mean with the critics, then yeah you might be right. People always have their own opinion on how they want the second album to progress. Some people love Tides End and some people hate it. I think it’s the strongest body of music I’ve ever made.

Alex James Taylor: Tides End is very different to your sparse first album By the Hedge, it’s much more pop influenced and upbeat. Was this a conscious decision to move in this direction?
Sonny Kilfoyle: It would be very boring to make the same album twice. After By the Hedge there were just so many albums that came out doused in reverb, echo and monotone notes. I’ve always been inspired to see something I dislike and do the exact opposite, so that’s what I did. Instead of burying the vocals in fifteen layers of reverb I put them on top and crystal clear. I hate fitting in to a trend and thought I’d try on a new outfit. It also helps with satisfying a need to try new things. It’s not entirely different from By the Hedge, but clearly a different approach.

Alex James Taylor: There’s a thing for shoegaze-influenced lo-fi music at the moment, did you feel like you wanted to move away from this scene?
Sonny Kilfoyle: Yes, 100%, but I’m started to get annoyed with everything constantly being compared to the past, you can’t move a step forward these days without someone telling you someone else walked there before you. It’s like you should start making spaceship music or just sit around in your recliner waiting to die. I hate scenes, trends, genres, and all of these things that put us in boxes rather than be looked at as individuals. The shame is that some of these kids try so hard to be a part of something, when they were cooler and more unique before.

Alex James Taylor: Did you change the recording process for your second album?
Sonny Kilfoyle: The process was the exact opposite. Firstly I worked with a producer/engineer which I had not done before. The first album I engineered myself and did not want to do that again. Mark Verbos who worked on Tides End with me is a very smart and obsessive person. He’s the type of guy that you can hum a few notes to, make a few abstract sounds, hum again, and say “you know what I mean?” and know exactly what you mean and then go do it. We didn’t use any live drums on the album except for a few samples from Mick Fleetwood’s drum sounds. It took me two hours to get to Mark’s studio, so usually I’d spend few days in the city and go home and try some stuff out on my own before it was finalised. On the first album, I lived around the corner from the studio and was not very disciplined in my schedule.

Alex James Taylor: How important do you think it is for a musician to evolve and explore different genres?
Sonny Kilfoyle: I don’t really put boundaries on what I do, but to answer your question… yes, I guess. I don’t think about music the way other people do. I don’t want to talk about it or dissect it. I listen to it and that’s pretty much it. So and so’s recent album isn’t water-cooler discussion for me. Honestly, I see music as either something I like or something I don’t like and leave it at that. As an artist I’ll do whatever the fuck I want, and if someone wants to put music in a box, that’s their own issue.

Alex James Taylor: I really loved your videos for Margot and Funeral Song, you seem to take a lot of pride in them…
Sonny Kilfoyle: Thank you very much. The first video was directed by my good friend Lance Drake. He had flown out from Los Angeles to visit me for a week with an idea about doing a video about these white bikes. If you don’t already know, in New York, anytime someone is struck by a car and killed on their bicycle, a white bike is placed at the spot as a memorial.

The Margot video stars my wife, Danielle, and was shot by us in kind of an intimate way. I love and have studied photography, but this was my first time working with a moving image. It’s strange to change the idea of one image creating a mood, to cutting, clipping, and editing to create a moving concept, but it was great. I’m a complete amateur but it’s something I’m trying to improve on.

Alex James Taylor: What’s next for MINKS?
Sonny Kilfoyle: Lately I’ve been obsessed with big loud drums and psych loops. I’ve written about twenty new songs and hoping to enter the studio soon with a live band. That’s all I know. Thank you and good day.

Visit MINKS’ website and follow him on Facebook and Twitter

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