JG Ballard, Ziggy Stardust, volcanic love – London musician October and the Eyes is taking us through some of the reference points framing her new EP, Certificate of Participation. It’s a moodboard that echoes the record: velocity and experimentation, dystopia and euphoria. Beginning with the synth whipcrack of Public Image and building through thumping beats, wild guitars and sci-fi frequencies. October’s vocals switch from deep, devilish croons to piercing yelps throughout, embellished by frenzied feedback.

New Zealand-born but now living in London, the band’s vampish ringleader, October, stands at the centre of a new movement making waves across the city’s underground venues and warehouses: musicians, artists and poets who dress like Robert Mapplethorpe and sound like Patti Smith. Organising their own gigs and building through collaboration, there’s a magnetic, outsider energy more akin to an art movement than a traditional music ‘scene’.

Many of these artists are also part of Ann Demeulemeester creative director Stefano Gallici’s inner circle, who sets his bohemian, romantic noir designs to Moog synths and distorted post-punk. Gallici gets it. October is something of a muse for the designer, and recently was the centre of a special capsule collection featuring her image and lyrics. In support of their EP release, October and the Eyes recently played a headline set at Dalston’s Shacklewell Arms: wearing a black, silk Ann Demeulemeester dress, October stands on the stage, arms outstretched, beckoning the crowd – more, more – her silhouette high above the crowd, before launching herself at them.

Alex James Taylor: Congratulations on Certificate of Participation! It’s really great. Can you take us through your mindset when you began the EP? What did you want to put into it and how did you want it to feel?
October: I was reading a lot of apocalyptic sci-fi by JG Ballard – I was flitting simultaneously between Drowned World, The Drought and Highrise, and had just read Interzone by William S. Burroughs for the first time, after being completely bamboozled by Naked Lunch. When I get stuck into a particular author, I’m going all in, I’m reading it all. When you’re reading these horrific depictions of just how despicable mankind can be and then reading the daily news, it certainly casts a cynical shadow on my interpretation of real-world events. I guess the overarching mindset was that of being disenchanted and a little apathetic. I was a reporter interrogating my own feelings about our current existence and future, removing any sort of hysteria from my “findings” while also trying to inject a bit of humour into it all to not come off as completely hopeless.

AJT: And take us through the music you were listening to at the time of making the EP?
O: Oh, I was in my Bowie phase for sure – specifically Ziggy Stardust-era. That probably also spurred on the sci-fi elements and certainly the idea that the EP can almost be interpreted as a linear narrative. I just wanted to write big hooks like Bowie, without the shame of feeling like I was “stooping” so low as to write an obvious pop song, because I don’t think wanting to write a big hook is anything to be ashamed of, especially if Bowie did it so well. Throw in a bit of Dean Blunt, Scott Walker, Rowland S. Howard, you know, the usual suspects.

AJT: The album notes describe how you wrote using a nylon string acoustic guitar – how did that change things for you? There’s a warmer, melodious quality to using nylon strings.
O: Nylon stringed guitars are typically for playing classical music right, there’s a sense of softness and restraint and an almost regal quality to the sound. I have just always preferred them over steel strings. I liked the idea of sending these classical tones through electric guitar pedals, adding distortion, phase, tremolo to this very pure and unadulterated sound and defiling it a little bit. I also just yearned for a bit of softness in the music and that’s something I’m going to pursue more in the music I’m writing at the moment. Space and softness and restraint.

AJT: What were you reading and watching at the time of making the EP?
O: I’d watched Fire of Love, which is this incredible documentary about two volcanic explorers who are also lovers who risk their lives in the name of science and eventually die together in a volcanic eruption. I thought it was such a beautiful story and the footage is mind-blowing. This inspired Rubber Gloves as I carried around this vivid image of these glinting silver heat protection suits glowing in sharp contrast to the fiery reds and oranges of violent lava. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen and definitely spurred these ideas of finding beauty in catastrophe.

“We’ve got to recognise what we’ve got going on here and really make the most of it.”

AJT: You take a collage-like approach to recording, somewhat akin to Burroughs, how does this process work? How do you tend to start a track and how do you build it? Is it quite instinctive?
O: It’s funny because I’ve always talked about how I consider my music to be collage-rock but have never made the connection between that approach and Burroughs’ cut-up method, but I guess it is kind of exactly that? For me, my approach was developed basically because I’m not a very good instrumentalist. My ideas far succeed my actual ability. In the demo phase, I will write, record, and programme every instrument. I can’t play the song or even an entire verse all the way through on guitar without fucking up, so I record it section by section and collage it together. A lot of the time I prefer the naivety and charm of the shitty demo recordings and cut them into the recorded versions of the songs I’ve done in the studio with my band. I like to utilise both drum machines and live drums, cutting them into one another, and I like to sample my band’s live takes and also use found samples. It’s very much a hybrid of electronic production techniques and traditional live band recording techniques. This is not to say that my approach is new or unique because it’s absolutely not, it’s simply a label that I feel best describes my ethos to music-making. I guess it’s sort of my “personal philosophy”, without that sounding incredible pretentious. It’s very easy to get lost in the sauce, so centring my musical endeavours around this principle helps to focus my approach.

AJT: Alongside the likes of Bande a Part, The Midnight Audience, Tabac Rat, you’re part of a new wave of musicians creating something very poetic, meaningful, raw and passionate. What I feel is particularly special about this community is how you’re placing music and performance at the centre of everything. You’re setting the stage yourselves. How does it feel being part of this and how important is it to have each other to bounce off and relate to?
O: Again I think it probably relates to this feeling of disillusionment that my friends and I feel about things in general and in this case specifically, the music industry. It only works to serve a small few, so we’ve been more than happy and capable of taking matters into our own hands and carving our own path, putting on our own gigs, shooting our visuals ourselves on little to no budget. Alongside all of this we’re all just good friends who want to do this together as a collective, and I guess because of this, we naturally inspire one another whether consciously or not. It’s a beautiful thing to be part of this debauched community of ours. You know, I had this conversation with Sabina [Hellstrom, Bande a Part frontperson] about how it can be difficult to notice a scene forming when you’re at the centre of it all, you only really notice it in hindsight or if you’re on the outside looking in. So I said we’ve got to recognise what we’ve got going on here and really make the most of it.

“A lot of the time I prefer the naivety and charm of the shitty demo recordings and cut them into the recorded versions of the songs…“

AJT: I have to ask about working with Stefano at Ann Demeulemeester – how did you meet him?
O: I first met Stefano just after he’d been announced as the new creative director, but it was one of those circumstances where we had actually been following each other on Instagram for a while. I was in Milan for a show during fashion week and got a drink with him and Nico, who also works for Ann Demeulemeester. We got along straight away and shared a similar philosophy on life and creativity. He’s a very calm presence – no fanfare or ego. Fast forward nearly a year later and I’m getting cold-called by Nico and Gabriele (at Ann Demeulemeester) who propose the idea of making OATE “merch” for Ann Demeulemeester. Naturally, I was pretty shocked by the proposal. We moved very quickly, and I suggested my good friend Alex Schipper should shoot the photos the following week. It was a very organised yet natural process and there were very few revisions after the team proposed the designs. It was a perfect fit and a dream come true – I’ll be forever thankful to the team.

AJT: And how special does it feel to be at the centre of what Stefano is creating at the House? There’s an amazing energy there, a sense of community.
O: There’s a real sense of camaraderie between the Ann Demeulemeester crew and my London scene. We’re all the same age, have the same music taste, the same fashion sense, the same taste in literature and art. We are two mirrors reflecting back at one another. We’re just good friends who have fun whenever we see each other. I guess it’s only natural that they draw inspiration and are informed by us and the culture we’re creating for ourselves here in London, because in turn we are inspired by what they’re doing at Ann, and how they’re reinventing the brand for the modern person, who we very much see ourselves as.

Hair Charles Stanley
Make-up Emma Regan
Fashion Assistant Jonty Race

October and the Eyes’ new EP Certificate of Participation is out now.