Jammerzine Exclusive: An Interview with Where We Sleep

When music is made with a combination of conviction and emotion, it becomes very relevant to many of those who listen to it. The rest just hear the music. But, to those who listen, the music can become spellbinding. And spellbinding is the word that I now use to describe Where We Sleep.  Beth Rettig is the founder/leader of the UK’s Where We Sleep, and she fully knows where that band is going. Beth has a solid grasp on the sound of Where We Sleep and how the music is defined. That discipline to the vision comes from her history in music beginning with the band Blindness and continues with Where We Sleep.

And today I get the pleasure of speaking with Beth about her beginnings from being raised in Africa to the formation of Blindness to claiming her independence with Where We Sleep and much, much more.

Check out our review for Where We Sleep’s video for ‘The Desert’ HERE.

About Where We Sleep
London-based dark and dynamic pop project Where We Sleep has announced their debut EP ‘Experiments In The Dark’. Ahead of that, they present the lead single ‘The Desert’, a jaded and winding psych-infused track traversing similar addictive territory as PJ Harvey, Curve, and Garbage.

At Where We Sleep’s core is Beth Rettig, perhaps best known as the vocalist of alt-pop darlings Blindness. But this project also involves collaborations with various other artists. ‘The Desert’ sees Rettig collaborate with Axel Ray of United Ghosts (and also The Black Windmill and Cadet A) on lead guitar.

@wh3rewesleep [rotatingtweets screen_name=’wh3rewesleep’]

Dark and rough around the edges, this EP combines synth and live elements. This release also features contributions from Ben Pritchard, formerly of The Fall and currently in Manc Floyd, and former Blindness bandmate Debbie Smith of Curve, Echobelly and SPC ECO fame (and also Snowpony with My Bloody Valentine’s Debbie Googe and Moonshake’s Katharine Gifford).

‘Experiments In The Dark’ is a five-track offering, recorded in studios between London and Manchester. This follows up Where We Sleep’s single ‘The First One’, released in August 2018, preceded by Where We Sleep’s debut single ‘Veins’ in June 2018, also featuring Debbie Smith, and b-side ‘Crawl’, mixed in Addis Ababa by Guy Fixsen.

Raised in Africa (Nigeria, Botswana and South Africa) and saying goodbye to the days of her Johannesburg band High, Beth Rettig returned to the UK in 2000 and eventually hooked up with Debbie Smith to form Blindness. They had a good run until playing their final gig in 2016, followed by ‘The Monsoon EP’ in 2007, their final release.

“When Blindness ended – solely down to a change in my personal life – I didn’t know if I was going to write again. Where We Sleep is the result of discovering that you don’t know how not to make music,” says Beth Rettig.

Rettig’s music is rooted in an array of influences, including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Curve, EMA, Nine Inch Nails, Jesus and Mary Chain, Garbage, Kate Bush, Massive Attack, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Pete International Airport, White Rose Movement and The Fall.

About ‘The Desert’ video, Rettig explains, “The road footage in The Desert video was taken when Axel and myself took a road trip to the Mojave Desert in California, with trips to Pioneertown and Joshua Tree National Park. It seemed a shame not to use those visuals, albeit affected, for the song. As the song came first, it was a cool realization that two people who did a song about driving through the desert together were taking a road trip through the desert together.”

LINKS:
http://www.wherewesleep.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/wherewesleep
https://wherewesleep.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/wh3rewesleep
https://www.instagram.com/where.we.sleep
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb68iXZZOJKK7qV3sMnQo7Q
https://soundcloud.com/wherewesleep
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3FFR8UDRIgrRmnZIH3AB2L