In The Studio With
Matthew Barnes’ third Forest Swords album delves further into his stark, sumptuous and singularly unique sound world. Danny Turner finds out more
Matthew Barnes hit the ground running with his debut Forest Swords EP Dagger Paths back in 2010, with critics raving about its psychedelic guitars and samplestrewn anatomical design. This was followed by albums Engravings (2013) and Compassion (2017) where Barnes developed entirely new and uniquely imaginative soundscapes, employing multiple layers of electronic textures, percussion and vocal samples.
So inspiring was Barnes’ foray into contemporary sound design, he was approached to score for video games, soundtrack and even theatre. Following a six-year break, Barnes’ third Forest Swords album, Bolted, is a playful yet no less enigmatic return, rewriting the electronic playbook with its combination of inexplicable atmospheres, deconstructed beats, eerie vocals and some beautifully absorbing melodies.
Your sound is very distinguishable from other electronic artists. Was that an immediate ambition when you started making electronic music?
“I never really went into it with any sort of plan or sound idea. I got made redundant from my job, so making music was almost a bit of an experiment of playing around on my laptop when I was bored. I wasn’t listening to anything in particularly and didn’t pinpoint what I wanted to sound like; I just made the music I wanted to hear and chose sounds that resonated with me on some level, almost creating the things that I wanted to exist in the world.”
Your DJ Kicks compilation in 2018 did give us some insight into your personal tastes and Dead Can Dance stands out as a band you might have particularly related to?
“I discovered them quite late actually – I’d heard of the name but hadn’t really listened to them properly. They have a similar timeless sound where you can’t really place whether it was made in the ’80s or ’90s and I like that ambiguity of not knowing whether something is real or digital, an instrument or a sample. For me, Dead Can Dance ticked a lot of those boxes.”
It’s been six years since your last solo album, Compassion, but we understand you’ve spent time working in several different mediums?
“All of that happened accidentally really. A lot of choreographers and directors got in touch about doing work at a time when I was between albums and it was a new experience to make music to a brief, although I was used to doing that having been a graphic designer. I made music for a ballet and spent most of the pandemic scoring a video game for Microsoft, but the way that you have to make music for these projects is very different to solo albums. They’re more experiential and you have to create layers and moments that will hit at different points.”
Explain how the video game work differs from s
