Brighton/London-based Squid, combine atmospheric ambience, Krautrock and psych to create an emotional yet rough and ready sound, that draws comparisons from artists such Flamingods and Floating Points. Having been played on Radio 6 Music's – The Tom Robinson Show, picked up by Gigwise, and stocked by local label and record store Mr Bongo – 2018 is shaping up to the year of the Squid. 

We spoke to Anton Pearson, idiosyncratic guitarists, and Ollie Judge, drummer and dynamic singer, of Squid – to talk new & old material and their developing and ever-changing sound, as well as to find out a bit more about Brighton and London's most insatiable underwater boy-band.   

Can you tell us a little bit about your formation? And what are some of your influences are?

Anton: We formed as friends living in Brighton while we were at university so we always feel very lucky to have such close friends interested in making music together. Each of us has got a mad array of influences and there’s five of us now so there are all kinds of things feeding into our approaches to composition and performance. When Ollie, Louis and I (Anton) first started playing music together, we were listening to a lot of ambient music, and jazz and that’s the sort of sound we first created. Things have changed a lot since then.

Your latest releases Lino – has had quite a bit of radio play for a krautrock-esque record, Mr Bongo has also been raving about it! Were you thinking about commercial/crossover appeal when writing and recording it?

I don’t think we were worried about the commercial appeal when we were composing or recording, we just did whatever we found exciting at the time. It’s great that people have enjoyed listening to the record and have said really nice things about it. We never imagined ‘Liquid Light'. would find its way onto 6Music several times. It’s probably no coincidence that Liquid Light is our only track under five minutes in length so far, but it’s that length because that’s what suited the track best rather than a conscious decision about the commercial appeal.

Also, you pressed the EP on limited vinyl with custom lino prints, what was the aesthetical idea behind that?

It’s great to have our own record out on vinyl and we’re really pleased with how it sounds. I guess after spending so much time on the record we wanted the reward to be something we can physically hold as well as the best audio quality possible. We felt analogue playback suited the record best. Mind you, it did mean the process took ages so we’re steering clear of vinyl for a little while.

You've recently seemed to take a sonic change in your style, how has this come about? Is it down to performing live more?

I don’t think we know exactly why things are changing sonically, it just seems to be a natural progression as we’re getting more experienced and experimenting as a band. We’re not too concerned about that, we’re still very early in our life as a band. I guess playing many more gigs has no doubt assisted this development. Instrumentation has fluctuated a lot as well, we often have two guitars rather than one or Laurie on cornet. Arthur plays much less cello than he used to with Squid, but we’re keen to bring it back soon. Things are getting funkier, with more emphasis on vocals as our confidence develops.

The band has split into being based in London and Brighton, how has that impacted Squid?

The band is fine, yes. I mean, obviously, since Louis and Ollie have moved to London they’ve become complete snobs and really difficult to spend significant amounts of time with. Air pollution is also an issue up there so they always run out of breath in gigs. But, it’s been easier than we imagined I think. We just spend more time on trains than before. We’ve been playing most of our shows in London in recent months and rehearsing in both cities. Brighton to London is an easy journey so it’s been no real problem really.

You've got a new single coming out fairly soon? Can you give us the lowdown?

Yes, we’re really excited. It's my favourite track of ours so I really enjoyed the process of getting it recorded. Without trying to be too vague about it, I’d say it’s got elements of ‘Lino’ in it as well as tracks like ‘The Dial’, it feels like a good marriage between these two very different tracks of ours. For now, it’ll be just a digital release

How was the gig with Red Deer People at the GDS? Do you notice a difference in the crowd in Brighton to London?

Yes, it was a fantastic gig. We haven’t played a gig in Brighton in a while and were so pleased to see the place packed on our return. Credit to Brighton Noise for the promotion. Green Door Store is always a great place to play for us. It was also our first time seeing Red Deer People who we thought were excellent. Every gig we do is different so we can’t say we notice any difference between London and Brighton crowds. We are, however, seeing more and more people we don’t know at our gigs which is always really pleasing.

Other future plans? And what are you listening to at the moment?

We should be putting out a couple more tracks over the next few months so we’re going to be in studios quite a bit. We’ve got a couple of dates in London in the near future. Aside from this, we’re also keen to have a bit of time with no gigs or studio time to get writing again. I can’t speak for the others but right now, as I type, I’m listening to Elizabeth Cotten. Magical music.

Favourite band/label coming out of Brighton/Brighton scene? 

Ollie: I really like Breathe Panel’s new single that just came out on FatCat. I interned for FatCat last year and have heard their album a million times. They’re kind of like a brit-pop version of Deerhunter. I’m excited to see what Small Pond have got coming up. I particularly like a new artist on their label called ‘Inwards’ who is pretty much Brighton's answer to Aphex Twin. The label Gob Nation is also great – they just put out a demo tape by The Snivellers who are a truly pathetic group of men making the greatest and campest punk you’ll ever hear. I don’t even live in Brighton anymore – maybe I miss it more than I think!

Listen to Squid on Bandcamp here. 

And keep up-to-date with all Squid related gigs and news on their Facebook page.