BOTW Moodboard: Glass Animals

While their debut album isn’t out until later in the year, there is already a humongous amount of buzz surrounding Oxfordshire quartet, Glass Animals. This hype has only been exacerbated by the involvement of super producer and songwriter, Paul Epworth – you know, the guy that has worked and won Grammy’s with  Adele and helped Florence and the Machine. Signing to Epworth’s Wolf Tone imprint, the group have developed a sound that is also full of barmy production, otherworldly lyrics, intelligence and a general sense of enthusiasm.

The collective banding of hip-hop influences and psychedelia that completes the band’s sound and aesthetic is a disorientating thing, but in the best way. The Gooey EP is out next week, and to celebrate Glass Animals lead singer, Dave Bayley, talked us through his most important and inspiring things.

But first, here’s the rather wonderful video for ‘Gooey’:

Madlib:

“My favourite hip hop producer of all time. He is mental. Check out his stuff as Madvilllain with DOOM and his solo rap projects as Quasimoto. His first Quasimoto record only cost him 25 bucks to make, apparently. He had some spare time in a studio after a session one day, so spent 25 dollars on some magic mushrooms…he ate them and then made the entire thing in about 8 hours while he was tripping balls, and it’s good.”

Alberto Del Pozo:
“This guy makes seriously cosmic artwork, generally of tropical Gods or Goddesses. The detail and the patterns are mind-blowing. We actually lifted the artwork for our latest single ‘Gooey’ from this particular drawing. Despite the bright and exotic vibe, the meanings behind his work are quite sombre. I love stark contrasts like this.”

Zabajaba Jungle by William Steig
“This is my favourite book from when I was a child. William Steig created such a nuts imaginary world that you can get totally lost in. He’s created a place where you can go take a little holiday from normal life. The book is a trip through that world via a dozen or so strange episodes with bizarre characters and tweaked creatures and it’s stuck with me for all these years. His drawings are also great. He also wrote the book Shrek, on which the films are based. This guy is kind of a G. Oh, and this book was initially slated as being a bit too mental for children. I disagree.”

Breaking Bad 
“We love crystal meth. Not really. But this show is brilliant. Plus it has brilliant music, and our tune ‘Black Mambo’ was conceived while watching the last episode of season 3.”

Rafael Bonilla Jr.

“Check out a filmmaker we work with a lot on our videos called Rafael Bonilla Jr. he makes brain-melting animations inspired by strange biology books about animals from the future, which we’re into as a band as well.”

Berlin:
“This is the place to go for good vibes. I’m not sure anyone actually does any work in Berlin, but that’s fine because it means you meet loads of cool people. It’s home to some of the best clubs and sound systems in the world. Try the Berghain. Just avoid the sex chambers, and the head bouncer Sven, the scariest human on earth.”

Xander the Bunny:
“This is my bunny, Xander. He is a constant inspiration to us all, especially with his mad G-funk synth lines. No, not really. He’s actually quite awful on synth. But he does actually feature on our album and he was present for most of its recording. Kind of by default as he lives in my house, which is where most of the record was made. Nevertheless, he is an inspiration and most likely a genius.”

Glass Animals release the Gooey EP on April 7th 2014.

Words: Alim Kheraj