Glows

Musician — Deptford

01Profile

A Glows Photo

03Interview

Photo by Jed Darlington-Roberts

Name, where are you from?
I'm GG Skips originally from West London but now I reside in Deptford.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
An impossible question, how could you! If I had to choose - Fuck Buttons played a silent disco at Reading Festival like 5 years ago to a bunch of confused 15-year-olds not knowing whether to cry or dance. either that or the candlelit Grouper concert in a prefab chapel called the Tin Tabernacle near my house.

If you could be on the line up with any two bands/artists in history?
I'm embarrassingly a massive dead-head so would have to be The Grateful Dead, am I able to be in the band too? I'll be at the back with my Korg Kaoss Pad adding a donk on Jerry's vocals. With support from exotica legend Les Baxter and his orchestra, again, I'm providing a donk in the background.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
Scott Walker, I am fascinated in the bizarre scope of his career from mainstream boy idol to a conscious outsider, creating some of the most abrasive and comically dark music of all time, the themes and compositional scope of each song plays out like a novel, there is always more stuff to uncover when you listen to each album. I wrote my track Foam in response to his track 'Farmer In The City' and so his recent passing is a real tragedy for me.

Of all the venues you’ve been to or played, which is your favourite?
The Bunker, Deptford or The Windmill, Brixton because they're the only human-run venues left in London. Ian Sinclair was right.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia. His poetry really is second to none, he really absorbs you in his world and perfectly articulates the monotony and depression of modern life at odds with the natural world.


 

Glows recently released his debut EP 'J.L. Hooker Love Pleasure Forever'. You can listen, stream or purchase it at backl.ink/12345000.

04Playlist Notes

The first track you played on repeat?
'Birds' by Electrelane.

A song that defines the teenage you?
'Master Of None' by Beach House / 'Blue Dream' by Hype Williams.
Me and my brother used to watch Miranda July's 'The Future' on repeat every Sunday and the scene where she dances to this song still gives me goosebumps. We both share very similar odd music tastes, I remember coasting the Soho record shops trying to find any Hype Williams affiliated records we could, was a beautiful time.

One record you would keep forever?
'Smells Like Content' by The Books.
This song reaffirms my love of life when I'm feeling down, the lyrics are both so natural and resonant, paired with the sound design that always uses incredibly organic recording techniques. This track was made by putting a microphone in a cardboard tube and swinging it around to great a natural phase of the percussion. This honestly is the perfect myriad of natural sound creation and the emotive use of samples which has been a huge focus of my music.

The song that would get you straight on the dance floor?
'Olympians' by Fuck Buttons.

A song you wished you had written?
'In The Flowers' by Animal Collective.
This song is the closest you can get to natural ecstasy. The lyrics are both incredibly domestic and transcendent, "There we could be dancing, and you'd smile and say 'I like this song'" is a line that really stuck with me, an observation of seemingly insignificant moments or comments in life that seem incredibly important in retrospect. The pairing of the intensely emotive synths with the line 'to hold you in time' is tearjerking, it all feels very familiar but otherworldly.

Best song to turn up loud?
'In The Flowers' by Animal Collective.

A song people wouldn’t expect you to like?
'Don't Panic' by Coldplay. But I guess there was a whole feature based on how I love Coldplay so I'm scuppered.

Best song to end an all-nighter on?
'A Letter From Home' by Blue Gene Tyranny.
This 20 min epic can warm you up at the end of a night. Every time I put it on everyone seems to get very quiet and go on their own little journey with the track.
'My Only Swerving' by El Ten Eleven. This is a beautifully melancholic instrumental that is somehow perfectly explained by the title.

Any new music you are listening to right now?
Hambling - The music I imagine fibre-optic cables would listen to if they were sentient. He is also out on Slow Dance, his production and sound design is revolutionary- somehow magically pairing brass sections, autotuned vocals, and bird samples into twisted proto-techno tracks.

Platonica Erotica. Was lucky enough to release her track 'Wasted' on my label Slow Dance, she has a quality difficult to describe, she rules.

03Interview

Photo by Jed Darlington-Roberts

Name, where are you from?
I'm GG Skips originally from West London but now I reside in Deptford.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
An impossible question, how could you! If I had to choose - Fuck Buttons played a silent disco at Reading Festival like 5 years ago to a bunch of confused 15-year-olds not knowing whether to cry or dance. either that or the candlelit Grouper concert in a prefab chapel called the Tin Tabernacle near my house.

If you could be on the line up with any two bands/artists in history?
I'm embarrassingly a massive dead-head so would have to be The Grateful Dead, am I able to be in the band too? I'll be at the back with my Korg Kaoss Pad adding a donk on Jerry's vocals. With support from exotica legend Les Baxter and his orchestra, again, I'm providing a donk in the background.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
Scott Walker, I am fascinated in the bizarre scope of his career from mainstream boy idol to a conscious outsider, creating some of the most abrasive and comically dark music of all time, the themes and compositional scope of each song plays out like a novel, there is always more stuff to uncover when you listen to each album. I wrote my track Foam in response to his track 'Farmer In The City' and so his recent passing is a real tragedy for me.

Of all the venues you’ve been to or played, which is your favourite?
The Bunker, Deptford or The Windmill, Brixton because they're the only human-run venues left in London. Ian Sinclair was right.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia. His poetry really is second to none, he really absorbs you in his world and perfectly articulates the monotony and depression of modern life at odds with the natural world.


 

Glows recently released his debut EP 'J.L. Hooker Love Pleasure Forever'. You can listen, stream or purchase it at backl.ink/12345000.

04Playlist Notes

The first track you played on repeat?
'Birds' by Electrelane.

A song that defines the teenage you?
'Master Of None' by Beach House / 'Blue Dream' by Hype Williams.
Me and my brother used to watch Miranda July's 'The Future' on repeat every Sunday and the scene where she dances to this song still gives me goosebumps. We both share very similar odd music tastes, I remember coasting the Soho record shops trying to find any Hype Williams affiliated records we could, was a beautiful time.

One record you would keep forever?
'Smells Like Content' by The Books.
This song reaffirms my love of life when I'm feeling down, the lyrics are both so natural and resonant, paired with the sound design that always uses incredibly organic recording techniques. This track was made by putting a microphone in a cardboard tube and swinging it around to great a natural phase of the percussion. This honestly is the perfect myriad of natural sound creation and the emotive use of samples which has been a huge focus of my music.

The song that would get you straight on the dance floor?
'Olympians' by Fuck Buttons.

A song you wished you had written?
'In The Flowers' by Animal Collective.
This song is the closest you can get to natural ecstasy. The lyrics are both incredibly domestic and transcendent, "There we could be dancing, and you'd smile and say 'I like this song'" is a line that really stuck with me, an observation of seemingly insignificant moments or comments in life that seem incredibly important in retrospect. The pairing of the intensely emotive synths with the line 'to hold you in time' is tearjerking, it all feels very familiar but otherworldly.

Best song to turn up loud?
'In The Flowers' by Animal Collective.

A song people wouldn’t expect you to like?
'Don't Panic' by Coldplay. But I guess there was a whole feature based on how I love Coldplay so I'm scuppered.

Best song to end an all-nighter on?
'A Letter From Home' by Blue Gene Tyranny.
This 20 min epic can warm you up at the end of a night. Every time I put it on everyone seems to get very quiet and go on their own little journey with the track.
'My Only Swerving' by El Ten Eleven. This is a beautifully melancholic instrumental that is somehow perfectly explained by the title.

Any new music you are listening to right now?
Hambling - The music I imagine fibre-optic cables would listen to if they were sentient. He is also out on Slow Dance, his production and sound design is revolutionary- somehow magically pairing brass sections, autotuned vocals, and bird samples into twisted proto-techno tracks.

Platonica Erotica. Was lucky enough to release her track 'Wasted' on my label Slow Dance, she has a quality difficult to describe, she rules.

 

05Videos

Glows | J.L. Hooker Love Pleasure Forever EP (2019)

Glows | Passing Talk (2019)

Glows | Foam (2018)

Glows | Perla (2018)