INTERVIEW: Distorted Goods

Dawn Of Distortion is the forthcoming, debut EP from Newcastle-based producers Bran Capri and Jack Fordham. Part of the burgeoning Distorted Goods; a collective of North-East-based producers, vocalists, visual artists and creatives. The forthcoming record showcases emerging spoken and hip-hop talent, alongside dreamy, female lead vocals and ambient breaks. It’s a phenomenal debut, and Jack tells us about his journey so far.

“I initially started making more electronic tunes, though I’d always thought I could do more spoken word if I tried. Bran gave me the confidence to do that. Rock singing never felt right, I couldn’t get the words I wanted to say into that style. I had so many books of poems and nothing to do with them.”

From Bran’s perspective, it was about finding the right platform for Jack’s raw but considerable talent. “Jack didn’t realise how good he was at what he was doing. He did some spoken word for me, which was amazing, but I had ideas to make it more impactful. My dad raised me on UK hip-hop. I was blessed really, so I like to think I’ve got a better ear than most for this sort of sound.”

This soon grew into countless hours spent in the home studio together, and countless demo tracks, as their collaboration started to come together. “The first tracks we did were about finding our confidence. It was learning to collaborate, I did studio sessions with other people who were great musically, but we weren’t on the same wavelength. I always found that difficult regardless of skills and talent. We understand what each other can do, we don’t judge each other.”

We’re still trying to decipher who we are as artists and what the collective is together. We’ll only figure it out once we try

The result of those early studio sessions is a 5-track EP, with the first single released on 31^st March. “Point of View” features native Newcastle hip-hop artist John Dole, and it’s a track Bran describes as “glitchy, underground hip hop.” He adds, “John’s delivery has a real emotional tilt to it, a rawness. We did that one quite a while ago, it was one of the first things I’d ever collaborated on.”

Jack would become more heavily involved in the EP thereafter, remixing elements of the first single to make something else entirely. Which he describes as “quite dark and experimental. That one’s called A Thousand Terraced Houses. It’s a jarring change but really exciting. The interlude is probably our favourite track on the EP, it’s an instrumental track with Imogen, Frankie Jobling and Jodie Nicholson. It’s beautiful, we recorded a load of different versions and we would be happy to put every single one of them out.

The EP itself lands on 14th April, and given how incredible the tracks sound so far, questions about live shows are inevitable. “It’s early days for the live shows but they’re getting a lot better. We perform under the Distorted Goods collective, but Jack plays solo. I prefer to be behind the curtain, or in the crowd making notes. We’re already working on our second EP, and Distorted Goods is still growing. We’ve been making music and visuals for Aston Martin & END, which is more the business side. The creative side is a perfect fit for us both individually. We’re still trying to decipher who we are as artists and what the collective is together. We’ll only figure it out once we try.”

Dawn Of Distortion is released on Friday 14th April.