Q&A: The Long-Awaited Return of Tom Vek

What made you want to come back to music?

Tom Vek: I wanted to present the next chapter that had been in my mind since completing the first album. I got asked, "What would my next album sound like?" and didn't know. So when it was coming together I felt that I was answering that question and I was very excited about achieving it. I had been humbled by the realization at one point that it wasn't a given that it would even exist. I think that is healthy for an artist to acknowledge that that is one of your options, the absence of art, and that you consider that in the big scheme of your contribution.

In the five-year gap between We Have Sound and Leisure Seizure, what were you doing and what led to the creation of the second album?

I stripped the whole process right back to the fundamentals, I wanted to establish an existence as a recording artist. I always hated deadlines, or thought I did until I realized I wouldn't do anything without one so I had to force it on myself. I moved studio a lot of times. It's a pain the first time, but after the fourth time I just got on with it again. I wanted to be able to anoint an environment by my work and then for that environment to be able to feed back into my work. I found this place in 2009 and then I felt I could start properly on completing the album.

How do you feel about the fan reaction when you took a break from music?

I felt a bit bad that I went silent but I made sure to remember that it's healthy for people to be slightly neurotic in their enthusiasm. I am the same myself about certain things. "Where's your new music?" etc. can seem very attacking and presumptuous when you don't know yourself, but you hope you'll get there, so there's no need for an update in the meantime. There are plenty of people "working" on stuff, I was only concerned with finishing.

You were trained to be a graphic designer, does that play into what you do musically? Do the two go hand in hand or are they things you keep separate?

They are pretty separate because I see different aesthetics in both, but it's more about them complementing each other. I think of my music as the challenging, abrasive art piece and the design as the art gallery. So by exaggerating those two characteristics they are benefitting each other. That's what I like about the role of a designer is that it tends to be problem-solving and presenting messages, which I enjoy doing for my music.

What is the inspiration behind Leisure Seizure?

The inspiration was essentially the philosophizing I did after the experience of releasing my first album. The fact that I'd been so fortunate, the realness of the work, and my dedication to it. Then this strange element entering the mix of anxiety about recreating the approach whilst trying to move on—the very idea that it would be a laborious task—thrown into a precarious career without much experience or source of guidance. There is an underlying message that getting what you think you want isn't what you want… it deals with cautionary tales, and in a way tries to lay down a hyper-awareness of what is currently happening in the now, the journey being more exciting than the destination.

There are so many varied sounds on Leisure Seizure. What instruments did you use and what was the songwriting process like?

The process of getting varied sound on this album was more about processing and the performance element. Quite a few of the stranger sounds started as a basic synth or effected guitar or percussion part that was then mangled, re-recorded, pitched or looped so that it would start to sound unreal and take on its own character. Not many sounds went straight in as they were sounding at first.

I think I have this fear of how easy modern record production tools have made it; all these vast library banks of high quality sounds seem a little pointless. I like getting sounds that are exclusive to me and that I can account for their creation, down to the fact that I performed everything in some form, and that's where I see validity in being a recording artist.

How did the collaboration between you and DJ Shadow come about?

As a huge DJ Shadow fan, I've always been very aware that he is signed to the same label as me in the U.K. We were thinking of people to approach to remix "A Chore" and it just hit me that someone at the label would be able to get through to him. Considering how busy he was with his Shadow-sphere tour, I was more than happy that we had tried. A couple of weeks later the label called and said he was looking for vocal collaborators on his new record and he had a track in mind for me.

It was only after speaking with him while working on the track that he's hardly done any remixes, which as a DJ I thought was another thing that makes the guy such an enigma. He is a huge influence on my approach with production, so it was a huge honor to work with the him. It was very rewarding because we were both very organized and efficient working on it, and it's always good to meet people with similar principles.

Who else would you love to collaborate with?

There's a lot of cool stuff out there, I'm open to what my output attracts. I mainly just want to play a beat on a Neptunes’ production.     F

Leisure Seizure is out now on Cooperative Music.