Aquilo interview: heartbreak, hygge and why two is the magic number

(Morgan Hill-Murphy)

Duos who make ambient, melancholic indie pop are undoubtedly having a bit of a moment. From Beach House to Louis the Child, through Oh Wonder and Honne, artists seeking a particular sound seem to think that two is, in fact, the magic number. With Aquilo - aka Tom Higham and Ben Fletcher, a pair of songwriters from the town of Silverdale in Lancashire - the bromance is strong, and they’re looking to put a distinctive stamp on what is threatening to become an overly saturated market.

With their debut album Silhouettes, they achieve it, for the most part. A delicate and highly introspective collection, Silhouettes nevertheless showcases the pair’s grand ambitions and a good eye for attractive details. Bouncier tracks like Never Hurt Again and You Won’t Know Where You Stand indicate that Aquilo’s focus is firmly fixed on mainstream success, while Sorry, Waiting and the title track conversely suggest that all the pair want to do is retreat indoors and hide under the duvet. It’s no stretch to imagine them sound tracking a particularly satisfying hygge session, as much as that word grates on me.

“The album is mostly about heartbreak, as you’ve probably guessed,” says Higham, the chief vocalist and evidently the more self-deprecating of the pair. “But we hate writing about heartbreak and pain in a necessarily conventional way. We just try to be honest, and write about problems we experience or our friends have gone through.”

“We cringe each other out all the time, that’s how we’re able to keep the songs tight,” says Fletcher, cackling loudly for the first of many times in our conversation. “We’ve got bare problems, we do.”

The pair came together to make music four years ago, having met at school, so the genesis of their first LP has been a long and measured process. “Three or four years ago we weren’t nearly in the right place mentally to be putting out an album,” says Higham. “We were just enjoying making music, we didn’t have a clear view of where we wanted to go. That took two years before we could even record properly, and our influences have developed a lot in that time.”

“We’re finally at a point where we’re proud to put something like this out there,” adds Fletcher. “We needed someone there to tell us: ‘Boys, you’ve got something here. Time to step back.’ It’s hard to see that yourself sometimes.”

In the intervening years, Aquilo have put out five EPs and a bunch of singles, and racked up millions of Spotify plays (they have over 2,000,000 monthly listeners). They have also toured America with atmospheric songstress Låpsley, had their songs appear on Grey's Anatomy and Pretty Little Liars, and steadily built a not-insubstantial fanbase at home and abroad. Not half bad for a duo who still choose to record most of their music in their shared living room in London.

Through their management, Aquilo brought on board veteran ambient stalwarts Olafur Arnaulds and SOHN to produce a number of tracks on their album. “Sometimes if we’re having a session with someone else, bringing in a different element, it doesn’t work - it just confuses us a bit,” says Fletcher. “But when we worked with SOHN that really worked, he was on the same wavelength.”

“So while it works best when it’s just the two of us in a little room, we’re definitely open to more collaborations in the future,” adds Higham. “I think we’re realising they just get us out of our box a little bit, and let us see things in a different way.”

The pair put their intuitive musical chemistry down to both having grown up in their beloved Silverdale, which they refer to several times in the conversation. “Something just works between the two of us and we’re comfortable, we’re coming from the same place, we know each other’s backgrounds,” says Higham. “Obviously when we play live, we have a band but we never really feel the need to get many other people involved in the songwriting. We know our process and we try not to disrupt it.”

Their first album is only just being released and both Fletcher and Higham are already thinking about the future. They have already begun pinning down demos for LP2, to scratch a songwriting itch more than anything (they currently feel like they’re “in limbo” waiting for Silhouettes to drop, Higham explains) and have their hearts set on other projects.

“Something that we really want to get into - whether it’s with Aquilo or not - is film scoring,” says Fletcher. “We’ve already had our music on trailers and stuff, and it seems to lend well to having a visual accompaniment.

“Arranging strings, and creating a big atmospheric sound, is something that is really exciting and different for us. We’re both pretty big film fans, so anyway we can get to do something like that, I’ll think we’ll take.”

Now they’re properly into their stride, Aquilo are confident that future projects will be quicker in the making. But don’t expect them to be moving out of their living room anytime soon, even if their sound gets bigger. “We find it a bit daunting walking into these studios, with big 64 channel lead desks, and you end up plugging it into the headphone port of your laptop and making a fool of yourself,” chuckles Higham.

“So we like working with our limitations, focusing on the minimal stuff. You always surprise yourself with what you can achieve that way.”

Silhouettes by Aquilo is out on January 27th on Island Records