Will I Look Like That?

Sneaky writes…..

It’s difficult to put one’s finger on any one secret ingredient of the creative process…. however ‘Sampling as an art form‘ has always been a massive part of how we (Fingathing) role.

For us sampling is a kind of a love affair or crush with artifacts from days gone by which we welcome into our playground and introduce to unlikely sonic and visual friends from other worlds.

Some other ingredients are.. commitment to the moment, honesty, respect and empathy for each others’ specific personality and craft. Humour!

The Fingathing playground revolves around 3 humans, only two of whom make the music. Dan Peter Parker Baxter and myself Simon Houghton aka Sneaky. Our third member Chris Drury is responsible for everything visual in a synergetic call and response type relationship with Dan and myself.

A tune can start from anywhere… a sample, a bassline, a riff, an idea, a feeling,.. anything that makes us buzz basically. Musically our roles overlap to a certain extent but we definitely have our own specific strengths which, more and more we acknowledge and respect these days. Dan is lord of the MPC, turntable skills, beat making and general sonic manipulation. Bass and cello are my main tools, so riffs, melody ideas and overview arranging often gets my attention. As teenagers coming from quite different backgrounds we both became obsessed with records, the passion of finding those golden nuggets never growing old to us. We have however never been particularly concerned with the pricier rare records. Apart from the fact that we couldn’t afford them, the dusty cheap bins of car boot sales, charity shops and flea markets have always been more interesting to us. The pops and crackles in an old record are literally showing you its history.

Applying that commitment to the moment in as many steps of the creative process as possible unearths gems time and time again. This becomes especially true and moreover super fun if you can share that felt experience. The surrendering so often equates to the serendipitous.

So…. for this project this is exactly what happened.. Dan and I were both at a flea market in Berlin (my current home) when we had the email from Ruth about the Last Scream project. The seed was planted. With that in the back of our minds we started digging in some vinyl crates.. Dan had his head down in a particularly heavy selection of hip-hop 12s (which bore quite the acapella fruit for several other tracks) and me scooting in and around other miscellaneous crates.. one record by a folk singer I had not heard of called Sam Hinton with an interesting cover photo of pills, peanuts, whistles and bottle caps literally would not leave my hand, so after vocalising the feeling to Dan and procrastinating for a while I was compelled to buy it even though it wasn’t particularly cheap – 10 euros. I consider 5 and under a cheap record.

It contained the track which we sampled for this track “little old woman all skin and bones” it seemed to embody some sense of deep knowing. Posing poetic questions of life death transitioning. Ultimately it had a sound that we both latched onto the moment we heard it. We both said that’s it! At the time neither of us knew quite how we would use it and what sort of track we would make but it was clear to both of us that it would be a great starting point. It was put aside and then the next time Dan visited me a month or so later we made the track, pretty much in its entirety within two days. The first day was spent listening through to the archive of Last Scream sounds and choosing what to use. We were again drawn to the frogs! (Check out our other sampling of frogs in tunes “Frogspit” and “After Dark” to hear our affinity with them)

There was only one extinct species recorded in the archive and for us it was the star… Boana Cymbalum last recorded in 1963. He/Her made us both laugh, so that was it. In combination with several other nearly extinct frog species we had our team and set sail on our voyage.

After completion several months later I realised that the Sam Hinton record was released around the same time as the deceased species! in 1964. Coincidence, we think not 🤓

other elements that we used were…

– Hammond organ.. I am lucky enough to have one in my apartment together with a Leslie emulator unit...

– cello

– dfam and edge (Behringer)

– mpc (akai)

The idea of the last scream to some might seem like a sad and morose one but to me it is more an empowering one. I feel a sense of calm somehow knowing that every living thing dies at some point. I think “scream” is perhaps a misleading word which could imply some kind of anxiety or stress. I like the phrase swan song which stimulates a more poetic and celebratory final reflection.. whether it’s a myth or not but the idea of an animal being pretty much silent all its life and then blasting out a tune with its last breath inspires and indicates a transition to me. The eternal mysteries abide.