#chris d'adda

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Walt Disco Interview: The Truest Picture

Photo by Izzy Leach

BY JORDAN MAINZER

They're growing as a band--sure--but they're also simply able to reveal more of themselves. Glasgow post-punk quintet Walt Disco broke out in 2022 with their debut album Unlearning, a stellar, concise collection of indie rock songs that was stitched together over the Internet during pandemic-era lockdowns. Listening to sophomore album The Warping, out Friday via Lucky Number, at first, you wonder what Unlearning might have sounded like had the band members been able to collaborate in the same room. Then again, Walt Disco has proved to impress due to their clear ability to create something big with constraints, and now, deliver something cohesive with a plethora of options at their fingertips. For The Warping, the band had pre-album recording sessions with Lucas Polo (at the studio of none other than Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music), co-produced the album with Chris McCrory, got Vale Studio's Chris D'Adda to engineer, and collaborated with string and horn players to flesh out already existing arrangements. The result is, well, whatever the opposite of a sophomore slump is, a hard-to-avoid pitfall when your debut already a clear artistic voice. Instead, Walt Disco have provided the glam rock record of the year.

Of course, Walt Disco didn't choose such an aesthetic just because it sounded cool: They needed something to match the grandiosity and gamut of emotions The Warping's songs exude. Lead vocalist Jocelyn Si sings about getting older and gaining self-confidence, often in the context of gender dysphoria they've felt throughout their life. Fittingly, the title track represents the greatest encapsulation of the album's themes and aesthetic, Si delivering bits of stark truth atop high-pitched synth whirrs, textured piano and acoustic guitar, cinematic strings, and staccato percussion reminiscent of Roxy Music and The Psychedelic Furs. Namesake single "Jocelyn" imagines a conversation between singer and mother, a gently galloping song with electric picking, thudding drums, fluttering woodwinds, and slide guitar, Si looking at themselves from what feels like an outside perspective on lines like, "Her name was Jocelyn / She had a worried grin / A mole upon her chin," but ultimately inhabiting their true self. Their ruminations on identity carve other paths, too. Nursery rhyme-inspired "Black Chocolate" tackles the warm parts of family, connecting over food, simplicity that nonetheless wields seemingly infinite emotional power, represented by the song's fast strings, atonal horns, electric synth lines, and huge programmed drum beat.

Much of The Warping is about change, both tangible and in the past, and inevitable and in the future, and not just from Si's perspective. "Weeping Willow" was inspired by the amicable departure of a founding member of the band; its swayed acoustic guitar strum and synth melody answers the question, "If a weeping willow made music, what would it sound like?" "I Will Travel" is a tearjerker for anybody that's lost a pet when Si sings about their family dog, "I will be there at the end of your days and remind you that our deaths are the same." Closer "Before The Walls" is a spiritual sibling to "Jocelyn", Si detailing the imagined last shared words between themselves and their parents. Their vocal vibrato is like its own instrument, chopped and shaky alongside flutes, thumping and thwacking echoed percussion, and woozy strings, the volatility of time incarnate. And "Pearl", penned by drummer Jack Martin and released first as a standalone single before The Warping was even announced, is perhaps most effective in context of the record. Here, Martin imagines himself living alone in Glasgow, "holding onto no one for the long rides," an old-school song rife with lush strings and pop chops, Lewis Carmichael's unexpected slide guitar adding a feeling of seriously expansive solitude. Whether or not these moments of loss have happened or will happen doesn't matter so much as Walt Disco's confronting of all possibilities head-on, again able to survive and thrive amidst the curtailments of life.

The band answered some questions over email about The Warping, including how some of the songs started, the cover art, and playing them live, as well as about their general influences and what art they've been digging lately. Read their responses below, edited for length and clarity.

Photo by Izzy Leach

SILY: Your debut album was put together electronically out of necessity due to being recorded over lockdowns. In contrast, The Warping has all analog instrumentation and features a wide array of live orchestration. Do you think The Warping is a more exemplary presentation of Walt Disco as a band?

Walt Disco: The Warping feels like more of a summation of everyone in the band. We couldn't all be together for most of the making of Unlearning, but here, everyone got to dig their hooks in and throw in a good piece of themselves. It feels like the truest picture of Walt Disco that's come out yet. All of us individually have a varied music taste, loads of different things make us all tick, and this album is a real coming together of all of our tastes and habits.

SILY: Did the lyrics or the music come first on this album?

WD: On a song to song basis, it varies, but mostly it feels as though we were starting from a musical jumping off point and creating the narrative from there. "Pearl" came from its piano part, "The Captain" came from the guitar riff, "Jocelyn" from the bass part. We even had the vocal melody for "Gnomes" figured out before the lyrics were put together. Songs come around in a multitude of different ways. Lyrics are very important to us, and these songs cover a range of subjects we wanted very much to address. We feel the music and lyrics go hand in hand quite deeply on this album.

SILY: Did you collaborate with the players themselves in coming up with the string and horn instrumentation?

WD: We had many of the orchestral elements arranged from the demoing phase. The rest were put together in collaboration with Krayg Miqman, who added arrangements, wrote out the scores, and primarily instructed the players while we were in the studio. The players were given freedom in the studio to interpret a lot of parts for themselves and try things out. They all did a magnificent job and added a lot to these songs with their performances.

SILY: Was there something about the singles released so far that you think made them representative of the album as a whole?

WD: With these singles, we wanted to achieve the same thing we want the album as a whole to achieve, and that's to slightly alter people's perception of the band. We'd never released a song that was anything like "Pearl" before, or "Jocelyn". We weren't exactly known for these kinds of meditative and patient arrangements. Yet, this is something we love in a lot of music, and [we] wanted to present it as something that we're capable of in addition to being maximalist. That's the spirit of the sound of this album, showing people more of what we're capable of.

The Warping album art by Lulu Lin

SILY: What's the story behind the album's cover art?

WD: We discovered the artwork of Lulu Lin while we were in pre-production for recording the album. Our co-producer, Chris McCrory, had one of her pieces saved to his desktop, and it caught our eye. We then looked at the rest of her work online and fell totally in love with her style. The figures she creates seemed to gel perfectly with the narrative and vibe of the album. At that time, she hadn't worked with many bands before, but she took our brief and did something magical. We're very grateful to have come across her.

SILY: Have you performed these songs live? How do you adapt to the live stage an album with such a huge aesthetic and so many players?

WD: With keyboards and synths, there's many ways to recreate organic sounds. We also have a Mel 9 pedal which allows our guitarist to play string and flute samples. There's some backing track to fill in the gaps, but we don't rely on it for most songs. It's always a fun challenge to reinterpret recordings for live shows, it was a lot easier to do with this album than our last.

SILY: Jocelyn, who are some of your favorite vocalists? Are there any that particularly influenced you when developing your singing voice?

JS: Paul Buchanan, Scott Walker, Kate Bush, Linda Ronstadt, and Beverly Glenn-Copeland are vocalists that I love and think are very talented. I think what I'm attracted to most with vocalists is drama, emotion, creativity, and individuality. All my favorite vocalists, those I've named, and others I'm often compared to like Bowie and Billy Mackenzie, all use their voice in a range of ways and use their voices to push the emotion of a song to its furthest point. This is what I try and do, too.

SILY: Jocelyn narrated a short film about queer identity, Christopher at Sea, and the band participated in a Louboutin campaign that challenged the gender binary in clothes. How important is it for the band to explore similar themes to those present in your music, in artistic mediums other than music?

WD: Music has always gone hand in hand with most other forms of media. We see the visuals we make as a way to enhance our world and to create more art in its own right, not just to serve the songs. We want to give that element the care it deserves in the same way we do with our music.

SILY: What are your favorite cities to play in?

WD: London is always a great show. Amsterdam is a favorite, too--lovely people and very polite crowds. We recently had an unreal show in Paris. We've had some great times in Austin, Texas in the past. We're excited to be revisiting all these places on tour this year!

SILY: Is there anything you've been watching, reading, or listening to lately that's caught your attention?

WD: The new Fallout series is incredible. Jocelyn watched Billy Elliott for the first time. It was really good. Jack has been enjoying the drumless edition of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories; the way they build layers of groove even without drums present is unbelievably impressive.

[jimenaencadena]

La próxima colaboración de H&M será con Giambattista Valli, el maestro de la belleza y la sofisticación con sede en París.

La noticia se ha hecho pública esta noche en la gala amfAR de Cannes, donde Giambattista Valli y la asesora creativa de H&M, Ann-Sofie Johansson, han recorrido la alfombra roja junto a Kendall Jenner, Chris Lee (Li Yuchun), Chiara Ferragni, H.E.R., Bianca Brandolini D’Adda y Ross Lynch.

Por primera vez, los amantes de la moda podrán disfrutar inmediatamente de esta colaboración, ¡o casi!, ya que las hermosas prendas que se han visto en la alfombra roja estarán disponibles en hm.com el 25 de mayo .

La colección principal de Giambattista Valli x H&M se lanzará el 7 de noviembre de 2019 en todo el mundo.

[cnbnews]

图为防疫人员在消毒。（AP图片）

【希望之声2020年2月25日】（希望之声记者宇宁综合报导）由于意大利已经有10人死于新冠状病毒， 323位确诊病患，25日一天就增加了94例确诊病患， 英国政府2月25日要求，所有最近曾经前往意大利北部封城的11座城镇的英国人，及任何曾经前往比萨以北地区并出现感冒症状的人，必须自行隔离14天。

据BBC报导，意大利已经于24日宣布封锁包括伦巴第大区贝尔托尼科（Bertonico）、卡萨尔普斯泰尔伦戈（Casalpusterlengo）、卡斯特格兰德（Castelgerundo）、卡斯蒂廖内达达（Castiglione d'Adda）、马来奥（Maleo）、圣菲奥拉诺（San Fiorano）、,科多尼奥（Codogno）、 丰比奥（Fombio）、索马利亚（Somaglia）、泰拉诺瓦德伊帕塞里尼（Terranova dei Passerini ）及威尼托大区帕多瓦省的埃乌加内奥（Vo' Euganeo）在内的11城镇，并在这些市镇设置了警察哨所，控制民众的进出。

英国公共卫生部长汉考克承认意大利的疫情非常令人担忧，英国公共卫生部25日更新了其新冠状病毒建议。建议表示，任何从包括意大利封锁的11城镇、伊朗、韩国部分（大邱和道清等）地区及中国湖北省等疫情爆发地区返回英国的人，哪怕他们没有出现任何症状， 都需要给英国的国家卫生署的111热线致电，同时隔离在自己家中，并避免与他人接触。

在过去14天前往过中国大陆、泰国、日本、韩国、香港、台湾、新加坡、马来西亚或澳门等地，并出现类似于感冒症状等人需要留在室内，并拨打英国国民卫生署的111热线， 哪怕他们的症状很轻。

那些于2月19日返回类似于意大利以北地区（不包括比萨市）、佛罗伦萨和里米尼、越南、柬埔寨、缅甸等地，并出现症状（哪怕很轻的症状）， 都必须留在室内，避免与他人接触，并拨打国民卫生署热线111 。

英国卫生部表示，此建议的目的在于快速确认染疾者，并将他们送入特殊医院进行隔离治疗，同时跟踪那些曾经与确诊病患亲密接触过的人，以确保他们了解新冠状病毒的症状以及应对方式。

根据公共卫生部25日的这个建议，刚刚从意大利北部滑雪胜地返回英格兰和北爱尔兰的12所学校的教工和学生在家自行隔离14天， 同时英国的米德尔斯堡的三一天主教学校（Trinity Catholic College ）和柴郡的私立学校克兰斯利学校（Cransley School）决定学校停课1周，学生在家通过网络学习，因为三一天主教的一批返校的学校和教工出现了轻度的类似于感冒的症状，该校因此还进行了深层消毒；而克兰斯利学校29名学生和5名教工最近曾经前往伦巴第大区的一个滑雪胜地度假，因此该校宣布停止在校内授课。

英卫生大臣：意大利疫情令人担忧 但英国仍然还好

英国卫生大臣汉考克（Matt Hancock）表示，意大利的疫情令人担忧，但是由于英国做了良好的应对准备，因此英国的现状尚好。

他还表示， 英国政府对意大利的旅游建议并未改变，而且也没有计划停止从意大利发往英国的航班。 意大利每年吸引300万英国人前去旅游，他以意大利为例说，虽然意大利最早禁止从中国大陆的航班前往意大利，但是现在却成为欧洲新冠状病毒重灾区。

他还介绍说， 他自己近期不计划前往意大利北部地区，但是前往意大利南部地区没有问题。

他承认要求从意大利北部返回的英国侨民自行隔离14天对于很多人的日常生活会造成很大的不便，但是他说：“我们的当务之急是确保（英国公民）的安全。”

他介绍说，他目前尚未听说有英国侨民被困在意大利封锁的城镇之中，并敦促相关侨民需要与英驻罗马使馆联系。

英国航空公司允许原定近期前往包括米兰和威尼斯等意大利北部的乘客将行程改至3月2日之后。

英首席医官：若新冠状病毒演变为大流行病 英将采取更严厉措施

英国首席医官惠特（Chris Whitty ）25日介绍说，英国的卫生官员仍然主要是在通过隔离病患来防止疫情蔓延， 他相信英国的国家卫生署目前尚能够应对新冠状病毒在英国的疫情。

他预期新冠状病毒的疫情有两种可能性，可能会演变成一个大流行病，也可能最后被控制住。

但是如果新冠状病毒变成全球的大流行病， 英国的紧急方案加以应对方案将包括英国所有的小学停课，取消所有的公共活动、减少英国的公共运输、隔离整个家庭、同时取消教堂礼拜活动和音乐会。

他说：“我们不期望要采取所有这些措施，我们期望的是对此进行系统的考虑，并利用科学方法，在平衡社会成本的情况下采取措施。 ”

他还表示，用于治疗新冠状病毒的疫苗都必须是已经获得认证的现有药物，而目前还没有主治新冠状病毒的疫苗。

苏格兰的首席医官卡尔德伍德（Catherine Calderwood）25日也表示，如果新冠状病毒在英国本土爆发，英国境内所有的公共活动可能都会被取消。

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原文链接：【武汉肺炎】意大利告急 英卫生部更新建议

原文链接：【武汉肺炎】意大利告急 英卫生部更新建议 - 新闻评论

本文标签：卫生, 卫生部, 意大利, 感冒, 武汉, 武汉肺炎, 病毒, 肺炎, 英国