Salt are a rock band with grungy elements to their music – I recently reviewed their song Boxcar and included it in a playlist based around grunge music. If you haven’t checked them out yet already, you can find the song at the end of this interview.
By Jane Howkins
You recently released a song titled Boxcar, which we reviewed. What can you tell us about the track and where can it be purchased? What does the title refer to?
Boxcar is a song about a hobo called Leon Ray Livingston, he travelled the boxcars last century, and was known as A No.1, he wrote books about his travels. I come from a Romany background, so it seemed fitting to write about a fellow traveller. The relentless riff reminded me of a train. All our songs are about things, they have to have meaning to get the most out of them. It’s available on all digital platforms but will feature on our second album with HX Records called Fairytale on Fire, to be released in May 2022. It was supposed to be Valentine’s day but there were pressing plant issues.
Has the pandemic hindered your work much?
Not much really, we are very much a recording band – we got our first break with HX Records during the pandemic and had a documentary made about us by Dylan Mars Greenberg, she does really good arty movies and videos. She recently did one for Michael C Hall ‘s band. So we are in good company with Dexter. We would love to do some more gigs.
What is the writing and recording process like for you?
Usually a riff or chord progression from any member of the band, then we chew it up – it takes a lot of time now to get it right – the structure/arrangement is very important to us. As are the lyrics – we cannot write happy songs, but we are working on it. We record and produce all our own music, Robin the guitarist does all this, we do everything ourselves. I know we are not meant to, but it does let us faff until we are really happy.
Do you plan to release any more singles in the near future?
A flexi disc with a magazine, we did a christmas song called Demons. It’s not really a Christmas song – it just sounds like it, but I did mention fairy lights, it’s up on our YouTube channel live. (https://ww…hclIxUlRdM) We ain’t recorded it properly yet.
Do you have plans to release an EP or album anytime soon?
We have Fairytale on Fire, to be released in May. This is the first proper album, in that we wrote all the songs for it. Our first album Cellophane was a lockdown/found recordings album and we mixed it really fast. Both these albums are vinyl only – HX is a niche record company. Some of the songs are released digitally but not all.
What/who influences you most as an artist? What have you been listening to recently?
Myself, definitely Nick Cave, for his lyrics and dynamics – the rest of the band have theirs. We are definitely a post punk/pop type of thing.
Where are you based? What is the music scene like in your part of the world? Are you influenced by your surroundings?
Edinburgh, haha – the worst music scene ever. The main festival takes over. Edinburgh has not had a proper music scene since the early 80s. It is very much a plaything city for London. That’s not to say there aren’t great local music venues, like Leith Depot. And we do try, but Edinburgh seems always interested in other city’s bands. It’s not from wanting to try, and I mean that on behalf of other bands too. There are some really good bands in Edinburgh.
Do you have any tour dates lined up?
Nothing at the moment, but we should try and get something arranged. I would love to do some festivals.
What can people expect from one of your shows and why should people come and see you perform live?
A weird band doing things they like, not caring what you like – we just do our stuff, and if you like it that’s cool. Myself, I don’t know who I am when I perform- something just takes over me.
Any last words for the fans?
We are currently taking the world by a mild breeze, the storm is coming!