The Kite String Tangle & Woodes On The Artists That Inspired Their Debut Collab EP

Elle Graham 

I'd say we're both mostly inspired by life experience. For this EP, I had arrived in Brisbane to do some writing in the studio for a week, and Danny's relationship of 10 years had ended within 24 hours of that session. I was going to head back to Melbourne, but we decided to just use the time to make whatever we wanted to make, without any pressure. We really began this EP as a way of processing a significant life event as two friends, talking things through. We go through a lot of the stages of grief and processing - all the way through to reconciliation and hope for what's to come. It's quite guided by that and is very raw and vulnerable since it's something Danny was experiencing real time.

Danny and I also are inspired by films and imagery - we're very drawn to European aesthetics and both really love Iceland too! Throughout the process we made mood boards that informed the palette - they were deep blues, Japanese gardens, installation art, fashion styling, linear sort of graphics and minimal lighting/set design. Due to both loving the creation of an epic live show, having sculptural lighting elements and innovative ideas that existed in parallel to the music creation was important. As we could see how it would convert into a real life experience at the end.

Sigur Rós/Jonsi

Throughout Danny and I working together for the last few years on our solo projects, this particular influence has been a big constant for us, and it's definitely carried into our new duo. We grew up listening to the epic soundscapes and post-rock builds of Sigur Rós, and learnt that we really took a lot of inspiration from Jonsi's solo record Go - in particular in our formative years of learning to write songs and produce. It's a fun, colourful and at times, turbulent record, with some really cool production techniques and a very unique energy. We like it so much that we named our group Tornado Club, which is a little tip of the hat to Jonsi's record, as he has a song called Tornado on it. It's also reflective of the time in which our EP was built, in quite a destructive time of resetting and not feeling in control of the world around us.

Ry X 

I love Ry X. I think the idea that he has multiple projects was cool to us, in that he balances having a solo project, a band and a duo. And... they're all incredible (The Acid/Howling/Ry X). Quite a few of my favourite international artists do have multiple projects and I remember Ry's music coming up a lot in the origins of Tornado Club. It's chill, the vocals are important in the mix, there are some really dark basslines and vocal layering that's super reverby and spacious. We also love his live show and the intimacy of his records. He can have a massive sound but compliment it with tealight candles and backlighting. It's lead by emotion and is a very cinematic world. He's inspiring as a musician, and as a visual creator.

Lewis Capaldi 

Potentially a little bit of an outlier, but I feel like for No Surprise in particular I was thinking a bit of how vocally driven Lewis' music is. It's pop music and powerful. I was also very inspired by the delivery in terms of delivering honesty and story in a simple way, where the vocal drives the narrative and the music fits behind it, to complement and give him something to jump off of. It's hard for each of us to simplify arrangements because we love adding really rich colour and epic beats and builds. I think it was a balance of letting the storytelling be front and centre, and try only to add what we needed. I hope we got there, it was a hard song to finish but I'm very proud of how it turned out. 

Danny Harley

Kllo

Kllo are one of those bands that have such an intangible class about their sound. The first time I heard them, I felt like they were made for me. The production is really left-field and UK-influenced, and the beats are really textural and tasteful which really resonates with me. When paired with the vocals, which are almost cavalier in attitude and delivery, it creates an effortlessly cool sound that I think is really in its own lane in Australia and even globally. I found out Elle had a similar love for their music and knew both of them from around Melbourne and so their sound and influence has definitely found their way into our music I think.

Jon Hopkins

There are a few artists that expertly combine ambient sonics and harsh electronics throughout their projects. The duality of those two seems to be something that lots of people love, including myself. Other artists that do this that immediately spring to mind are Olafur Arnolds, Nils Frahm, Four Tet and Floating Points. I feel like we definitely try to live between those two spaces also; the beautiful, melancholic, often piano-driven, cinematic space and then the driving, pulsing, evolving and dark electronic textures.

The xx

The xx have always been a huge influence and that carries perfectly through into this project. It’s an obvious comparison because they also have two singers; a male and a female. The way they divide the singing up between them and the way they use vocal production is all quite restrained and minimal and both Elle and I often struggle to not stack up vocals with harmonies and a million backing vocal parts. So their music definitely acts as a reference point of restraint for us when we create our own music. I think this is the quality about their music that made such huge waves when they came onto the scene many years ago. They are just so great at having only the essential parts in a song and not too much fluff or smoke and mirrors, just great songwriting and really considered and complementary production.

Tornado Club's debut EP Reset is available for streaming now. Check it out below: