“I eventually stopped seeing my voice as a hindrance and more as a feature of my music.”
If you scroll down to Archie Sagers’ picture, you might think to yourself: What’s this guy doing on Darkness Calling? He’s smiling!
Well, don’t let this friendly face or the friendly name fool you. There’s plenty of darkness to be found on Archie’s debut album Happy New Year.
Let’s start with the album cover [Pictured later in this article]. Potentially happy title. Bright lights hanging from strings. But when you really consider the environment, it’s dark. Empty. Where there should be a party, there’s a startling absence of people — a feeling of isolation.
Archie’s beautiful music has the same effect. On the surface, it’s dreamy, poppy, and accessible. But a careful ear will hear glimmers of The Cure and Joy Division, along with weighty, emotional lyrics. This is a release you definitely shouldn’t ignore.
Read on to learn more about what makes Happy New Year a worthwhile feature this week at Darkness Calling.
DARKNESS CALLING: Archie, thanks again for chatting with us! Although it's not technically a single, we're featuring "Stuck in the Void" on this week's playlist. It has a great sort of 80's post-punk vibe, but also somehow kind of feels like a fresh, modern, indie rock song. I feel like it straddles the line a bit. Is that something that you aimed for at all, and can you tell us anything about this song in particular?
ARCHIE SAGERS: I'm really strongly inspired by 80’s post-punk bands such as The Cure, Joy Division, and — one of my favorites — The Chameleons. I definitely try to reflect the music I love in my own [music], and throughout the album there's a strong new-wave feeling, along with references to indie rock and ambient music.
I originally wrote the main riff of the song on bass about a year ago and recorded it to my phone. I found it awhile back and transposed it to guitar. “Stuck in the Void” was both the first and last track I made for the album. I started working on it about 8 months back, and it changed forms and structure many times over its creation. I give my songs strange names while I'm working on them, and this one was called "Interpol" for awhile. The project file unfortunately corrupted when I was nearly finished, and I had to start again. It ended up being the final track I recorded vocals for on the album, as I kept struggling to write lyrics.
I got Grant (a friend of mine who has his own amazing album out on my label, Baltimore at an Angle) to write some ideas he had while listening to the track, and I managed to finish the lyrics off. It eventually became a song which represented the whole album pretty well. The song is about feeling stuck between events without a purpose, and the album is about the period between childhood and adulthood: questioning yourself, meeting new people, and finding a purpose.
“...the album is about the period between childhood and adulthood: questioning yourself, meeting new people, and finding a purpose.”
DARKNESS CALLING: Happy New Year is your first solo album. Can you tell us about your musical background leading up to this point? Did you have non-solo work in bands, and how did those experiences differ from what you're doing now? What kind of genres did you work with in the past?
ARCHIE SAGERS: Up until recently, I was in a band called Cosmic Lightshow, where I played bass. We created quite a lot of original music but only got around to recording the three tracks. We knew each other well before forming the band, but in the two years we played together, the four of us became great friends. We originally started playing covers of The Cure's early songs but later moved on to creating our own music.
It started off as quiet, gentle indie rock, but as me and Jack (the lead singer and songwriter) got more and more into shoegaze music, our sound developed into some interesting dream pop. Sadly, we only have a couple roughly recorded demos as evidence of this. Jack wrote all of the songs for the band, and we all worked in our influences. I wrote a couple tracks, but they were never any good, so we only played them live once.
I started creating some punk songs in my bedroom over a summer, and then it developed into my lo-fi shoegaze EP Eligia, where I got Jack to sing over them. I later got some singing lessons and started singing on my own songs, which I didn't ever think I would be able to do! I've got a pretty deep voice, which is really uncommon in rock music. I started listening to more and more of the Chameleons and Joy Division, as both of the bands have lead singers with deep voices. I eventually stopped seeing my voice as a hindrance and more as a feature of my music. I can't sing high like in most other tracks in the genre, but I can really sing low.
"Beneath the Surface" was the first song I sang over; I'm still super happy with it. I recorded over myself 8 times to create a really deep and warm vocal, which you won't find in most rock music!
DARKESS CALLING: Was the quarantine helpful or a hindrance during your process of making this record?
ARCHIE SAGERS: The quarantine was, and will probably remain, one of the best times of my life. Lots of people had it really hard over those few months, but I was really lucky with my situation and ended up really enjoying spending time at home with my family. It honestly didn't affect my routine that much! Towards the start, I managed to spend around 8 hours or so a day creating music, as I had nothing else on my plate. I'd often be recording vocals at 3 A.M. and occasionally sat outside with a guitar while the sun rose.
I got the majority of the album written and recorded in just two months and spent a lot of time creating music videos and artwork, which I otherwise would have been too busy for. I got my dad and my sisters to help film my music video for "Through the Leaves" in the countryside surrounding our house, and I saw tons of places I had never seen before in 18 years of living in the Wiltshire countryside. It was really nice spending the months with my sisters, who I don't usually see that often.
It wasn't all good though, as I've now developed an unhealthy addiction to ham and cheese toasties! It was pretty great for me, really — making music all day, spending loads of time with my family, and playing video games with my friends til the early hours. I was really lucky with where I was then.
“The quarantine was, and will probably remain, one of the best times of my life.”
DARKNESS CALLING: You also run your own label, Crafting Room Recordings. Can you tell me more about what's going on with that side of things? Are there other artists you work with on that label that have some cool new releases you'd like to talk about?
ARCHIE SAGERS: I started Crafting Room Recordings just over a year ago now. We focus on publishing dream pop, indie rock, and ambient music, with our artists exploring an ever-expanding variety of styles and genres. The label is and always will be a platform for artists to release their music their way, and we pride ourselves on both paying artists fairly and supporting charities.
These past few months have been really exciting for the label. I organized a cover album of Pavement's debut album (which raised over £200 for Truro Foodbank), collaborated with another label from Sweden, worked with bands from all over the world, and created and recorded over 250 cassettes in my bedroom. It was really exciting releasing two EP’s from the Chinese ambient/post-rock band Hualun, and we have only 2 cassettes left from the 150 I made for their two releases.
One release on the label I would really love to promote is the EP Euphoria by Sunspire. It's genuinely my favourite EP I've heard. It's created by the aforementioned Jack (lead singer of Cosmic Lightshow) and is an amazing dream pop experience inspired by Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and The Cure. There's still a few cassettes available with amazing artwork and stickers created by Jack.
He played me a few of his new tracks, and I was blown away. Really looking forward to releasing those someday soon. I also have to thank Jack and my friend Ben for creating the wonderful new website for the label.
DARKNESS CALLING: Thanks again! Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers? I know you have some cool new cassettes coming out. Where are those available?
ARCHIE SAGERS: There's an edition of 25 cassettes for my new album available from my label's Bandcamp. I spent quite a while working on the cassette artwork, filling it with the lyrics of the album and photographs I've taken over the past few years. I'm really proud of the finished product, and it represents a really important part of my life. There will be lots more to come from me in the future as well, as I have plans to join a band as soon as I move to my new home in Brighton.
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