Name: Kadri Sammel aka Bedless Bones
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, interdisciplinary artist
Nationality: Estonian
Current release: Bedless Bones's new album Mire of Mercury is slated for release on Metropolis on November 3rd 2023. This interview was conducted around the time of the re-release of her debut album Sublime Malaise.

If you enjoyed this Bedless Bones interview and would like to find out more about her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.   

For a deeper look into her creative process, visit our previous Bedless Bones interview.



You've quoted Dead Can Dance as an influence. In which way?
 
Naturally, Lisa Gerrard's creativity and way of singing have influenced me, particularly with improvisation and more abstract vocalisations. I try to refrain from direct imitation. It wouldn’t even be possible because my abilities and voice are different. But something of her spirit is often with me.

Her perception of the world is that of a true artist, and the way she communicates through music is very inspiring and beautiful.

[Read our Lisa Gerrard interview]

There’s an amazing documentary about Lisa, called “Sanctuary” [by Clive Collier] - I very much suggest that to anyone who has been moved by her work.



Dead Can Dance were known to include mediaeval and folk music traditions in their work. With regards to the runic traditions of Estonia – have you ever considered going down a similar path?

Possibly. So far my music hasn’t had that many local influences or references. Even though Sublime Malaise sometimes gets categorized under Baltic post-punk or Eastern-European darkwave, it isn’t really, stylistically.

I belong to that genus geographically, but the music has a borderless approach, drawing life force from music all over the place. I don’t want to limit myself to anything.

There may well come a time when Estonian folk music will be a source for Bedless Bones. After all, Estonian zither was the first instrument I learned to play.

There are different kinds of darkness – on the one hand, the descent into depression of the world as a whole. And, on the other, the personal darkness which festers and eats away on the inside. Which of these two did Sublime Malaise grow out of, would you say?

Are those two separate things or reflections of each other and basically the same thing on a different scale? Is “darkness” born in the human soul and gets magnified through the collective experience and society? Or do the faults of society as a system corrupt the individual? And if an individual is detached, ill, has lost all faith and hope - can positive events and changes on a societal level still have any effect on that individual?

I didn’t get into the album’s subject matter with a theoretical perspective, I was initially fascinated by psychosomatic disorders and how they seem to have a mythology around them. How a thought alone can invite the disease in. And what happens in that long period of time, when that process is slowly evolving, and can remain mostly unnoticed.

Sublime Malaise was your debut album. It was released four years ago, but you'd devoted yourself to Bedless Bones well before that. Where you were at, musically, when working on the album?
 
Like many other debuting artists, I was blissfully unburdened by any expectations for my output, so I was just spitting out songs and not worrying too much.

Most of the album was done on my laptop in bed, using headphones. I don’t think I even had my own desk back then. I initially thought of doing an EP, but I was lucky to establish contact with Cold Transmission and able to do a full-length with all the songs I wanted.



How did you draw this extremely powerful production from what you had at your disposal?

I spent a decent amount of time finding and creating sounds and tweaking them to the intensity I wanted. The music was not there to accommodate my voice, instead I used my voice almost like another instrument.

My excitement for the intertwining layers of sound and evolving songwriting definitely led the process. This is why the album doesn’t sound very minimal.

How did you record the vocals?

Most of my vocal performances were pretty subdued. Maybe it’s because I felt too self-conscious to disturb the neighbours as our apartment building didn’t have particularly thick walls. But there are occasional swells and crescendos there. I like the contrast of an intimate, airy voice and a loud strong chest voice.

Since I recorded everything by myself at home, it gave me the freedom to try and experiment as much as I wanted. Some songs just took a few takes and I came up with the lyrics as I recorded, for instance “Sad and Alone” and “Drifting”.



Re-releases give you, as an artist, the opportunity to look back. How satisfied are you with Sublime Malaise today? What did going back to it feel like?

I haven’t listened to it in sequence for a couple of years now. There are probably many things I would do differently and better, especially on the production side.

But I wouldn’t want to go back and fix any imperfections, it’s a closed chapter for me now. I think I can be satisfied with how I blended the tender and the rough aspects.

What are you currently working on in terms of new Bedless Bones material?

A new album, Mire Of Mercury, will be out this Fall, so that has been my focus. I’ve tried to put more emphasis on the form, to make the beats sharper, and also the psychedelic electronic elements more vivid. Everything should be more animated on the next record.

I’m going forward.