Name: Keaton Henson
Occupation: Composer
Nationality: British
Recent release: Keaton Henson's new single "Awake/Alive" is out via Mercury KX. Full-length Somnambulant Cycles will follow May 31st 2024.

If you enjoyed this Keaton Henson interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, and Facebook.  



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I think when it comes to words I’m very visual, and immediately see images. But sound and music always feel more physical to me.

Whenever I’m describing sounds to collaborators or in a mix I always seem to use physical descriptions, like warm, soft, spiky. To be honest the thing I use most to describe how I want things to sound is with taste; sweet, fresh. For instance I use spice specifically to describe distortion or drive, as you can use both in similar way.

If you want something to melt someone's face off and be an exhilarating experience, you can crank up the distortion and play extreme music. But equally quite often when making something really soft and relaxing, a tiny amount is needed to enhance the flavour of a clean guitar sound.

Sorry that was a weird tangent.

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

It's an obvious read but I think headphones are an intimate experience. It's for having quiet conversations with the artists you love, like a chat over a cigarette outside the party.

Speakers feels like a great conversation around a dinner table, much more tribal and about sharing experiences.

Perhaps unsurprisingly I am mostly on headphones throughout the day.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

Because I’ve just recently worked with him the person that comes to mind is Daniel Herskedal. He creates the most enveloping warm worlds with tuba and bass trumpet. they feel totally vast and completely intimate at the same time. I’ve just worked with him and still have no idea how he’s doing it. maybe a wizard.
 


[Read our Marja Mortensson interview who also worked with Daniel Herskedal]

Tim Hardins first album has a sound that puts me somewhere else. Blake Mills' break mirrors is sonically perfect.



And I think Stevie Wonders' voice is a universal anomaly, it just vibrates unlike anyone elses and feels like being wrapped in a towel after shivering in the sea.

Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

Having had the insane honour to write for and stand within orchestras, the feeling when the bass section swells in unison to join the higher strings is pretty transcendent.

I think im drawn to the low end.

There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

I find human sounds difficult.

I always struggled living in cities for the sound of people buzzing around me. But now living in a remote rural place, the birds wake me at 5am every morning and I am grateful and unbothered every time.

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

The sound of conifer or yew forests draws me into them. The needles that have fallen over the years create a soft sound, a bit like the sound when its snowed.

Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves? What was the experience like?

I haven't necessarily sought these out, no. But for me the sound of an empty auditorium before soundcheck has always been a pretty magical thing, especially the big rooms.

Perhaps my experience of it is heightened by the total panic I'm usually experiencing in them, but there is something singular about a large room designed to have thousands of people in, empty but for me, and a few crew members.

It's a kind of quiet that has space in it. So it doesn't feel like it's trying to get inside your ears, like the vacuum of a vocal booth.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

I love the sound of my guitar amp in the living room. It's an really old house so it shouldn’t really work but it just feels like a dusty amp was meant to be buzzing in the corner

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds?

i am drawn to the sound of night. The new album Somnambulant Cycles is all about those meaningful states that the night brings, the quiet of everyone asleep, rain on the car windshield as you drive home to bed, the sound of wind through grasses.

For some reason everything sounds more vivid at night, perhaps because you feel everyone else is sleeping and its happening just for you?
 


We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Silence is completely vital for my ability to stay somewhat calm.

I wrote a piece on the new album about it called I Sat. it’s super simple but I wanted to try and describe the feeling of silence for me with music.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasised that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

I imagine we would potentially be more empathetic, I don't know why but sound feels like a communal sense, we dance together to the same beat, laugh when others around us do. I don't know, maybe we would be slightly less divided?