Name: Looms
Members: Sharif Mekawy, Harry Morris Jr., A. Hammond Murray, Louis Cozza, Fred Copeman,
Interviewee: Sharif Mekawy
Nationality: American
Current release: Looms' new single "Happy Birthday" is out now via Paper Garden. It is the second single taken off their upcoming Big Dream EP, slated for release this fall.

If you enjoyed this Looms interview and would like to know more about the band, visit their official homepage. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp. 



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

My writing is my way of coping with my own life challenges.

I've found that I'm most fluid when working through a problem. It's a small window after the initial shock/pain has subsided but before I feel like I'm able to move on from it.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

There's usually not a grand plan in mind for any particular song.

A lot of times when I sit down to write, I'll go through phone memos of ideas of passing ideas I've recorded or notes of some lyrics I liked the sound of.

I'll go through these sometimes forgotten snippets and start piecing them together to see if I can make some sense out of it.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

I really like to write in the mornings. The early part of the day before the hustle of the city really drowns out the quiet.

Tell me a bit about the way the new material developed and gradually took its final form, please.

The songs on this EP were written in a stream of consciousness.

For example 'The Iron and the Rust' was a poem I wrote about someone while driving home from dropping them off at the airport.



'Happy Birthday' was written while walking home, missing a friend on the eve of their birthday. The words came to me, thought by thought, and I wrote them down as each one came.

It sometimes can feel like being an interpreter for someone else's silent thoughts in my head.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

Less is more. I always go through songs and edit out as many words as I can without losing the idea of what I'm trying to say.

It usually makes it easier to sing less words also!

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

Relationships, loss & hope are some running themes for me.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I'm definitely open to seeing what happens.

Especially in the recording aspect, I find that you will always end up with something different than what you initially perceived.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

For me there's a healthy dose of both spirituality and formula to my writing. I feel both inwardly and outwardly connected when I write and try to quiet my mind and let the creative process take hold of me.

I also enjoy looking at the patterns of what makes arrangements interesting and have fun with the challenge of finding just the right chord or idea to fit in a song.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece?

I don't worry too much about refinement these days. The songs naturally refine themselves the more you play them, but if I waited for that to happen, I may never get around to recording them.

Some songs change a lot from the way they sounded on the record, and I think that's okay. I kinda like that songs get to have two identities, the recorded and the live version.

How do you think the meaning, or effect of an individual piece is enhanced, clarified or possibly contrasted by the EPs, or albums it is part of? Does each piece, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

In the age of singles, it's probably less important for album cohesion on the grand public level. But for me, making an album is still very much an art form.

Choosing the order and transitions for songs can be so important to the journey it's taking the listener on, and many of my favorites albums are because of their wholeness.

In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (including production, mixing and mastering)?  

Hard to really quantify that, but I'd say it's all important.

While 'God Only Knows' is an undeniably beautiful song, it's hard to imagine it with a completely different arrangement/production and what effect that would have had on its impact.



Music and the accompanying artwork are often closely related. Can you talk about this a little bit for your current project and the relationship that images and sounds have for you in general?

I worked with a long time Looms collaborator, Liz Maney, for the artwork and layout of the EP. I've known her for a long time and fully trust her eye.

I just told her I wanted something big and open, and she nailed it on the first try.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I'm usually already working on the next batch of songs by the time the record comes out!

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about or the impact it had on them – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

One thing I've learned is to not judge my own early work too harshly.

The music has changed over the years and I don't relate personally as much to those first songs anymore, but I sometimes get told that they contain some of people's favorite work of mine.

I'm a firm believer that once you put something out into the world, it's not yours anymore.