Winterlight

Winterlight - Light through the darkness.

In his own words, one of his past bands came close to success by, “Standing next to Slowdive at the Old Trout in Windsor.” Tim Ingham has a sense of humour and by the sounds of his current musical venture, a sense of achievement.

Listening to Winterlight, is one of those rare occasions that a band has the effect of making you want to smile and cry tears of joy simultaneously.
Great washes of synthesiser and achingly beautiful minimalist guitar create a happy and pensive ambience - Think Ulrich Schnauss jamming with Isan whilst Robin Guthrie provides the guitar and Kraftwerk do the percussion.

Here we ask Tim some questions about the world of Winterlight.

Tim, it seems things have really taken off for Winterlight over the last year. Tell us what’s new?
"The last year has been incredible. I've played gigs with Ulrich Schnauss, Port-Royal in Paris and played for the Sonic Cathedral in London. I got to do my first remix for Port Poyal, of 'Anya: Sehnsucht', which was released recently on Chat Blanc Records and I've just finished one for the very wonderful Kontakte which will be on their forthcoming album for Drifting Falling. I have just had an EP, 'Mirror', released on Years Without Art which was produced with the help of Aidan Love, who has most recently done mixing duties with Maps and Goldfrapp. I learnt so much from working with him and I am really pleased with the way the results sound. At the same time, under the name Lightsway, I'm releasing a more downtempo album, 'Summer Interlude', for Bristol's Distant Noise Recordings which will be out next soon this month (there's a track with guitar from Jon Y6 on there as well as one featuring my daughter!). I have lots of material still on the hard drive so to speak and, as always, I'm working on about 5 or 6 new tracks at the moment; so I hope there will be more releases to follow and I am fortunate enough to have a number of ways that might happen. I am very lucky that I have a number of people in music who have become good friends in bands and at Distant Noise and other labels who are very supportive of my music."

So, who are your past and present influences?
"Until recently, I have listened to very little specifically electronic music. The music from my youth, which certainly informs my sound, is mostly shoegaze; Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and Ride. I love the way you can get lost in the blur of a riff drenched in distortion, reverb and delay. Also, I have always loved the Cocteau Twins. Obviously they had a great sound, especially Robin's guitar and I'm sure that has influenced me. To those classics I would now add Ulrich Schnauss. Also port-royal, they have produced two of my favourite albums of the past few years. Also I love the work of fellow Distant Noise act, Luga, who has another album out on October Man Recordings soon, lovely washes of distorted synths; sort of like Boards of Canada covering a Slowdive song. I have to mention Cheju because he does some incredible drum programming, I wish I had the skill and patience to write such lovely crunchy beats but I'm rubbish at drums so I tend to stick to basic variations on 4/4 alas. I also wish I could be as understated and minimal as Yellow6 at times, having said that I saw The Early Years at the Truck festival and I feel a krautrock vibe in the air..."

Do you have any influences outside of music that inspire your work?
"Well, I think my work has the same sort of sad but in a way hopeful feel as the films of Bergmann and Tarkovsky both of which I love. As, I have commented before I am tremendously inspired by my family. Sometimes in a diffuse way but also at times directly; I wrote 'hush now' in 20 minutes after my daughter fell asleep whilst I was singing her a lullaby I made up for her which contains that phrase. Other than that the single most important influence on me is the landscape, the moors near here, desolate but beautiful, and the coastline, the beaches and especially sea. I live next to it and spend time each day just looking at it. Sometimes I take my laptop down by the sea and make music there; 'seagazing' on the Distant Noise release was written like that.. Not surprisingly, 'swept' was written after a trip to a beach, the incredible Gwithian Sands in Cornwall."

So, it’s just you, your guitar and your laptop? Where did the decision to go solo come from?
"That is just the way it happened but I suppose it is necessity. When I was younger I played in bands but they were never that much fun because there was always arguments and egos. I hadn't actually played music for years nor even picked up a guitar but I was very ill for a while a few years ago and in trying to recover someone said to me that it might be a good idea to try and make some music again. I wrote a track called 'tingletime' using the free version of Acid and put it on myspace and some people liked it so my wife, Jenny, bought me the budget version of cubase and the first track i wrote on it was 'Swept'. Suddenly I realised that with this little computer I could make the sort of music I had always had in my head but never got round to making. With a laptop I can work at night with headphones in my own spare bedroom (necessary because I have children I look after during the day and a wife I like to spend time with in the evening, though she would contest this!), I can use free plug-ins that do a good job of sounding like the synths, drum samplers and effects pedals that I could never afford to buy and, importantly as a very shy person, I don't have to deal with anybody but myself. Mind you, my daughter played some keyboard on the Distant Noise album and it was a nightmare trying to get her to do what I wanted; yes I am a control freak about the music! Having said that I am thinking of augmenting the live set up to make it a bit more interesting than just me; I have a friend who often roadies for me who is a great guitarist (would two old blokes behind a laptop be more interesting than one?) and there are some guest vocalists in the pipeline."

How did you decide upon the name Winterlight and is it a reflection of your musical sound?
"Winterlight is the name of a film by Ingmar Bergmann. In a way it is quite inappropriate because it doesn't have that combination of sadness and hope that you might argue that others of his do and which I always say characterises my music. It is, in fact, rather unrelentingly miserable but it did seem to sound right and I think that it makes an image in my head of a sort of desolate beauty. I suffer from very crippling depression at times and although my music was intended as an escape from that I suppose it is always suffused with a feeling of sadness. Most of my songs start from depression or melancholy thoughts and are a kind of way out for me and I think that defines my musical sound; pretty much the only ones that didn't come from a sad starting point are 'happy song' and 'hush now'."

So, give us your three desert island albums and why you chose them?

"That is so hard...just to have three would be tough and even as I am thinking of it I am thinking more of what I would have to leave behind. "

Slowdive - Catch the Breeze

"I know it is a compilation but that way I get a few more tracks I love. If I take Souvlaki then I don't get to hear Catch the Breeze or Shine or Morningrise and this contains the session version of Goldenhair which still gives me goosebumps now. Slowdive are probably my all time favourite band, I just loved their sound; that explosion of reverb and delay and feedback but in a melancholy setting, gets me every time. When I used to go to the Old Trout in Windsor to see bands in the early nineties I would see them all standing in a row as a band, they looked so cool, they were signed to Creation, they made the most wonderful sound, I was so jealous, I so much wished i could make music that sounded like that. I still do."

Ulrich Schnauss - A Strange and Isolated Place

"For me this album is so perfect. Every track I love and some I think are faultless, the perfect combination of the shoegaze elements and the electronic elements. I recently read an interview in which he described his love of music that contains both sadness and hope, I love that too and I think he combines the two elements perfectly here. When 'In all the wrong places' comes on in the car my daughter 'conducts' the big build up at 3 minutes and then proceeds to sing her own lyrics "who ate the chorus, who ate the lights up", remembering that will always make me smile. Also it would remind me of February when I played a support to Ulrich and New York band Elika here in Plymouth with another local band Dawn Chorus Ignites. It was such a special night and so great to see those people play down here and people turn out to see them."

Port-Royal - Flares

"Now Attilio will call me a cheat because I always say that Afraid to Dance is my favourite album in contrast to most others who plump for Flares. I do love ATD especially Anya: Sehnsucht and Decadance, I know they are known for their ambient stuff but these are great dance influenced tunes and they have been playing a few more like this live which will feature on the new album. BUT on my own on a desert island I don't think I will feel much like dancing but I will feel like staring at the sea listening to Flares part 2 and besides I don't think I could survive without Zobione part 2 and Karola Bloch. I will be reminded of traveling to Paris to support them which was a highpoint of the year for me. They played a blinding set there and my daughter's toy monkey, Mia, sat on stage with them by the laptop; I took a picture of this and they posted it in their myspace photos and made her extraordinarily happy."

So, anything else you want to add that might of interest to our readers!
"I'm playing a gig at Goonite at the Buffalo Bar in Islington on September 17th with Kontakte and I am hoping to have a few more in Bristol, the west country and beyond. Please come along; the music sounds so much better really loud with some pretty flashing lights and visuals; you can always say hello. If you are ever in Plymouth on the last Monday of the month then come to Cafe Concrete - far out leftfield electronica, rapidly becoming a west country legend and worthy of support with a music policy so liberal that even I occasionally get asked to play in all my poptastic glory."

Winterlight Myspace page

Thanks and Good luck Tim!

Nicky.