Album Review / Interview: Stealing Sheep – In the Diamond Sun
‘Into The Diamond Sun’ is the debut album from the three ladies from Liverpool who call themselves Stealing Sheep. Notable single ‘Shut Eye’, with its backdrop of blooping electronics, thumped toms and delicate, and sibilant vocal refrain which blooms into a multi-layered cacophany of voices, perfectly sums up the Sheep’s sound.
Essentially a collection of pastoral obscurantist folk, there’s a decent slug of weirdness here, as if their hometown’s penchant for psychedelia has imbued itself into the very fabric of the music. Elsewhere, ‘White Lies’ dissects Mitty-esque character flaws with jaunty precision, ‘Genevieve’ has a rollicking character led by a Fender riff, and ‘Gold’ further explores the potential for swirling cymbals, drone tones and the sound of a druid’s subconscious. A few words from the girls…
Hi, guys. For those of our readers who haven’t heard you, give us a description of your sound, your band, your vibe.
Hello! If you haven’t heard us before, I’m going to describe our sound as psychedelic doom pop with lots of harmonies all over it. If you have heard us before, would you agree? I like to think our vibes are a little but dark and a little bit weird but our intentions are good. Our band is made up of us three- Becky, Emily and Lucy and we’re based in Liverpool. The fourth member of the band is our vehicle Colonel Smyth who gets us to all the gigs.
What inspires you? How does your home town of Liverpool influence your music?
The things that inspire us are music, nature, stories, orchestras, each other, sunshine. The best bit about Liverpool is the people that are in it and the events that happen. The music scene is super at the moment. It seems like all our friends have their own bands, studios, performances, plays, nights etc so there is always something going on and something to be involved in. I find that the biggest inspiration and influence.
Latest single ‘Shut Eye’ brings the tiniest hint of lo-fi electronica to your usual sound. Is this influence something you’re exploring?
Yeah there’s lots more of that lo-fi sound in the new album. You can also expect storytelling, psychedelia, jingle jangles, tribal drumming, swooning guitars and whirling harmonies. I think so anyway…
Thanks for that. ‘Into The Diamond Sun’ is the sound of an Indian summer as imagined by Captain Fred, dozing at the controls of his submarine, nymphs prodding and tweaking the controls… and ‘Sharks’ documents his fears of the worst of the underwater beasts. Convenient, eh?
‘Into The Diamond Sun’ is out now on Heavenly Records. Many thanks to the girls for answering our questions.
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