Joseph Stannard: Tell me about the impact of the pandemic on dälek and the resulting Meditations series of releases.

Will Brooks: Me, Mike and Joshua Booth were in the midst of working on a new dälek album when it hit. When everything shut down, it all ground to a halt… All the plans for a new album, all the touring plans we had were gone. The uncertainty, the isolation, all the death… such a bizarre time to think back on. I found myself jumping on Twitch to DJ off of my iPad from my apartment pretty regularly. One of those Twitch sessions ended up being a live beat making session. That became Meditations No 1.

I put it out on Bandcamp and was amazed how it resonated with heads. I think as an artist I was desperate to create, and heads were hungry to hear new things, and to connect on a human level. The Meditations became like a ritual, and they became more elaborate. I would write, record, mix, and release a Meditations volume once a month. Not only did it help me psychologically, but financially dälek fans really held me down during those times. It was very cathartic to create and release so much music during those uncertain times. What started as a beat making session became these raw, unfiltered albums of the moment. There are some fully fleshed out joints with vocals on them too, and other just out there experimentations. I really enjoyed creating those joints. They are very special to me. The process of those records really impacted what was to become Precipice. When we reconvened, we scrapped the pre-pandemic album, because the world had changed. We had changed. The music needed to reflect that change and the Meditations series was part of that growth and change.

You've mentioned that dälek is like therapy for you; have you ever undergone therapy? If so, how does it compare to the catharsis provided by the music? If not, why not?

WB: I haven’t, I’m not opposed to it but I haven’t. I don’t know how it would compare, but this music is what has helped me be a pretty well adjusted person in my regular life.

How do you go about blending the beats, textures and vocals that go into a dälek track?

WB: Mike and I spend a lot of time on the mix of all the elements. It really is about finding that right balance to let everything occupy the space it needs to shine.

Mike Manteca: Once we have the basic idea in front of us we just tag team, one of us sits, starts sculpting and directing and then the other will jump up hearing something, take over and guide it from there, it’s very seamless actually. Will sculpts the vocals and once those tracks have been recorded we just go back to the tag teaming. Sometimes one of us has just spent too much time at the desk and needs to tap out and the other will take over.

What tends to be ‘live’ (aside from vocals) and what's programmed?

WB: The core of the tracks tend to be programmed but we are both adding layers of sonics live. I’m using an SP404mkii and and iPad running Samplr.

MM: We both do live electronics and sample manipulation. I have sounds that I have created and use as my source material to perform and manipulate further live. Last year I started bringing the guitar back into my setup and I hadn’t done that with dälek since the early-mid-2000s. I use it in a much more deliberate way now and the way we approached writing the new record was with the knowledge that I wanted to add more guitar to the live shows and be able to use it in a way that it can enhance not just add. Even when the music is sparse it is still dense so finding the moments of ‘attack’ are key.

Is it a challenge to get the balance between these inputs just right?

MM: I don’t think so, everything really comes down to [the fact that] we trust each other, we don’t have to say anything out loud and we are able to sync up sonically on the same wave, so the balance is natural.

The title of the new album Brilliance Of A Falling Moon is borrowed from author Erik Larson’s novel In The Garden Of Beasts. Are there other authors who have exerted an influence – however great or slight, overt or subtle – on dälek's art?

WB: Amiri Baraka, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jack Kerouac, Howard Zinn, Lou Reed

MM: There are no specific authors that have influenced my work with dälek; it's just a lifetime of exposure that has had an influence. Actually if I really think about what stirred my creative juices from early on and ultimately steered me into the worlds I live in now it would be Maurice Sendak and Isaac Asimov.

Tracklist

John Morrison “Creepin' With Thom & Taria”
House Shoes “Castles (The Sky Is Ours) “
Ka “Cold Facts”
Armand Hammer/billy woods/Elucid “Empire BLVD”
Sean Price “Boom Bye Yeah”
ANGUISH “Gut Feeling”
MF Doom “Doomsday”
Boogie Down Productions “Poetry”
The Labteks “Radio Waves”
iconAclass “Dutch (You Caught Up)”
Faust “BBC 1.3.73”
Napszyklat “Kulture Schock featuring dälek/iconAclass”
Black Thought “Twofifteen”
billy woods & Moor Mother “Furies”
Carl Gari featuring dälek “Poison Shyness (Anti-Social)”
Fatboi Sharif & Roper Williams “Cinnamon”
Vacuum “Resonate Deadverse (dälek remix)”
dälek & Goth-Trad “Skin No Longer Scars”
dälek & The Bug “Fractured”
Steven Wilson “Get All You Deserve (dälek mix)”
MOPCUT featuring dälek “Where To Begin”
edan “Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme”
Cannibal Ox “Iron Galaxy’
Scotty Hard featuring High Priest & Sayyid “Bubble In The Haze”
Hprizm “I’ll Find You”
dälek & Charles Hayward “Breathe Slow”
SUUNS “Look No Further”
Suicide “Cheree”
Lorelle Meets The Obsolete “Dos Noches (Deadverse Remix by dälek)”
Holy Scum “Trying In Hell”
Belong “Come See”
All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors “Nice Soup”