28 Déc INTERVIEW — Working Men’s Club, or a man working hard
A few minutes after their set at Check-in Party 2022, we met with Sydney Minsky-Sargeant, Working Men’s Club’s lead singer. And the man behind most of the album.
SOB : Your second LP took an electro turn that wasn’t really here in the first. Why did you decide to go that way ?
Sydney : When the lockdown hit, I bought more gear and took a proper studio. But it wasn’t really possible to play loud guitars or anything like that. And I didn’t really have the intention to do that anyway, to be honest. But it just so happened that it fell into place that I couldn’t do that anyway. So, um, I found comfort in a certain way and kind of used these machines as my band.I felt like there was silence that I was trying to express them emotionally that I couldn’t necessarily put into words. Uh, I tried to express them by using instruments and get the most out of that. It just kind of felt like a natural step in the right direction from where we were after the first album.
SOB : So you recorded everything yourself ?
Sydney : Yeah. I played everything of it except the live drums. Liam, our bass player, came and played on two songs. But I wrote all the parts and played most of it. So it was nice involving other people to a point. But predominantly I played everything for the better. So, they’re here to to have input for the live arrangements and everything. But I like the creation and writing. Well, I do all the live arrangements as well during the production process. I can’t play strings, but I could write them on the computer.
SOB : And what were your main influences ?
Sydney : I think I was really getting into just being inspired by the instruments that I had around me. I was listening to a lot of music though, as I always listen to, a lot of African music. Like Nigerian and Ethiopian stuff, which is kind of what I was listening to during the making. The first album. So it was kind of, there was a lot of it being made during lockdown, and that was quite inspiring.
[Photos] Working Men’s Club @ Petit Bain, Paris, le 17 septembre 2022
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