Lost And Sound

Iglooghost

• Paul Hanford • Episode 165

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Seamus Rawles Malliagh, better known as Iglooghost, is an artist who doesn’t just make electronic music—he builds entire worlds. His sound is hyper-detailed, bursting with surreal textures, and deeply tied to the mythologies he creates around it.


In this episode, we dive into how growing up in rural Dorset shaped his imagination, from childhood experiments with ley lines to the eerie, folklore-like atmosphere of empty landscapes. We also explore the making of his most recent album, Tidal Memory Exo, crafted during a five-year stint living near Thanet’s brutalist seafront. Immersed in what he calls “aesthetic ugliness”—concrete towers, decay, a nearby sewage plant—he channeled these surroundings into an intricate fictional narrative, where a storm isolates Thanet from the mainland, birthing underground music subcultures.


Iglooghost shares how discomfort and constraint fuel his creativity and how mythology plays a key role in his artistic process. Whether you’re deep into his sonic universe or discovering him for the first time, we get into one about how environment, storytelling, and electronic music collide.


If you’re enjoying Lost and Sound, please do subscribe and leave a rating or review on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen. It really helps to spread the word and support Lost and Sound.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins


Speaker 1:

World building myths, lore and some of the most intricately crafted beats to have come out of rural England since prime Richard D James. Well, that I'm aware of at least. Anyway, today, on Lost in Sound, I'm joined by the one and only Igloo Ghost. But before we get going, lost in Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica, a global but familyrun company that make the headphones that I'm wearing right now and whose mic you hear me do every interview through. They make studio-quality yet affordable products because they believe that high-quality audio should be accessible to all. So, wherever you are in the world, head on over to Audio-Technicacom to check out all of their range of stuff. Okay, I hope you're having a really good one. Let's do the show.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, hello and welcome to episode 165 of Lost in Sound. I'm Paul Hamford, I'm your host, I'm an author, a broadcaster and a lecturer. And if you're new here, lost in Sound, I'm Paul Hamford, I'm your host, I'm an author, a broadcaster and a lecturer. And if you're new here, lost in Sound is my podcast, where each week, I chat with an artist who works outside the box, from global icons to trailblazing outsiders and emerging innovators. We talk music, creativity and perhaps that most daunting part of being an artist the balance of life. Previous guests on the show have included peaches, suzanne shiani, jim o'rourke, cozy funny tutti, mickey blanco and, first and more and if you know me, you know I'm a massive fan of texture in music. Now that could be anything from deep frequencies to washes of reverby sound. My guest this week does fantastic things with texture. He puts so much detail into his music. Seamus rules, malay, professionally known as Igloo Ghost. He's an artist who not only started really young but has built up a truly distinctive universe around his work. It's full of hyper-detailed electronic arrangements and intricate mythologies, and that's something that we really get into in the conversation. And whether it's his early releases on the internationally esteemed brain feeder label or his most recent album, 2024 is titled memory xo he, I feel he's definitely crafted a unique space. He's not afraid to create his own law in his music.

Speaker 1:

But, as you'll go on to hear in the conversation, not everything is to be taken too seriously. He's also, like me, someone from the south coast of england well, not south coast, the, the rural south of england, which is quite rare. When I'm speaking to electronic artists, um, but before we get going, as always, lost and sound is a one-person operation. I'm super lucky to have audio technica sponsoring the show, but I do all of the research, the editing, um, the interviewing, the putting it all together and putting it out. And if you do like the show and you want to show your support and one way to really really show that response is to if you've subscribed, that's brilliant, and if you fancy, leaving a review or rating or both on the platform of your choice, that would be super, super, super grand, anyway.

Speaker 1:

So back to the back to the episode. So we had this conversation on monday, the 24th of february 2025 and, yeah, I really enjoyed this. Uh, this is what happened when I met igloo ghost. Hey, seamus, how you doing? Hey, can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you really well, can you hear me, okay? Oh, bro, yeah, yeah, all good. So thanks so much for joining me and welcome to lost and sound. You've got a reputation for being quite elusive and often doing interviews by text. So, firstly, thank you so much for chatting to me face to face today and I feel like, in some ways, like there's such a kind of element of world building around your work and, with that, a sense of like creating a whole identity and controlling perhaps the world around it is is. Is things like the text interviewing? Is that part of maintaining an elusiveness that fits in with your work.

Speaker 2:

Um, yeah, I think you're into something. There is like it's a bit of um, I don't know. I find it a bit harder to control and, you know, say exactly, maybe, how I feel. But with text I can sort of I got the liberty of like kind of freezing time, going back and adjusting it, so see how it goes. I'm a bit of a rambler, but she'll be all right yeah, I, I can, I can relate to that I'm.

Speaker 1:

When I used to make music myself. I experienced that with just like editing music, like I've actually edited a few tunes out of existence through wanting to kind of control the time. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2:

I mean it's a blessing on the chorus because, yeah, I mean I guess with electronic music it means like you don't have to play everything on the spot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's like the best thing ever to me, but yeah, I mean, we both grew up in dorset, right, you're? You're, you live in london. Now, though, um, I live in bristol now.

Speaker 2:

But, um, yeah, I did live in london for a bit. But yeah, dorset crazy where abouts? Whereabouts do you go, wimborne? Yeah, it's hard to like, it's always hard to remember, like where you've been in Dorset because there's just not really any I don't know memorable like landmarks and stuff.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and whereabouts did you grow up?

Speaker 1:

I grew up in Shaftesbury, right yeah, so you know just another, just another town, just another town, another town, yeah, I mean yeah, but I mean I got thinking about your work and some of your work is really connected to dorset and I mean we all we're always connected in some way to like where we we come from and I've definitely got my own way. That dorset has left a mark on me. But I was wondering, like growing up in dorset, like how did that? Because there isn't that much in terms has left a mark on me. But I was wondering, like growing up in dorset, like how did that? Because there isn't that much in terms of like a big electronic music narrative that comes out of just generally the english coastal landscape anyway, I mean maybe apex twin, uh, adam freelander or something. But like for you, like what was it like growing up in dorset and connecting with electronic music? I mean, yeah, you're right, there's just there's just nothing there really.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, I had to just sort of um uh, I don't know just take to the internet and just just kind of like learn as much as I can just very much, not on a first-hand basis and I think like in that experience it kind of like it does like take on a bit of this like mythological form and you know, everything's kind of like exaggerated and romanticized and and like seems a bit like larger than life and I don't know.

Speaker 2:

I think like, even though I took it at face value and believed it all, like looking back on it, I you can, you can kind of see how like you might have fell for a lot of um, I don't know, just like theatrics and like really romanticized ways of putting it. So I don't know, I definitely like to kind of like try and use that in my own work with the sort of like world building stuff and I don't know kind of like take the piss out of that. A little bit like just music cultures like um tendency to just kind of like make out that everything is like this cataclysmic, like world shifting event, and like you know, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I mean I can relate to that because I mean I do. I am just about old enough to remember going to some sort of. There was a. There was a little bit of free rave culture that I could remember going into and I didn't totally understand it at the time, but, um, but I wasn't really immersed in electronic music growing up, um, and so, yeah, I I a lot of stuff about music filtered to me via, like the music press you know, and and like later on, blogs and and things like. So, like that idea of like the, the of like the kind of the hype I guess maybe you're talking about, and the way things are, the hyperbole about like the way music's described, rather than perhaps necessarily being involved in a scene, was that like? But also like you mentioned a few words about like the theatrics there, and I remember like growing up in Dorset and there was a lot of theatrics just in terms of like social life, um, like mythology, about like local people down the pub and things. Was what was that like for you?

Speaker 2:

yeah, yeah that checks out? Definitely. Um, yeah, I didn't like just growing up in in just mostly empty places like I think they just become ripe for sort of creating like rumors and just um, you know, urban myths or suburban myths maybe. But yeah, I think, like honestly, that's like a huge part of like where I think any far semblance of like ideas from making art and things like that came from. It's just like staring into the void and being like so bored you have to imagine something like in place of you know just nothing.

Speaker 1:

That's I think, yeah yeah, yeah, definitely, and and that a lot. How much of that fed into um, because, like your second album, uh lie, I always clap word it's hard to pronounce, like yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2:

How do you say it?

Speaker 1:

oh, it's ley line eon, but yes because I remember like people talking about low lines indoors and also like having like things like glastonbury. There's a massive sort of connection with it. But I just wonder if you could tell me a bit about, like, how that all fed into that piece of work. You know what was it? What is it about Lines for you that inspired the album and how it came together.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, growing up, I think well, I mean, when my parents were younger, they were definitely sort of part of that like subculture of sort of like neo-paganism, kind of like hippie, like neo-paganism, kind of like hippie, I don't know, or you know there was just like some sort of um, all these subcultures existing in parallel, like in quite like rural places, and I guess like people were finding ways to kind of like I don't know like reconnect with nature in a way.

Speaker 2:

And you know, those were these stone circles and neolithic things everywhere and like they're always kind of quite dubious like the origin was, like the meaning of them.

Speaker 2:

So I think, again, it's like another thing where, like people are creating like new meanings for you know, just these like quite, I mean, they are interesting but like just these quite like mundane, like countryside, like things, yeah, and like yeah. So just I don, I don't know, growing up, like being a the kid of like parents who were kind of part of that scene, like they, they took it with like a pinch of salt. Like you know, they weren't like full druid mode but um, like yeah, there's definitely like sprinkles of it in my childhood and I'd often like go to like stone circles and sort of like dowels for ley lines with like funny little metal instruments. And you know, I definitely like believed it to some degree and just I was like, yeah, I suppose this is real and, um, I don't know, looking back on it, yeah, I don't know, I'm just grateful for like that like just added sort of like whimsy and and almost like fairy tale, like just like aspects of growing up.

Speaker 1:

Like it must be pretty rare these days yeah, I just I mean so I'll get a sense that you're something that you're not like hugely, or at least 100 cynical about, like there's something that you really got out of it for yourself and for your creativity yeah, yeah, I definitely like.

Speaker 2:

I remember like being a teenager and then and then suddenly being like oh, like I'm so clever, like I can debunk this. This doesn't make any sense, it's pseudoscience or whatever. But then you know, horseshoe theory or whatever you you come out the other side and you're like wait, actually this is like sick. Um, yeah, I don't know, I just thought it would be nice to kind of like um, make some work that kind of just adds to the pile of like nonsense, really, and just like you know, I just want to, yeah, just make my own little mythology and kind of like confuse like fat with fiction. I just feel like it's like part of like the greater, like spirit of things, maybe, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I think doing that in the digital age is really fascinating, particularly like connecting up to like how I imagine Dorset and these ideas of these old runes and and going back into like folk traditions where like stuff is just like hearsay and passed on and like now we live in like this sort of like I mean I wouldn't say factually correct times, but like you can just check things out for like sources and and so that this idea of storytelling and like cheeky lying and myth building and stuff, like I mean for you like how, how important is that to? To sort of like you know, as a springboard for you to kind of get ideas, to kind of create worlds, did you need like the worlds to start the ideas?

Speaker 2:

um, I mean, yeah, I think like early on, when I started doing this stuff, like a lot of it was kind of like pure fantasy and I'm like you know it didn't really have any like grounding in reality and it was like in that way, I suppose like quite understandable that like I was just presenting this I don't know silly like Teletubbies kind of world and it was that's what that was, and then real life was you know where everything is real.

Speaker 2:

But I think these days I find a little bit more fun to take like, yeah, things that really happen in my life or different places that I'm like living in for a few years, and kind of like make these like little self mythologies and, yeah, make it even just for people who know me like a little bit confused if I'm suddenly being sincere or not, I don't know to me like that, I don't know. I mean, it's just kind of how I like process the world, like like I definitely daydream a lot and I think it's kind of like so it's, I don't know, it's the most like accurate way I can like communicate my like lived experience. I suppose.

Speaker 1:

Um, yeah, yeah, and I I heard that like, with, with, like the most recent album titled memory XO, that you recorded it like um, or it was inspired or written like by staying in a squat. Can you tell me a little bit about that as well, and how?

Speaker 2:

that yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean. Yeah, I mean. Well, that part's true, but yeah, we were, we were living in, like done it, so not quite Margate, but kind of just like in, just in that like general area and um, I guess, yeah, for like a good like five years or so and it's like a, it's like a really strange place and it, I suppose it's technically like a peninsula and, like people say, it's got its own like microclimate, so it has this like really weird sort of aura, as it is um, I've just like you know it's in England but it doesn't quite feel like it. So, yeah, I was living in this like horrible MIT garage for like five years and it was like a really strange existence where I don't know I was just surrounded by, I guess, like all this sort of like aesthetic, like ugliness, in a way, like we were like right by the sea, but not in a nice way. It was like I don't know just um very like brutalist seafront and like minging. Like you know, we were right by like a sewage plant and um, I don't know, I just became like really obsessed with just all the sort of rot and like decay and contact with the ocean that I was around and just started sort of just yeah, I don't know, just just dreaming up a bit of like a hyper narrative of like what I was doing there and, um, yeah, like long story short, I guess the world around.

Speaker 2:

The album is about like a giant storm, like cutting that little Isle of Danne off from the rest of England and they lose access to like the internet and sort of like music. Subcultures emerge there and yeah, the plot of the album is like me trying to get like weasel my way into the scenes and sort of. You know, I'm like starting from the bottom and trying to make all theseasel my way into the scenes and and sort of. You know, I'm like starting from the bottom and trying to make all these like weird sub genres that are popping up.

Speaker 1:

Um, yeah, I love it. I love it. That's it's like a bit like a microcosm of of life. Yeah, yeah, definitely, and I like also. I mean, I don't really think I've got synesthesia, but I do pick up on some things sometimes. You know, I think I was quite sad when I realised I don't have synesthesia but, like, that album to me sounds very watery. There's a lot of like sort of stuff in there where it's very ripply. There's so many different sounds and textures, that sort of I don't know. I mean it's such an objective, sorry, subjective thing to say. But like you know you mentioned there about the kind of islandness and the sort of storms and the wateriness this were. You do you sort of consciously try to find sounds that fit like the vision, or is it more of like a kind of more like intuitive approach that you kind of arrive at things that just feel right?

Speaker 2:

I mean, yeah, it's like it usually kind of all germinates from like the same place, like the, the visuals and the music. Like I find it hard to like continue working on music if it doesn't like avoid like an image, or I can't connect it with this image that I'm into right now and I don't know. It's like when I get the two sort of working together, like at the earliest stages, like that's when I don't know, I find it like a compelling thing enough to finish off but yeah, but that's cool. That felt like war, because I don't know that. Also, another thing that I'm quite into is like trying to get as far as I can of evoking something like that, like without using sort of field recordings or or like a literal way of evoking it.

Speaker 1:

Um, yeah, but I don't know, but maybe maybe it's the cover, like with a placebo, I mean you you never know you never know, but I I like what you're saying there about like without you know, maybe getting this getting somewhere, without like doing very literal things sonically to it. You know, um, yeah, I mean you did like a website for it as well. You know this whole kind of idea of story story building. You know um world building and storytelling for music, you know extends way beyond just the music. You know the ad, like the website, um, for this album. You know the sleeve design as well. You do. How important is that like for you?

Speaker 2:

firstly, for you just as an artist, that you can express these things in different mediums yeah, I mean, I think I don't know, I, I, I wouldn't, I probably wouldn't be making music if there wasn't a way to do that like just I don't know, putting out like white labels or something with no like context, like, even though I love that stuff, I don't know. I just for me, like I'm a bit of like a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, and like I want to have like my fingers and all the pies at all times. Um, I mean, at least in my mind, I guess, like I I'm known for like making music, but to me that's just like quite an equal part of the puzzle. Like I spend like definitely like maybe more or maybe the same amount of time thinking about sort of like visuals or just creating like a silly like concept around it. Um, but yeah, I guess it's just like as a technicality. It's like music for us, I suppose.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess the second part of that as well is that in 2025 and the last few years, like we do experience music quite often in connection with something else, like you know, whether it's um, like in connection with, like the, the platform that we're hearing on, or also like the intentions of how we choose the things on the platform, like, for example, like you know that the rise of playlists, and so I've you know, is it important, important for you in that context, to sort of almost like, categorize your work yourself rather than become, like you know, music for music with beats that are this way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it is funny how if something goes viral in a way that you didn't intend for it, it can sort of like yeah, I don't know, sponge up all of this, meaning that was never intended. Yeah, I mean I've never really had a viral song or whatever, but I did have this weird kind of blip happen on TikTok once where I just in this quite unserious kind of blip happened on tiktok once where I like just in this like quite unserious way of just like posting that I had a new song, um, I put like the music and then just uh to a video of like it was kind of like a like a wind farm blowing up and it was just like a sick, weird, like handheld video. I thought I thought it looked really cool and it did like massive numbers, but it was like this weird crowd who were like really like anti-wind farm or something and like like these pro like oil guys and they were like that's what happens, like so-called sustainable energy.

Speaker 2:

And then I like clicked on the tune and I saw like just these, I don't know this demographic started using it. Like there's this compilation of these like guys like firing, like rifles and like tactics or something like a shooting range. And I was like, oh shit, like it's about like Confederate anthem or something.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a nightmare. I mean, it reminds me of like, wasn't it, you know, going back in years, like things like bruce springsteen doing like born in the usa, and then ronald reagan picking up on it, or song two by blur getting used by the us military and and, um, yeah, I guess that's it. Like, I mean, does that sort of make you over careful about things, or is that just like?

Speaker 2:

well, fuck it, that's just a really weird way that that happened once yeah, I mean nice, it's fine, like, like it's I don't know, it's funny, but yeah, I'm I'm not sure I can stop that kind of stuff happening.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, I think if I create my own sort of like very dense like context around the music, at least I've like had had my say for us, like before whatever else happens. Yeah, but then, like, I guess at the same time, like I always like want like the little disclaimer that it's like it's all kind of optional and like I think it's totally a valid like listening experience. If somebody does not give a about any of the other sort of like world building and visual stuff, that I have to say about it, like that's just my personal like, um, like pairing with the music, but like I don't know, I wouldn't want to stop someone from listening to it and like imagining their own stuff and maybe it means something totally different to them and, um, yeah, that's something I worry about. Sometimes I could be stopping people from doing that, but I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Right, I can yeah, I get an impression of what you mean like, because it's important for the music to stand up in its own right and people to experience it like in their, in a really subjective way that relates to them, you know, rather than having like something. And that kind of reminds me as well about how, like sometimes, fan cultures work with this sort of higher levels of knowledge that are needed to sort of, like you know, earn appreciation for which I don't think is really fair for music.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, that's definitely right. Maybe I could be using all this world building stuff as an excuse to like, make slightly subpar music and I'm like, oh yeah, but this is explained by, you know, page 54 in the lore bible or whatever. Like, like, I definitely like, yeah, I don't want to, um, let the music become like a I don't know, a weak sort of like limb and, like you know, yeah, I definitely need it to to stand up on its own.

Speaker 1:

That's something I go around myself quite often, but yeah, yeah, I think it's interesting to say about wanting yourself that often, I mean in terms of like being creative. Do you have like, um, like certain strategies for like kind of creating the surroundings to help you get music done?

Speaker 2:

I don't know. I'm quite like um, I try and avoid getting too into sort of like making my studio, wherever I'm working, look too nice or or be too precious about like um processes and stuff, just because, like I'm quite prone to procrastination and like I don't know, I just like honestly, like you know, even just working in that squat and and like coming for like five years, like that was perfect to me, just the, if I'm in an ugly place, like, then I like really have to be forced to like imagine something that I like want to see or hear, because, yeah, otherwise I'll be too happy with just like the environmental space.

Speaker 1:

If it's, if it's too pretty, I probably won't make anything I mean, I I have a similar thing when I'm writing, like I can get really obsessed with like creating the perfect uh surroundings, like it might be like a coffee shop and like the coffee's got to be just right and you know it's got to be like the right kind of day, and I realize those are the days where I just don't really get anything done. You know it's it sort of creates a bit of a sort of uh, yeah, like what I think is going to be a good atmosphere, creates like an anti atmosphere. You know, it becomes something that I just sit in rather than, yeah, like engaging no, I think I think it's true.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I guess it's different for different people, but yeah, just like I think, like if you're too satisfied already, like you're not gonna be like hungry enough to make anything, like yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you've already got there exactly, yeah, yeah, you've like created a nice environment and that's like oh okay, time for lunch now, like do you find it easy to like move on from albums in terms of like um, I was speaking with uh, the artist slick back a few weeks back and he was sort of saying this really lovely thing that I loved where he said that sometimes he'll get up in the middle of the night and take down a band camp track and just like adjust it a little bit and then put it back up and do you, do you like, once you've finished an album, or like finished a project, do you let go of it? Do you see it's finished or does it still like live on in you in ways?

Speaker 2:

it's actually like it's a weird dilemma like I think about all the time. I still, honestly, I haven't really made my mind up, because sometimes I do just wake up in cold sweats in the night and think about some music I released six years ago and it hasn't aged that well. I just could have done it better. And yeah, I do have this impulse to go back and I don't know micromanage and update all my old stuff. But I also do just worry about sometimes I think about this like thing people say about.

Speaker 2:

I think it's like the golden gate bridge and that's like like I think at one end there's like people always painting because it's like so large and it takes like so long to like, uh, like renovate or like paint the whole thing. It's like constantly, you know, by the time you get to that end, you have to like paint the start again. I'm just I'm worried about like chasing my own tail and if I just leave, it will be maybe I'll be able to just like focus on like what's next, which is like probably the better idea. But yeah, I do it. I do it occasionally, but I do feel like it's a slippery slope and once I start, then there's no reason to not just like constantly be updating all the time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you do get like, sometimes, artists that seem to be so sort of in a loop with, like you know whether it's like what George Lucas did with those second bunches of Star Wars films Well, not even that, but they're going and re-adding the CGI and kind of controlling the myth of something that's already entered the public space.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I always think about that. The thing where they change Yoda into some crappy quite early days. Yeah, cg, yoda the OG obviously had so much soul. But yeah, lucas must have just woken up in the middle of the night like, fuck, that puppet is horrible, it looks like the Muppets, yeah. Was it the wrong movie.

Speaker 1:

Definitely. And they did it with Jabba the Hart as well. They had the. You know, suddenly this 15 years younger version of Jabba the Hart that was like a little bit slimmer, who probably hadn't like got super into like the cd gambling quite as much yeah yeah, it's just like.

Speaker 2:

I don't know. It's weird because, yeah, just it loses its context. Like suddenly, like someone that was made in the 90s looks like it was made in the 2000s or something, and, um, I don't know, it's probably quite like useful just for like I don't know. You know just historical records that everything like can be placed at a time and date, but then there's just like a devil on my shoulder. That's also just like. Maybe maybe you just fuck it and just cause a bit of chaos and and I don't know, maybe that stuff isn't as important as you think. And um, I also think about like I guess kanye got into like the habit of like releasing like these half finished albums and then like patching them days later or months later and like I think like at worst they're gonna be an excuse for being really lazy and like rushing something, but like at best, like it's kind of cool and it wasn't possible back in, you know, vinyl times or whatever when it's out.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I mean, I think it's definitely one of those things I have like a double perspective about really. Um, I wanted to sort of speak to you as well a bit about like you know, like diy spirit and and how that plays in for you, because you know, you have released on on like brain feeder and like I mean brain feeder like what was it I mean initially? I guess, what was it like getting signed to ball, like I don't know if you were signed or whether it was just like a process, but but like releasing work with brain feeder because they've got such a like, I mean, I would like I don't know if it's like an aesthetic or an association or like you know, it must have sort of helped initially, kind of go, wow, I'm part of a family of sound and releases. You know what, what was that like initially?

Speaker 2:

um, yeah, I mean, it was like it was crazy like I was. I was about 18 or something and I don't know flying lotus was just like my sort of like favorite artist ever growing up and um, it was bonkers, um. But at the same time I I was like pretty disconnected from it all and because, like you know, it emerged from like a time and a place that, like I was really fascinated as a teenager by like this like amazing like scene and in LA and but I don't know. But I was just this like English kid in in England and and yeah, I don't know. So I guess I never really sort of it wasn't like I was like, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm like now I'm part of like some kind of scene. Like nothing much really changed in like places I was or the way I was making music or yeah, but but yeah, grateful that it happened for sure yeah, and sort of stepping away from it or like not working with brain feeder for the last sort of few releases.

Speaker 1:

Did you feel like, you know, was there a sense of like autonomy with that, or or, um, was that just the way? It just goes?

Speaker 2:

I mean it's, it's just, it's not even like, um, I, I can't really remember like, like, I think I was genuinely just like quite young and naive that I didn't, I didn't really understand about, about what the idea of a label was, and yet to kind of stick with one. So I think I just started avoiding music myself one day. I don't know, I guess I just wanted to experiment with the different ways you could do it, or even just I don't know dabble with the idea of like starting a little label myself, which I never really did, but, um, I guess it just I've always been quite like a solitary, like personally, you know, I don't collaborate too much and I've never really been part of like a larger crew as such. So, um, yeah, I don't know, I've always just kind of hopped around really and just like tried to be friends with everyone really and yeah yeah, I, I feel like that too myself I've never been part of like I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I get the fear out about like socializing with, like I've never had like a kind of a lad group, you know, um, like, yeah, like, or like even going out like seven or eight people. You know that that I would don't think I could ever go on holiday with a big, big group of people.

Speaker 1:

I think I have done, but you know and I and sort of like I wanted to ask as well about, like you know, do you feel in the future, do you sort of see yourself, do you see like igloo ghost, like, because there's this, I guess this sort of one of the kind of running themes of the music or running kind of sonic themes of the music is that it's sort of is the kind of like intricateness and the sort of the layering and the sort of like to me that kind of like adventure of it. Do you, do you see yourself like doing something that's like kind of really ultra stripped down and minimal at some point?

Speaker 2:

you know like, maybe like lyrically as well, like you know yeah, I mean funny, you say that it's kind of what I've been trying to do for this, like next thing, um, I do like often feel like I hit this impasse where, I don't know, I just have the habit of making the track as busy as it possibly can, but it also allows you to hide from just basic things like catchiness and song structure and I don't know.

Speaker 2:

It's pretty humbling and scary to realize that, yeah, at its basics, you need to just be checking, like you're making like songs, that even kind of work on a simple level. So, yeah, I've been, I've been trying to do that recently and also I've been like trying to use my voice a bit more in music and and at first, like I was having a lot of fun with just using lyrics that are quite vague and just more just like imagery based and like really just subjective and just kind of descriptions and just words, adjectives that I liked. But I don't know, just for these last few tunes I've been making like hopefully will come out, I've been like really just trying to think about storylines and like a to B and and it's pretty scary Cause, yeah, it's a bit exposing, but I think it's important to try.

Speaker 1:

I mean, yeah, Like I mean literally exposing by having like less layers and like. What would you say, Like if you could go back and talk to your younger self and just give them like one piece of advice? What would you say?

Speaker 2:

you know, I I think like one thing that I've been thinking about recently is that, um, you know, like when you're like way younger and you're making music and I don't know, you're still just finding your feet and maybe trying different styles, and, like I don't know, you make one little project and it sounds maybe it's inspired by this genre, and then then you have an idea to make another and it's inspired by a different genre, but, like at the time, because, like your world is so small, like you feel like I don't know 100 followers that you've accumulated from the last project, like you need to keep them around, so you need to bend the next idea to like fit with the last, and like I think it's, like it's.

Speaker 2:

I guess what I would tell like my younger self is that it's it's never too late to like wipe the slate clean and just like call it a new project, because like, yeah, I wish I did that sometimes. Like I think there's, there's threads that I've like forcibly tried to link that probably didn't need to be linked. Um, yeah, but you never realize, like how small it's gonna feel in the long run.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't know if that makes sense but I get an impression of it like I've had experiences where, like the way I connect with what you're saying, that I feel like, yeah, I've wanted to sort of scrap something or maybe just change tack, um, but I feel like I go the amount of work I've done so far on this without seeing, like the bigger picture, that's actually just quite the small amount of time. Or or like maybe, yeah, where's that? You know, if I'm not feeling inspired by something, what's what's the point in carrying on with like a particular direction of it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's just that like that, that feeling where you're like, well, it would be a waste if I, just if I just wipe the slate clean and then you end up wasting more time. Yeah, just been so stubborn. But yeah, I remember like reading something about like the way slushy used to work and that she like was like very liberally, just instead of like tweaking a mix, you just start the song from scratch and and just like see it as these like primitive, like pieces that like like the song was just more like a concept and the kicks could be totally different. It could just be like built from the ground up, and sometimes that would like fix the issue quicker than like tweaking the I don't know like a bass resonance for like four days.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean that's a really good way to look at it, yeah, and and I I think it's always gonna sound like the artist that make it made it like, even if he, even if you end up scrapping something, you're always gonna go and do something else. That sounds like you, you know, in some way or other. So I think there's sometimes there's a feeling with that, like a sense of like letting go of an identity that you're not prepared to let go or not. I mean, you'd be like the person isn't prepared to let go of, but that just comes through, I think yeah, yeah definitely, that was it.

Speaker 1:

Thanks so much for chatting with me. Oh, nice one, yeah, yeah thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so that was me, Paul Hanford, talking with Igloo Ghost, and we had that conversation on Monday, the 24th of February 2025. Thank you so much, seamus, for your words and sharing your time with me there. Yeah, so thanks for listening, and if you like the show and you haven't already, please do give it a subscribe, give it a review and a rating on the platform of your choice. If you just click on over, that's really really super appreciated. And if you like what I do and you haven't already, you can check out my radio documentary the man who smuggled punk rock across the berlin wall by heading on over to the bbc sounds app on the bbc world service home page. My book coming to berlin is still available in all good bookshops or via the publisher's website.

Speaker 1:

Velocity press and lost in sound is sponsored by audio technica, the global but family-run company that make headphones, turntables, cartridges, microphones. They make studio quality yet affordable products. They make products that I really, really love using and I've I've used since I was a little wee musician, um in in making, making electronic music myself, like decades ago, because they believe that high quality audio should be accessible to all. So, wherever you are in the world, head on over to audiotechnicacom to check out all of their range of stuff. As always, the music that you hear at the beginning the end of every episode of lost in sound is by thomas giddens, hyperlink in the podcast description. So yeah, that's it. I hope you enjoyed listening today. Um, thank you so much for sticking around and, yeah, I'll chat to you soon. Thank you.