Bossk: Birds Of A Feather

There is something tantalising and enigmatic about BOSSK. They have not tended to court the attention of the music press, and a series of sporadic releases over fifteen years has made them difficult to follow, but whenever and wherever the Ashford post-metal outfit appear they are met with esteem. In their first incarnation they released a pair of EPs, .1 and .2, which gained a cult-following after they disbanded in 2008. Although things had gone a bit quiet, their reputation was slowly simmering away in their absence. BOSSK reformed in 2012, and made some selective appearances on the stage before releasing their first album Audio Noir in 2016 to critical acclaim. A new generation of fans flocked to them and has waited patiently for a sequel, but following a full-length debut as successful as Audio Noir was never going to be easy. This is how they did it.

“We were very conscious to do something which we hadn’t tried before,” explains bassist Tom Begley. “We thought that starting in as different a place as possible would give it more meaning, in a way.” Within just a handful of releases – which include EPs, a single, a live DVD and a split – BOSSK have been eager and willing to experiment with different approaches and formats, so their next full-length album would have to take them in a new direction. “There was an EP series put out by the Dutch distributor Konkurrent called In The Fish Tank,” remembers Begley, “where they got two artists together in the studio for a couple of days to write an LPs worth of material. ISIS did one with a band called AEROGRAMME. We liked that album a lot, and we liked the idea. We were also fans of the SUNN O))) and BORIS album Altar; the FULL OF HELL and THE BODY ones too, so the idea of a collaboration was where we had ended up. Obviously the biggest part of that idea was: who?”

“There were tonnes of bands thrown into the pile as possible collaborators,” he continues. In the end, BOSSK teamed up with Japanese noise rock collective ENDON, who would lay the foundations for Migration in their own unique way. “When I was in Japan with MUTOID MAN and SLEEP back in 2018,” Begley recalls, “ENDON opened for some of those shows, and I saw them sound-checking. It was so intense,” he grins, “and they were on Daymare Recordings at the time too, which was an iconic label for us. They had two electronics guys; absolutely loads of synth. It was almost too much, but it was very interesting to me.”

The blueprint for noisy post-metal collaborations has been well established by the likes of BORIS and MERZBOW, among others, but how they would go about integrating abstract and intense power electronics into their own sound was by no means obvious. “I asked some of those bands how they did it. We can’t go into the studio and make noise, you can’t just do that,” he explains. “So, I had a very loose plan for each of the songs, the dynamics and so on. I’d often use references from films: things like ‘the sound of Alien’ or ‘those sounds from Blade Runner’. The Chernobyl series soundtrack was important to us too; our guitarist Rob [Vaughan] and I were really into it. In the background there is a static hum, which is meant to represent background radiation. It’s subtle, so you only really notice it when it’s gone. So, that’s where a lot of my ideas came from. I organised moments in the album almost like a storyboard. “

BOSSK have always managed to emphasise the dynamic elements of their music to create subtle and rich soundscapes from which their mighty riffs can emerge. With Migration, the band has taken that method to a new level of sophistication. “ENDON sent us tracks for each of the songs; their interpretation of my storyboard. When they first sent it to me, I remember finishing work, going home, turning the lights off, turning my phone off, getting super baked and sitting down with a pen and paper to make notes. They sent me about fifteen minutes for each track, each with two layers. A lot of it was impenetrable noise and drone, but we picked out the bits that we thought would work. There was so much to work with that we had choice paralysis. So for the first time in our career, we had to do things in order. Migration is very structured compared to Audio Noir,” he finishes, “and working with ENDON meant we had to do it like that.”

Whereas Audio Noir was defined by lush, organic tones created using shimmering reverb and cosmic delay, Migration evokes the harsh and stark aesthetic of an urban environment. That is pleasingly anticipated by Seldon Hunt’s artwork, which graces the cover. “It looks like a BOSSK album, which is really important,” comments Begley, “but it also suits the record. I don’t know if [Seldon] had even heard the album before we got the artwork. It was very quick. He knows exactly what we want, and he represents the band in his own way. There’s a reason he’s so much a part of it.” Hunt’s artwork can be found adorning many classic albums from artists including NEUROSIS, EARTH, and JESU, but his work with BOSSK highlights his skill in photography as well as in illustration.

“Normally his work is super complex, and very digital,” Begley observes. “The first time around we essentially cold-called him as an unsigned band from the UK, asking if he was interested in doing our artwork. To our surprise he replied, ‘Yes, what are you looking for?’ We wanted something unlike anything else he had done; not Seldon Hunt by-the-numbers. I’d seen his photography, and I liked it. I wanted woodland photography, and he instantly got it.” BOSSK established their musical and visual aesthetic early on with .1, and both band and artist have enjoyed a fruitful creative relationship ever since. “Most bands look back on their first album with a shrug and the artwork is either dated or embarrassing, but our attention to detail then has paid off because now we have a standard to meet for everything,” declares Begley. “We thought about having someone else doing the artwork for Migration, but I wanted Seldon to do work his magic again,” he smiles.

Our conversation moves on to the band’s history, and their place in a scene they helped to create. “Back in 2007 when .2 was released the scene wasn’t very big at all,” Begley remembers, “and bands of our nature then were forced to play with bands completely unlike us. It was a very different world. Starting out in a city you’re already ahead in terms of your opportunities, but we were from Ashford! Nowadays there’s a scene for us but for us, but back then there simply wasn’t.” Alongside bands like CULT OF LUNA (whose Johannes Persson appears on lead single Menhir) BOSSK have helped to establish post-metal in the European scene. “The early years were more difficult, but that has paid off in the long run,” he adds with pride. “We achieved much more than we had realised at the time.”

Once the band reformed in 2012 BOSSK established themselves again with a new single, and found themselves featuring on CONVERGE’s Jacob Bannon’s label, Deathwish. “That all came about in quite unconventional way,” Begley concedes. “We played a Maida Vale session for Daniel P. Carter performing Pick Up Artist to get the ball rolling. Actually, Lee from BRING ME THE HORIZON recorded the guitar for that. I was on tour with CONVERGE at the time; I’ve been their tour manager and merch guy since 2010, so I knew that Jacob is the king of the ‘aesthetic’,” he adds admiringly. “Speaking to Jacob, I had asked him for some advice about where to go next. After some discussion, he just said: ‘Well, you tell me what you want to do next.’ I wanted to do a proper release for this single: get a b-side recorded, and print a few hundred copies. He said: ‘Well I can do that for you on my label, no problem.’ It was very matter of fact. Jacob believed in the band, and understood our passion.”

Deathwish has quickly become one of the most prominent labels releasing heavy music, curating albums from DEAFHEAVEN and TOUCHÉ AMORÉ, as well as BOSSK’s Audio Noir. “It has always had integrity and a vibe; it’s one of the best labels out there,” Begley tells us. “They have the sort of fanbase that will buy a record from Deathwish just because it’s on Deathwish. In between Audio Noir and Migration, we had some emails from other labels, but none of them interested me. None of them made me think they believed in the band. We respect each other’s roles and experience.”

There’s a reason Migration was one of the hotly anticipated albums set for release in 2021, and it’s not just because of BOSSK’s studious approach to their craft. Delays started as soon as the band had finished recording it, owing to the pandemic’s particular effect on the record industry, but now that it’s here the band are already preparing for their future. “We all had time on our hands, and Rob set about writing again almost straight away,” remembers Begley. “We have demos for another album recorded, and next year we’re going to do a follow up to .3. It’s going to have live songs, remixes and stuff like that. There’s a version of an old song on there played with piano and harp and we’re going to re-record a song too. We’re piecing that together at the moment,” he enthuses. “As soon as Migration was delayed, we started thinking about what was going to come next. We’ve now got a release for after that, too: a double album. Hopefully we’ll record that in the summer next year.”

Migration is out now via Deathwish Inc.

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