INTRODUCING: Dwen
Experimental lofi, folk influenced R&B. That doesn’t sound like a combination you often come across. As far as trio DWEN goes, that’s as close to describing their sound as you can get. The mysterious three piece sat down with us to chat about their debut EP Leoht Farn, influences in nature and the journey that has taken them to creating in this moment.
While the trio are anonymous, they’ve been making headway in music one way or another for years. “We’ve been making music together for a decent amount of time, starting life in a prog post-hardcore band in our teens, which morphed over the years into different projects crossing all sorts of styles, playing gigs around Leeds and London, self-producing and occasionally releasing stuff on the internet on the sly […] DWEN is an amalgam of all we’ve done up until now and it feels like we’ve always been building up to this version of the project.”
DWEN is a hard band to pin down, but they’re all the more interesting to listen to for that. The new EP Leoht Farn is arty, expressive and pensive while also being an honest, face-value, chillout record. “Art and music are a bridge between personal and collective experience, as creators we’re exploring where those boundaries meet,” DWEN explain. “The lyrics come from personal experience and contemplation… but no track is about any one thing, we kind of cross reference ideas in multiple tracks and tend not to follow a linear narrative. They are a reflection of our own experience as seekers on the path of self-discovery, but there’s nothing prescriptive in it and meaning is open for transmutation by the listener. So, if there is a message, it may not be that clear and that leaves things open for interpretation.”
The free low of ideas and connection that runs paramount to DWEN. The band have no desire to press any value on the listeners, but are heavily conscious individuals who are channelling themselves through music. “It feels like something new is emerging out of our interests that feels rewarding,” they agree. “Finding balance between polarized ideas, energies and values is always fertile ground for creativity. Part of our process is trying to make sense of stuff we’re interested in in our own lives… everything from hermetic philosophy and mysticism, through to the high weirdness of Tim Leary, Terrence McKenna, Discordianism, etc. And where these cross over with emergent areas with the entheogen movement, as well as what’s going on with AI, quantum computing and nuclear fusion. Not to mention the unknowns of climate change and economic uncertainty. It’s an interesting time for consciousness, and without art and music, ritual and tried and tested methods for managing larger than life forces we may find ourselves totally ungrounded. Our ancestors knew this.”
While the band currently reside in London, their ethos harks back to when our communities were much smaller than our sprawling cities. “We’re interested in how ritual and folk traditions bring together stories, customs, songs, and art, passed down through generations by everyday people,” they explain. “Folklore is a universal celebration of shared humanity and creativity, manifested through skilled crafts and regional cultures, rejecting the homogenization of mass production. It reconnects us with nature and reminds us of the spiritual power within us, our mythic intelligence, latent archetypal energies, somatic awareness, and is an ever-evolving entity connecting the past, present, and future. These are deeply rooted tendencies in us all, and powerful tools for self-transcendence. The practice of which, in modern western society, have largely been marginalized, to the detriment of community and individual meaning.”
The result of DWEN focusing on a presence of mind and energy resulted in a lofi, folk inspired hip hop style project that defies the urge to put them in a box. In fact, the rawness of DWEN reflects in both the music itself, and the way the band approached recording. “We’ve always leaned into the lofi feel somewhat, never wanting anything to sound too polished or even ‘finished’, because it never is for us… and something magical happens in the first moments of recording something, we wanted to keep that feeling of being in the moment. We purposely degrade the fidelity of sound too, with tape warp and hiss, and include noise and field recordings to add more atmosphere to a track… bringing in a bit of controlled chaos, it just keeps things interesting and not too glossy.”
Leoht Farn is out now via self release.
Like DWEN on Instagram.