How do you approach writing your vocal harmonies? They’re so intricate and beautiful throughout all your songs - is it a collaborative effort or does someone compose them?
They often take a long time to be honest. It can be very intense writing sessions, trying out countless variations until we arrive somewhere that we’re happy with. Tom, Harry and Theo have more knowledge of theory and harmony, coming from choral backgrounds. Jasmine has an amazing natural ability to pick out beautiful harmonies out of thin air. Often melody lines or small snippets of harmonies are inspired by pieces that Tom has been learning on piano from a songbook, or something of the sort.
And with your songwriting process in general, do you all write together and what’s your starting point generally?
With this album, we wanted to make sure the writing process was as democratic as possible. We wanted it to be a body of work, written by the band Ugly. We feel that we’ve achieved something quite special in doing so. We usually sit down and start playing until we arrive at a moment, often that becomes the jumping off point for a song. This will then go through countless revisions and refinements, or maybe it gets scrapped all together - there’s a lot of Ugly music that people don’t hear.
You use quite a range of instruments and sounds. Is there anything you’ve always wanted to work into an Ugly song but haven’t found a way to yet?
In this album we actually tried quite hard to step away from that where possible. We wanted the album to be the best possible capture of what we can play with our instruments and tried to avoid adding many layers of other instruments where possible. This is part of what made the album sound so different from the EP.
Your debut album, The South Façade, has been developing over several years and across different spaces, from rehearsal rooms to studios and stages. How have the songs changed during that time?
Some songs have definitely changed more than others, but they have all gone through the works. A big part of the refining process was making sure that they all passed the quality control for what we believed the album should be. This, mostly in terms of ambition and complexity but also more generally the sound world (ambience, harmony, melody). We didn’t want the album to sound like what we’d released before, which some of the songs potentially did when they were first written.
What’s the best thing about making music collectively with so many band members, and what’s the most frustrating?
There are definitely many positives and many negatives. The joy of having music that feels as though we’ve all had a voice in and contributed to in equal parts is a very special and particular feeling. It’s a very democratic process and almost always seems fair, which is hard to achieve with so many members. This also gives everyone more of an investment and stake in the band. The downside is primarily to do with how much time it takes, it goes through everyone’s filter and many revisions due to the number of voices in the band. It can also be a difficult process letting go of parts that you get attached to, with not just one person writing the music - everyone has ideas that they have to say goodbye to.
Is there a particular harmony or musical moment you’ve written that you’re especially proud of in the new album?
I think we’d probably all have a different answer to that question. Here are some moments that stand out to me (Sam). The vocals in Orance are quite different to the rest of the album, very complex in the verses and beautifully uplifting in the choruses. The instrumentation in Die Another Day is probably one of the best examples of what we were trying to achieve in the complexity and equality of each member’s part, which give way and feed into one another. The vocals on Gallowine are particularly zany but I feel pay fair homage to the likes of Scott Walker, Gentle Giant, or Fairport Convention.
How did Ugly start and where did you all meet?
Harrison and Sam met at Sixth-Form college, many many moons ago and shortly thereafter started a band. Most of the members are from Cambridge (Theo is from London). People have come and gone and trickled in over the years but we feel as though since lockdown, we’ve found our people, the ride-or-dies.
How do your collective music tastes vary and what do you agree on?
We all share some similarities, most notably - good guitar pop/rock music from the last 50 or so years. All the classics that people know and love, which tend to have a real knack for harmony and arrangement. We definitely have different tastes individually, some leaning more into experimental, Jazz, classical, folk, emo. It all melds to create what Ugly is.
How do you approach the visual side of Ugly?
It’s something we’ve always struggled with as a band. We can be quite particular, it’s also hard to know how best to represent the music which is quite visual in itself. Due to this, it’s been largely neglected in the past and we’ve turned our focus onto solely the music instead. However, it’s something we’re really trying to refine with this album and to create a world feels quite important for this album which has a very particular sound.
Recommend us some new bands / artists you love!
Truthpaste, Max and Felix, The Last Whole Earth Catalogue, Jawharp, Green Gardens, Kissing Gate, Dog Race