Spacewalk

Context

When I started Spacewalk, the walls where I lived were really thin, and singing felt awkward because I knew everyone could hear me. So I made instrumentals instead.

I’d always liked house and techno, but I never really nailed the sound. With Spacewalk I finally felt like I was figuring it out. At first it wasn’t a concept at all, just a bunch of electronic tracks. Then I started naming them, realised they could tell a story, and it turned into a kind of Interstellar-inspired thing.

The mission

It’s a space mission. “Nocturne” and “Mirage” are wide-eyed, looking out at the stars. The title track is more dynamic. In a film, it would play over the montage. With “Disturbance” some tension creeps in, and in “Breach” something goes wrong and the mission falls apart. “Lost Signal” is being stranded, with everyone else millions of miles away, and “Detach” ends it: one person letting go so the other can survive.

Each track works on its own, but together they’re one piece you can close your eyes to and drift off with.

Production

This project taught me to get a lot more creative with synths. Every track has one sound or texture that makes it stand out. Compared to the vocal albums it was pure experimenting: I didn’t worry much about structure and just did what felt right.

The hardest one was “Detach”. I had this idea of a really emotional ending and couldn’t make it sound right for a long time. Once I did, everything clicked.

Looking back

Spacewalk showed me I can make electronic music that actually works. The one thing I’d change is the drum loops: I still haven’t really started making my own drums, which is a bit lazy. But if a loop helps the song and sounds good, why not?

It came out close to Born For More and I barely promoted it, but I don’t regret putting it out.