In an interview for office, Shannon and Campo sat down— a first for the both of them, as they've never seen each other's faces— to talk about the music, the art, and the future.
So, what's new in your life? What's a random thing that's made your day?
Tom — Well, I suppose the good news is that our recent installation in Menorca looks very nice, beautiful setting. And so, I think, that's what cheers me up.
Kai — I'm in a pretty boring stage of making a record right now. So, I'm in this room without any windows for most of the day. So, my highlight of the day is, is really the chance to speak to Tom, as it actually is the first time we're getting to speak. We obviously corresponded a lot on like through the project, but not on camera or anything.
It must interesting to see each other's faces, and just talk to each other regularly. Now that you've mentioned the collaboration, what went into the process of making the artwork for City Planning?
T — Well, I think it has a lot to do with Frank Lebon. You know, we had met and he had a good idea of doing something together. And I was very delighted to be able to have an opportunity to do something like this. I love the music.
What was the vision board for? Especially since the cover is done in black and white.
T — Well, we had many different ideas of doing it with sculptures of different types of balancing and magnetic sculptures, so there was probably 100 different ideas. But eventually, it became clear to do something practical for a short period, and they had this idea of using four balloons that were packed together and create a little hut that could be photographed, that had unusual optical abilities, where all the balloons touch each other, there's a kind of infinity reflection between which gives it a very interesting look and appearance.
Are you guys both equally inspired by technology and the futuristic concepts?
K — Making lots of work really is about trying to make sense of different thoughts and feelings that you have going on at any particular time and trying to condense those into a artwork. I think that's why it's often difficult to explain what it is until you know that it's right. And because it kind of is able to illustrate maybe like a certain contradiction, or a feeling, or a fear or whatever ,just fills a space that that you're aware of. And so each time that I make a record it's, you know, coming from quite a different place. There's certain themes that come up. And this is the first time that this is, you know, certainly a record that was slightly more conceptual, as it's been different from my usual approach in the last 10 years previous. So, I had more kind of literal ideas that I wanted to try and cover in the making of the music. And some of that is also in reference to other music. And there's a debt that's owed to the music of Detroit in the late 90s and early 2000s, which often was very interested in possible futures. And, in my mind, anyway, it was a forward looking music that was interested in the aesthetics of the future. And yeah, so when I was talking about some of these ideas with Frank, he, he pulled Tom's book down off the shelf, and I couldn't believe from the first page that I turned just how how much it resonated with me. And then every page after that was, it was a very exciting moment, actually. And, yeah, I was overjoyed that we're able to kind of pursue it together. Yeah.