Vincent Cavanagh has been quietly working as The Radicant since 2017, however he’s lastly gone public with it three years after the dissolution of his outdated band, Anathema. Debut EP We Ascend swaps sweeping, guitar-led rock for textured electronics and glitchy experimentalism – though it’s nonetheless recognisable because the work of one of many musicians behind albums comparable to We’re Right here As a result of We’re Right here and Distant Satellites. As Cavanagh tells Prog, music is simply the tip of the creative iceberg.
What’s The Radicant? Band? Artwork undertaking? One thing else?
The Radicant is my creative alias, for those who like. From a sensible standpoint, it’s the title I exploit for all of my audio-visual output. It began off as an exploration in composing for various media and expertise, which allowed me the liberty to work in numerous, interdisciplinary strategies that had been new to me. And for the time being, it’s a business music undertaking as a result of I’m releasing information.
You began The Radicant in 2017, earlier than Anathema break up, however you saved it beneath the radar till now. Why?
I’ve been doing work and collaborations since 2017 which have knowledgeable the music I ultimately put out. By way of public appearances, I performed stay in a south London gallery in 2018 – it was the soundtrack to an augmented actuality piece mixed with sculpture and music.
I just lately did a collaboration with Sarah [Derat, artist and Vincent’s partner/collaborator], which was an audio set up on the Castor Gallery in north London.
Not every part that I do goes to get launched to the general public – I suppose to completely perceive it, you perhaps have to return to among the future exhibitions.
What’s a ‘radicant’?
It’s a reputation that was given to me by a pal of ours, an artwork curator. She described this shift into composition in numerous media and creative disciplines as “a radicant transfer.” ‘Radicant’ itself is a botanical time period – it describes organisms that create new roots as they advance, which implies they will adapt and develop.
An artwork curator/critic known as Nicolas Bourriaud wrote a guide with the identical title, and he mentioned how people and cultures are continually uprooted and in flux on a regular basis. He used it as a metaphor for a way artists can see themselves in a extra linked world – there’s no single route that you just come from; your origins are at all times a number of.
Anathema resulted in 2021, throughout Covid. What occurred?
I selected to go away. The reality is that it had been within the publish for a really very long time. I’d come to the realisation that I had no different approach ahead with it, and that I needed to set off by myself, as robust a call because it was.
I felt an enormous quantity of accountability for everybody else and the legacy and historical past of the band – but it surely was time for me to deal with myself, this undertaking, my plans with Sarah. It was a really troublesome, painful, unhappy time for everybody.
Anathema had been a band. That is simply you. Liberating or scary?
It’s scary in any stroll of life to go away one thing that’s all you’ve ever identified and to take that leap into the unknown. However the precise work itself is totally liberating. I’m capable of produce work that there’s no approach I’d have had any type of freedom to do in Anathema. Individuals presume the lead singer is accountable for writing the music and is the chief of the band, and none of that was ever true in Anathema. I simply fell into it and saved it going.
Individuals presume the lead singer is writing the music and is the chief of the band – none of that was true in Anathema
However now I’ve the liberty to authentically be myself and put one thing throughout that’s precisely how I want to be perceived, versus being the man fronting that band with the leather-based jacket and the guitar. In all honesty, that wasn’t me.
You scrapped an entire album as The Radicant. Why?
This was in 2021. I had the entire thing written. I’d recorded drums with [Anathema’s] Daniel Cardoso in 2019 and I’d recorded the vocals. There weren’t many guitars on it, but it surely felt like a continuation of what I’d carried out beforehand; it was a bit too ‘rock’-ish. I used to be, like, “I’m unsure that is the precise transfer.” So I scrapped it. Then I met [French co-producer/mixer] Ténèbre and began working with him. I handed him a track and that grew to become We Ascend. I knew it was going to work straight away.
There aren’t any guitars on the brand new EP. Why not? You’re a guitarist, in any case.
I don’t assume I’ve performed guitar at house for years. I can’t even keep in mind the final time I did it. I’ve bought guitars proper in entrance of me in my studio, however I by no means attain for them. I don’t know why that’s. I’m a guitarist, however perhaps I simply bought bored of it.
You’re engaged on a full-length album. How does it transfer issues on from the EP?
I feel it’s going to be extra upbeat. Numerous the tracks on the EP are a slow-burn; they construct. The album is a little more fast in sure components. It’ll have clues and callbacks inside the tracks, and likewise callbacks to the EP – folks will hear one thing and say, “The place does that come from?”
If I’m requested to DJ someplace I can do it, or if there’s a standard gig I can have as many musicians as I like
However I grew up listening to albums that had been designed to be listened to in a single sitting – The Beatles, Pink Floyd. The EP is constructed like that, and the album would be the similar. Not essentially a story, however one thing that’s linked musically and emotionally.
Are you going to be taking part in stay?
Yeah. I need it to be a modular setup; if I’m requested to DJ someplace I can do it, or if there’s a standard gig I can have as many musicians as I like – even six or seven. However I’d completely like to play or tour with a band.
I’ve bought a tremendous drummer, Ben Brown from [London jazz-experimentalists] Waaju and Charlie Cawood taking part in upright bass; I’ve bought Amy Woods, the classical soprano, who sings on the EP; and Sarah is an excellent singer, too – she sings on the EP and the album. It appears like something is feasible.
