Soundcrash: Breton

There’s more to South London five piece Breton than first meets the eye. For starters, the band is just one aspect of their vast output. More fittingly described as a collective, Breton consists of musicians, filmmakers and artists all based in BretonLABS – an abandoned bank in Kennington. While their album, Other People’s Problems, has taken them into a wider conscience, it is Breton’s live shows which fully utilise their broad skill base, incorporating the collective’s award-winning visuals into their sets through video projections directed by their own members. We spoke to frontman Roman Rappak after their show at Soundcrash with R&S' Cloud Boat to find out more.

Dazed Digital: How do you tie your visuals to an audio performance? What is your desired effect on the audience?
Breton: We have a VJ who triggers all our visuals live. It's really important to us to have a human being editing the films live. Each track has its own short film that he can alter at each show.

DD: What are the main themes behind your latest video work?
Breton: The next film we are shooting is a documentary on someone we met while in Paris. She is an incredible person, and we were so fascinated by her we decided to do an interview and put the documentary together. I don't want to give too much away, but I'm really looking forward to people seeing it.

DD: Where do you want Breton to progress to?
Breton: So far everything that has happened with our band has been of its own accord. We never planned on putting out a record, or making videos, we just worked on things that interested us. Somehow it all fell into place, and a year after signing our record deal we were putting out our album and making music videos for Sinead O Connor.

DD: What's next?
Breton: We are touring our first record, supporting Hot Chip in Paris and the xx at Garorock. We have a short film we are finishing, and the London Short Film festival will be putting on a retrospective of all our work. Apart from that I am looking forward to writing new music, and trying out loads of new ideas, and the new synths and instruments I have bought. 

Jostle / Foam is out now on Fat Cat Records.