The London-based WALLS are made up of members Sam Willis of DJs/producers/label-owners Allez-Allez and Alessio Natalizia from Banjo Or Freakout. Having met in 2009 while Allez-Allez were remixing Natalizia's "Mr. No", they soon found that their individual musical inputs could be a perfect match. The combination of Natalizia's guitar skills and haunting vocals paired with Willis' emotive synths fit perfectly onto experimental electronic label Kompakt. WALLS distinctly have a lack of concern for genre distinction, but tread somewhat between the lines of Boards of Canada-esque ambience to more pop sounds. Dazed speak to them as they release their album on May 10th on Kompakt...

WHAT'S…

...so special about you, then?
We do our best to make honest music that we love - the ideal compliment to us would be someone listening to our record, getting lost in their own internal world, gazing out of the window on a long journey, or lying on their back on top of a caravan looking up at the stars...

...your worst vice?
Over-thinking probably.. it's really important to try and keep the purity and spontaneity of your original idea or melody intact - if you work it over too much it ends up boring you, and probably everyone else too!

…the story behind your name?
We were sitting in a cafe, having a coffee, and it just popped into Sam's head... We like it cos it's very open to interpretation, we did worry a bit about the whole ice cream / sausage thing, but we figured it wouldn't take people too long to get over that!

...the world coming to?
It's a really exciting time, if you're lucky enough to live in a stable democracy and have access to a computer - your imagination really is the only limit with whatever you want to do, whether it's study history, make music or just make friends all over the world.. There are so many distractions and demands on your time, it's really important to stay focused on what makes you really happy and also, something that you have a talent for.

...your worst fashion secret?
Bad hair cuts.

...better, analog or digital?
It's all subjective, you can get good and bad versions of both, but probably analogue for the hands on 'connected' kind of feel - we're trying to avoid using computers in our live show, just instruments, samplers, FX etc. and it just feels so good to not have to stare at a screen...

...at the top of your shit list?
The next Tory government...

...are you listening to now?
Our label, Kompakt, have released some pretty amazing stuff over the years - Wolfgang Voigt's Pop Ambient series is truly inspirational, and a gorgeous soundtrack to your working day... Also, the forthcoming Luke Abbott Honeycomb EP on Sam's Amazing Sounds label...

How would you describe your work?
That's a hard one, as it's so much more interesting to hear other people's take on it - again it's totally subjective, some people hear My Bloody Valentine in there, others Animal Collective, or Boards of Canada, but truly, we just try and clear our minds and see what comes out when we sit down to write a track, rather than setting out to create a 'dance version of My Bloody Valentine' or something.. Labels are really restrictive, as people start to put you in a certain box - we both love dancing, and want to DJ as well as play live, so we'd hate for people to just sort of see as a chill out act or something...

Sam are you still doing stuff with Allez Allez? How does this project differ and why did you decide to do it?
Allez-Allez is my project with Steve Nolan, and mainly revolves around our DJ partnership, our blog and our record label... On the music / remixing side, it's just me who does that, so prior to Walls, it's been my only creative outlet... Incidentally there's a four track Allez-Allez EP coming out on the awesome NYC based label RVNG Intl.