Attawalpa: From The Archives
Credit: Lena Dunham
As release day finally arrives for Yuck’s self-appointed best friend, Attawalpa, we’ve delved deep into the archives, rattling through the filing cabinets, to deliver you a Luis Felber-shaped treat. Culminating in months of work, after drip-feeding us a host of emotive singles, Attawalpa’s Patterns EP is finally born into the world, served up with some tantalising visual accompaniments, involving the like of Emma Chitty, Sebastian Strasser, and Lena Dunham. Check out what went down, when Tom Preece caught up with Luis earlier this year…
We last spoke properly in November. What's been going on in your life since then, musically, personally, emotionally?
Well, November was a long time ago. Since then, I mean, I've been down in the countryside staying at my mum and dads, near Portsmouth. I slowly came back to London, I guess, around Valentine's Day, for a Moth Club show. So it's been really fun, like, having the time off. I've been writing brand new stuff and finishing old stuff. I just have my really limited setup, which has been great. I've got a whole bunch of new songs, I can take my producer, hopefully, work with new producers, which is really exciting. I feel really good. I've probably got the most songs I've ever had under my belt. I'm really excited about that. Also, between then and now I've been talking with directors about these next releases, and potential labels to put out an album of all the singles I've done last year, which is really exciting. I feel like vinyl's really important, physical copies are important. We need to leave something for the aliens. I don't think they're going to try and sign up ten quid a month to Spotify. So yeah, that's a nice form of closure, and I'm already thinking about the second record. I've pretty much got it in the bag. Getting back to grips with playing with my band has been really, really cool. Me and Matt have been moving towards scoring things, and soundtracks. We just scored and soundscaped this art film that he made. Yeah, so it's been a really cool time. I’ve also been playing a bit of football recently, I scored a hattrick. It's just so serene, to gather with friends. Be in the present moment.
What was it like working with Misty Miller on ‘Please Take Care’?
I love working with Misty. She's fantastic, and she's a true professional. You know, she's like a South London country singer. The first time we worked together was back in 2016, I guess. She was like 18. She came down to the studio, and we got along, she liked my vibe, and then we kind of started demoing tracks. So yeah, like, we recorded a bunch of demos, and her management came down, it was all very 'music industry' then. She was young, as was I. Ever since then I would sort of see her at these ‘Easy Come' nights - it’s a sort of get together of musicians in South London, run by this guy called Hank Dog, who I've also recorded, he's an absolute legend. One of my bucket list things is to record his album. Me and Misty would sort of play these nights and she'd come on stage and sing with me sometimes. I'd play drums for her, or play guitar with her. It would just be a really nice vibe. When I was thinking of a singer for this, it was just really obvious it should be Misty. I was already playing somewhere once a week where we shared the same stage. Our voices sound really good together, and it just feels really nice playing with her. So yeah, like, I love misty. She's great.
“I wanted to sound like Kanye West producing Neil Young, you know, like saxophones, big bass lots of strings, piano”
You’ve released the tracks as singles in the lead-up to the EP release, can you talk us through your thoughts and feelings when putting it together?
I'm releasing them in an order or a track listing where I'd like it to sit as an album, as two things, or an album. But as a DIY artist, and a new artist, I have to be realistic and feel like I have to build up a following. People need to understand where I'm coming from. That's why I’ve been releasing everything as singles. Yeah, so like 'Please Take Care' is one of the best songs I've done, for sure. I feel like the more I put music out, the more stripped-down is gonna be, because I'm all for the fact of like, a song should work as its bare bones, you know, with a singer and an acoustic guitarist, or a singer and a piano. And I feel like I kind of can go a bit awol with production. For example, my song 'Holiday', which really can work in a really low-key lo-fi aesthetic. I wanted to sound like Kanye West producing Neil Young, you know, like saxophones, big bass lots of strings, piano. I think I'm kind of going more away from that now, as well, as fun as that is to sort of lose your mind in the production of something. I'm way more interested in the sort of fluidity and the honesty of the song.
“He’d just come off stage, then took the time to give the 17-year-old weirdo kid, who’s totally stealing Kim Deal’s thunder, a little lesson, you know, in life”
You worked Matt Alchin again on the EP, I read that you even co-wrote songs this time around, have you done that before? What was it like handing over some sort of creative control to Matt?
I think it's like a relationship, you know? You just have to trust the person, and I have done that before in bands. More recently I've done that with a couple of releases like Tom Atkins’ stuff, and NRVS as well. I'm a co-writer on those things. In that sense, the tables are sort of turned. I am helping the artists work things out. I've known Matt since I was about 17. We met in a squat rave. He'd just played a set with Ludes. I dropped an ecstasy pill and walked up to him with the acoustic guitar because I thought he was like a guitar king. I was like playing this riff that I'd learned a day before, a Breeders riff, and sort of pretended it was mine. He was like, Whoa, that's so cool! What's that? Then we started jamming 12 bar blues, and I'd never done that before. So like, on E and he was probably under some sort of thing. He'd just come off stage, then took the time to give the 17-year-old weirdo kid, who's totally stealing Kim Deal's thunder, a little lesson, you know, in life. Me and Matt became very good friends after that. But we'd see each other at gigs and get pissed together and go on tour. He used to support Jamie T when, when I was with Jamie T. And he'd always be a great hang. And then he sort of got more into the writing side of things, with like Florence and the Machine. He did the first George Ezra record. He's working with a lot of amazing artists.
“It’s a sort of low-fi, sci-fi, alien, Ridley Scott-esque idea”
Last time we spoke, you told me about an idea you had for a television show based in a cafe showcasing the best in new music. Is that something you're still working on? Have you got anything else in the pipeline?
That developed into an idea with my friend James Eldridge, who runs at Pizza Pilgrims. I know him through a bunch of guys I went to school with that are all in the restaurant world. I took the idea to him. And yeah, we've made like a deck, and we got a sponsor at Camden Ale. Then lockdown happened. It is an idea, and I think there's definitely a space for that, and, you know, we've got a little document now to like show that we mean business. I think once this nightmare is out the way we'll get back into that. But yeah, I'm doing other stuff at the moment. I'm still putting out music for Attawalpa Records like the NRVS EP, which will have the first video out of four videos we're making. It's a sort of low-fi, sci-fi, alien, Ridley Scott-esque idea with these four songs that are going to be like a short film that's cut into four videos. I'm the director on that, that's been really fun.