For the last half decade, Stephen Wilkinson (AKA Bibio) has recorded some of the finest hybrids of electronic and folk music. Workmanlike in approach and with a compulsion to construct songs like a film editor, in discussing his recording technique, Bibio upends the idea that an experimental approach needs to result in something experimental sounding. The finished product can be more subtle.This approach is apparent on his latest album, Silver Wilkinson. A beautiful, meditative record, it shows Bibio posed at an apex in his craft. Every note exists right where it needs to be. Bibio even dabbles with viral pop on “À Tout à l'Heure,” which is something like a hybrid of Boards of Canada, Phoenix, and Yeasayer. Bibio also pivots and delivers glitchy hip hop with “You,” before wrapping things up with a pillowy goodbye to the album's listeners on “You Won't Remember…”We recently spoke to Bibio about his new album Silver Wilkinson, why he directs his own music videos, and the philosophy behind his recording efforts.Noisey: Electronic music of the last few years has been either a bit too maximalist, split into a number of sub-genres, or more and more a calculated attempt at blog exposure. But Silver Wilkinson cuts right through that and shows another way. Do you aim for a sort of natural or organic sound?
Bibio: This isn't really an electronic music album and I don't really consider myself an electronic musician. A lot of my music is not electronic at all. This album is more like a one-man band affair. A lot of it is guitars, electric piano, sax, and singing. Of course, there are some tracks which are more electronic, but I don't think of them as being that different. I did have a desire to start using guitar more after Mind Bokeh, but during the making of an album, I'm more focused on sounds rather than this apparent divide between electronic and organic/natural.There's possibly more studio trickery in some "live" sounding music than there is in a lot of electronic music. This has been the case for decades. Some of the techniques used on Beatles records were more experimental than sitting behind a laptop clicking on a trackpad, it's just that the end result was a pop record. This album is more mellow, melancholy, and dreamy, so it doesn't scream anything. But then quiet music can be more potent than in-your-face music.Two years removed from Mind Bokeh, how do you think Silver Wilkinson contrasts with that record?
I think it's more emotional perhaps, as a whole, although Mind Bokeh had some emotional moments. I think it has much sadder and darker moments than Mind Bokeh, but in a different way. I still really love that album. I actually think that it's my strangest record even though it's not the most avant garde-sounding. Silver Wilkinson, despite the lack of beats, might be more accessible. I don't know—it's hard to say at this stage.You've released an album teaser and a music video so far for the album. Visual aesthetic seems vital to what you do—perhaps even as vital as the music itself. What's your background in video and filmmaking?
I've enjoyed playing with cameras for many years. I think I just like recording things: sound recording, photographing, video. If I could record smell, then I would do that, too! My music tends to be visual to me. I like music that makes me daydream and takes me somewhere in my imagination. The tracks I choose for an album tend to be tracks that do that well, for me at least.Even though I don't watch many films, I tend to think in films, or scenes in films. One day I'd like to direct a film and create an original soundtrack for it. I have a fairly intuitive technical mind, too. I taught myself how to make and produce music and mostly taught myself how to use cameras, etc. I enjoy the science behind it all. My art is often driven by technical ideas and experiments, but that is usually hidden away from the outcome, as some emotional form usually takes over.There is a submerged quality at work on some of the tracks ("Wulf" and "Dye the Water Green" come to mind here). Do you happen to like the way sound travels in the medium of water, or is that quality merely incidental?
I get a submerged vibe from “Dye the Water Green,” but “Wulf” for me is very much out in the open, under dark cloudy skies. I'm attracted to murky things because I guess they have a mystery to them. “Dye the Water Green” has a murky green aquatic vibe to it aesthetically. Maybe that's what prompted the lyrics. I always loved the underwater scenes in nature documentaries. I suppose this is because the aquatic world really does look like another world, just like you can get so immersed in music it can feel like another world."Mirroring All" has a fantastic passage of almost science fiction-esque synthesizers—the way the arpeggiations rise and fall, and other synth notes puncture the sonic fabric. Can you talk about the song and that particular passage?
It's one of those tracks that is split into two or more parts, which something I do quite a bit. It usually comes from having a half-finished track and then writing a second part for it at a later date, usually quite a while after the first part was recorded. This usually results in contrast as I'm approaching it with a reset studio, starting from scratch, so it's unlikely I'll come up with the same sounds again. The challenge then is to create a transition between the two parts to make them gel.I feel like “Mirroring All” is one of my best examples of transitions. The two parts do seem to merge seamlessly. I'm quite into tracks that make you wait for something, like a little surprise at the end. “Mirroring All” has the loud semi-electronic mashup at the end which contrasts with the first part, which is more ambient and panoramic. Then there's the outro, which is sort of a reprise. I picture that part as being somewhere in the clouds—it feels more airy. I get different images from different tracks and, in some cases, different images within different sections of tracks, like jumping between scenes in a film.
Speaking of jumping scenes, the single, "À Tout à l'Heur," abruptly shifts the sonic narrative and sounds as if it could get a significant amount of airplay on radio—that is, if radio were still a powerful medium. What was the genesis of that song? Did you come up with the melody and think, "Whoa, I've got something here?"
It is getting a lot of radio play in the UK, which is pleasing, even though I don't listen to radio. The making of the track kind of evolved more slowly. Some of the guitar parts originally existed in a solo 12-string guitar piece I wrote (which later became the B-side on the seven-inch). I came up with a new riff in my garden on a sunny day and recorded some jams there and then. Then I borrowed parts from the 12-string piece and started to flesh it out with percussion and bass, et cetera.The line "À tout à l'heure, à tout à l'heure…" just came out of nowhere one day when I was listening to an instrumental mix of the track. The rest followed. So, it was a process that was kind of broken up into stages. I tend to do that more now, whereas when I was younger, I generally wrote entire tracks in one go, sometimes spilling over into the following day. Now a track could be broken up into parts from different years, with me revisiting old tracks or sketches and rearranging them. It's a skill that's come with having more experience. It also requires more patience, as it can be quite mentally taxing to open up an old project and start picking at the seams.The track "You" shifts from this vibrant and stuttering melange of sound to a beautiful, meditative coda. Was that last little bit something you were working on and decided to attach to the end?
They were completely separate tracks. Every now and then, particularly in Autumn, I make lots of ambient stuff. A lot of it is minimal looped stuff, but I listen to some of it a lot. I make ambient playlists and listen to them in bed, sometimes in the bath—any time where you can stop what you're doing and just listen. If I feel I have a standout moment, then it may make it to an album, sometimes as an interlude or intro or whatever. I'd like to one day release a purely ambient album. I have a lot of material in that vein.As a whole, what do you think you were after with the new record?
Difficult to say. It's a gradual process and a lot of it was unforeseen when starting out. I only started with a vague idea and I didn't want to adhere too strongly to anything. Allowing myself to meander and change mood and experiment is more likely to yield a colorful record. I might have ideas, concepts, and themes for individual tracks, but the album process is more open to changes of direction. It's not a random compilation, though. I choose tracks carefully and the flow is important to me, even if that flow has abrupt changes. I don't want the listening of my albums to be a passive experience, so I like to throw surprises in there, abrupt changes.With that in mind, is there a philosophy behind how you write and record?
There is philosophy behind it, but it's hard to put it into words. My philosophies are more about what not to do rather than what to do. I have encountered a lot of people that seem to have crippling hang-ups about creating stuff. Anything from the automatic need to quantize everything to the obsession with fencing off different expressions into side projects.Although I tend to favor hardware and analog gear over software, I hate snobbery. I know that a talented artist could make a great track on a phone app. I have expanded my studio and have more pro gear, but I still cherish my cassettes, dictaphones, and lo-fi samplers. I don't see it as a hierarchy really, but a palette of sound. The idea that you need loads of expensive gear before you can make music is absurd and highly unenlightened. I often find that a lot of big budget production is all flash and no substance. The same goes for many music videos; you're being wowed by the bling, but strip that away and there's little left. There are, thankfully, some incredible big budget projects, though, with some of them being very inspiring and full of mystery.What's the live show looking like?
I'm not planning on touring off this album. It's not the kind of album that would work as a laptop DJ-type setup, and I'm simply not prepared or experienced enough to do the “live” show that people might expect from hearing the album. And I'm busy with other things at the moment. I may have a break from the album and put together a live set which focuses more on the electronic, dancier side to what I do, but spanning my discography, perhaps with a few unreleased tracks thrown in there.Being a one-man show makes it extra difficult to work something out for a live show. I'm also much more happy in my studio than on stage. I tend to enjoy gigs when I'm actually doing them, but being an anxious introverted type, I tend to shy away from them. My passion for music is really recording and making records. An extension of that is making videos. The live show feels more like fulfilling an expectation, really. I've had a long break from doing gigs and I have some fond memories, especially the gigs where I toured with Chris Clark and Hudson Mohawke, so I occasionally crave doing more.But many of the gigs I did meant traveling alone. It can get pretty boring and lonely spending so much time traveling on your own. I started taking my girlfriend with me to gigs, which makes a huge difference. I'd like to do some shows with my mates Letherette, too. We did a show in London around Mind Bokeh launch. There was me, Lone, and Letherette playing, and lots of my mates from different parts of the country came to it. It was a great night, despite the fact that I don't normally like playing in London.The fact that I had my mates there made it pretty special. If only all gigs could be like that.Silver Wilkinson is out now via Warp Records.
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Bibio: This isn't really an electronic music album and I don't really consider myself an electronic musician. A lot of my music is not electronic at all. This album is more like a one-man band affair. A lot of it is guitars, electric piano, sax, and singing. Of course, there are some tracks which are more electronic, but I don't think of them as being that different. I did have a desire to start using guitar more after Mind Bokeh, but during the making of an album, I'm more focused on sounds rather than this apparent divide between electronic and organic/natural.There's possibly more studio trickery in some "live" sounding music than there is in a lot of electronic music. This has been the case for decades. Some of the techniques used on Beatles records were more experimental than sitting behind a laptop clicking on a trackpad, it's just that the end result was a pop record. This album is more mellow, melancholy, and dreamy, so it doesn't scream anything. But then quiet music can be more potent than in-your-face music.
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I think it's more emotional perhaps, as a whole, although Mind Bokeh had some emotional moments. I think it has much sadder and darker moments than Mind Bokeh, but in a different way. I still really love that album. I actually think that it's my strangest record even though it's not the most avant garde-sounding. Silver Wilkinson, despite the lack of beats, might be more accessible. I don't know—it's hard to say at this stage.You've released an album teaser and a music video so far for the album. Visual aesthetic seems vital to what you do—perhaps even as vital as the music itself. What's your background in video and filmmaking?
I've enjoyed playing with cameras for many years. I think I just like recording things: sound recording, photographing, video. If I could record smell, then I would do that, too! My music tends to be visual to me. I like music that makes me daydream and takes me somewhere in my imagination. The tracks I choose for an album tend to be tracks that do that well, for me at least.Even though I don't watch many films, I tend to think in films, or scenes in films. One day I'd like to direct a film and create an original soundtrack for it. I have a fairly intuitive technical mind, too. I taught myself how to make and produce music and mostly taught myself how to use cameras, etc. I enjoy the science behind it all. My art is often driven by technical ideas and experiments, but that is usually hidden away from the outcome, as some emotional form usually takes over.
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I get a submerged vibe from “Dye the Water Green,” but “Wulf” for me is very much out in the open, under dark cloudy skies. I'm attracted to murky things because I guess they have a mystery to them. “Dye the Water Green” has a murky green aquatic vibe to it aesthetically. Maybe that's what prompted the lyrics. I always loved the underwater scenes in nature documentaries. I suppose this is because the aquatic world really does look like another world, just like you can get so immersed in music it can feel like another world."Mirroring All" has a fantastic passage of almost science fiction-esque synthesizers—the way the arpeggiations rise and fall, and other synth notes puncture the sonic fabric. Can you talk about the song and that particular passage?
It's one of those tracks that is split into two or more parts, which something I do quite a bit. It usually comes from having a half-finished track and then writing a second part for it at a later date, usually quite a while after the first part was recorded. This usually results in contrast as I'm approaching it with a reset studio, starting from scratch, so it's unlikely I'll come up with the same sounds again. The challenge then is to create a transition between the two parts to make them gel.
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It is getting a lot of radio play in the UK, which is pleasing, even though I don't listen to radio. The making of the track kind of evolved more slowly. Some of the guitar parts originally existed in a solo 12-string guitar piece I wrote (which later became the B-side on the seven-inch). I came up with a new riff in my garden on a sunny day and recorded some jams there and then. Then I borrowed parts from the 12-string piece and started to flesh it out with percussion and bass, et cetera.
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They were completely separate tracks. Every now and then, particularly in Autumn, I make lots of ambient stuff. A lot of it is minimal looped stuff, but I listen to some of it a lot. I make ambient playlists and listen to them in bed, sometimes in the bath—any time where you can stop what you're doing and just listen. If I feel I have a standout moment, then it may make it to an album, sometimes as an interlude or intro or whatever. I'd like to one day release a purely ambient album. I have a lot of material in that vein.As a whole, what do you think you were after with the new record?
Difficult to say. It's a gradual process and a lot of it was unforeseen when starting out. I only started with a vague idea and I didn't want to adhere too strongly to anything. Allowing myself to meander and change mood and experiment is more likely to yield a colorful record. I might have ideas, concepts, and themes for individual tracks, but the album process is more open to changes of direction. It's not a random compilation, though. I choose tracks carefully and the flow is important to me, even if that flow has abrupt changes. I don't want the listening of my albums to be a passive experience, so I like to throw surprises in there, abrupt changes.
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There is philosophy behind it, but it's hard to put it into words. My philosophies are more about what not to do rather than what to do. I have encountered a lot of people that seem to have crippling hang-ups about creating stuff. Anything from the automatic need to quantize everything to the obsession with fencing off different expressions into side projects.Although I tend to favor hardware and analog gear over software, I hate snobbery. I know that a talented artist could make a great track on a phone app. I have expanded my studio and have more pro gear, but I still cherish my cassettes, dictaphones, and lo-fi samplers. I don't see it as a hierarchy really, but a palette of sound. The idea that you need loads of expensive gear before you can make music is absurd and highly unenlightened. I often find that a lot of big budget production is all flash and no substance. The same goes for many music videos; you're being wowed by the bling, but strip that away and there's little left. There are, thankfully, some incredible big budget projects, though, with some of them being very inspiring and full of mystery.What's the live show looking like?
I'm not planning on touring off this album. It's not the kind of album that would work as a laptop DJ-type setup, and I'm simply not prepared or experienced enough to do the “live” show that people might expect from hearing the album. And I'm busy with other things at the moment. I may have a break from the album and put together a live set which focuses more on the electronic, dancier side to what I do, but spanning my discography, perhaps with a few unreleased tracks thrown in there.Being a one-man show makes it extra difficult to work something out for a live show. I'm also much more happy in my studio than on stage. I tend to enjoy gigs when I'm actually doing them, but being an anxious introverted type, I tend to shy away from them. My passion for music is really recording and making records. An extension of that is making videos. The live show feels more like fulfilling an expectation, really. I've had a long break from doing gigs and I have some fond memories, especially the gigs where I toured with Chris Clark and Hudson Mohawke, so I occasionally crave doing more.But many of the gigs I did meant traveling alone. It can get pretty boring and lonely spending so much time traveling on your own. I started taking my girlfriend with me to gigs, which makes a huge difference. I'd like to do some shows with my mates Letherette, too. We did a show in London around Mind Bokeh launch. There was me, Lone, and Letherette playing, and lots of my mates from different parts of the country came to it. It was a great night, despite the fact that I don't normally like playing in London.The fact that I had my mates there made it pretty special. If only all gigs could be like that.Silver Wilkinson is out now via Warp Records.