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Music

Safe Barracks Are a Melting Pot of International Sounds

Concrete angles and deep acid tinges combine on this exclusive video premiere.

PR's love to refer to bands as being "international" simply if one member's distant great-Aunt may happen to have resided anywhere other than within the confines of the M25. Yet with newcomers Safe Barracks, you can't really deny that the marketing blurb actually sticks, with their four members hailing from Iran, France, Ireland and Germany via Chile. This is evident enough within their music, which takes on a curious blend of live instrumentation and electronic elements, dipping into all the influences that surround them in their current hometown of London.

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Forthcoming single "Sécurité" is at the weightier end of their particular spectrum, taking in the odd acid tinge, house bump and dark, heads-down club work. We have the exclusive premiere of the video for "Sécurité", directed by the band's own Léo Bodelle, and featuring enough psychedelic concrete angles to keep any third year architecture student happy. Check the full video above, and peep the band's Patrick O'Keefe talking us through their dramatic meeting, future plans and just what a night out with the four of them consists of below.

THUMP: Safe Barracks have a truly international line-up - just how did you all come together?
Patrick O'Keefe: The process of how we came together has played a massive role in defining our sound. We try to infuse our music with the same sense of drama that has been present since our inception.
Kaveh and I met at a house party in Tehran in 2008. I was travelling through the region and somehow ended up at what is deemed an illegal house party; alcohol was consumed and girls were free to wear whatever they wanted. We didn't meet again until I answered an ad looking for a drummer. I walked into the session and Kaveh was there, playing bass. We both couldn't believe it.
Léo and I both work at the Natural History Museum in London. We met vying for time in its piano room, located in one of the towers that overlook the grounds. We decided to make music together instead of one hogging the space.
We met Mike through a mutual friend. We had everybody we knew on the lookout for a drummer to complete the line-up. We saw Mike's video on his website, asked him to join and were stunned but happy when he agreed to try out with us.

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Do each of your respective nations music scenes feed into the overall Safe Barracks sound?
While for sure there are some slight musical residues from our respective nations in our sound, it's not in the jingoistic flag-waving sense one would expect.
I think our sound could only be conceived in a world city like London. Here, everybody is from everywhere. Where you're from is not really a novelty to anyone. It's so diverse here, our sound is fed from all sources; whether its techno at warehouse parties, reggae from passing car stereos or hardcore at squat parties. We've been present or active at them all and feel that's what has contributed most to our sound.

Which nation has the strongest or most interesting scene out of the four of you?
I'm going to have to say the Irish one at the moment. Ireland was hit particularly hard during the financial crisis. Youth unemployment was and still is so high. So lots filled their free time making music and a relatively large, diverse and quality scene has been the result. Acts such as our friends Lakker, Eomac and Spaces have led the way in the electronic scene whereas Hozier and his peers have done so for band music.

Can you tell us a little bit about the video? There's a definite focus on form, structure and architecture - a fair few angles popping off in there…
We produced it in house. Which is great for a band like us who generally like to be very hands on and, annoyingly for anyone else involved, micro-manage everything. The images for the video are largely from photographs of art pieces, buildings and structures and were taken by Léo in areas throughout France. We wanted the images and their movements to mirror the repetition of the tracks sequences. We found when we zoomed into the images and rotated them it was quite mesmorizing. It fitted the track perfectly, we felt.

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"Sécurité" is a bit of an acid-tinged epic that we imagine sounds fairly hefty in a warehouse - do you all get to go out much when in London?
Yes, we've been known to go for a sway from time to time. "Sécurité" and our other electronic tracks were born from our wanting to have a more active participation in that scene. We're predominantly a live band with live instrumentation. However, the production of our more electronic tunes has greatly influenced our live band sound. I feel now each informs the other which makes for an exciting and varied writing process.

What would a typical night out with Safe Barracks consist of?
Mostly board games, particularly Scrabble. While cursing is permitted we draw the line at sexual swear words which are neither funny nor clever.

What's in store for you all over the coming months?
We're screening the video for "Sécurité" at our next show at The Sebright Arms on 4th of October. Release-wise, early December will see the unveiling of our next single with another single and album to follow before next summer.

"Sécurité" will be released via Save Paris on 20th October.

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