South East London vocalist/producer/director Grant Armour has been making documentaries on subjects like drugs, rave culture, fetishes, mental health, prisons, ancient rituals, homelessness, LGBTQ+ rights and space tourism.
In the past, he has collaborated with Greta Thunberg and Brian Eno on docs about climate change and the moon landings, respectively. Grant has recently made documentaries on cartels distributing counterfeit medication in Mexico & LA, human rights abuses against Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala, Scotland’s cocaine epidemic and even a biopic on Noel Edmonds.
“I’m still curious and engaged in documenting humans. Most of my films are about the world outside, but my music is more about the world inside.”
Most of Grant’s music has been instrumental, as accompaniments to his own films, but now he’s using his voice, moody breaks, creaking bass hooks, ethereal guitar textures and the obligatory angular solo to make low-slung slacker pop for an uncertain world.
“While my previous singles have come from a dark and solitary place. With MONDO, I wanted to make a track that the listener could sit in like a comfortable armchair when dealing with any anxieties they may have with the state of the world or even just getting the fear from partying too much. I want it to be a tool to break out of the cycle of self-loathing that can happen after having a good time.”
Grant believes in self-imposed limitations to create space in music, to capture the emotion and energy of the song and to communicate the initial idea more directly – so he typically writes and records his songs within 24 hours. Most of Grant’s songs are about the human condition in the end times, isolation, perceptions of time and space, the loss of privacy and modern love.
“I’m yearning to make songs that span time, that aren’t anchored to a particular moment in culture or world history so that listeners can jump in whenever they feel like”
While most of the influences for his music come from films rather than from other people’s music, for instance: the colour palette of Giallos; Altman’s movement of the camera; De Palma’s mining of Hitchcock’s formula; the editing style of Thelma Schoonmaker; the innate humour in Cronenburg’s body horror, but if he had to narrow it down to musical influences for his latest single they would most likely be, Suzanne Vega, Popcorn, Dean Blunt, Happy Mondays, Beck & Edwin Collins.
Grant continues to make documentaries, and music videos alongside his music with artists like Tirzah, Micachu & Real Lies. His own music videos continue his experimentation with circuit-bent video synthesis. The music video for MONDO was shot during rush hour in NY & in the woods near Lake Winnipesaukee to compare and contrast the sense of isolation in urban and rural environments – while also being a homage to early 2000s MTV and shows like 120 minutes.
“Making music and films are compulsory for me as I find the process therapeutic. I hope the consumer feels the same way.”
Watch the video for MONDO – BELOW:
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