Interviews
We Recorded in the Basement on Purpose
By Noor Al-Farsi · Issue 42
The duo behind the year's murkiest synth record explain why fidelity was never the point.
The Half-Lit City make records in a basement with a dehumidifier for a bandmate. Their new album was tracked at 3 a.m. between a washing machine and a hot-water tank, and you can hear every pipe in the building on "Low Ceiling Blues".
"People ask why we don't just rent a studio," says Mira Voss, one half of the duo. "We did, once. It sounded terrible — too clean. Our music is about the room it's made in. The basement is part of the arrangement."
Her partner Callum Reyes agrees: "Every hum, every footstep upstairs, that's the texture. When people say it sounds like a field recording, I take that as a compliment. It is one."