Dead Bandit Interview: “We are both influenced by the warm embrace of older technology”

In some ways, Dead Bandit is a concern not born for these times.

Consisting of Ellis Swan and James Schimpl, through harnessing older technology, the duo have spent the decade trading haunted transmissions between their respective Chicago and Vernon bases. The result, a grainy-textured, sepia-toned haze that is part hypnotic, part homespun warmth.

The story of Dead Bandit began in 2021 with their debut release, From the Basement. Consisting of recordings stitched together dating back to when the pair first began writing together, the next year saw Swan release his excellent loner-inspired underdog LP, 3am, via Quindi Records. (The label founded by Niccolò Rufus, which is also home to Dead Bandit.)

Whilst different aesthetically, the hushed, moonlit quality of 3am slowly finds its way into the Dead Bandit sound world, and the results are fascinating. The duo’s 2024 sophomore release, Memory Thirteen, a rolling mist of dreamscapes and reverb as Swan and Schimpl shone a light into dusty, cob-webbed-riddled corners. It was one of the year’s most dynamic instrumental releases, featuring in Sun 13’s Top 50 Albums of 2024.

Shortly after Memory Thirteen’s release, with the wind in their sails, Swan and Schimpl wasted no time in getting to work on what would become their third LP, Dead Bandit. In tone and texture, while perhaps not a world away from its predecessor, in truth it doesn’t need to be. Dead Bandit, a refinement of Swan and Schimpl’s ghostly A.M. dispatches. A unique language that continues to evolve.

Dead Bandit: Memory Thirteen

With 16 tracks at just over 46-minutes, Dead Bandit is the duo’s most rounded effort so far. The cosmic wanderings of Milk and Miles, mind maps to destination unknown, while the warm distortion of Weeds and Amer Picon elusively draw you in as slow-motion riffs fall gently from the sky like snowflakes.

The cinematic DNA which made Memory Thirteen such a triumph remains here, too. Glass and Koyo, filmic dub-inspired post-rock that is slowly revealed through the smudged lens of well-worn technology. Then there’s Buttercup and Pink; moments of a distorted soundtrack that fall somewhere between Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy and Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers.

Elsewhere, Dead Bandit provide subtle contrast. Half Smoked Cigarette, One Eyed and Sheets, tracks that are like a cold pulse from the outer-world, while The Bug, Up to Your Waiste and Lucien’s Bitters see Swan and Schimpl thawing things out with moments that are like having the sun hit your skin.

On Spidery Ways and Let the Dog Decide, the duo amalgamate that cold and warm. Those greyscale atmospheres, pinpricked by moments that offer light. It’s ultimately what the Dead Bandit experience is. Emotional vistas that focus on the undulations of life, channelled purely through sound.

Ahead of the release of Dead Bandit, last week Swan and Schimpl answered a series of questions about the album, their creative process, and what the future holds for the project.

Sun 13: Firstly, can you tell us how you two met and started creating music as Dead Bandit?

James Schimpl: “Ellis and I met in high school in the mid ’90’s in the small town of Vernon in the Okanagan valley. My friends and I were playing in a punk band, and we were looking for a bass player, Ellis fit the bill. We became friends and played together in that band until I moved to Vancouver. Ellis moved to Vancouver a while later and we ended up living together in different apartments. We continued playing music together, often renting rehearsal spaces so we could make noise. He bought an 8-track cassette recorder, and I bought a 4-track and we both were immersed in recording.

“He eventually went on an American journey ending up in Chicago and I moved back to the small town of Vernon. We kept sending recordings back and forth over the years. With some unnatural luck, and Ellis’ solo recordings garnering attention, we were discovered by Nicollo through a friend of his in London. Quindi put out From the Basement in 2021 which is composed of many songs from those cassette track recordings.” 

S13: Your self-titled album feels like a quick turnaround from last year’s Memory Thirteen. Firstly, were they recorded during the same sessions, and secondly, can you tell us about the process behind it?

Ellis Swan: “We began recording this album right after finishing Memory Thirteen, mirroring the same process. Either James or I would come up with an idea, sometimes just a sketch, but usually more fully formed. Our recording approaches differ somewhat, James is more long form, while I’m trapped in a grid.”

S13: What was the most important aspect you wanted to achieve on this record?

JS: “We really don’t have any aspirations when we start making an album. We both record when time permits and start passing files back and forth, as we have done for years, until we have enough tracks for an album. If there was one idea for this album though, it would be that we are both into making more upbeat songs although there might be a difference between our idea and other people’s ideas of what constitutes an upbeat track.” 

S13: It’s a lovely continuation from Memory Thirteen. Both albums have a late-night transmission vibe about them. Do you write during the late night/early morning hours?

ES: “I like working at night, clocks tick louder, you can hear the L train, the kid is asleep. Usually it’s just improvising, listening for some textures or phrases that might be worth exploring. But recording and mixing occur day or night, whenever there is time and a bit of desperation.”

S13: Half Smoked Cigarette got me thinking of your writing process together. Is it born from one idea for you to then work outwards and build from there?

JS: “It most definitely does start with one idea. One of us will come up with the foundation of a track and send it to the other. If we both agree that the track is worth investing in, we will build it from there. A lot of ideas, layers, chopping and ear space go into making the track from that point.

S13: Are you generally recording music together, or is it more of a communication back and forth until you feel that you have the final product?

ES: “It’s a communication via email as mentioned. From the Basement has some tracks where we are in the same room together, Mud for an example, was recorded in a Vancouver garage. But for Memory Thirteen and this record, it was made 100 percent remotely. Maybe one day we will record together in the same place, I love records where you can hear the room the music was recorded in.”

S13: A lot of artists say when they enter the writing process certain things are taken out of their hands. Can you associate that train of thought with Dead Bandit?

JS: “For the most part we are in complete control of what we create. Nicollo will have suggestions about the tracks occasionally, and his ideas are always welcome, but the final decisions are made by Ellis and myself. It’s a great collaboration between the three of us, Nicollo’s love for music runs deep.”

S13: Amer Picon feels like the essence of Dead Bandit… like an interaction between different worlds. It got me thinking about science fiction and whether that is something that influences Dead Bandit?

ES: “Sci-fi is a guilty pleasure, but I don’t think it’s an influence. I believe our process is similar and instinctive, guitar and pedals get turned on, pick at the strings and see what happens. Not a lot of thought occurs until something structured and coherent is attempted through editing. Amer Picon is a good example of this approach. It came from three fragmented and unrelated improvisations stitched together, which gave it a drifting out-of-time, aquatic feel.”

S13: How important is older technology to how you present your overall sound, and do you see Dead Bandit as a reaction to advances in technology in this modern age?

JS: “Both Ellis and I started recording in the ’90s so we are both influenced by the warm embrace of older technology, but we definitely rely on new technology. When we started playing music neither of us thought about guitar pedals apart from distortion. Slowly we both became aware of the crazy sound manipulation you can create with various pedals and now we both have quite a few of them. On top of that we both record on laptops now. Newer tech has its benefits, but old tech has the warmth that ones and zeros can’t replace.” 

S13: I feel like your recordings really capture Chicago but in different ways than most people would perhaps associate with the city. How much do your immediate surroundings influence your music?

ES: “Red, brown, yellow bricks, Chicago can be depressing and there’s an aggression that gets to you. In hindsight I can hear it in tracks like Glass & Buttercup with their dense textured noise. Then there’s Sheets, which has a pacific northwest vibe, where we both grew up. Rain, fog, and logging roads. There’s a strange stink to old, abandoned vehicles overgrown with weeds. But I’d think the influence is mostly subconscious, I had to think about it.”

S13: Is performing live again something that you wish to do in the future?

JS: “We’ve played in Europe twice and the American Midwest once and would both like to continue playing music live. It’s the two of us and our loop pedals so travelling around is pretty easy but that does have its limitations. Once we hit the big time, we might be able to afford to add a player or two.”

S13: How much do you think your music reflects your personality?

ES: “I’d guess it reflects one hundred percent. Your lifelong influences, mood, what you take to alter your mood, aesthetics, limitations and flaws. Especially your flaws.”

Dead Bandit is out now via Quindi Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.