Words & Photos by Christel Escosa

It’s The Invisible. Not The Invisibles, or even The Invisiblezzz. With production by Matthew Herbert on their upcoming eponymous release, The Invisble is beautifully uplifting in it’s warm melancholia; thoughtful and introspective without being vain – and there’s also something vaguely familiar about their music. In fact, it induces a feeling of homesickness for something just out of reach, a kind of nostalgia for better times; that simultaneously looks for good in the now as well as the future.

And to meet two thirds of The Invisible, Dave Okumu and Tom Herbert, three flights of stairs were climbed, a forest of washing on a makeshift line was waded through and the narrowest, most rickety-ass wooden staircase ever was teetered up, all whilst carrying a cider and a glass of red wine. It was worth it though, to emerge onto a few glorious square feet of rooftop surrounded by the concrete jungle of East London jutting into a somewhat clear early evening.

DAVE: We started recording in the beginning of 2007, finished the album, and since it’s been an ongoing process really. So we’ve been gently, gradually getting on people’s radars. I guess the key thing will be once the album’s released, our next single is coming out on the 1st of September. And hopefully that will increase our visibility.

So what is it that made you come together as a trio – what made you amalgamate as The Invisible?

DAVE: We all go back quite a long way; we’re really good friends apart from anything else. We’ve played together in lots of different bands for quite a long time.

Amongst which were such bands as Jade Fox, Polar Bear, Gramme, Zongamin and the esteemed Matthew Herbert.
TOM: Yeah, Dave, Leo and I, we’ve lived together at various points…
DAVE: We’ve lived together, we’ve been lovers, we’ve done time together, crime. Everything. And then in 2006, Leo and I (Leo Taylor, the drummer, who’s not here, we’re representing for Leo) went on tour with Matthew Herbert, and I recorded some stuff for his album. We went on tour for most of 2006 and we became really good friends and Matt offered me the opportunity of making an album – I was really looking for an outlet, had started writing songs and was looking to put something out. And Tom got on board and together, we birthed the beast that is The Invisible.

And why The Invisible?
DAVE: Do you really want to get into this?

Yeah, yeah, c’mon.
TOM: It’s nice that you actually realise that it’s not The InvisibleS

DAVE: Cause that’s sort of, the poor man’s Incredibles. The Invisible does definitely have a real significance. It’s so hard coming up with names – we came up with some really awful ones…

Like?
DAVE: Electric Bitch, and uh, what was it? Erotic Johnson.
TOM: Yeah we’ve got a couple of side projects!
DAVE: We’ve got a lot of names and a lot of side projects! But with The Invisible,
I guess I was thinking about the idea of what creativity is about; the idea of expressing yourself and the process of making something invisible, visible. I think we’re all engaged in that process. We all need to express our thoughts and I was thinking about what making music is for me and creativity in general, and also how we live in a culture that’s massively driven by image and product – I’m a sucker for that stuff as much as anyone else – but when I think about what really counts, it’s usually the stuff you can’t see. I wanted to make a statement about that in a subtle, discreet way.

Discreet and invisible – well hopefully not.
DAVE: Yes, the Invisible touch! It’s actually about Phil Collins – no its not…!

Delete delete!
DAVE: I’m really a woman! No don’t say that.

Speaking of the way the world is, what do you think of the current musical climate – who and what is it fertile for right now?
DAVE: It’s a really interesting time. Everyone seems to be freaking out cause everything’s changing and there’s a real sense of uncertainty in terms of like, the traditional role of major labels and all of that. I’ll be honest with you, I guess as someone who’s had some flirtations with that but having been pretty much on the periphery, I’ve the luxury of saying I think it’s a good thing! Because change is a natural thing anyway, we want things to change and move forward but for me, the system that has been in place in terms of how music is put out and promoted and all that, in some ways strikes me as archaic and it’s time to shake things up. And hopefully, I am an optimist, but hopefully this time, climate and what it represents is an opportunity for great music to come through. People have so much choice now. I’m really struck by how music is now so co-opted to like, sell things or how it’s about a soundtrack to a lifestyle and all of that. Hopefully people are more savvy and see through that. I think there’ll always be a fundamental yearning for stuff that has meaning and is engaging and isn’t necessarily that obvious. But I love pop! It’s our favourite.
TOM: We all think Prince is a big influence. I dunno whether you’d call that pop though?
DAVE: That’s an interesting thing right there, because most of these things that come to be seen as pop music, that come to inhabit that space, often when they first came out, they were totally pushing the boundaries and one of the most exciting things for me is when something driven by a creative process enters the popular realm.

Is that where you guys want to go?
DAVE: Yeah.

Do you want to enter into the mainstream, mass consciousness?
TOM: I don’t think we’re driven particularly by the desire but we’d all be lying if we said we don’t want anyone to hear our music. We want our music to reach as many people as possible and I think it can.

And like, in terms of say, someone offers you loads of money to like –
DAVE: – Change my hairstyle?

Well, precisely. Often, a band is like, the tip of an iceberg that you never see the end of and it’s just a massive machine and the band is the tiny little product at the end of it. Would you take that option at all to be the tip of the iceberg…?
DAVE: Sure, I like where you’re going with your imagery. I mean, taking into account what we’re all like, it’s not the main drive for what we’re doing. I don’t think any of us would be happy to be the tip of the iceberg as you describe it, and I suppose the ideal scenario is to have a platform to present our ideas in some sustainable way. One thing is that there’s a real need to basically have an output to connect with people.
TOM: Something that’s sustainable for sure. That isn’t driven by the latest fad. We’re not trying to jump on any band wagon.

It’s that whole, what does ‘indie’ mean now, what does being independent mean. Cause there’s loads of like, music out there that’s marketed as ‘indie’ and it’s just not. Do you consider yourselves independent?
DAVE: Definitely, in a true sense. I don’t associate us necessarily with any ‘scene’ as it’s presented, cause that seems to have been commodified. At the same time, just what’s happening with the fact that like, there’s always two sides of the coin, through this huge democratisation…through technology, like anyone can make a record obviously and there’s loads of shit out there, there’s loads of stuff, whatever, that kinda gets co-opted by the mainstream, so there’s loads of interesting things happening. Loads of truly independent things going on. Like, even where we live, Tom lives in Deptford, his address is… And his credit card details are…ha! But yes, there are a lot of people doing genuinely interesting and amazing things that I find really inspiring.
TOM: There seems to be a lot of stuff happening that doesn’t necessarily rely on…THE MAN…
DAVE: Who is this Man you speak of? What is this Man? [laughs] Did you just say The Man?
TOM: I couldn’t think of any other word to use!

Can you name a band that DESERVES to be successful – whatever you may perceive that to be – and a band that are GOING to be successful for whatever reason (whether they deserve it or not)?
DAVE: I think Radiohead are a band that truly deserves their success. Cause what comes across is a real integrity.

And a band that will be successful?
TOM: I dunno, I’m really out of the loop. I reckon Mica (Micachu) could be pretty successful
DAVE: She deserves it though too…

Do you listen to new music?
TOM: Well I try to, but I was talking to a friend in the industry about new music and she was like, I’ve got albums from, such and such, none of which I’d ever heard of….Electric Bitch…
DAVE: I’ve got the new Erotic Johnson EP…

Shit, someone’s pirated that from you already!
TOM: We had the provisional name of Erotic Johnson and I looked it up on the internet and the only thing I could find on Erotic Johnson was a gay male escort in New York.

You gotta get in quick nowadays.
TOM: They’re ahead of the game, the porn industry
DAVE: Porn is always cutting edge I find…Not that I know anything about porn!
TOM: There probably aren’t very many porn stars who would choose the name The Invisible, come to think of it…
The Invisible is released 13th October via Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Records label.