Glowing: An interview with Sulk Rooms’ Thomas Ragsdale
Saturday 8th November sees Damnsonic return to Images for another night of envelope-pushing electronics. Thomas Ragsdale, aka Sulk Rooms, hits Plymouth off the back of his new album which manages to imbue sonic reflections of the natural world with a surprising amount of hope and optimism. [Tickets are here!] I spoke to Tom about his life in music, as well as how he — and his sounds — are evolving.
How did you get into music and what led you towards your particular brand of “luminescent electronica”?
I started the classic way — hearing a combination of Britpop, nu metal and weird electronica on magazine compilations and CDs passed around school. The best way!
I’ve always been into the idea that electronica can be ‘glowing’ and I gravitate to warmer colours as opposed to colder tones.
The natural world is a reoccuring theme in your work and is very much at the forefront of Rewilding. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about how humanity and nature interact on these recent recordings? Or is it more of a case of embracing ambiguity, and simply exploring how natural forces can be represented in electronic music?
With Rewilding it’s definitely on the optimistic side, but it comes from an older pessimistic side.
The album is really intended as a sequel of sorts to my previous proper album Viewers, which was very much focused on cranky old machines, surveillance tech and a bleak future. Rewilding is nature starting to claim that misery back.
It’s unsurprising that so much of your work is used in film and television. Did you set out to make “cinematic” music and for your sounds to be used that way? Or was this something that evolved more from the practice itself?
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That’s definitely evolved over the years and it’s been a strange time with all that.
It’s a strange feeling when an email pops in the inbox that says, “we’re making a TV show about horrific political events and your music would be GREAT for this.”
Now I just lean into it!
You work with lots of labels as well as putting out a lot of your material yourself and managing things DIY. Are you happy to have more control and freedom from doing things this way, despite it being more of a hustle and more effort?
I think I’ve gaslit myself in some ways with regards to that.
It’s definitely something I’m working on and repeating to myself, “it’s ok to have someone else make a t-shirt design. I don’t have to stay up until 4am doing that”. Rewilding is being released on the Floodlit Recordings label and working with Joe from the label (we also play in a band called Pijn together) has been wonderful as his musical vision is flawless.
Are you comfortable playing live? What do you want audiences to get from a Sulk Rooms show?
I am VERY comfortable with playing live! I’ve been playing live music way longer than I’ve been recording and so it’s always been a natural thing for me to step into.
I’ve done many different live projects that have scaled DJing with Sasha to playing in a ska tribute band (with a two tone stage outfit, no less).
A Sulk Rooms live show is all about luring an audience into a state of hypnotic weariness and then unleashing as much bass, thrash guitar and tape machine weirdness as possible. It’s fun.
Sulk Rooms — alongside I Dress Louise, James Adrian Brown and Wildlife Discotheque DJs — appears at Images, Plymouth on 8th November. More information and advance tickets are available at: seetickets.com
