You may imagine the soundscape of London as an ambiance of taxis, busses, the echoes of the tube, the pitter-patter of rain, and of course, new music from the thriving music scene. We’ve been listening to Assemble, an a capella band based in London known for their futuristic, experimental electro-pop sound. Fusing together elements of synth, jazz, and pop, Assemble’s new single “Blue Monday” is a vocal experimentation that pulses with human-meets-machine energy. We sat down with Assemble to hear more about the recording of “Blue Monday” (done completely remote!) and to learn more about their efforts to give back to multiple causes over the past year. Please continue reading for our exclusive interview with the a capella group of the future, Assemble!

Where are you based?
We’re all based in and around London, UK.

How did you all meet? What led you to create Assemble?
Although Juliet (Russell, Assemble’s MD) officially founded the group, we had all worked together on various projects over the years as singers in the London music scene. It felt like the right time to come together artistically.

A cappella is amazing! You need to make so many different sounds. How do you assemble the perfect a cappella group?
Thank you! For us, it’s as much about the personality and vibe as it is about the voice itself. It helps to have a real mix of voices and vocal textures, and we’re lucky to have a mix of musical styles too. We fuse all of these different flavours to make our own. In Assemble, anyone could be the lead singer so that’s a real strength.

We’d love to hear about your debut cover song “Blue Monday”. What made you decide to do an a cappella version of “Blue Monday”?
One of the things that makes the original so enigmatic is that the lyrics are very ambiguous, but there’s still such a tangible vibe, that makes you want to invent your own interpretation of the story. Barbara (Pursey) sings the lead vocal and there’s something about having a female lead that makes you listen to the lyrics afresh. This is amplified in the video. Barbara’s performance takes the song’s narrative to a different place, which reflects what’s been going on in the past year and a half. Also Juliet could just hear how voices could be synths, strings, drums and bass. It was a vocal experiment.

We heard you completely recorded all the parts during lockdown. That sounds like a challenge! What was your process? How did you assemble the final version? Do you still feel like you got to feed off each other’s energy?
It was a long process. Initially, Juliet recorded most of the parts (over 200!), then Jazz came into the studio and added the parts that were too low for her. Jono added to this and Barbara demo-ed the lead vocal. 5 singers came into the The Park Studios separately, including Barbara, where Juliet and Lucas Mendez recorded and comped (edited) the vocals and everyone else recorded their parts remotely. For the beats. Shlomo recorded them at his home studio while Juliet co-produced virtually over zoom. Juliet then edited all of the parts together for about three days before sending them to Jeff Knowler who mixed the track. Unusually, we didn’t really get to feed off each others’ energy until the video shoot, yet even separately everyone bought their own vibe and I can feel and hear everyone’s distinctive sound within the body of the whole thing. It’s magical.

As a multicultural group anti-racism work is very important to you. Can you tell us a little bit about how this is the underlying theme of the Blue Monday video?
Barbara and Juliet led on the creative direction of the video and definitely had conversations around increased racism towards asian people as coronavirus spread and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter in relation to George Floyd’s murder in particular. There were times throughout the pandemic that the news felt constant and overwhelming. Our director Katie Edwards, developed the narrative with Barbara isolated watching the television and taking it all in. We wanted to video to depict a feeling of separation at the start, with a movement towards something more connected, but equally it’s important that there is space for people to feel their own feelings towards the video. Barbara explains that “It not so much a protest narrative but a recognition of self and others and how we can come together through working together to see and appreciate our differences and similarities with a big dance at the end… HOPE."

Do you have plans for your next song? What’s a sound or genre that you would love to experiment with? Will you do this one in person?
We’ve just recorded with Philip Selway (Radiohead) for his forthcoming album. He is absolutely lovely to work with and the songs are beautiful so that has been a really exciting collaboration. Our next project is in motion, but it could go in two directions either more dance floor or more filmic. We’ll see which one is finished first!

We love that you worked with the #ThankYouMidwife campaign, supported by PampersUK. Can you tell us a little bit about why this was important to you?
It was important for lots of reasons. Like so many people working in hospitals or care homes, midwives do an amazing job so it was great to have a chance to celebrate them and to support a charity that supports them. Getting to work with Paloma Faith and her musicians is always a joy and there was a choir of families involved too — and some very cute kids!

You also supported the #resolution project at the beginning of 2020, which was a performance of a song and pledges to support positive responses to the climate crisis. Can you please tell us a bit about this experience?
We are also involved in Music Declares Emergency - Sing The Change. Juliet will be leading the London massed sing on 30th October 2020, and Barbara, Natalie and Simone are also all leading elements of it. Climate action is important to everyone on the planet, whether you acknowledge that or not. #Resolution was an opportunity to add our voices to a call for climate action and to make a personal resolution to make a change in behaviour.

You have so many members that volunteer and advocate for some pretty important causes. What draws your group to be so active?
Being a human! It’s interesting, isn’t it, because any group of people will have gone through so many challenging things in their life, but there are things that you can’t avoid and things that you can. That’s why social justice is so important. We can make changes individually and collectively that make a genuine difference. Between us, we have a lot of engaged conversations and we try to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. Listening to different perspectives and experiences is key to change and to being more open, generous and inclusive.

One of your members, Juliet Russell, works with Singing for Lung Health. This seems like a great and relevant organization. Can you please tell us a bit about them and your involvement with them?
During the first lockdown Juliet created an online lung health programme for people shielding with lung conditions, in partnership with Warwickshire County Council. We made a short film about it and it was amazing to really bond with a group of people that I have only ever met on a computer screen. She works freelance, but has worked closely with the British Lung Foundation’s Singing for Lung Health programme, with a group at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital and later training leaders and developing a research based toolkit. She also works with an organization called The Musical Breath. Chronic lung conditions are surprisingly common and singing can provide a way of improving breath management and social connectedness, as well as voice quality. This is often done in tandem with pulmonary rehabilitation or following it.

For a group that collaborated so much over the internet during the pandemic, do you have any advice for others who are needing to connect digitally?
The relevant word in the question is probably connect - how do you connect - and that’s the thing whether it’s digitally emotionally, physically, visually, cerebrally, spiritually. It’s more about using whatever tools you have available to be creative. Juliet shares “What it definitely made me do is to up my skills. I didn’t know I could produce, and I didn’t know I had the patience to sit and chop up vocals for three days!"

How have you been staying positive during shelter in place?
It’s important to acknowledge that lockdown and the global pandemic has been extremely challenging for lots of people and we probably won’t know the bigger picture of its impact for a long time. There’s a brilliant writer called Salena Godden who says “pessimism is for lightweights” and there’s something so galvanizing in that. We have faith in humanity. We know humans are capable of huge compassion, love, courage, innovation and change. Optimism is faith — in action.

What’s your life motto?
Be the change you want to see!

For more on Assemble, you can visit their pages on the following sites:
Youtu be
Sp o t ify

Assemble Is A Capella of the Future