Meet Child of the Parish as they talk us through their new album, a project "formed with this real sense of freedom".

North London’s indie-electronic visionaries Child of the Parish are once again pushing the envelope with their latest single, ‘Always The Fool’. This shimmering track is a prelude to their debut album, Sweet Surrender, set for release this September. The brainchild of brothers Ben and Tom Vella, Child of the Parish have carved out a niche with their eclectic mix of ‘80s disco, psychedelic pop, and experimental sounds.

 

The duo’s previous EPs, Make It Better and Quiet Life, garnered significant acclaim, including repeated support from BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders. ‘Always The Fool’ elevates their signature sound to new heights, offering a blissful blend of indie-electronic pop and nostalgic disco. As they gear up for their album release, we delve into the creative process behind Child of the Parish’s new music, their influences, and their journey from a high-energy Glastonbury epiphany to becoming potential international festival staples.

Congratulations on the release of ‘Always the Fool’. It’s such a strong lead track for the new album. Can you tell me more about its creation process, from the start to its release?

It was a bit unusual in that the album was originally conceived as more of a mixtape. We were working towards a regular album, going through our previous singles and EPs, and realised we had a ton of half-formed ideas we were really excited by. It was suggested to do a more experimental long-form mixtape, with no real eye on singles, and we both got completely obsessed with it! When it was done it became obvious this was the real album, I love the fact it was formed with quite a free mind. Always the Fool is probably the most disco track on the record, which has always been an important area for us so it made sense as the initial release.

With such a defined sound, do you feel that you have changed on this new album?

As I said it was formed with this real sense of freedom – no hang-ups on finding big singles, no pressure to have a uniform sound. It’s quite an honest expression of what we enjoy about music, stylistically but also on albums that have a flow to them. I often worry about a lack of defined sound for us in general – I’m not sure this record will help that as it goes for quite a wander in its influences!

In three words, how would you describe your upcoming album, Sweet Surrender?

I think it’s ‘colourful’, it’s a ‘journey’, and it’s quite ‘bittersweet’ at points.

Can you tell me more about where the name Child of the Parish came from? Does it have any significance to your sonic landscape?

The entire concept was formed around a comic book I wrote with an amazing artist called Pius Bak. It was about a demonic boy in a small village, not dissimilar to where I live… I’d been in a band that played quite downtempo music before (Vaults), and had a few things in mind when I started a new band – I wanted to work with my brother, I wanted to do music that was a bit more upbeat, and I wanted the excuse to write a comic. This was partly so I could work with a writer friend of mine called Rich Brown. He sadly died last year of cancer, but got to see the comic completed.

Much of your work is very ‘80s-inspired, from drone-like synths to hypnotic vocals. Which artists from the decade have shaped your sound?

We’re big fans of Patrick Cowley, his synth sounds in particular from that era still sound amazing. Also New Order have always done that mix of guitars and synths in a really interesting way. Other than that there are lots of early 80’s disco records that have definitely had an influence.

Are there any other key influences for Child of the Parish?

On our album the influences are quite varied. There are a couple of songs that have definitely been influenced by people like daft punk and Todd Edwards, and other artists that do that chopped up sample based stuff really well. M83 have also been a key influence, especially on some of the bigger more epic sounding songs. We’re both really into Jamie xx and Caribou, there are a couple of tunes where you maybe be able to hear that influence in the production. Since the start of the band disco has always been one of our main influences, both the original records and newer people like Todd Terje and Prins Thomas.

Considering you’re brothers, how do you find yourself working creatively together? How do you negotiate stylistic differences, and do you ever get into disagreements?

We don’t particularly have disagreements about Child of the Parish – I think as brothers you’re actually more willing to be honest with each other and can accept criticism better. It’s very rare one of us has had a very strong view opposed to the other – generally, we seem to be coming from the same place, maybe because we grew up listening to all the same artists.

If there was one artist you could collaborate with, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

That’s always such a hard question! We both grew up listening to the chemical brothers a lot, they really influenced our understanding of electronic music. I’ve rediscovered Dr Johns first album Gris Gris recently, such a weird fantastical record – that would be a fun session!

After the album’s release, do you guys have any major plans moving forward?

We’re always writing, we’ve got half the next album done already! So just more music from us, and hopefully release our comic.