We were lucky to catch up with Squash & Biscuit recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Squash &, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

We both come from musical backgrounds that focused on instrumental performance, with that comes an understanding that learning and growth can only come from time. The time you spend practicing or listening is something that can not be sped up—marinating yourself in a world of your own making and exploring whatever comes to you is essential for creative development. In this state you are able to play and be free so that you know your limits when working with others, giving you a quick way to sketch out a boundary of what would or would not work for a given project.

Working collaboratively is a big part of our work and requires you to dip into the world of another artist, putting your own preconceptions on hold and being flexible enough to flow when needed, while guiding when that’s called for. Again, practice and time are the best teachers. We’ve been fortunate to have had opportunities to work with animators, choreographers, artists, and filmmakers on various projects that has allowed us to create and grow while bringing a larger work to life.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Squash & Biscuit is creative sound studio in Los Angeles and we work with animators, filmmakers, artists, musician, and choreographers to explore sound and music in an accessible, but experimental way. We often take ideas from traditional musical structures or popular culture and reinterpret it through our own taste—that can mean manipulating the sound of acoustic instruments to be unrecognizable, using found sounds, foley and field recordings as main sonic features, or creating a more recognizable musical form with sound textures that will evoke a different world.

Our style has found a home with experimental animators and we have worked to create scores and sound design for several shorts. Our experimental ear towards music has translated quite well to foley and sound design, especially for scenes that require surreal or fantastical soundscapes. Our attention to sonic detail also means that dance and movement can work quite well with our sounds—we often do not impose a strict beat allowing dancers and performers to move freely. We are good at creating atmospheres, so that has led us to work with installation artists and create our own installations, too.

For personal work, we find ourselves drawn to the usage of language and voice—we both have different mother tongues and the process of language exchange has both of us fascinated with vocalizations. We also like to experiment with different processes and try to change our approaches from piece to piece. For one piece we might focus heavily on synthesizers, while the next is all acoustic, followed by an abstract rhythmic composition: we want to retain a feeling of spontaneity and serendipity in the creation.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The hardest thing is to accurately describe what we do or sound like and part of that comes from the fact that we are constantly evolving, searching for new territories. There is a constant balance of experimenting with new ideas and studying contemporary tastes that can shape your taste in very particular ways, but since part of being a musician is listening, all music contains elements that we can find enjoyment in. Just because we prefer to explore a particular sound, doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the merits of all music and art.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The best thing is to provide varied arts education as early as possible. History, practice, and discussion of contemporary work helps to create a well-informed population, growing audiences for everyone. This can also help people develop healthy ways to relax and unwind, along with allowing emotions exploration.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.squashandbiscuit.co
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/squashandbiscuit

Image Credits

Jennelle Fong