An interview was done recently with the online music magazine Northern Transmissions with Gregory Adams, talking about When Push Comes To Shove, Chin Up and other things.
Jack Duckworth is a synth-driven journeyman who has delivered leftfield sounds across multiple projects over the past 25 years. For the past decade, he’s developed a sizeable, sinewave-forward solo catalogue as Soft Riot.
His latest release, Chin Up, is a spacious, at times eerily ambient companion piece to the comparatively straight-forward synth-pop of last fall’s When Push Comes to Shove. It’s a record than channels the “grey ennui” of everyday life, as Duckworth tells Northern Transmissions, but the sounds of his outstretched synth tones and minimalist drones alternate between comforting (“Laughter Takes Off the Edge”, “Grass Through Cement”) and disquieting (“All You Good People”, “Chin Up”). And while he describes the record as a more introverted form of Soft Riot, the record is oddly his most communal, benefitting from guest vocal turns from both Croatian synth artist Iv/An and Augsburg’s Adam Usi.
Duckworth spoke with Northern Transmissions from his current home in Glasgow, discussing a recent stretch of Covid-19-realated concert cancelations, releasing new music through his Possession Records, and how ambient music is keeping him Zen through these confusing times. This interview has been edited and condensed.
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