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For our readers who haven’t heard of Calaca Strides, can you tell us a little about the band?

I spent a few years as a touring musician playing guitar and keyboards for other bands. It was pretty cool, I got to play all over the UK and at a couple of festivals including Glastonbury and the Secret Garden Party (a personal favourite). That came to an end with the demise of the band so I took the opportunity to finally get my own ideas recorded. Calaca Strides is actually just one person and everything is recorded and mixed in a little home studio. Pure self indulgence.

You only have three words to describe your music, what are they?

Acidic Dark Folk

Who or what are some of your greatest inspirations: musically and otherwise?

My all time biggest influence is Kelly Joe Phelps, I wish I had a tenth of his skill on guitar and story telling in his songs. River Rat Jimmy was the first song I heard by him and it had me hooked instantly. Other than that I try to immerse myself in authors like Craig Clevenger, Chuck Palahniuk and Douglas Coupland.

Where’s your go-to spot for music-making or song-writing?

All I need to write music is a quite space and my guitar. Lyrics tend to take a bit more time to tease out so I am the typical muso and always carry a note book to scribble ideas into which I then sit down and flesh out properly later on.

We love our music with a pinch of darkness and your new release, Quiet Haunt, can certainly be described as haunting. Tell me about the process of making this EP.

Musically speaking I had hours of ideas rattling around so I was spoilt for choice. I prefer darker music, especially in the acoustic/folk world. Twee folk with tales of skipping through forests, majestic animals and bunting just makes me want to kick it between the legs with a steel toe capped boot. The name I chose for the project also helped to direct things. “Calaca Strides” was inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead festival and by the artwork of José Guadalupe Posada (an illustrator from the 1900s whose artwork became associated with the festival).

The cover art for Quiet Haunt is great, was this self-made? How do you feel this represents the EP as a whole?

The artwork was done by a very good friend of mine, Neil Warburton (www.iamunknown.com). I just asked him to come up with a sugar skull design and he produced some fantastic artwork which sits with the music brilliantly.

Our favorite track off the EP has to be Smile and Strike, can you take us through any importance behind this song?

It’s a song about self deprecation observed in myself and others I know and how debilitating a loss of confidence can be.

What are you currently listening to?

Other Lives, Kurt Vile, Low, War on Drugs and Wye Oak

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