Words by Tina Edwards

“I'm more of an emotional person than I thought I was”, says producer Loraine James, speaking gently. It’s just gone 11 am on a Friday morning and both James and I need a bit of warming up. We talk cautiously about how fatigued we are - by our commitments and by the pace of post lockdown life. But we’re together, online, and she greets me from her London flat to discuss a record that’s been a long time coming for James; Whatever The Weather - the forthcoming album is her first for Ghostly International - and shares a name with her new ‘ambient-minded’ alias. 

James has been celebrated for making ‘anxious dance music’, with expressions of introvertedness turned inside out. Her two Hyperdub releases, Reflections and For You and I, demonstrate the 26-year-old’s’ jagged textures of breaks, glitches and field recordings, a signifier of her signature sound. 

In an intriguing contrast to her club-orientated offerings, Whatever The Weather cruises at a gentler pace, without percussive structure. The North London native continues to develop her emotional transparency. It’s her improvisations with the voice and keys - which she’s been playing since the age of six - that take the fore with subtle nuances. Inspiration from the likes of Deftones’ Chino Moreno is documented in her vocal style, with lingering phrasing and hard-to-decipher lyrics. 

Tracks take their names from temperatures; ‘14°’ is as gentle and mysterious as a still lake in fog, whilst ‘10°,’ which slowly builds and bobs, is equally as sparse and reflective. Wispy textures, formed with glistening synths and vocal improvisations, hum like a breeze on the album opener, ‘25°’. However, not all is calm. The leading single, ‘17°’, is a stand-out collage of glitches, field recordings and vocal improvisations, reflecting the contradiction of chaos and contentment of urban city life. Car horns, screeching brakes, and the chatter of strangers are sculpted into jagged textures, threaded together by a melody that James made when she was thirteen years old. The project was born from a couple of tracks that she recorded whilst working on 2021’s Reflections, which didn’t feel quite right for the record; instead, it was the start of something new. 

“I love making drum beats but it’s nice to let tracks breathe in a different way; not with the purpose of necessarily making people dance. [Whatever The Weather] is more about sitting with it and moving in a different way - it’s more about mental headspace”. 

It’s understandable that a producer fluent in making club music would drift towards a different form of expression during the pandemic. Did James set out to create an album inspired by weather?

“I didn’t know what the song titles were initially with this project - I don't really know song titles until the end; I literally just sit with it”, shares James. “My ‘producer mind’ goes out the window. “What does this song feel to me… does this feel warm?” she reflects. “The penultimate track - ‘36°’; it makes me feel comforted and content. It’s that kind of warm”. 

“I was wondering how people would take to it; is it too literal?”, James questioned. Some of us find it tedious to talk about what the sky is doing - others use it as a well-meaning language of small-talk to bond with strangers that we otherwise have little else to talk about. For James, the turbulence of seasons has a direct impact on her creativity and mood. 

“The weather affects me and I display that quite evidently. I get pretty down in the winter months - I feel intensely. I’m putting more of that into my music”, says James. “I don’t necessarily think that I show it - but then I ask my partner and they’re like, “you do!”, she laughs.

Much of Whatever The Weather was the result of improvised sessions on Ableton, with the addition of “some outdoor stuff recorded on my phone”. It came together in lockdown, 2020. “I just started playing - hit record and improvised for five or six minutes. I don't really like to edit because it’s just one block file. I don't really know where to start - and some songs I didn’t do to a metronome either. I just do it with feel and rhythm”, says James. “Some tracks use only one or two instruments, and they run the whole way through. I stop when I feel like it’s done, whether that’s five minutes or two minutes. I don’t care if a track is too long for someone necessarily, depending on the kind of track it is; if it’s ambient and free-flowing then I don't want to limit the song - but if I’m doing a dancier thing, and I think a bit is unnecessary, then I remove it”. 

There must be a difficulty as a solo artist and an improviser, I wonder, in knowing when your work is finished? 

“The majority of a track, I do it in one”, says James, pausing for thought. “I'm definitely getting better at listening back to something that I've done and then sometimes I notice “oh, that high hat goes on for a bar too long” or something like that. I’m starting to notice things that should or shouldn’t be there. I’m definitely becoming more of a tweaker!”. 

James’ music has been described by tastemakers and fans alike as IDM, or Intelligent Dance Music, pioneered by the likes of Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. Yet to settle on such a description would be too restrictive of James’ distinctive sound, which pulls inspiration from math rock and nu-metal as much as it does jazz and pop music. What is clear to identify, however, is James’ increased penchant for bringing a complex and often introverted sense of expression into electronic music. 

“I like to find different ways to create emotion”, says James. “When I make stuff I create space in different ways. My music before the Hyperdub releases [Reflections and For You and I] were never really that emotional. I like making electronic music emotional but I’ll also be tripping you over with the glitches - I love surprising people! I like to have fun with sounds and space”. 

One of those spaces is Depot Mayfield in Manchester, where a large scale audio-visual installation by Rebecca Smith - called All Things Equal - was debuted on this year’s International Women’s Day -soundtracked by James and spoken word artist, Princess Arinola Adegbite. Within All Things Equal, Smith, James and Adegbite presented a bold manifesto for gender equality in music. James lights up at the mention of the event. 

“It was really cool!” says James. “I really like the track I made for it - this ten-minute piece. I made the music first and then Rebecca Smith made the visuals to it”. Smith, or Urban Projections as she’s better known, is a multimedia artist, who draws lines between the natural world, art and technology.

“I only saw the visuals for it when they premiered it a few weeks ago”, says James. “Seeing it with the lasers and lights and with everyone interacting with the space…”... she smiles and loses her train of thought. “I hope to do something like that again. I haven’t done much of that stuff and definitely want to do more of it”, shares James. “Doing something audio-visual at 1080 Strand would be really cool - I loved something that Ryoki Ikeda did there last year” - Ikeda hosted the largest ever exhibition of his work, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in a digital universe of his own making. “There’s definitely something about audio-visual that I want to lean more into, for sure”, says James. 

James will be celebrating the reveal of her Whatever The Weather project at Cafe Oto - a Dalston institution for experimental and avant-garde music, on 7 April - the day before the album's release. 

How is James preparing? “I’ve not even started rehearsing! I think it’s the same setup as before. I don’t know… I need to know very soon!”, she laughs. “These projects; I’ve not even opened them since I recorded them two years ago. I need to figure it out…”. Despite her words, James has an air of quiet confidence. She reflects on a London show from 2021: “I was doing a 90-minute set, which I hadn't done. I stress and then when I get to it, about a week before, I'm alright… I think! I had vocalists as well. We hadn't even rehearsed but I managed to get it into gear in the last few days before. I think we just did it on the night!”. 

There’s a sense of spontaneity and unfiltered charm to James’ work that appeals to fans’ desire for sincerity and connection - a diaristic sense of generosity and honesty; electronic music that comes directly from the heart, sans cut and paste. It’s this open-hearted approach to music-making that contributes momentum to James’ rise. In the seven years since her debut release, James has claimed an Oram Award and topped the end of year lists in Quietus and DJ Mag. 

James left her teaching assistant job during the pandemic to focus on music full time - and productively so. She recorded both ‘Reflection’ - her sophomore album for Hyperdub - and Whatever The Weather, during the lockdown Summer of 2020. Finding creativity in such a volatile time can be interpreted as both a blessing and a weight. 

“I’m grateful every day - It could go in one second”, says James, considering the vulnerabilities of being a musician. “There could be one record where people go “peace, don’t care” and it could be all over. I’m always thinking about that”.

With a growing legion of fans, it seems unlikely that anything could stop James now. An upcoming European tour and a series of forthcoming UK dates go to show that there is a thirst for the producer’s unique portrayal of emotion in electronic music. 

“It’s been two years since the album was made”. James leans back in her chair, considering the events of her life between recording and releasing Whatever The Weather. “A lot has happened. It’s been surreal”, says James. “I’m so grateful that I get to play stuff out regularly, and do this full time. I never imagined it”.