Meadow Meadow is a new project from Peter Darlington and James Green, who you may recognise from former Dork cover stars, and banger aficionados, Spring King. With their old band no more, the duo have embraced a thoughtful, melody-driven approach that they’ve found to be a “constant source of peace and catharsis”. Lovely stuff. They’ve already dropped a few tracks, and have an EP out next month.
When did Meadow Meadow start? Were you at a loose end after Spring King?
James: The writing for this band started around 18 months ago. We’d always talked about writing together for a new project and after Spring King ended it felt like the right time.
It’s been really exciting, setting new parameters and forming a new musical language together in a different environment.
The whole process has been really cathartic and joyful for us.
How close are you guys, would you self-isolate together if given the opportunity? What’s your relationship like?
James: We are very close, but me and my wife have just had our first child, so I think self-isolating together would be difficult.
Our friendship developed on tour, which gave us plenty of time to share thoughts, music and experiences – following several years of spending 30 weeks a year together, we have a really strong bond.
How did you hit on Meadow Meadow’s sound, did the project go through many iterations?
Pete: The sound and our writing process have slowly evolved over time. As we live in different cities [London and Manchester], we do everything remotely. There’s a lot of emails and messages back and forth, discussing potential creative choices.
It has its own challenges but also allows us both to freely express ourselves independently of each other.
James: We initially started to write songs that were quite upbeat and straight, but a shared love of artists like The Microphones and Animal Collective led us down a different path.
There are also obviously limitations to recording apart. Without much opportunity to travel and play together, it has led to some interesting choices sonically and arrangement wise.
What do you most enjoy writing about? Do your songs have any recurring themes or vibes?
Pete: Our first collection of songs is largely based on our experiences growing up in rural England. Even though we grew up apart, it often feels like we’ve had very similar lives, especially as teenagers, so it’s interesting for us to explore these ideas together.
Do you have many songs ready to go?
James: We have a lot of demos and ideas bouncing around and have continued to write consistently since we started speaking about this band.
Did you pick up and tips or tricks during your time with Spring King that have helped here?
James: Writing and playing together for that amount of time has meant we have a good knowledge of each other as musicians and writers already. I think our touring experiences will help us too when we eventually get on the road.
Have you performed live yet?
Pete: Unfortunately not. Our first single ‘Bonzo’ was released in lockdown, but we’re figuring out the best way to bring these songs to life at the moment.
What are you most enjoying about having this new project?
James: The best thing has been the music without a doubt. Having space to comfortably explore our ideas and to challenge each other. It’s been such a joy for us both to write this music together, and it’s been incredibly overwhelming to see our friends and family’s response to ‘Bonzo’. We had a lot of very kind messages that have meant a lot to us.
What does the future hold for Meadow Meadow?
Pete: We’ve got an EP coming out in July [now August – Ed] on Practise Music, and we’re hoping to play some shows towards the end of the year.
Taken from the July issue of Dork. Meadow Meadow’s debut EP is out 19th August.
