Image Credits: Mia Ferrari
We met with Werkha at his shared studio in Pollard Yard, a creative hub found on the edge of the city. Tom greeted us in front of his drummers container. He casually mentions that It’s a shared rehearsal space he sometimes uses alongside several musicians, such as Maribou State’s Jonny Cade. As we entered the narrow space, we spotted his equipment. A drum set sat in the middle of the room, a Prophet synth, a computer, and an MPD 32 at the bottom. As we began chatting, Werkha eagerly showed us images of his upcoming A/V project, Saturama.
Raised in Cumbria, the Manchester-born artist (real name Tom Leah) represents the best of UK music. A multi-instrumentalist, producer & DJ, his style is a mash-up of different sounds and genres from Jazz-Funk to Electronica.
His initial breakthrough came from a feature on Giles Peterson’s Brownswood Bubblers series. The record, titled ‘Sidestepping’, is filled with what are now classic Werkha stamps – swung, dusty off-kilter drum grooves, pocket rhythms and low-bit baselines. All this is juxtaposed with a smooth vocal performance from Bryony Jarman-Pinto. Following that, he has secured releases on Aly Gillani and Andy H’s First Word Records as well as Iconic Brighton label Tru Thoughts. Additionally, he is an avid collaborator and has worked with artists such as Chunky, Ellen Beth Abdi, Kemani Anderson, and more.
His latest release, titled Unsung Irregular, is something different, though. Across its eleven tracks, Werkha chronicles his journey through his ongoing struggles with scoliosis, an abnormal spinal issue that affects roughly 2-3% of the population. Purposeful in its sound design and composition, the multi-instrumentalist takes you down a winding s-bend road blending genres and sounds you go.
It’s his most personal project to date, and encapsulates the mental and physical toll the issue has caused him. However, he also shows another side to it. A side that, in his own words, has resulted in some of the most beautiful music he has ever made. This is something that can only come with lived experience and it’s what makes this project special.
During our interview, we spoke with Tom about his scoliosis condition and how he has channelled those experiences into his album. The conversation began however, with his experiments with A/V at The Old Market in Brighton.
Yeah. Is it like a big warehouse space, or is it quite compact?
It’s a conventional stage and floor space venue. But when they built it, they dropped this material all the way around and cut off the stage. I set up in the middle, and then they map the projectors, so you end up with this 360 layout. It’s a cool place. I can’t think of anywhere else like that in Manchester. An independent, smallish venue with a really good tech setup.
Yeah, it’s a shame, really. There’s a lot of cool stuff you could do. I thought Factory International were going to take the lead on the more tech-oriented stuff. It’s surprising that no one’s jumped into that gap.
Yeah, it’s good to hear that you think this way because it’s kind of how I feel. When we were doing R&D for this show, we found it tough figuring out which venues could even host this setup most of the time. A couple of weeks before that, we went to London to check out TAKKUUK, which is Biceps’ new project. We also went to check out this Max Cooper installation at the Barbican. That was wicked because he was using this shark tooth gauze material. It was suspended throughout a car park and you could walk around it. It encourages you to move through the space and around the visuals. After borrowing some for our residency in Brighton, we ended up buying some for ourselves. All you actually need is something to hang it on.
We are planning to hang it up in different venues because it can be easily packed into a suitcase. I like that because it means you’re not relying on some slightly crappy projection screen at the back of a venue. Instead, you can fill a wall or two, or put something in the middle of a hall. It’s more adaptable to different spaces.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out these days, so it’s good to think about the overall experience. A lot of DJs that I speak to are starting to drift into the whole AV thing for that reason.
Yeah, and especially for DJs as well, right? I still do DJ a bit, but this is different. It has a stronger USP, I guess.
The diversity is what makes it interesting for me. It can really elevate the art form.
I think so too. And it feels 3D then, which I love.
One of the things I like about your sound is that you can hear the live instrumentation. It adds a texture to everything that’s tough to replicate in a purely digital setup.
Everyone says they like a human touch. It’s like there’s scope for mistakes, which is really nice. You can program this stuff so that everything runs perfectly, but what’s great about instrumentation is that you’ve still got to play the thing. You have to get it right, and that’s exciting.
Do you ever put limitations on yourself?
I feel like this [points to his Akai MPK 32] is a limitation in a way. I can configure it in lots of different ways, but the way I’ve got it set up now feels good. It feels like the most watertight way, but there are still limitations to it. I’ve got each of these banks* set up as a track. On this particular set, I only run up to about the second bank. But when I get to setting up a full hour and a quarter of my own stuff, I’m maxing out all the banks. I’ve got 3 three control banks and they’re all full. When it’s like this, I know I’ve got to make some workarounds, but that’s the part I love.
Doing it live is the best (and scariest) way to learn because it throws you in the deep end. In the studio, you have time to stop and go over things, but at a live show, you don’t have that luxury.
No, not at all, but there are some good things you can do. I’ve been dipping my toes into connecting the Prophet with Ableton. I’m at a point now where I can dictate a few parameters so that when I flick to the next track, it’s ready to go. Before that, I’d be punching in programs on the fly. It was a lot of button pressing.
Can you tell us more about the live show?
The show was on the 26th in Barcelona. We played at midnight in front of La Mercè Cathedral. For this, they added a dome-like stage in front of the cathedral. The show was interesting because we got to collaborate with a flamenco vocalist called Querelt Lahoz. She’s incredible! She’s got a band, and they have some reggaeton, trap, and baile funk influences. Think of it as a contemporary take on the flamenco sound.
During our set together, I threw some of my tracks from the album in with her recent records. I brought a few musicians with me too like Chunky and Dominic Lawson who plays sax and arranges the band’s music. Then there’s Sophia Dignam and Raye. They’re playing strings and violin.
I love collaboration in that sort of live setting, but I also really like adapting live setups. I think what I really enjoy about this is that I could basically do this on my own. I do it solo, but I can also drop a live kit in there if I want, or add some live strings or whatever. This is almost like live modular.
For the album launch on the 11th of October at Night and Day, that’s going to be my more conventional setup. For that, I’ll have Joe on the kit and Dom on Barry Sax and vocals. Barry Sax is really, really weighty. The fact that we’re playing that in unison with a Prophet bass synth line is really good.
Your album, Unsung Irregular, is based on your scoliosis condition. Can we talk about that?
Yeah, sure!
When were you diagnosed?
I was like 14 or something. I played football a lot, and then I ended up getting injured. I went on my back, and I was like, ‘What is that?’ I went to the nearest hospital, which at the time was in Newcastle. I don’t know what the injury was, but when I got it checked, they told me I had a 30-degree curve in my spine.
They offered me corrective surgery, which is where they put poles in your back to straighten it up. I really didn’t want that. Actually, I’m glad I never went through with it. I’ve spoken to people who were glad they got it, but I’ve also talked to people who said it fucked them up.
The idea is that you don’t lose flexibility and mobility, but that hasn’t been the case for everyone. The worst thing I could imagine losing is that as it’s really tied into my sense of well-being. My ability to move, play football, or walk up something, or whatever it might be.
From there, it was fine, sort of. I just ignored it as you do. I didn’t think I could do much about it until I had a couple of horrible situations. I’m still not sure what was happening, to be honest. Maybe the vertebrae were almost hitting each other or something, but my back would spasm, bad! I couldn’t move anything from my head up for a few days after that. It was terrifying. I didn’t know if it was permanent or not.
The second time it happened, I knew it wasn’t, but it was a stark reminder that I needed to address this. There are various ways of dealing with that. Like I said, surgery isn’t really for me. I’m not sure there’s any point now because I’m probably too old for it, but there are things I can do to help with mobility.
It’s essentially yoga. There are lots of stretches and resistance band exercises that strengthen certain areas. With an imbalance of the spine, you get these weak points as well as overly developed muscles in certain places. It’s about trying to address those things. It’s not going to help straighten you up, but it will help with balancing the muscle distribution. It can help you stop slipping into strange postures and stuff.
One of the things that spurred me to address it in a musical capacity was after one of those situations. I found that when I get back to walking, as in walking up a mountain, it feels pretty special. It reminds me that it’s good to stay active. The worst times come when I’m sitting down for too long.
I was going to ask about that because you pretty much sat down all the time making music.
Well, that’s why I’ve got that weird chair you’re sitting on. The idea is that your knees go down to allow your hips to come forward. They help to support your lower back better.
I guess with everything you have been through, music became a good escape.
Yeah, totally. This album has a couple of instances where I delve into tracks that are way more stripped back and delicate. Maybe a bit more exposing in a way. It’s a bit of a reference to that feeling of actually bringing it up.
A few years ago, a friend told me I should share my story with people, but there’s always that feeling that someone’s got it worse than you. But it’s been an interesting journey coming out and speaking about it. There have been a lot of people who have reached out with their own experiences.
Representation is a powerful thing. Like you said, it’s easy to feel like others have it worse, but there are those in similar situations who feel that nobody in their world truly understands them. Then they see you doing something sick, like being a musician.
Yeah. I mean, it’s also a nice thing to do as well. Some of the song titles are specific to different places. The sounds and music are also representative of those things.
On the song ‘By Helm’, there’s a sound from the Prophet that references the North Pennines, where I grew up. It’s the place where I first started going on serious walks again. There’s a wind called a catabatic wind, where air flows up the mountains from the east and then suddenly drops on the west.
When it happens, it creates a really strong wind that semi-destroys houses sometimes. It’s called the helm wind, and it roars so loud, it’s crazy. There aren’t many lyrics in my music, so I rely on those sonic representations to communicate feeling. I never know if anyone’s going to pick up on that, but I know it’s in there.
Did you plan this stuff in advance, or was it a case of you making a random collection of tracks and then putting them together?
I don’t think I was making things as a result of, say, experiences like that one. There’s another track called Sastrugi, which came out a couple of months ago. It’s a really minimal one. Just keys.
The idea is that it’s got these motifs that keep moving around, and the time can be pulled. It’s not like you have a bar of four here, then another bar of four after. It’s like it depends on the feeling. It’s different from what I usually do, but I love it. Part of the reason for that was being able to walk again.
One of the first times doing that was in the winter, when I was up on the top of this mountain in the snow. When the snow blows, it creates different formations due to wind erosion. I felt like I’d captured that moment, and it’s one of my favourites. I like to sit and play that track to meditate. I could do it for hours.
It’s quite a selfish thing, really. I don’t know if anyone’s ever going to want to hear me play it for an hour and a half, but I can improvise around it, changing things here and there. It gives me a sense of relief. That’s why I made it.
A couple of other tracks had those feelings or representations of these experiences. Before I knew it, I had four or five different tracks that were touching similar themes.
It made sense to pull them together, as much for myself as anyone else. I said this recently in a talk I did for a scoliosis charity. Making the record is as much about confronting and acknowledging this condition as it is about displaying it to others. Everyone’s got their own things, but I’m going to listen to my body and take this seriously now.
However, it’s also about enjoying the moments that have resulted in some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever made. In that way, it can be seen as a good thing, I guess.
I think real music comes from real feelings. Like you say, it’s been a form of therapy for you. It’s good that you’re at this stage now, though. Humans are funny creatures. We give ourselves shit for the smallest things, but it’s okay to stand up and say, ‘This is me. This is who I am.’
Yeah, it’s interesting. I still feel it about other things, but maybe it’s a cultural thing. Why do I feel this guilt-type feeling when talking about it?
Maybe because we come from quite a privileged country as well. It’s easy for us to compare ourselves to others, but we are still human. Regardless of what background you’re from, there’s no shame in talking about your struggles.
No, not at all. I recently put out a track with Daudi Matsiko, actually. I loved making that track because we went on a bit of a journey with it. We had a really good time hanging out and struck up a great friendship. We spent the whole day writing music together, and it just felt right. We had themes full of meaning at the time.
It’s coming out soon, and it’s really ended up being about the role of the environment in both recovery and health. I figured it was a good thing to talk about because of the context with Daudi. It was a meeting bewteen his experience of mental health and my experience of scoliosis.
For me, it was around physical health. Ironically, I knackered my ankle doing that walk. But it’s an exciting route to go down. There’s a lot of research that shows how our access to the outdoors could positively impact our NHS.
Have you ever thought of hosting workshops for people in similar situations?
I’ve done loads of that stuff already. When I started making music, I came up through an outreach organisation in Cumbria. Then I started facilitating young people in a behavioural crisis intervention unit. I’ve done a lot of different stuff like that. Now I’m working for Reform Radio, running programmes there. We just started one with about 25-odd emerging artists from Manchester.
Reform does good stuff.
Yeah, and they’ve got really good care for both the staff and the participants. It’s an exemplary sort of place. I haven’t done any workshops specifically relating to scoliosis, though. I’m fully aware of the impacts of it all and also how it can be kind of overwhelming sometimes.
Yeah, I can imagine.
On the nature side of things, the gap that this album bridges is between where I was on the previous record and this other show. We’ve not done loads, but what we have done has really tapped into this appetite of people wanting to be connected to nature via electronic music and visuals. So yeah, people have come to us after we’ve performed crying, which is amazing.
How does it feel to know that something you created gave somebody that feeling?
It’s amazing. When you’re in the thick of this stuff, from making the music and organising the campaign to releasing the record, that at the end of the day, someone’s listening to something that you created.
A friend messaged me earlier saying, ‘This new song you put out with Dauwdi’s gorgeous, by the way.’ It’s nice to hear. You kind of forget that people will be having those experiences internally. Someone actually contacted me a few years ago and was like, ‘Your first album fixed my marriage.’ I was like ‘what?’
So what’s next for Werkha?
The album coming out is the next main thing, really. The next handful of shows this autumn are going to be really good, too. Getting to work with different musicians and pulling different setups into play is going to be super exciting. Also, getting Joe back on the kit will be great for the album launch. We will be doing a show in London after that as well.
I deliberately got us playing these tunes like a couple of years back, whilst I was still developing them. I wanted everyone to really get behind the process of playing this music in a live context. Some of it’s odd and a little challenging to play, so I’m glad they are behind it. I love having the live kit and sax in the mix around this stuff. It just feels really powerful.
Alongside all this, I also have this follow-up project, Saturama. Maybe it’s the next project or even a part 2 to this one. This unsung record definitely feels like a gateway to that project. And not just a gateway in terms of narrative, but also tech-wise. We’re really starting to experiment with new setups and ideas. Can we place ourselves somewhere else, or can we position this material at a V angle and have people move around it or something?
Encouraging interaction from the audience whenever possible is something I really want to experiment with. I think that might be the sort of long-term thing to explore.
It sounds like you’re stepping into new terrain.
Yeah, it’s great. At the end of November, we’re doing something back at the Manchester Museum with that Saturama project alongside Groove Armada and Bicep’s documentary TAKUUK. We’ll be taking our gauze material and suspending it beneath the sperm whale skeleton in the Living Worlds Gallery with a live setup underneath.
The idea being that this material will catch the projection from both sides. Hopefully, people can be on either side of this sort of wide mirrored projection. We’ve been out shooting footage in the rainforests in Cumbria for like a year and a half now. It’s really cool because we will literally be climbing through forests to make that happen. Then we’re going to put it in a museum alongside Groove Armada and Bicep. It’s really cool to be doing that whilst simultaneously collaborating with a flipping flamenco artist. I love that variety.