At first glance, it might seem like The BPM was crafted for dark club dancefloors; its music would certainly be perfect for them. Rather, Sudan Archives built the intricate infrastructures of her new album against the backdrop of the road. Touring in support of Natural Brown Prom Queen, her excellent 2022 record, brought her to the far reaches of America and Europe, where she felt encouraged to raise the BPM and get bodies moving for her newest material. In stark contrast to the pandemic-era isolation that fueled NBPQ, The BPM is Sudan Archives most danceable material yet, even though it doesn’t back down from the raw experimentalism that’s defined the violinist’s career so far.
It’s the Monday after Sudan Archive’s show at Under the K Bridge, where she played alongside Flying Lotus, Moor Mother, and SPELLLING at the behest of TV on the Radio. Soon, she’ll depart on yet another worldwide tour, where she plans on presenting an expanded and more intricate live show, based on the “gadget girl” theme that’s undergirded this entire new era. But this newfound focus on performance and presentation hasn’t stopped her from remaining interested in her original passion: the violin. When we chat, she’s coming from a Kamacheh lesson, a type of Persian violin. “The violin is very black. What’s so cool about the violin that people don’t know, I think, because of the Eurocentric stigma, is that the fiddle is a dance. It’s a dance instrument,” said Sudan Archives.
[The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Graphic by Xanthe Massey]
How was your show on Saturday?
Actually, that was the coolest lineup I’ve ever been a part of. I knew all those artists before, aside from FlyLo, but never saw them live, so it was cool to see them live.
Did you see FlyLo a lot back at [LA experimental open mic/club night] Low End Theory?
Not very often, but it’s funny. My ex-boyfriend knew him very well, so he would always say hi to him when he ran into him. He started Low End Theory with his friends. I’ve never seen [him] live except once in Vegas when I had a show there.
I talked to Open Mike Eagle a few years ago and he spoke really highly of Low End Theory as this super buzzing creative space that pushed him to do a lot back then. Going towards your first release, what was particularly motivational, artistically or creatively, about that space?
Not just Low End Theory, but at that time, I was 22 or 21. I remember just being able to see people do this self-sustained, DIY, one man/woman show. Seeing how they did their show and how it’s possible really opened my eyes. At that time I was getting exposed to a lot of drum machines. From that moment, I saw people using a lot of SP-4004 and that machine…I toured with just that and a violin for years. I just started using Ableton to perform. But that time was really important to me because that piece of gear brought me so much success. It’s such an easy piece of gear to tour with, it’s actually way better than a laptop. You can drop it and it still works. I had put all my backing tracks on there and I would travel all around the world with the 404, a violin, and a mic.
You wrote the last album largely during the pandemic. What was the change of scenery like and how did that affect the final product?
It’s kind of the same process for half of it. I made all of the demos by myself with my ex. He was helping me co-write in my basement in L.A. And then, instead of remotely sending it to people and piecing things together, we went to where they were. We went to Detroit, where my mom’s from. I was working with people there, like my cousin and their friends. We re-sampled the drums with them to make it more upbeat. Then we drove to Chicago and had the [D-Composed] quartet play over what I did to create a fuller sound. From there I went back home and listened to everything being pieced together. It was a little different. I went to basically where my mom and dad were from and took inspiration and worked with people from there, and then came back to LA.
Tell me more about the D-Composed quartet. Was that people playing individually?
The D-Composed quartet is a group, they’re a black quartet. THey play shows and make arrangements for other people that need arrangements. For example, for my song “DEAD,” I have a really experimental way of recording strings. I really like old-sound music, so the way I record my strings, it almost sounds shitty, this lo-fi tape vibe, as if you’re hearing it on a tape machine. When they recorded their strings, it was very glossy and perfect sounding. I was struggling because I had a hard time mixing my dissonant, experimental sound with theirs. But we wove them in, to where mine were playing, then theirs were playing, then mine was playing. It had this really cool sample-like sound.
Was that difficult for you? I know you talk about producing in your basement a lot. Is it difficult to explain what you want verbally from folks you’re collaborating with?
Yeah, especially this process. The main language people use to communicate what they want is music theory, but I don’t know any language like that. Thankfully I feel like I figured out a way to make my ideas myself the way that I do hear them, so you don’t really need to talk about the theory, because the theory is already in there. It was like, I’ve recorded all these strings and just needed someone to transcribe them for the quartet and tell them to basically just play that. Once I got their recordings, I just put it together the way I wanted.
This record is a lot dancier. Were you out clubbing a lot during this last year?
No. Not at all, no. Not at all. I don’t know what came over me, but I just knew I wanted to make dance-y music. I feel like I did a lot of partying around that time I was talking about, the Low End Theory, when I was 23, to 26. A lot of experimental house shows, not even necessarily a lot of rave, parties. But I was just tired of being on stage and people staring at me. I thought I guess I better raise the BPM up to make people want to move a little faster. That was the main reason why I wanted to make faster music. Also, I feel like in the past, I was learning how to produce while being pushed out into the world and to go on tour. I feel like that was why my songs were more like a mid-tempo trip-hop vibe.
That’s why I like New York, because I feel like the chatter in my head matches the chatter outside. I’ve always had a fast natural rhythm. I walk really fast, people are always like, “Why are you walking in front of me, walk with me!” I’ve always been very hyper. I wake up, like I’m on coffee already. I only drink coffee so I can go use the bathroom, I don’t really need coffee.
Touring the last album so much, did you take a lot of experience back to the studio?
I think mainly the touring is where I got a lot of the dance inspiration from. My album’s called The BPM and one of the songs on the album is called “The BPM.” I started it on my iPhone on my way to Costa Rica to go play at this hippie-ass Burning Man festival called Envision Festival. I remember making part of the beat on the plane and landing in Costa Rica, driving to some part of the jungle in a car with the whole festival team, then finishing it on my computer. After doing the show, I remember going around and seeing all the little hippie people dance, and everyone’s just kinda half naked on drugs and shit. I was like, “Oh, it’s a vibe here.” Everybody was just jamming to hard beat-y music. Then I went back to the hotel, plugged in my iPhone into my computer and used it as a microphone and finished the song.
I don’t really need to do a lot of partying when it’s my job. I go all around the world and I see the weirdest shit, the weirdest shows. I was in Slovakia and I saw Show Me The Body. I met them and they were like, “I live in New York,” but I saw them in Slovakia. That’s kind of how I find out about new things.
I know you talk about briefly studying ethnomusicology in school. How much of that brain turns on when you’re in other parts of the world and seeing all this music?
I dropped out before I even went to UCLA to study ethnomusicology. I literally went to Pasadena City College to get my associates, arts, whatever degree because I didn’t do that good in high school. It was so weird, I went to so many different high schools, I basically graduated early. I went to a really prestigious high school, then I went to a shitty one, and they were like “You already got all the credits, you can just leave.” But my GPA wasn’t that good, so I was like, ok, let me get a good GPA at this community college, but let me move to LA because I wanted to move to LA. By the time I could even get the degree, I got signed to a label and I’m on tour, then I’m in Iceland trying to submit a paper.
But yeah, it does. I feel like my true passion in music is Sufi music, which is this spiritual, traditional style of music. They use a lot of really cool scales that really resonate with me. That has been a huge influence on my sound, I feel like I sprinkle a little bit of that in my style. It’s like healing. All I listen to is ambient music, Sufi music. It carries my inspiration and passion to keep going, because sometimes, the music scene and the festivals and the politics of music is so fucked up. It’s like, oh my God. This shit is so fucking overrated. But always going back to the source of inspiration with the Sufi music, I feel like it makes me happy. It gives me a sense of purpose.
All around the world, I’ve been collecting these traditional stone age violins. One of my Stone Age violins I purchased in Istanbul, called the kamancheh, it’s a Persian violin. In New York, since it’s such a melting pot, there’s a Persian violin teacher out here so I took a lesson today, actually, and she taught me how to play it, almost like a cello. All of those instruments I collect, I basically play them really badly and I’ll sample them in my music. Ethnomusicologists like to study an instrument that’s dying, and then they’ll write a whole book about or have a whole thing about it, because they want to preserve the sound of it. I feel like I’m doing that by just using it in my music.
I get the sense that the violin, in its standard form, can be a very Eurocentric instrument. Is that ever an issue that comes up, where people fundamentally misunderstand where your playing or style comes from?
Yeah, I think so. I feel like a lot of people in the classical world really support and praise me, because they’re like, “Girl, I’m stuck in this repertoire and I can’t even improv because this is all I know.”
Then some people are like, “She can’t even play violin. Is she even playing the violin? She’s just plucking it like a ukulele. Is she even playing it or is it an aesthetic?” Some people are like, “You can’t throw the bow, why are you treating the bow like that? Her finger placement..” and all these things. I feel like I get misunderstood, but who gives a fuck. They don’t even know what the fuck they’re doing. I think there’s a misconception, but it does have a Eurocentric stigma, but that’s why I love ethnomusicology. I’ve collected ten violins from all over the world, and my theory is that they all come from the violin. There’s fiddle music, there’s traditional Czech music, there’s Persian shit and there’s all types of ways to play it. The violin is very black. Slaves who played the fiddle, their worth was way more when they played the fiddle. What’s so cool about the violin that people don’t know, I think, because of the Eurocentric stigma, is that the fiddle is a dance. Back in the day, people would go to the little clubs, the little pubs. Irish and Black people, they would go to the venue, the fiddler would be there, and everyone would start jamming. It’s a dance instrument.
Do you ever see yourself leaning into one of those sounds and ideas on a record? Do you ever see yourself doing a fiddle record or an ambient string record?
Yes, I think that’s gonna be the next one actually. I feel like now, I’m getting the confidence to push it forward, because everything has been so self-taught. But as I started making money, I would have this Irish dude over and teach me fiddle tunes and stuff. He would be like, “You’ve gotten so far from just doing what you’re doing.” He would build my confidence up. I’m taking lessons from all these people from all over the world on all these other traditional string instruments and it’s given me so much confidence and inspiration. I really feel like it would be dope if this next album really pushed the violin forward. I just need to make sure I figure out a way to make it interesting enough for it to still be popular-leaning. I think once you go that route, you could get thrown into world music.
Considering the last record, this record, and then potentially that, are you very audience forward in your mind? Are you thinking about how this is going to respond with people? In your first release even?
I wasn’t thinking about it in my first releases and I had to learn how to play violin and sing at the same time. After years of playing “Nont for Sale” and stuff, now I can play and sing at the same time. Now when I make music, even with producers, if we’re making the hook and I’m singing, I’m like, “Wait, the string part has to go right after that because it’s gonna look cool on stage.” And they’re always like, “Oh. Oh yeah, okay.” I’m always thinking about how it’s going to look as a solo performer.
This time around, with this tour, what new things are you interested in showing your audience or seeing how the audience responds to?
I’m most excited about this gadget girl theme, because I’ve always been into sci-fi aesthetics. I’m not really a movie or book nerd, but I’ve always been into technology myself. My first beat I made with my iPhone, I’ve always been into making do with what you have. I’m really interested in MIDI controlling things with Ableton. When I whip out my bow, that will create the most reaction, because a sword sound gets triggered when I pull out my bow. This tour, I want the bow to be more of a manipulator of light, sound, and video projection.
More personally, from this whole cycle than the last, what are you gonna do differently that you learned on your first release?
Unfortunately, I’m learning that I need to be more online. I feel like I’ve toured all over the world and I feel like I have this cultural cache. People know me because they’re like, “I was at that show five years ago!” But I feel like now, hence the whole gadget girl, sci-fi theme I have going on, I need to put myself out there more on social media. I’ve been trying to use TikTok and shit.
That Pitchfork album ranking went very far though! I’m very online, and a lot of people were buzzing about that. All the numbers from the last album cycle, is that fresh in your head?
It made me happy, because I feel like I don’t really ever get stuff like that. It made me feel really good, I’m not gonna lie. But I’m always prepared in the back of my head to not get a good rating. That might happen sometimes too. I don’t take it for granted, but I try to ignore it as well.