Stepping deeper into their extraterrestrial sonic universe, Opal Drums debuts their EP Sarsen Cinema, a fully realized EP that pushes their collaborative vision into bold, uncharted territory. The UK’s Jon1st and Denver’s Mux Mool continue to blur the edges between turntablism, experimental bass, and left-field electronic sound design, crafting a world that feels both ancient and futuristic.
In our exclusive interview, the duo opens up about the creative journey behind Sarsen Cinema, breaking down the ideas, experiments, and energies that shaped their most ambitious work yet.
In Conversation with Opal Drums
seradopa: Let’s start with how the whole Opal Drums project came together. How did you two meet, and what were some of the early conversations that blossomed into the idea of starting this project together? How did your creative chemistry develop across studios in Leicester and Denver?
Opal Drums: Thanks for having us! The project and our creative partnership developed very naturally. Initially, we became friends through a mutual friend of ours, DJ Shiftee, who Jon was touring with when he visited Denver for the first time a few years back, and whenever Jon was in the city for a show after that, we’d always find time to hang out and catch up.
When Jon visited at the end of 2022, he was in town for a few days, and we had a couple of studio jams together and then continued to develop the ideas we wrote in person remotely and pass them back and forth casually over the next few months. By early 2024, we had a few demos written together where we’d tried out a few different approaches. We felt that a few of the tracks shared a dreamy and melodic quality that was also hard hitting and percussive that really resonated with both of us, and we started to think about putting together an EP together exploring that as a loose musical identity and both agreed that the project could work really well with some sort of visual accompaniment that shared the music’s dream-like quality.
At some point in the months that followed, we had the idea of creating a visual scenario in which sentient monoliths arrive on Earth and explore how people might react to them, which in turn inspired us to write more music with that narrative in mind. We eventually reached out to George and Sam from Future Figures, who are friends of Jon’s from Leicester in the UK, to start bringing the narrative to life visually, and what they created in turn inspired us with more ideas for the project that further developed both the music and visual side of the project. After that, we made additional tracks that could provide a soundtrack for the developing narrative, and we started working more with Sam and George to expand on their early work for us, too.
In short, it’s been a very natural process that’s given us time to really nurture the project rather than rushing to put out a collection of tracks, and it’s resulted in what feels like a cohesive body of work to us. From the time we decided to commit to making an EP together, it probably took around 18 months on and off, around our other projects and commitments, to put it all together.
seradopa: When you’re writing together, how do you decide which sonic ideas belong in the “Opal Drums” world versus your solo projects?
Jon1st: Having a substantial amount of time to experiment at the start of our time writing together really helped us develop and define a sonic identity when we collaborate, and by introducing the narrative element to the project, we created a clear definition that separated writing for Opal Drums vs writing solo or with another project, even if there may be some cross over in sound palettes etc.
Quite often, we write for Opal Drums with a particular theme in mind, where we’re writing with the intention of developing the storytelling of the project in some way, and that helps us connect to the project and create a separation for what ideas belong in Opal Drums vs another project.
Even if an idea we’ve made together doesn’t end up resonating with both of us or doesn’t feel like a good fit for Opal Drums, one of us can remove the consideration of this project’s ‘bubble’ and take that idea away into their own solo musical bubble, too.
seradopa: Creatively, was it freeing to have one another to craft this EP together? What were some things you’ve learned from each other while making the album? And were there any challenges along the way in making this album?
Jon1st: It has absolutely been a liberating experience. I personally love collaboration. It’s a large part of my creative practice as a producer, and I find writing in partnership with another person to be both really motivating and validating.
While we’re both confident in working on our own musical ideas, embarking on a more realised project with more moving parts involved, like this, is something I’ve not done before and would perhaps have been a lot more challenging as a solo project. Being able to develop a project like this with someone else rather than carrying around an obsessive and expanding inner monologue about alien-monoliths in one of our heads that we didn’t share with anyone else for months and months, has definitely been a great way to approach it, and has been a really fun thing to share with a collaborator too.
Mux Mool: We’ve also tried a few new writing techniques in the development of this EP that have been really effective for us. For example, we’ve often used an idea starting exercise where we agree on a few musical parameters like key and tempo, and setting a time limit for us to both individually work on sound design in our own ways within those parameters, and then sharing those with each other and building a track together out of those elements. The core ideas for the tracks ‘Sarsen Cinema’ and ‘Ultraviolet’ were created this way, and it was a really exciting way to give each other time to think and experiment and also capture a vibe together and develop an idea fairly quickly.
In terms of challenges, working out different ways to continue working online with the obvious geographical distance has been something to overcome, but we’ve actually discovered some really great tech in this process that has allowed us to work without bouncing stems or sending projects back and forth. In particular, we’ve become big fans of ‘Muse’, which is a low latency video call app that allows screen sharing and real time shared remote control of one another’s DAW to take turns on who is in the hot seat, and we’ve made it a weekly tradition to do sessions on it together and it has become a very natural part of our working together.
seradopa: How much of Sarsen Cinema was carefully designed versus discovered through experimentation?
Opal Drums: Our process sits between the two approaches. Writing the EP has been a mixture of developing the project through experimentation and creating an environment where ‘happy accidents’ can happen, and then honing in on the ideas we feel passionate about with careful focus, connecting them together with consideration for where they sit in the narrative side of the project and nurturing them into a full record and arc.
Even now, where we’ve had a solid direction for the project for a while, a work-in-progress track we’re excited about, or a development in the visuals can really steer everything in an interesting new direction that we did not expect, and that’s really exciting for us.
Having that freedom not to be too rigid and to allow inspiration for a while before we fully develop an idea has really benefited the project, allowing us to write at a range of tempos and make Opal Drums feel really fun to write for.
seradopa: The imagery of “colossal, breathing monoliths” feels both ancient and futuristic. Where did that idea come from, and how did it influence the sound design? Can you talk about the visual world of Sarsen Cinema. The artwork, animations, and mythos you’re building?
Jon1st: I’ve always enjoyed seeing juxtaposition between old and modern architecture and structures in real life and in art and film. Reading about metal monoliths, seemingly inspired by those from 2001: A Space Odyssey, that appeared and quickly disappeared days later in California and New Mexico during the pandemic really caught my attention and was fairly fresh in my mind when we started thinking about artwork ideas for Opal Drums, and I think sparked the idea for wanting to experiment with the idea of creating a narrative around some sort of ‘alien’ structure or entity. I think the premise of seeing something ‘otherworldly’ that is clearly in contrast to its environment and has an ‘unknown’ quality to it evokes an emotional response, whether that’s a curiosity to figure out what it is or perhaps even a fear of what it could do, and that’s been really interesting to us.
The monolith that appears in the animations for the Sarsen Cinema EP has since developed into more of a symbol for ‘the unknown’ or ‘uncertainty’ in general, and how one can react or project onto things we don’t fully understand in different ways. As a team, we’ve portrayed the monolith as being somewhat daunting but also colourful and oddly beautiful. While it could potentially seem menacing at first, it’s also welcoming in its own way when it gives the protagonist a vision when she reaches out to it.
Mux Mool: While some of the music was written before the idea for the visual element was ever spoken about and the dream-like qualities of some of our early music together inspired the idea of creating a visual element to the project, that concept of ‘the unknown’ and the monolith also informed the completion of the EP and how it all fits together.
We wrote more tracks based on the theme and the directions we wanted to take the narrative in. For example, the EP opener, “From The Grove,” and closing track, “Runes,” were the last two tracks to be completed for the EP and were very much finished with beginning and ending the audience experience in mind, both in terms of the music and the animations.
seradopa: How involved are you two and the designers in creating this world? What were some inspirations that helped shape the visual aspect of the EP?
Opal Drums: When we first started working with George and Sam, we created a moodboard and rough storyboard for our ideas, but we stayed open to how they interpreted the brief. We encouraged them to experiment and bring their own perspective, just like we did when we first started writing music together, and that dynamic has stayed with us ever since.
We will have an idea in mind for the next animation in terms of rough cinematography and storyboarding, and the guys will try out different approaches, and we will fine-tune it all together. There have been many occasions where they have created something and presented it to us, and it has inspired new directions for the narrative to go in too.
seradopa: For each of you, what song holds the most significance to you from this album and why?
Mux Mool: Both “Sarsen Cinema” and “Ultraviolet” had ‘eureka’ moments where our ideas and styles really synced up. They were both largely written while we were both in the same room, as opposed to online, and in both cases, the core ideas were figured out in the same session. “Ultraviolet,” for example, was written on a snow day in Denver – Jon was going to play a show here that was postponed due to the weather, and we decided to make the most of the opportunity by working on music together. The track has a special energy for me, as it may not have ever existed if Jon’s show had happened that day.
Jon1st: For me, I think “Sunset Hex” really felt like we’d stumbled on something. That track and “Burning Hammer” were both early moments where I remember feeling really excited about how the project might develop and felt like we were drawing from a real mixture of different influences that felt fresh and exciting to us.
Similar to Brian, I remember the core idea for “Sarsen Cinema” coming together very quickly. We tried the sound-design brainstorming exercise we mentioned earlier, and we locked in the chord progression, vocal effects, and groove for the track in a short amount of time. From there, the rest of the track developed effortlessly. There was something about the pieces all falling into place and the driving nature of the vocal chop hook that created a really exciting energy in the room in that session.
seradopa: You mention that Sarsen Cinema is “just the beginning” of the Opal Drums mythos. What’s next for the world you’re building?
Opal Drums: In the immediate future, we’ve invited a group of producers we really admire to reinterpret this first EP, and we will be releasing it as Sarsen Cinema Remixed on December 5th.
The project features two producers local to Denver, DMVU and Sinistarr, as well as Anna Morgan, Nikes and Frythm & Seyaa who are all based in Los Angeles, and Arcane from Bristol in the UK, who Jon also has a collaborative project with. Each artist reinterpreted a track from our EP in a unique way, and we’re incredibly honored that they chose to give their time to the project. The Remixed EP also has some animations from George attached to it, which continue from where the animations from the originals left off.
In the future, we’re looking forward to exploring the world-building of the monoliths further. So far in the animation, we see the character reacting to the monolith with a playful, inquisitive energy. But because people respond to uncertainty in so many different ways, you can expect us to explore a different energy in the coming months.
seradopa: How do you want listeners to feel after experiencing the EP for the first time?
Mux Mool: We’d love for listeners to feel that they’ve just been immersed in another world, much like how you’d feel leaving a theater after having seen a movie, a sense that for a brief time you were transported into an alternate reality. A good movie can often resonate with someone on a personal level, and can work as a parable that gives insight into their own life, and I think this EP could leave people feeling that way, too.
Jon1st: You could argue that our theme of perspectives and projections we’ve been talking about would be very much at play when thinking about how someone might feel about the record, too. Maybe the monolith in our animations was our EP all along?
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