“Forward motion and curiosity are what´s important I think. To always be interested and intrigued by a world that is easily taken for granted.”

tells us Until The Ribbon Breaks (UTRB) frontman Peter Lawrie Winfield, when we speak about some favourite lines out of his lyrics. Elliot Wall and James Gordon complete this awesome musical joint; being three completely different characters they complement each other and have their very own way of producing music: Watching movies with the sound off and writing music to that. “It creates a world bigger than your own in the studio. It takes you out of four walls and puts you wherever you want to be.” We can feel that bigger world and while I am writing these lines I have one of their songs called Pressure on repeat, as it takes me to a place I´d rather stay for a while. On the 2nd of February they are set to release their new single ‘Revolution Indifference featuring Run The Jewels’ and 2015 will also be the year of their debut album release (A Lesson Unlearnt), that we are awaiting for with a thrill of anticipation. And I am excited to just having discovered that they will be playing live in Berlin on the 19th of February at the Gretchen Club. “I can’t get enough of your music. You’re a beautiful story teller.” was a fan comment that I just read, and I couldn´t have put it any better.

“The only reason I wanted to do it was so there was something that existed that I was proud of.” Was what you said at the time when you started making your own songs. A more recent quote of you is “We can no longer afford to be indifferent or apathetic. We are a world in crisis. Revolution Indifference.” So has your motivation to make music changed and you now focus more on wanting to change something with your art?

I think the impetuous; the motive for creating is ever changing. Do I want to change something with my art? I think it would be churlish of me to say that I don’t care what happens to a song once it is completed. A part of me feels that art no longer has the socio political power it did. Will we ever have another Dylan, another Bob Marley, I hope so. I can only write within the confines of my own experience and a part of that includes how I feel about current affairs. I’d love to think that art still has the power to change’, but whether our music can, is not for me to say.

When you started UTRB you moved back from London to Wales and built a little studio and retreated for about a year. You projected films with the sound off and created music to that. I love that approach. Is that also how you are working for your debut album (due 2015) “ A Lesson Unlearnt”?

That is our process. Film has a lyrical, lucid, fluidity and a movement that lends itself so beautifully to music. It is where I draw inspiration from. It creates a world bigger than your own in the studio. It takes you out of four walls and puts you wherever you want to be. Try not to hear music when you watch a film like ‘Gravity’ with the sound down. I know I can’t. Imagining a sonic world to accompany the visuals is when the blood flows.

It also sounds like such a “romantic” thing to do. To retreat and create art. But sometimes we forget how many difficult moments are hidden in that. There must always be those moments of doubt and fear as well, right? What kept and keeps you going then?

The ability to laugh at yourself and not be too precious. If you start believing that you are doing anything other than having fun, then you should have a word. Yes, music is more important than the enjoyment of it, and it helps people everyday. But… it’s entertainment at the end of the day. I love making things, a photograph, a song, a doodle in a sketchbook. It keeps my mind focused and clear. Its a pleasure, so I try not to give the fear too much weight and importance. Fear is a plane crashing. Fear is not , ‘how should the chorus go?’.

You started the project on your own, right? How did you get together with the other band members? And how would you describe each other – are you very different characters?

Couldn’t be more different really. I think its why it works. Probably fairly stereotypical too. I am the singer and songwriter: I’m a nightmare of angst, paranoia and existential crisis. A balloon head. Always drifting off somewhere, lost in thought and always losing my keys/phone/wallet. James, is the considered, cautious type. Always in control, centred and sensible. He has probably never lost his keys/phone/wallet or mind and we love him for it. Elliot is the drummer. Just think Keith Moon. Probably didn’t have any keys to lose. Live fast, die young type philosophy. I’m currently trying to convince him not to buy a motorbike.

You are heading towards the US at the beginning of 2015 to support London Grammar. The moments you most anticipate and the moments you are dreading the most?

I love touring. The rolling road from the tour bus window, whilst writing a lyric, making a loop, taking a photograph. The constant change is inspiring to me. Meeting new people every day. The opportunity to play our music to people, in places we never would have dreamed of visiting if we didn’t do what we loved for a living. I cannot express how amazing that is, so I can’t talk about what I dread. It would seem too ungrateful to me.

“I don’t like to write songs about love, or relationships too often. I tend to think that it has all been said and repeating the wheel has little interest to me when forming a world of words. Having said that, it is a fundamental part of our existence and determines the lives that we lead. A Taste of Silver is less about love and more about lust. The chase, the need for something, someone. It has a back room haze to it, a seediness, but also a sadness too I think. Maybe it is unrequited, from afar. Maybe not….” I love your words that you posted recently. Is it more about lust nowadays than love?

Well, thats a big question. It´s funny, recently I wrote all of the album’s lyrics out. It made me realise that thematically, anytime I talk about love in those songs, it comes from a place of protection, set preservation, even from a place of defence at times. I am very much looking forward to the next phase of creation and writing. We have an album title and a concept and all I can say, is that its time for me to let go a little and what better place than on some new songs.

In an interview you were saying: “The world’s getting smaller with the Internet, but at the same time, we’re growing apart.” I sort of felt this way for some time, but then I had this instant where I was at a dinner with people from an older generation who were not into any of the Internet stuff. And I could feel they were definitely not closer to each other- if not even more detached and distant I would say. So I would say that depending on how you use the net of course, I feel that it creates sometimes more realness and closeness than we think. If we are someone who lets others close we will do so with or without the internet, do you know what I mean?

Thats a very interesting thought and observation. My (reasonably) short answer to that would be, that life is however you perceive it to be. I was sitting in a bookshop in Manchester once and I had a huge panic whilst reading a Damien Hirst piece which basically alluded to the fact that we will always be stuck inside our own heads, literally inside a skull. Closeness to others is very human need and the fear of loneliness must be one of, if not our greatest shared fear. But I think we contradict ourselves. Incredibly territorial and protective of ourselves and our own, but still with some innate need for community. The internet is a double edged sword. I love that it gives the power back in some way, News for instance now, has no filter, we are the journalists. Its easier to find the truth. That is just one of many positives, many of which are in the arts and the freedom of expression that the internet allows. It’s negatives, are many, but in terms of communication and closeness’, its another degree of speration sometimes. One more reason to not have to look at someone in the eye.

“Lyrics, to me, are the most essential part of writing music.” Can you quote us one part out of any of your lyrics that has a particular special meaning to you?

“I was born with my back to the stars, turn me over, I’d like to see”
It has been and can be easy for me to slip into worry. I have to observe it and use it as a positive energy, a form of expression. That lyric sums up for me my constant strive to move forward, to not be held back my past, my fears, my often misguided beliefs. Forward motion and curiosity are whats important I think. To always be interested and intrigued by a world that is easily taken for granted.

Besides music, what makes you feel good?

Food, friends and laughter. In that order.

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