Kelora is a London-based duo whose work at once twists and affirms the language of British folk music. While earlier singles and EPs used electronic and rap production elements to ground a more timeless songwriting practice, the duo’s recent output has put a focus on traditional instrumentation, with more forward-thinking production elements lingering in the corners of the songs—an uncanny friction between the past, present, and future of British music. This is music that rests on the power of its songwriting, which is brooding and ready to soundtrack snowbound drives to nowhere. 

We sent some questions over to Kitty Hall and Benedict Salter—read their answers, and listen to “Something Else,” the duo’s most recent single, below. Kelora’s sophomore record, Sleepers, is set to release next February on True Panther.

How did the band start? What were your goals at the beginning? Have they changed?

Kitty Hall: We formed in Glasgow in the late 2010s over a mutual love of songwriting. We would record vocal harmonies by the motorway or in a tenement stairwell. We still do this kind of thing now but over time we have worked out better ways to combine software and live recordings. 

Benedict Salter: It was just us with guitars staying up all night writing songs. My memories of that time are so tangled up I don’t remember any specific goals, now our goal is just to live. 

What is "Something Else" about? 

Kitty Hall: “Something Else” is about escapism in whatever form leading to addiction or obsession.

Do you feel like you are a part of a longer tradition of British folk music?

Benedict Salter: I think if you zoom into those last three words they go on forever and ever, and if you went searching for it you’d never find it. But at the same time I do because I really love it. Whatever that tradition is, how it looks and sounds, probably doesn’t exist outside my imagination though. 

Kitty Hall: Folk music told people’s stories through song and at some point that changed and I’m not sure what people think folk really is anymore. The folk element in our music is mainly the storytelling element, and the use of unplugged acoustic instrumentation, but most music we hear now originally comes from some kind of folk, the music of the people, if it's lyrical. I don’t see us as part of a wider tradition outside of that.

How does the visual side of the band relate to your music?

Benedict Salter: It’s all spinning around in the same vortex. Sometimes images become songs and songs become images. It’s never planned that way though it just happens. 

Tell us about the Kelora live show. 

Kitty Hall: At the moment the two of us are singing both with guitars and CDJ controllers. Sometimes we might have some friends playing extra instruments with us and laser projections.

Benedict Salter: We try and make it go from quite extreme and saturated to very quiet, whispery and close. Sometimes our friend Florence plays with us but more recently we’ve just played as a duo. The live shows we’ve put on have lots of different visual things going on like lasers and holograms etc, in general we want to make people who are there feel something and try to dissolve reality of the room somehow.

How important is surfing the internet to your creative process?

Kitty Hall: The internet is a good way to stay connected to a wider collective consciousness and stops you from becoming too insular. Things you find there can inspire you later. I do also kind of hate the addiction apps give you, being sucked out of the real world and into the doom scroll. 

What kind of new music have you been listening to lately?

Benedict Salter: I’ve been listening to a lot of old music, recordings from America in the 1930s and gramophone records of choral music. We also have a playlist we update with new songs we like here.

Kitty Hall: I’ve been listening to more stories lately than music.

Dream show? Dream collaboration? Dream anything? 

Benedict Salter: If I go back in time I’d like to see Lal Waterson play, not to collaborate but just to watch her play the guitar, because when I listen to her home recordings, it’s a unique style. I can’t imagine how those songs were played. 

Kitty Hall: I don’t think you should say your dreams out loud.