In Conversation With #267 - Blanco White
London based Blanco White has just released his new album Tarifa via Nettwerk.
Self-produced by Blanco White (aka Josh Edwards) in collaboration with Nubiyan Twist's Pilo Adami, with additional production from Bullion (Nilüfer Yanya, Hayden Thorpe), Blanco White will celebrate the release of Tarifa with a headline tour across the US, Canada and Europe this autumn, culminating in a momentous homecoming at the Barbican in London on 21st November. The album features previously released singles "Una Noche Más", the album's title track and transportive dream-folk odyssey "Silver Beaches".
Blanco White has already crafted a sound of his own with his off-world explorations of Latin American and Andalusian folk music. On Tarifa, Josh Edwards’ second solo album, he mines new depth within his colourful fusions of folk with indie and electronics, while embracing the thrill of collaboration, discovery and cultural exchange.
Inspired by world-building songwriters like Sufjan Stevens and composers such as Hiroshi Yoshimura; the lyrical themes on Blanco White's second album Tarifa move from cosmic wonder and our potential isolation in the universe, to hinting at the abstract and metaphysical, drawing from Edwards' ongoing recovery from a debilitative chronic pain diagnosis.
Tarifa straddles numerous genres, leaning into dream pop references like Beach House with extensive use of organs and synths, alongside more organic instrumentation and percussion. Its tender, folk-leaning poetic side draws on sources like Feist, with the acoustic Andean instruments the charango and ronroco remaining centrepieces of Blanco White’s sound.
Rooted in resilience, recovery and relief, Tarifa is as much an album about healing as it is one about escape, exploring new worlds, and building new worlds of his own.
He took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Blanco White - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Hey When The Horn Blows, thanks for having me. I’m doing great - just in the midst of final rehearsals for our upcoming tour. Always a bit chaotic and stressful before you head off, but am sure everything will all fall into place once we get going! Feeling very lucky and excited to be touring internationally again.
It’s great to have the album out. The songs definitely still feel fresh which is nice. It came together much quicker than my first record. There’s a huge release of tension after final mastering when you have to let go of everything creatively and silence the inner critic, and then that strange gap of time waiting until release. I think the songs are going to be really fun to play live and I gave it my all which is all you can do.
It is called ‘Tarifa' - what is the meaning behind that?
The album really came together during a writing trip in November/December last year to Tarifa which is a town on the Southern most point of Spain. You can see across the Straits to Morocco only 5 miles away. It’s a place that’s very special to me, one where I’ve spent a lot of time over the years and I love going there to write. The light during the winter is especially amazing. In spite of the time of year it remains bright and very clear and you can see a long way.
Writing trips have been an important part of my process since I began Blanco White. I normally go alone and there’s something really liberating about that space away from things and an empty diary. On this occasion I was also particularly happy to be there because it was the first time I had felt able to make a trip like that for a few years. I’d been suffering with a nerve and chronic pain condition that had stopped me playing music altogether between 2020 and 2022, and this was the first time I’d had a sustained period of recovery where I felt able to travel away from home and my treatment program. I was so happy to be feeling healthy and strong again, getting lost in the writing process for the first time in years in such a beautiful place. Because of that I look back on it as one of the most joyful times in my life.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
Almost all of the album was recorded on my home studio rig which I pieced together over the pandemic. It’s a mobile setup so I took it out to Tarifa with me in the back of the car, taking the ferry down to Santander from Portsmouth. My philosophy was to always have the record button on, capturing each song once instead of demoing and then re-recording in a smart studio. I’d done that demoing route on my first album, but felt like a lot of the magic was lost in the process because those early moments of discovery during writing are often impossible to re-create.
I collaborated extensively with my friend Pilo Adami who actually came out to Tarifa for the last week of the writing trip to help me work on things. That week was a lot of fun. We recorded some drums and percussion in Punta Paloma studios, a gem of a recording spot out on the beach near Tarifa and worked late into the nights. Daily December swims in the Atlantic made me feel so clear and fresh. It was great to have some company for that final week too after spending the first 6 on my own!
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
I think there are two sides to the album in the lyrics, one that is very personal, exploring the emotions in my own inner world, and another that is meant to be more universal reflecting on the wider human story. It’s important to me that I make space to use ‘we’ and ‘us’ when writing because I think music is our greatest universal language. It’s such a powerful vehicle to put us in touch with feelings that draw on our shared human experience and our collective questions.
In terms of influences it is often difficult for me to pinpoint things specifically because I think my sources of inspiration tend to all blend together and become something quite diffuse. Assouf/Desert Blues guitar bands like ‘Etran de L’Aïr’ and ‘Tinarwien’ are real favourites. I love the way they write rhythm and they often make use of drones in a way that I also like to. There is also quite a cosmic feel to the new record, especially in the synth and organ tones. Bands like Beach House have been important influences there, as well as ambient artists like Hiroshi Yoshimura.
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
What an interesting question. I think it would best accompany some kind of sci-fi film, tapping in to the more cosmic themes in the lyrics and the extensive use of the Prophet 6 synthesiser. Big reverberant spaces are key to the world building in the album as well. There are also lots of organic tones in the percussion and the stringed instruments which I associate more with nature and forests. The film ‘Annihilation’ comes to mind, especially the Edenic scenes with strange alien plants and animals or nocturnal scenes. Maybe the music could work with those images, especially as instrumentals. It would obviously be ridiculously exciting to have your music picked for a movie like that!
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
I think the lyrics in ‘We Had A Place In That Garden’ are the most important element of the song. The last stanza means a lot to me with a final message of human solidarity in the face of our mortality and the grief that comes with losing people. ‘Come now my sisters and brothers I’d shelter with you through the night, we’ll be walking the sun up until it’s gone.’
Often when writing I feel a strong connection to the wider human story that is much harder to access in everyday life. In spite of our flaws, I’m a great believer in and lover of humanity, and I think music and reflection during the creative process are a powerful way of feeling deep connection to our story and to each other. Writing music definitely kindles a sense of human brotherhood and sisterhood in my own life which helps and encourages me.
Now the album is out there - what next?
It’s tour time for the next couple of months which is super exciting. After that I’d love to get onto a new body of work. I have lots of ideas and concepts beginning to appear again and so want to start unpacking those to see what sticks. I’m hoping to spend more time abroad in the next couple of years too and want to move away from London to a different city to see some more of the world. Changes like that can end up being hugely impactful on what you end up making.
