Eastbourne's Life As Surface Noise reveal how the music industry has changed in the last 20 years

Alongside fellow Eastbourne musician Skreen the duo’s band the Cuban Brothers were championed by the BBC Radio 1 DJ in the late 90s.

“We had been on the fringes for a few years with various projects but it was only when John Peel started to champion our band that the big players in the music industry started to take any notice,” he adds.

Having continued to work with one another over the years their latest project is Life As Surface Noise, its EP The Night Watchman was released in October 2018.

“The first recordings we have done are a suite of dark, spoken word pieces with a menacingly spooky piano-based backing,” Skreen says.

“We recently released them as an EP called ‘The Night Watchman’ and the feedback has been surprisingly positive.

“We have started collaborating with a German artist called Daniel Hartlaub on creating an animated short film based around The Night Watchman recordings.

“His illustrations suit the music brilliantly, we are really excited about the project, as the sound we make is very visual, if that’s not an oxymoron?”

Blu adds: “LASN is going to be eclectic.

“It knows everything and can be a chameleon. We have no expectations to live up to, not even our own.

“Skreen suggested something different and it seemed intriguing. I’ve always wanted to do something like an audio book, so making music along with spoken word.

“It’s a different discipline but one which is very open, close to radio plays and film music. It’s nice to be able to shape a world inside people’s heads and invite them in.”

As well as giving them their first taste of fame John Peel is also the inspiration behind the band’s current name.

“It is derived from the John Peel quote: ‘Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because they don’t have any surface noise. I said, ‘Listen, mate, *life* has surface noise’,” reveals Skeen.

“Apart from being an obvious doffing of hats to our much-missed friend, John Peel, the band name is also us acknowledging that, as an act, we sit above the mainstream, away from the limelight. It reflects our lifelong passion for sound and our desire to create pieces which have not been sanitized to make them more palatable.

“The words and music may have imperfections, but that’s what gives the recordings character and integrity.”