Interview by Melanie Xulu
This Wednesday just gone saw the 10 year anniversary of Vanishing Twin’s debut release Choose Your Own Adventure. Friday 2nd October 2026 marked the release of their fifth album, Archives. It was a pleasure to speak to the band about the last 10 years, their evolution, and the making of the new album – out now on Fire Records.
MOOF: Reflecting on the past 10 years, how has Vanishing Twin evolved in that time? What’s that journey been like?
Cathy Lucas: It’s evolved a lot – sonically, musically, the way we approach how we work. Wednesday was the 10 year anniversary of the first album, which makes you feel old! I had been sent by Elliott Arndt (a former member) some photos of the very first session that we did for Choose Your Own Adventure. In some ways it’s so traditional compared to how we work now. We rehearsed for a couple of weeks, we all went into the studio together with the songs and played the songs together in the room. This new record is almost the opposite of that. Looking back at Elliot’s photos of that first session at Malcolm’s studio really brings it home. We’ve kind of just exploded that model completely and we’re all in different places, sending things back and forth.
Valentina Magaletti: The way I’m perceiving the evolution is that we still are what we were. It’s a growing process. It’s just adding, you know? The time and knowledge, maturity, mistakes or however you want to take it all add to the layers. I really treasure the bond we have, and that it’s been 10 years. To be able to be friends and to work with the same people for 10 years is a rare treasure. I really think that’s a beautiful thing.
Susumu Mukai: We’ve been recently working on a film soundtrack where we channel into that era a little bit. Through a new sort of perspective, like a musical Botox.
MOOF: What’s your favourite thing about working with each other?
Valentina Magaletti: The surprise! Working remotely together has been really fun because we send stuff to each other and we don’t know what’s going to come back, and inevitably everything when it comes back and forward, shapes it completely differently.
Cathy Lucas: Yeah, totally. There really isn’t a formula with these guys and that’s the best thing. It’s just total surprises. It’s great. Being in different countries and being able to record an album, it’s amazing.
MOOF: What was that recording process like?
Cathy Lucas: In some ways, it’s quite boring. It’s just a lot of We Transfers!
I think what was interesting for me and why we gave the record its title Archives was that we didn’t worry too much about where things came from in terms of what we were drawing on. So we used a lot of our own material, almost like a found sound or archival material. That became a resource which we built on. We have sessions from the last 10 years, some of which turned into songs and some of which are still sitting there in a digital form. That’s always been part of the way that we work.
Valentina Magaletti: Digging around, doing some archaeology of the hard drive is definitely part of how it works. We’ve been very self-referential.
MOOF: I wanted to ask you about the unusual and homemade instruments that you use on the album. What did you use?
Valentina Magaletti: We have a wonderful space full of objects, and everything is a sonic source. There’s no limit to what we can hit, what we can plug…
Susumu Mukai: We had a jar with nails and some metal stuff. There’s that guitar thing that came from Marta’s studio, like a board with strings which you can put objects on.
Valentina Magaletti: Sometimes people leave stuff behind in our space. So you would find a harmonium or something like that. We should do an inventory it would be fun!
MOOF: You’ve all been a part of London’s experimental and underground music scene with various projects for the past decade or so, could you tell us about your experience of that?
Valentina Magaletti: I try to approach it as much as I can as a curator and as a musician, I approach it as a community, a family. I love to work with people that mutually love and appreciate your critical way of thinking and obviously who you share your values with.
What makes it underground and what makes it great is the total lack of ego and just being a vector to share with everything that you love. Ultimately what we’re dealing with here is the currency of music, the main purpose of it is just sharing and enjoying as much music as possible and leaving this force to be channeled for the greater good of everyone. I take it quite seriously in a kind of holistic and spiritual way.
Cathy Lucas: The things that Valentina’s saying about community really resonates. I’m not connected to that community in the same way anymore, I’m starting to be more connected here in France to a community of artists and musicians, but obviously still participate when I’m able to in London. It was my life, going to shows three or four times a week, it’s not just the music, it’s also all of our friendships and all our time, it’s a whole thing. That was my experience of it. It’s beautiful.
MOOF: What’s something you’d like the listener to take away from the album?
Valentina Magaletti: If people think that it’s original, not pretentious in any way that would be a very good point for me. If someone says, “This album sounds so nice and intellectually honest but also takes me to an unexpected place.” What I really love is when music takes me somewhere I wasn’t expecting. Tracks on the album like “Bring Me The Axe” really do that. The album is a beautiful collage of what’s going on. It’s contemporary and nostalgic and poetic at the same time, in my view .
Cathy Lucas: When you say ‘take away’ it feels like there’s something that you can hold onto. I don’t think there is, it’s in the moment what you hear and if that feels fresh then I think that’s it. That’s what we’re looking for. “That sounds different. That’s interesting. I’ve not heard that before.” That’s kind of what we were reaching for when we put it together.
MOOF: You’ve got a live show coming up later this month at EartH. I was wondering how your live setup differs to the recording and what you bring to a live show?
Valentina Magaletti: Well, the recording was made on a boat in England and in rural France. When you have a show you have the four of us on a stage trying to recreate and reinvent what has been told in the record, because it’s very different. It’s a nice exercise because you’re trying to give justice to the song and at the same time make it that recognisable for the audience who may know all the lyrics. It’s always an interesting thing because we’ll reinterpret songs multiple times.
Cathy Lucas: It’s a good way of trying to get to the heart of what you think a song is. Or to disrupt the heart of what you think a song is. Do it totally differently. We did try it the other day, we took a song from a 7-inch that we did. And we thought, oh, we’ll do it without bass or we’ll just do it with vocals and percussion to try something totally different. I realized I didn’t know what key I had to sing in! I hadn’t anticipated that, but it’s not uncommon for us to just try something new with an old song we’ve played many times. It’s such a different process to making music in the studio.
We’re also going to do an improv show the same night of the EartH show, backing Stewart Lee for a performance of Pea Green Boat, which is his version of The Owl and the Pussy-cat.
MOOF: Congratulations on 10 years of Vanishing Twin! How do you envision the next 10 years?
Valentina Magaletti: We will try and decay graciously! I think the mindfulness of the now is what keeps us fresh. There is certainly the will to keeping making music and, you know, and just carpe fucking diem, right?
Vanishing Twin play EartH theatre on the 29th October. Tickets here
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