Its a hybrid of everything, Guinness tellsVogue.
Theres a bit of classical, electronic, dance.
I suppose its about ones musical tastes.
Daphne Guinness’s fourth studio album,Sleep, is out now.
I was always a musicianI just wasnt writing music, says Guinness.
I was always studying it or singing secretly in my room.
It kept me sanethank goodness for music.
Sleepby Daphne Guinness
As a body of work, its far and away her best yet.
Vogue: I would love to hear the inception story for this album.
When did you start thinking about creating it?
Daphne Guinness:It was a very long time agoback in September 2021.
The album developed slowly in the studio.
Id written quite a lot of it, but a lot of it were just tunes in my head.
Laika, for example, was crazy.
I was like,This is a Russian love song.
This was two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.
But its still a good song, and it still stands up.
We were way overI think we were up to 16 tracks at one point.
Some of them we had to set aside for another day.
It was pretty organic, the way its ordered on the set list.
There are a lot of different themes on this recordyou sing about love, or Love & Destruction.
What would you say were your key explorations in terms of storytelling?
Its so funnyLove & Destruction turned into something completely else.
Its a deep philosophy on the things that you just cant get around.
There are a few facts of life, but you’re able to make it sound good.
it’s possible for you to make anything sound good.
What I got out of that track was that with love comes destruction, no?
Can you have one without the other?
Its a terrible truth.
But also with destruction comes rebirth.
Those are themes Ive explored on previous albums.
But this album is probably the most realized out of all of them.
Tell me about some of the sounds you experimented with this time around.
I heard a lot of 70s disco influences, and some 80s synths.
But nothing felt too on-the-nose.
Theres both real drums and electronic drums, which are placed like a real human being.
Its a hybrid of everything; Theres a bit of classical, electronic, dance.
I suppose its about ones musical tastes.
Were the people you recorded this album with people that youve worked with for a long time?
I read that you recorded some of it at Abbey Road and British Grove?
My landlord threw me out in the middle of mixing!
Now weve got a new studio at Rack Records.
These are very iconic studios.
Are you someone who gets inspired by the space youre creating in?
I wonder what it wouldve sounded like if Id started out at Abbey Road.
That room is legendary.
The piano that you hear is played instudio twoit has an incredible sound to it.
I wanted to ask you about a few songs.
But before I do: To me, this feels like your most fun record to date.
Is that something youd agree with?
Its sort of like, when you know theres nowhere else to go, everything is fun.
Lets talk about Hip, Neck, Spine.
I love the video with Nick Knight.
The track came about because I was in a chiropractic session.
Malcolm had taken me there, and he could hear the cracks through the walls.
He came in and recorded my hip, neck, and spine being crackedthats the drum fills.
It was interesting to do a song which, on paper, is really simple.
Lyrically, I was trying to give a little bit more space to everything else.
I also love Volcano.
The video with David LaChapelle is amazing.
We did that and the Time video in one big, fantastic session.
It was like a sort of small art explosion.
Tell me about the video inspiration for Volcano.
It was inspired byEyes of Laura Mars.
There was no way I was getting into a brown skirt!
Im not very good with brown.
I mean, the looks were fantastic.
The costumes were done by Colleen Atwood and Alex Fury, a longtime collaborator.
It was a kind of partywe had the best time.
You often collaborated with David LaChapelle, who is one of my favorite fashion photographers.
Why is he so fun to work with?
Im biased, because hes kind of my brother.
We just work very well together.
Its been almost 25 years of working together.
Hes completely different from a fashion photographer.
Hes got a sense of humor, and its not about the clothesits about the atmosphere.
Its about the fun and the music.
He really understands music at a deep level.
I love the line in Time, Life is a dance, time is the key.
What did you mean by that?
David had called me up about three years ago, and he wanted me to write a timeless song.
Im also curious about the lyrics in Burn.
What are we burning down?
Well, I dont know.
Its probably an allegory for pop culture today.
The reds dont look right; the blues dont look right.
Im on the path of trying to figure out what happened.
I wanted to ask you about how you view fashion.
You strike me as someone who sees clothing as an art formsomething deeper.
Clothing is obviously essential, and it would be illegal to not wear anything at all.
But if youre going to wear clothes, I try and get it right.
It is a form of being able to transmit some sort of message.
Did you design anything in your music videos?
In the Nick Knight video, its all things from my storage.
Theres all of this old Chanel and Gaultier.
How do you feel when people label as you as a fashion icon?
I really dont think Im a fashion icon.
Ive always felt that it was a very, very enormous task.
Im very humbled by it.
You would go crazy!
Ive also always wondered if you know how much of a queer fan base you have.
All of the fun people are queer people!
Thats how I operate.
In my world, everything is very camp.
If you cant laugh about yourself, what else is there?
Life is not serious.
I mean, it is serious.
Its very, very serious.
I just cant take myself that seriously.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
