Caribou

Dan Snaith returns with Suddenly, the first Caribou album in five years. Si Truss meets him in his North London studio to talk bespoke synths, his resistance to gear fetishism and the importance of combining home life and music

- Si Truss

The phrase ‘home studio’ can sometimes sound a little derogatory, implying a certain amateurishness about the space in which a musician creates their music. For Canadian-born, London-based musician Dan Snaith, however, the ability to place his music-making at the heart of his home and family life is a core part of his creative output.

Snaith first discovered his love of production while growing up in a small town outside Toronto, but it was after settling in the UK in the early 2000s that his musical output really took shape. Over the years, the city’s electronic music culture has slowly become an integral part of the Caribou sound. While early releases – first under the name Manitoba, then as Caribou – blended electronic sampling with influences from progressive and psychedelic rock, it was breakthrough record Swim in 2010 that saw Snaith nail his own distinctive sound, underpinning those ‘band’ elements with a throbbing club pulse. In recent years, Snaith has delved further still into the world of dance music with extended DJ sets and a second, club-focused alias Daphni – resulting in two full length albums and an excellent FabricLive release.

In 2020, he returns with Suddenly, his first Caribou album since 2014’s