Ciel - Fear & Clothing! Exclusive Interview

Ciel is one of the most exciting prodigies to emerge from the UK underground over the last few years. His distinct, refined sound, mixed with his visual world-building and thematic imagery, makes him stand out from the crowd and sets the tone for a very promising future. We caught up with Ciel to discuss his cinematic references to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Paprika, and why authenticity, friendship, and hands-on creativity sit at the core of everything he builds.

From early drum lessons at eight to self-producing as a teenager, Ciel speaks on shaping his own world, designing his visuals and merchandise, and treating each release as its own era - always evolving, but never losing his identity.

GK

So the first question is, for someone discovering your music for the first time, how would you introduce yourself and your music to them?

Ciel

That’s a good question. I’d say I make music to make you move and get up on your feet. I don’t really like making sad songs like that, to be honest, but if I make a sad song, I’d still want to make it something that makes you get up and enjoy yourself. You feel me?

GK

Yeah, yeah. Sick. You’ve got a very distinct sound, if I remember right when we were talking on the shoot, you said that you try not to be directly influenced by other artists. So I was wondering where else, if not from music, do you draw inspiration from?

Ciel

Yeah, honestly, just life. I’ll be watching a lot of movies, just trying to go out and enjoy life experiences, because I feel like that’s where I always get my best ideas. I feel like that’s where I get new ideas. Because, again, it can be a little random experience. I could be going for a walk in the park, but I could just be humming something in my head, and then it just comes to me, yeah. So I think going out and just living life, experiencing things, and watching movies, to be honest.

GK

Talking about movies, one question I like to ask people, because in the magazine I’m trying to always draw the visual world and the music world together - if your music was the soundtrack to a film, what film do you reckon it would be?

Ciel

Well, right now, with this tape I got, obviously I’d have to say Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but I’d also say Paprika. I don’t know if you’ve seen that?

GK

I haven’t, I’ve been recommended it. I think.

Ciel

Yeah, man, it’s hella colourful. I don’t really know how to explain it without ruining it, but it’s definitely worth watching.

GK

What about a video game? Are there any video games that you think your music would be the soundtrack to?

Ciel

That’s hard, there’s a few. I’d say Super Mario Sunshine. The old one. And then there’s, oh, not many people would know this, but PokePark bro.

GK

Yeah, I rate that. Have you seen the Cyberpunk game?

Ciel

Yeah, I haven’t played it yet though. I need to.

GK

Yeah, I love those kind of games, but I just get stuck where I do, like, half the story and then forget about it. I’m so bad at finishing stuff like that, but from what I’ve played of it is really good. Going back to your sound, we kind of touched on it already, but how important is it for you to curate a sound that isn’t reminiscent of anyone else?

Ciel

I think it’s definitely one of the most important things. But I think for me, I like making something that’s familiar, but you can’t say it’s the same as someone else. I think I just like being myself and just making what I make, because I feel like 10 years down the line, I’m gonna appreciate that a lot more than if I was just to be hopping on trends and doing what everyone else is doing.

GK

Yeah, yeah, for sure. With collaborations, you’re quite selective as well, obviously, rightfully, only working with people when it really makes sense. So I was wondering what your thought process is when you’re deciding whether a collaboration feels right.

Ciel

Yeah, honestly, the people I work with I’m just genuinely friends with, and I listen to their music, and we’re close. I don’t really like forcing collabs, just trying to get in studio because, oh, like, this guy’s lit and we’re doing a similar kind of thing. I think that a lot of the time when it comes out, you can really tell it’s forced, and that them people don’t really like each other like that.

GK

Yeah. I feel that. I’ve noticed that a lot of people say that when they’re trying to just collaborate with their friends, it’s the best way, because you already have that kind of relationship and chemistry anyway.

Ciel

Yeah literally, because I feel like I’m very hands on with my approach to making music. So if we’re in the studio and you’re doing something, I’m gonna tell you oh, do this, or do this. I’ll give you the ideas. And some people just don’t like that, because, I don’t know, they just think they’re the best and that you shouldn’t  be telling me what to do. But I feel like, for people I’m friends with, they’re  gonna hear me out, and usually that makes for a better song.

GK

Yeah, yeah. 100%. I was wondering, what’s your background in music, your musical journey, and how did that shape you into the artist you are today?

Ciel

So I think I’ve been around music quite a lot, actually. Like my granddad was a DJ, he still does DJ every once in a while, but my uncle produces a lot, and he was the first one to show me you can just make stuff, like be at home and just make music. I was like, wow, that’s kind of cool. And then I think since eight or something like that, I was doing drum lessons. So, yeah, I was playing the drums from early. My mum was always just putting me in random activities and stuff. But I actually quite enjoyed playing the drums and then, yeah, I did GCSE music. So I’ve just kind of always been around it, I was producing by myself in my bedroom. I started at like, 14, I want to say something like that. I’ve just kind of always kind of there, just because I just genuinely enjoy making music, and listening to music, and just being around music.

GK

Sick, and going back to visuals and aesthetics, you’re very aware of the importance of that. Have you ever worked in, or just for fun, done any kind of visual art before? Whether it’s photography, painting, anything like that.

Ciel

When I was first starting out, I made all my covers for my releases. I’m still very hands on, but when I first started off, I think I was doing YouTube as a kid, I was just putting out Minecraft YouTube videos and stuff like that, and playing Fortnite. I think my favorite part of it was just being able to create thumbnails and stuff like that. I was literally using paint.net, and I was creating graphics. I had a little digital camera and I’d take a couple pictures and then edit that. Yeah, always been a visual person.

GK

Yeah, sick. Would you ever do more stuff like that in the future, even if it’s not tied to your music?

Ciel

Yeah, 100%. Look, I want to focus on one thing at a time, but I do think in the future sometime I definitely want to get into clothing, even with the merch and stuff, I’m very hands-on with the designs that we’re doing right now. So I want to get further into that when I have more time to focus on a separate thing.

GK

Yeah, yeah. That leads nicely into the next question, because what I was going to ask next is, how does fashion sit alongside your music, and how important is it for you to express your identity as an artist through fashion?

Ciel

I love fashion. I think even if I wasn’t making music, I’d still dress the way I do. Even before I was making music, I kind of dressed like this. I think fashion is just the best way to express myself. I always just dress how I’m feeling on the day, and it feels like if I’m not dressed the way that I’m feeling, I just feel like I’m wrong, like it feels like I’m not supposed to be there, and it doesn’t feel like I’ve started my day right. There’ll even be times where I’ve stepped outside, I’m meant to be going somewhere, I’ve just put on that outfit, and I’m just like, no, this is wrong. I just need to go back inside and change it.

GK

Yeah, it’s important to how you feel init. You want to feel yourself and express yourself. Is there any other way you can expand on the visual world your sound exists in, because I feel like from the conversations we had, but even just from your music and your Instagram and everything, you can sense that kind of world building. Is there anything else that influences how you build that visual world around your music?

Ciel

Honestly, just a lot of time spent thinking of what I would have liked to see. I think especially with what I’m trying to make right now, the music and the aesthetics I’m building are just things I would have wanted to see as a kid, just growing up listening to my favorite artist. I would have wanted to see my favorite artist doing some shit like this. So let me just do it myself. You feel me? And I just feel like I’m very specific with what I like. It’s not usually too calculated, I just go in with a general idea of what I want, and then I pick little things from what I see when I’m scrolling TikTok or on Pinterest, or even just walking down the street. I’ll take pictures. Even the other day me and N4T went to a vinyl shop, and we were looking at vinyls for inspiration on what we want our covers for our next releases to look like. I’ve done that quite a lot in the past. I’ll just take pictures and be like, yeah, I like these colours, but I like this composition. And then we piece it all together into the final product.

GK

Yeah, sick. How’d your musical relationship with N4T come about? Because I noticed you collab a lot recently as well.

Ciel

It’s actually so random, I’ve known about N4T for a while, coming up to two years now. I think he must have released his tape, ADHD TV, and one of my boys from secondary school went to the same uni as him. So he said “I think you’ll like his music”. I was like, “oh let me listen, yeah, this is hard”. And then we must have just met one time, I can’t even remember where. I think it was at a show or something, and then we just stayed in contact. We kind of just all became friends, and we all started playing Fortnite together, every night we’d be talking and playing Fortnite. And then we just started making music together, and since then, we just kept going.

GK

Yeah, yeah. Like you were saying it’s good when things come about naturally, you know.

Ciel

Yeah, 100% like, I think my relationship with N4T has been genuinely just vibes, bro. There’s never been a like, “let’s lock in, because you’re making music and I’m making music”. Like, nah, we’re just boys.

GK

That’s the best way. So, when is the tape due?

Ciel

Should be soon. I’m just trying to get everything finalised, trying to get one more feature sorted, but yeah, it’s long. Should be done. Should be done.

GK

Yeah, yeah. I know how you feel. It’s kind of the same with the magazines init. When it gets to that time of release, there’s so much shit to do, man. Like, making sure everything’s on track, you know.

Ciel

That’s literally how I’ve been, bro. Yeah, the process of just getting everything done is so, so long. But it’s there. We’ll definitely get there.

GK

For sure. Can you tell us more about ‘Fear and Clothing’?

Ciel

So I think the main idea was I just wanted to have fun. I think my last tape before that, ‘SPiCE’, I spent way too much time trying to make everything perfect, be a perfectionist and just trying too much to be the best. And I was like, the only way to really be the best is by actually just being yourself and enjoying the process of making music. And I think I make my best music when I’m genuinely smiling and just having fun. So I kind of wanted it to be that. And I watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at the exact same time when I first started this, and I was like, wow, these man are just having fun. So I kind of wanted to embody that feeling in the music. I think this was just before I went to Paris, so like, May/June. It was just after SPiCE headline, and I was just like, yeah, I’m gonna spend a week every day in the studio and just have fun. I was just inviting everyone to come, the sun was out. So we were enjoying it, and we had some drinks, just having fun. And we were just making songs. Like, honestly, I think I made like half the tape in that week.

GK

A week? Mad, yeah.

Ciel

At least half the tape in that week. And since then, I’ve just been adding things, because I didn’t want it to feel like I’ve spent like, six months. You can usually tell when this song’s from this time period and like this song’s from this time period, but I genuinely just wanted it to feel like I was just having fun and just making stuff, and that’s kind of what it is right now. So yeah, I was wanting it to feel like a fun journey. I literally wanted it to feel like the movie, they’re just high as hell on cloud nine. But as much as they had the maddest trip, it’s still a fun journey, you feel me.

GK

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Man, that’s sick. I love that. It’s such a good film.

Ciel

Yeah, I can’t lie, I’ve watched it like three times now.

GK

I remember when I was in school. I don’t know if you had it in your school, they had dress up day and shit in our school, and I went as Hunter S. Thompson. So I had the orange shades, the hat. It was jokes.

Ciel

The glasses, yeah? So hard.

GK

I’m on to the last question now. Well, maybe I’ll throw another one in there. Firstly, as you move forward in your career, how do you see your sound and aesthetic evolving?

Ciel

My main goal right now is to cement this sound and era as its own thing, because I did that with SPiCE and you can really tell that’s a very separate era and time period to what I was doing before, and I want to do the exact same thing for this tape, just on a bigger scale. So now I’m gonna stick to a colour for ‘Clothing and just make that my thing. But when I move on to the next era, I definitely want to make it something completely different. I don’t want any time period to feel like it’s the same thing, like I’m just doing this on repeat, I don’t ever want to be that artist, because I have so much more to show. The main goal is just to move. Keep moving, keep changing, keep evolving. I definitely want to get back into making the more dark, hard music, because I’ve missed it to be honest. I haven’t really been doing that for a while, and obviously I just needed some time away, because I felt like everyone was doing that, so I got sick of it. But I’m getting back into it, I’m not gonna lie.

GK

Yeah, I think that’s a good way to do it. I think some of the best artists go through those kinds of eras. It’s quite an obvious example, but when you look at Carti for example, it’s so different, even the aesthetic and how he dressed as well. Die Lit, and then you got Whole Lotta Red. You can define those eras. And I think that’s what really great artists can do, when you’re evolving, even with the aesthetic as well as the music. The final question I’m throwing in - if you could give advice to yourself from when you started making music or started taking it seriously as a career, what would that be, from what you’ve learned now?

Ciel

Just trust yourself and the people around you, because honestly, you know what’s gonna be best for you. No one else can ever tell you what’s gonna be best for you.

GK

Sick man. Love that. Well, that’s that done.

Ciel

Those were some good questions bro. There’s a lot of people that ask some nonsense questions. It’s always the same questions like how do you get your name? What country are you from? Like, bro. Those questions have been asked a million times.

GK

Nah, I appreciate that, man. I enjoy doing interviews. I’m glad you picked up on that, because I do make a conscious effort to try to ask things that are a bit more interesting. I try to focus a lot on visual stuff as well, so it’s perfect for you, because obviously you’re so into aesthetics. I like to try and think of stuff that makes people think, you know, rather than just the surface stuff. Like “who are your influences?”, that’s the classic init.

Ciel

That’s literally it bro.

GK

Well I appreciate it bro, appreciate your time as well. I’ll be in touch with details about the mag.

Ciel

Yeah 100%. Let me know.

GK

Love bro. I’ll speak to you soon.

Ciel

See you soon.