Austin/Glasgow duo SKLOSS are making waves with their debut album The Pattern Speaks, an immersive blend of heavy psychedelia, post-metal drones, and ethereal atmospherics. Formed during the COVID lockdown by drummer/vocalist Karen Skloss and guitarist/vocalist Sandy Carson, the band quickly found their sound in a haze of distortion, meditative rhythms, and raw, unfiltered energy. Following a self-released EP in 2022 and performances alongside bands like Divide & Dissolve and Messa, SKLOSS have now teamed up with London’s Fuzz Club to release The Pattern Speaks, engineered and co-produced by Charles Godfrey (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Swans). The album’s lead single and title track, a swirling, otherworldly plea for cosmic intervention, sets the tone for a record that is equal parts pulverizing and transcendental.
With The Pattern Speaks, SKLOSS embrace a sound that is as expansive as it is intense—music that feels both deeply personal and entirely otherworldly. Across eight tracks, the album oscillates between crushing walls of sound and moments of near-spiritual clarity, reflecting the band’s unique perspective as both musicians and visual storytellers. Their sonic experiments have already led them to stunning, site-specific performances, from underground culverts to James Turrell’s Skyspace, proving that SKLOSS are more than just a band—they are an evolving, multidisciplinary force. As they prepare for the album’s release and a run of live shows, we sat down with them to discuss their creative process, the inspirations behind The Pattern Speaks, and where their sonic journey will take them next.
The album’s title, The Pattern That Speaks, is intriguingly evocative. What inspired this title, and how do you see the “pattern” manifesting throughout the album?
Since some of our songs are instrumental, naming them sometimes feels arbitrary. Many song names come from the offhanded phrase…or memories we find funny or apropos. Since “The Pattern Speaks” (from a certain angle) is a conversation with non-human intelligence, it seemed a fitting name from our grab bag list.
Your music combines heavy psychedelia, post-metal drones, meditative drums, and raw, distorted riffs. How do you balance these contrasting sonic elements to create a cohesive sound?
It’s a delicate balance mixing all the sonic ingredients – a bit of trial and error. We work with many layers and combos that build and compliment one another hopefully (at least in our heads). The end goal is a meditative journey. Too many elements or not enough space and you are teetering on a pile of mud.
Working with Charles Godfrey, who’s been associated with acts like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Swans, must have been an exciting process. Can you share how his engineering and co-production influenced the album’s final sound?
After working for years at the infamous Sonic Ranch in El Paso, Charles built a brand new studio in Austin and we were honored to be the first band to break it in. Our live sound is expansive with the tension of empty space. Not only did Charles capture that, but he pushed us onto a grid without over-producing. He has the best microphones, an uncanny knack for placing them, and inspired taste. He’s a true cosmonaut who understood what we were trying to do, egged us on and captured it perfectly.
As a husband-and-wife duo, how do your personal dynamics influence your creative process and the music you produce together?
We hang out a lot. It’s either the most healthy or unhealthy thing ever, but it works for us! Our tastes are concentric circles, so our collaborations meet in the middle, often creating interesting mashups. We also make films, and we produced our music videos. SKLOSS was born of listening to music together for years and a desire to intuitively play around with some of the genres we love the most. It all started during lockdown as far as playing together, but it springs from shared influences we love.
Your self-released debut EP, Voices Travel Through This (2022), marked your initial foray. How has your sound evolved since then, and what new directions do you explore on this album
The EP was recorded live. We brought a couple of those early songs over onto the record. We’ve been refining the sound, added a bass channel and additional gear so the song structures are evolving. We’ve also brought in more of Karen’s voice and lyrics.
Last year, you presented Aether, an immersive audio/visual meditative performance in unconventional spaces like concrete culverts and skyspaces. How did that experience shape your approach to creating live music, and does any of that energy carry into The Pattern Speaks?
Those performances helped us practice restraint as they often required stripped down gear and volume, plus adding new instruments to our quiver like singing bowls and chimes. Interacting with artworks (like James Turrell’s Skyspace or an installation by Thomas Hooper) or beautiful outdoor spaces, allowed our music became a part of a whole experience. We come from a visual arts background (photography and filmmaking), so performing in non-traditional music venues feels natural. This process of restraint and interaction is something that we remain interested in both in performance and writing.
Critics have described your sound as a powerful, atmospheric wall of “spacegaze.” What does that term mean to you, and how do you go about creating that expansive sonic atmosphere?
Spacegaze was coined by the visual artist Thomas Hooper in response to our sound having a spacey, shoe gazey sound where people would look at the stars instead of their shoes. LOL. We didn’t intentionally set out to create something this grand, it just grew organically as we jammed and acquired gear. For us it’s a yin and yang, pushing our sound as loud as we possibly can as a duo, without being too punishing. Also, offering some hope.
Coming from different musical lineages—Karen from Moving Panoramas and Sandy from Iglomat—how do your individual influences merge to form the distinct sound of SKLOSS?
Sandy’s background is from playing in hardcore bands when he was young and is way more into metal than Karen. I think the post-rock ambient stuff you hear in SKLOSS is most likely Sandy’s Iglomat influence carrying on. Early Moving Panoramas was often compared to Warpaint and Karen always longed to push deeper into a darker sound.
You’ve shared the stage with bands like Divide & Dissolve, Messa, The Well, Glorium, and Oryx. How have those touring experiences influenced your live performances?
Those are some of our faves, legends and some of our besties so no doubt they’ve had an influence on us. We’ve never actually toured as SKLOSS! Our first tour will be in the UK and EU this coming May to support the record.
With the album set for release on March 7, 2025, via Fuzz Club Records and a vinyl LP on the horizon, what can fans expect from your upcoming tour and from SKLOSS’s future musical endeavors?
We’re excited and super grateful to take the band on the road. It’s a dream come true to have Fuzz Club backing our project as it came from playing in our living room initially. We were just having fun and daydreaming. We’re hoping people will experience the gratitude we feel and have a good experience/meditation/soundbath, or some sort of face melting cleanse from our sound. We are working on some new tunes already and looking forward to playing more unorthodox venues. Maybe a cave tour or a series of tunnels? We’ll also be announcing more tour dates soon in traditional venues and fests.
The Pattern Speaks is out tomorrow (March 7th) on Fuzz Club
