James Tabbi Made a Home in the Space Between
Punk Head: “Slow Slow Slow” is essentially about surrender. What were you still trying to control when you started writing it?
James Tabbi: I came up with the whole concept for the album and started writing a bunch of the songs during a week at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Adriano Pedrosa’s theme, Foreigners Everywhere, really hit home for me and got me experimenting with song structures and using lyrical ideas around immigration. Before that, I was always trying to keep a tight grip on the arrangements whenever I wrote. But a few months later, when I co-wrote “Slow Slow Slow” during a stormy weekend in Gloucester with my good friend Ken Kinna, that experimentation turned into a real, intentional surrender. The wild coastal weather had a huge effect on us. It created a tension between fighting your inner current and finally letting go and being pulled into someone else's world.
Punk Head: You describe the album as an “atmospheric and analog environment within our digital world.” What does analog give you emotionally, rather than simply sonically?
James Tabbi: For me, analog gear brings a kind of beautiful unpredictability that digital stuff just can’t create. On this record, it was really about playing with the space between those two worlds. I loved balancing tactile analog synths, my Moog Muse, DeepMind 12, and Ben Hillier’s Juno 6, against my go-to digital tools like Massive X and Predator-2. Not to mention an occasional guitar lick.
Emotionally, that hardware gives you something grounded to hold onto, which felt right for an album written during a period of transition. When Ben and I ran the hybrid arrangements through analog outboard gear, those subtle saturations and imperfections pulled even more genuine human feeling from the digital mix.
Punk Head: How did you know this material belonged to James Tabbi rather than The Heroic Enthusiasts?
James Tabbi: Honestly, I just wanted to strip everything back to the absolute bare minimum. With The Heroic Enthusiasts, there’s this incredible, rich, layered collaborative energy. But these songs needed something much quieter and more insular—a darker vibe with an industrial-dance pulse where the space around the synths is just as important as the notes. It felt like a chance to stop fighting the current on my own terms and capture that raw, isolated feeling of transition without overcomplicating it.
Punk Head: You have a background as a remixer and producer. Did making a solo record change the way you think about your own voice?
James Tabbi: Usually, when you're producing or remixing, you're building a world around someone else's voice, their words, feelings, and emotions. Putting my own voice right out front meant I couldn't hide behind rhythms and counter-melodies. This album marks the first time I experimented with female backing vocals. Working with the amazing Deborah Conquest allowed me to add entirely new harmonic textures and timbres supporting my lead vocals. Co-producing with Ben Hillier was essential here; his ear for texture anchored my voice with architectural weight within the atmospheric landscape, supporting the minimalist approach while maintaining a driving, undeniable pulse.
Punk Head: You use the phrase “architectural weight” to describe the production. What does that actually sound like in the room?
James Tabbi: It’s that physical sensation of sound actually moving through you. That kind of low-frequency density you feel right in your chest. When Ben and I were shaping the sound, we wanted spaces that felt huge and cavernous, but still grounded and tactile. By running my synth work through his analog outboard gear, we gave those experimental textures a real, physical structure—that is what I mean by “architectural weight.” We bridged that gap between floating ambient soundscapes and something heavy, concrete, and industrial - almost Brutalist.
Punk Head: If A Temporary Resident is a record about inhabiting a transitional space, what do you think you're a temporary resident of now?
James Tabbi: We are all constantly moving through liminal spaces, a concept that became incredibly clear to me as I wandered through the exhibits in Venice. On a literal level, I’m currently transitioning into a new home this fall with my partner, Stacey. Philosophically, stepping out to release my debut solo album places me in an ongoing space of creative and strategic exploration. It’s an invitation to find profound meaning in the transition between what was and what’s next, rather than trying to control exactly where the current is presently pulling me.
