Interview by Killian Laher.

Ahead of their sole Irish date, No More Workhorse caught up with Adam Wiltzie of A Winged Victory for the Sullen. Although their music contains few words, Wiltzie was a little more forthcoming on what to expect from the show and more. You can buy tickets and find more information about their performance on the Pavilion website here.

Pavilion Theatre – Dates – Tue 10 Feb, 8pm – Tickets €24

Your second album as A Winged Victory for the Sullen was a collaboration with London Royal Ballet choreographer Wayne McGregor. How did it come about?

It was pretty simple, as he just sent us an email. He mentioned that he loved our first record, and said he had been using it to warm up with his dancers, They reacted very positive to the space, and lack of rhythm, so being that neither of us had ever worked in dance before we decided to give it the old college try.

What was it like working with Wayne? How did it inform the album?

It was a real pleasure. He is an extremely humble person, but at the same time very driven to small details. The depth of his ideas behind his work are very complex, and because I have always felt that conceptual art is a bit like swimming through vomit. It only really makes sense to the person that created it. His body work was really unknown to me, except for his work on the Harry Potter films, so mostly his influence came from pictures he sent us of various forms of light, and vintage youtube science videos. He went off on a bit of a Steven Hawking diatribe at the initial meeting, but the concepts that resonated with me, I reckon were just its soporific simplicity. I always loved that a collaboration brings you a palate of ideas that you could never develop alone.

Did you ever consider your music suitable for dance?

I never really though about it much. I know dance is one of the major art forms but I struggle to have a deep emotional connection with it.

Is there talk of a live performance of the album with dancers?

We premièred the dance 4 nights @ Sadler’s Well’s in London in October 2014. We will do 2 final performance there again on February 13th & 14th.

Can you tell us some artists/albums that have been important for you over the years, ideally a mixture of stuff you’ve always liked and some more recent discoveries?

I don’t really listen to much music anymore. Inspiration these days comes more from a good day out at the museum, or some gardening.

Away from AWVFTS, are you working on any other interesting projects?

I have a solo EP of 4 orchestral pieces I recorded in Budapest last summer. It will be released next month on Temporary Residence.

You are touring in the early part of 2015, what should people expect from the shows? How many are touring as part of the band?

Our main touring party of late is a quintet, but we change our line up a lot depending on touring budgets. It has been a lovely experience, and even more satisfying to see that ATOMOS completely stands on its own as a solid body of work, even without the dancers.

What’s next for the two of you, will you take a break or will you continue to work on more music?

We will take a break as we are both working on film & TV scores this summer, but we will be back again. We have become close friends in such a short amount of time, but now as we are mostly touring & playing ATOMOS without the dancers.

Are there any musicians you’d really like to record with?

I am afraid they are all dead!