Austin duo SKLOSS share insights on turning lockdown sessions into an intense debut album for Fuzz Club

Transmission 171: Interview with SKLOSS

SKLOSS is an American duo combining heavy psychedelia, post-metal drones, and distorted riffs. Formed during the COVID-19 lockdown, guitarist Sandy Carson and drummer Karen Skloss shaped their sound through home sessions that emphasized volume and experimentation.

Title: The Pattern Speaks
Artist: SKLOSS
Release Date: 2025-03-07
Genres: Drone, Experimental Music, Psychedelic Rock
Label: Fuzz Club Records
Description: SKLOSS discuss their debut LP of heavy psychedelia and post-metal drones, released via Fuzz Club Records on March 7 2025.

Their debut EP, Voices Travel Through This, was released in 2022, followed by performances at the Levitation Festival and collaborations with visual artist Thomas Hooper. Their first LP ‘The Pattern Speaks’, recorded with engineer Charles Godfrey, was released on March 7, 2025, via Fuzz Club Records.

What first drew you to creating music as a duo, and how did your shared creative experiences in film and photography influence this project?

We’ve always been huge music fans and both played in bands off and on over the years for fun. When we started hanging out, Sandy became the de facto drum roadie for my previous band, Moving Panoramas. After taking a massive break from playing, focusing on BMX and photography, Sandy was missing it. We’d jam sometimes. It was fun and raw. Then when lockdown happened, it became the escape. As far as film and photography go, we’re fortunate in that we’re always creating. That’s what drew us together, I suppose. We’d support and critique each other’s work, and then began collaborating. We’re doing film projects together now, too. 

Can you describe the atmosphere in Austin’s music scene when you first began playing live as SKLOSS? How did it shape your approach to performance?

We ventured out right after lockdown to play a patio show during SXSW. Austin was seeing a rebirth of new bands post COVID and the dissolution of many mainstay bands. Lots of clubs and venues were going through the same thing. So, the scene got a total reboot.  Karen had already stepped away from her last project for a few years, and we didn’t know where we fit in. So, we decided to forge our path by playing in unconventional spaces and dreaming up show ideas that we wanted to see, which ultimately snowballed in a cool way. Now it will always be a part of what we do. For instance, we’d really like to play in some caves…

Your sound combines heavy psychedelia with post-metal drones and meditative rhythms. How did you arrive at this specific combination of elements?

With a lot of tinkering and going down music rabbit holes during lockdown, we started to lay out a map. The rest was kind of a healing or meditation that was honestly just for ourselves at first. 

What were the earliest challenges you faced as a husband-wife duo working on such a loud and experimental project?

Since we were playing at home, and our neighbors had families, we had to set a curfew for 9 pm on week nights. If you are reading this, neighbors, thank you! Also, we had to be careful to protect our animals who were always safely locked away in other rooms. Luckily our cat was already deaf. (Not from us!) And we’d take our skittish pup to the studio out back. 

The living room became your practice space during lockdown. How did this unconventional setting shape the identity of your music?

It was intimate. And the instruments shaped the identity of our living room and furniture! It’s hard to ignore a room full of instruments. It calls you to practice more because you are staring at them all the time. And we all had time… I think it allowed us to be very deliberate and thoughtful. There was never a rush to produce anything. 

How did your backgrounds in filmmaking and BMX influence the creative process behind SKLOSS?

Karen jokes that filmmaking is an endurance sport. In BMX you have to be fearless but kinda calculated. So perhaps that means our process is both fearless, relentless and calculated?. 

What inspired the immersive audio/visual performances like ‘Aether’? How did the collaboration with Thomas Hooper enhance the experience?

Aether was part of a project series curated by fellow musician and photographer Barry Stone called “Vast Is The Sea,” at Colab Gallery in Austin. He invited us to play the finale to a series that featured music paired with artists’ visuals. We brought Thomas Hooper on board as he had been talking about scoring moving visuals to our tunes for a while, and has been our visual artist since day 1. Thomas scored these meditative mandala mediations mixed with footage he filmed where he lives in the south of England. It enhanced the performance 110% and we still can’t believe how it came out. More please!

What equipment or instruments are essential to crafting the SKLOSS sound, and are there any unconventional tools you’ve incorporated into your setup?

Drums and guitar obviously! Ha. Karen is a left-handed drummer who plays a right-handed kit. Sandy plays through bass and multiple guitar channels with a shitload of FX pedals. Key ingredient is our custom guitar cabinets by Worshiper for the best tone. We’ve played around with using singing bowls and chimes also for songs like Aether.

You’ve worked with artists like Charles Godfrey and Thomas Hooper. How did these collaborations come about, and what did you learn from those experiences?

Both guys are absolute genius master craftsmen at their core. They’re super dialed and meticulous at everything they do. Neither quits until they’re thrilled with the result. It’s humbling and infectious to have people like that supporting you. It gave us confidence as we took the band out into the world. We figured if these folks were behind us, we must have something worth leveling up. That was such a blast. Hopefully we will be doing loads more together. 

What inspired the decision to release your debut LP with Fuzz Club Records, and how did that partnership come about?

Fuzz Club was our dream label, and we were simply floored when they took us on and believed in us. Brett Orrison and Sam Douglas at Spaceflight Records in Austin helped us connect with them. We can’t thank them enough.

Looking ahead, what themes or sonic directions are you eager to explore in future projects?

We are exploring new tunings and more cosmicness / plugging into space.

Photos courtesy of SKLOSS

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others