Do No Harm in Conversation with FAULT Magazine
Do No Harm
Do No Harm are the London-based trio of Jess Mills, Finn Vine, and Owen Dyke. Where Finn and Owen were previously partners in sextet band White Rose Movement, Finn and Jess are marital partners, which altogether adds up to an all-loving musical triangle. It’s fitting, then, that we caught up with the band in the middle of a series of upcoming gigs at Servant Jazz Quarter in aid of humanitarian aid charity Choose Love.
Do No Harm’s three-show residency, which takes place across dates in February, March and April, acts as a showcase for some of the relatively new band’s early work, with tracks from debut EP Damascene featuring prominently. There’s also space for their latest single, ‘Love, Loss and Teardrops’, produced by Grizzly Bear and Beach House’s Chris Coady.
FAULT: You started Do No Harm around 18 months ago off the back of various separate musical ventures (Stoner, White Rose Movement; SLO). What made you decide to start the group, and why then?
Do No Harm (Finn): The band started to come together a bit before that when our kids were really tiny- one a babe in arms the other just up on her feet. In between the endless domesticity, I’d often find myself senselessly scratching away at a guitar in the kitchen. One child being fed, the other clambering at my ankles. After a while, Jess just started singing with me, and there was something that felt redeeming about two voices in harmony. Two voices holding their line against the maelstrom of domestic servitude and the outside pressure of the then collapsing world. I love the purity in Jess’s voice and soon the songs just kept coming in order for her to adorn them.
How would you describe your sound?
The valve release of said collapsing world?
I grew up with folk music so was naturally allergic to it, but I feel how some rudiments, that until now , have laid dormant, started to emerge – albeit in quite a perverted way. I still love Ivo-era 4AD, I still love the vaulted structure of an early 60s pop banger and also warm sonic annihilation. So the sound probably lives in the vestiges of those worlds.
What’s the significance behind using the common paraphrase of the Hippocratic oath as your band name?
It wasn’t really in relation to the Hippocratic oath. I became aware of the deluge of self-affirmations on social media: it’s almost like they’ve become the aphorism of bygone years. It struck me that, although they can seem like they’re mostly vacuous and vapid, people really need a code to live by, or a focused message that rings true in their moral scope. In its most reductive form, this message (‘Do No Harm’) seems more important than any.
Finn and Owen, given that you played together in White Rose Movement, do you ever find yourselves reusing old concepts or material to inspire ideas for Do No Harm?
White Rose Movement seems like such an alien landscape now; I’m not sure we’d even know how to access those concepts any more. It was so strident and beautifully pretentious – full of sardonic desperation- that it’s almost the antitheses of Do No Harm. Those ideas require the immaculate hubris of youth to make them float.
Obvious question but the answer’s always interesting: what are the benefits and/or challenges of being part of a spousal band?
The benefit is that you get to experience creation and excitement with someone you love. It’s unifying, it brings you closer in a very pure way. Previously, being in bands has always had a detrimental effect on my relationships because they pull you away into a different underworld and someone invariably gets left behind. And then the hard bit is the power dynamic, but both Jess and I are very much used to running our own ships. I find deference unsettling and she always knows best for real.
Who would you most like to collaborate with and why?
I’ve always wanted to work with Robert Wyatt. There’s such a light-handed grace to that man. I’d love to work with Sara Davatchi too – and I once had a dream I sang a duet with Kevin Roland, who’s another hero of mine.
Jess, it’s fair to say that you have a lot going on… how do you balance your jobs in the charity sector with music, parenting, podcasting, writing… and basic self-care?
Do No Harm (Jess): Haha – that is a very apt question. For most of my adult life, recording, writing and touring was all I did and all I knew. The formation of Choose Love in 2015 resulted in a diversification in my work since – and a lot has happened since that I am really proud of – most of all, though, my kids and our family.
I think I have told myself over the last few years that taking on so much professionally felt like dynamism, but actually I think it’s been part of a slightly manic energy that is part of getting through some very challenging times personally. Amongst all of it though, music and writing has always been my refuge, the place in which I know most who I am and what I want, and the formation of the band [Do No Harm] means I’m naturally now taking on less to make much more space for music to take centre stage again.
What can we expect from you in the near future? Anything you’re particularly looking forward to?
We’re just looking forward to putting out more music very soon, and to playing live again on March 12th in collaboration with Choose Love. Joe Goddard will be joining us too. Come down!
What is your FAULT?
Everything, always and forever, apparently.