Welcome to Progressive Rock Journal! Having closely followed and reviewed Splink’s trajectory—from their 2022 debut “Kozmosis” to the refined 2023 mini-album “Magnifique Eccentrique,”it is a true pleasure to finally welcome the British quartet for their first official interview on our pages. With the release of their inaugural full-length concept album “Taklamakan” on August 31, 2026, Matt James Evans, Andy Crickett, Vikki Ings, and Tim Chapman have reached a monumental milestone in their artistic evolution. Spanning two discs and accompanied by an extraordinary 20-page illustrated booklet, “Taklamakan” weaves Progressive Rock, Folk motifs, and Psychedelic jams into a tragic desert romance. Today, founder and editor Jacopo sits down with the band to explore their musical journey, the making of their new epic, and their place in the Modern Progressive scene.
Welcome to Progressive Rock Journal! Although we have reviewed your music since your 2022 debut “Kozmosis,” this is our first official interview together. To kick things off, could you introduce the members of Splink and share how the four of you first established your musical chemistry?
Hi, thank you so much for having us! We are super excited to be here. So, yes, we’re Splink – and are made up of Matt on guitar, keys and vocals, Tim on drums, Andy on bass and Vikki on violin and vocals. We’ve had this lineup for the last 6 yrs, since Covid. Andy joined around that time and then after a while, Vikki returned after having a break from the band for a few years. The musical chemistry of the band goes back a long way. Tim and Matt have played together in various bands on and off since 1986, and know each other really well. They are used to working together, hand in pocket, in a variety of genres. Andy slotted in and built on that very naturally – it was like it was just meant to be when he joined! And our sound shaped itself naturally as we built the songs around the violin being the lead voice. A lot of the writing is done through us jamming – it helps create the bond and ability to react to each other as we learn to explore and change things together, and respond to each others’ ideas.
When listening back to ”Kozmosis“ (2022), tracks like the fusion-oriented epic “Spaghetti Double Glazing,” the oriental-tinged “Jeremy’s Been Shot,” and the Folk-infused “Brambling Song” showcased a wide variety of influences. Looking back, how do you view that debut period today?
We look back on it very fondly, it’s when we started gelling as a band. This album also reflects the different backgrounds and influences we each bring to the band. We very much believe in having the space in Splink to bring lots of different ideas into the melting pot. Each of us has something different to contribute. Kozmosis was also a mix of older, never recorded Splink tracks, and very new ones. In fact, Jeremy’s Been Shot was only written about 4 weeks before the recording. Tim was away on holiday with his family for one of these weeks and in an effort to learn and perfect his parts, he played the track round and around in the car so often, that he drove his kids mad! We see this era as the formation of No Rules Music, and a showcase of our range. We feel that the true definition of Prog Rock is trying to accept a wider range of influences into the rock medium, and this is something we love to explore, the eclectiscism of skipping between genres.
In 2023, you released “Magnifique Eccentrique,” which featured complex instrumental pieces like “Descending Into Red” and the Canterbury-inspired “Canterbury ’23.” How did working on that mini-album help bridge the gap between your early jam-oriented style and the intricate, large-scale compositions of “Taklamakan”?
With Magnifique Eccentrique we were experimenting a lot more. Kozmosis was a big album and a challenge to follow. We tried not to emulate Kozmosis but to do something different. Canterbury was originally recorded on the 2017 album, FREE, but we decided to re-record it as we played it very differently live. With this whole album we wanted to present how we played live, which was a lot more of a challenging recording experience! We also gained more confidence to explore our first vocal track, and pushing the boundaries more in the way of incorporating multiple styles into one piece rather than separating them into different tracks. This confidence with arranging then led to the style of writing we leant into in Taklamakan.
Across all your releases, Vikki’s violin work and Andy’s basslines serve as core lead instruments alongside Matt’s guitars/keys and Tim’s rhythmic foundation. How did this unique instrumental arrangement become the signature hallmark of Splink?
Since forming this line-up Matt has become a lot more textural in his playing, and, between the guitar and keys, helps form the colour and mood that we all build on. Matt loves to create an ambient backdrop for the tune to soar over. He used to act as more of the lead instrument in his approach, playing the driving and lead riffs, but now he is leaving more space for the violin to be the voice of the band. Matt doesn’t read music and is a self taught genius of guitar, so his chords and attitude to writing are a welcome contrast to the more structured classical background that Vikki brings forward. Andy’s approach to bass is heavily influenced by Chris Squire from Yes, he loves to play lots of notes! And Tim has his own unique style of drumming, Matt often refers to him as more of a percussionist at times – he has strong pop and jazz influences and this again adds a different dynamic to the mix. In addition in the last 3-4 years, Tim has found that our new style of arranging, using the violin as the lead voice of the band, and building the sound around that, has allowed him more freedom and space to experiment – you can hear that in Taklamakan.
It was a real pleasure to feature Splink in the “Progressive Rock Journal Volume XXIX” compilation alongside exceptional international acts like Cydonia, Chercan, the supergroup P3RMAFROST, and prominent trio from Trey Gunn‘s 7D Media label: Jonathan Crossley, David Kollar, Lukas Ligeti. How does it feel to share a platform with such a diverse lineup of high-profile Progressive artists?
It’s really great that we are included with such impressive and cherished acts, and it has helped us explore a more international flavour to prog. It has also introduced us to some areas of prog metal that we have less experience of (although the honorary 5th member of the band (and Vikki’s husband), Alex, loves prog metal, so Vikki is more familiar with this genre!) Thank you for including us and exposing us to new audiences. We’re very much fans of Trey Gunn’s work in King Crimson so that was exciting to be alongside him!
As an independent UK band reaching a worldwide audience through webzines, compilations, and digital platforms, how do you see the global Progressive Rock community today? Do you feel there is a growing appetite for adventurous, genre-blending music?
Prog rock is arguably the last bastion of exploratory and independent music, there’s less corporate involvement in the world of prog. So it’s less about moving, changing or adapting to appease a particular demographic. We create the music we’re passionate about and people can join us on the journey. The community is truly welcoming and open to many stylistic choices, and this grants us a great freedom of musical expression. We feel that the big press prefer to promote the bigger, more well known bands. It’s the grass roots punters and smaller publications who we find are enthusiastic about new music like us. It means a lot to us to have the support of Prog Rock Journal to help us reach more people and continue our musical journey.
Your new release, “Taklamakan,” marks your inaugural full-length concept album. What drew you to set a tragic, fatalistic romantic story across the shifting sands of the Taklamakan desert?
Matt wrote the idea that led to the title track, and when looking for naming inspiration found out that the Takalamakan was the biggest drift desert in the world, constantly changing. He felt this really fitted the track’s feel. After this Andy got inspired and on researching about this desert, found that there was an ancient legend associated with it. We ran with this idea and Vikki then wrote our version of a Taklamakan origin story, inspired by the bones of the original legend, and folk stories she had heard growing up. When Taklamakan hit us, we felt we were ready, and wanted to explore broader compositions to tell a story around a theme, and so, the album was born!
You spent two full years crafting “Taklamakan.” How did this two-year period of concentrated writing differ from your process for ”Kozmosis” or “Magnifique Eccentrique,” and did the storyline evolve alongside the music?
The biggest difference between Kozmosis and Magnifique Eccentrique, compared to Taklamakan, is that where they were very track-based, Taklamakan was thematic. We created songs that were designed around the need of the narrative, asking ourselves what message, what emotions did the music need to convey at each point. Although it took two years from start to finish, we weren’t actually writing for that whole period. We spent a lot of time on the artwork, crafting the story, and also… there was ‘Fingergate’…We were actually going to record in 2025 but in spring of that year Andy unfortunately had an altercation with an amp and a flight of stairs, and sustained a severe injury to a finger on his fretting hand (almost losing the top of it), and had to take several months out to recover. It’s a miracle he was back after 6 months at all, it could have been career ending… so obviously writing stopped during this time. We honoured the gigs that we had already booked, with Alex (there he is, the 5th member again!) depping for us until Andy was ready to return. It was joyous when Andy came back, the whole band was on tenterhooks, wondering if our friend and our amazing bassist would be able to play again. On his return we set about finishing the album in earnest and hit the recording studio in January 2026.
In “Thread of Fate (Yuan Fen),” you explore the ancient concept of destiny (Yuan Fen) through intertwining violin, acoustic guitar arpeggios, and a symphonic finale. Could you tell us about the musical construction of this piece and how it sets the narrative in motion?
Of all the songs on the album, this song is the most freestyle and open in composition. We intended for it to emulate the emotion and mood of love and so made it deliberately mystical and free. The narrative at this point is about when the lovers see each other and fall in love and references the red thread story – also referenced in Forever Bound – a Chinese fable that Vikki’s mum used to tell her. It says that everyone is born with an invisible red thread tied to their little finger. This thread is also attached at the other end to your destined true love, and throughout your life it grows shorter and shorter until you both meet and fall in love. To help with the improvised violin lines on this track, Matt had Vikki sitting down listening to some favourite indian inspired music for a good ten minutes before she layed down her part. It helped her to improvise and with more space and to allow the emotion of the track to sing
Tracks like “The Path to Loulan” introduce Middle Eastern and Mediterranean percussive textures alongside Folk-Rock rhythms to evoke a caravan’s journey. How do world music elements and folk motifs enhance Splink‘s Progressive identity?
We don’t deliberately incorporate world music elements. Splink are a no rules music band, there aren’t any restrictions. Folk is also a natural label that gets applied to us, especially as we are centred around the violin, but its not necessarily where we are pushing towards. In this album, we were naturally led and inspired to explore other genres and aspects of world music, as a way of telling the story and creating the journey through the album. It worked best when our own diverse influences from each of our musical life experiences were just brought forward in an organic way as we wrote and jammed together. In fact, when we tried to do it on purpose, e.g. writing a traditional Chinese style track, it just didn’t work! We write what feels right and sounds good.
“Incantation of the Storm” features intense drum pacing from Tim and aggressive violin lines from Vikki to simulate a sandstorm. How do you approach translating physical elemental forces into musical tension and heavy tonal density?
We wanted to create a vortex of sound to represent the storm that was approaching, and it needed to sound like a magical storm so it had to have some slightly crazy sounds. We made a foundation of a drone, and then each instrument layered on top to build the soundscape. We wanted to create an auditory picture of what it would feel like in the centre of a storm. The riff of the main tune was deliberately heavier to convey the immense power of the deity and the storm. This musical density allowed the violin to just cut through and sit on top to highlight the main theme. In this track, the violin’s tune represents the lovers that you can see running away through the desert, but when the violin theme gets swallowed up by the rest of the band and the subsequent wall of building noise, this represents the couple being enveloped and obscured by the storm and lost to sight. As the violin theme returns, it’s as if you get a glimpse of the couple again before the track comes to a dramatic close.
The 10-minute centerpiece, “The Key (From Kunlun to Pamir),” is the emotional and structural core of the album. What were the main challenges in arranging its complex time shifts, extended solo sections, and tragic lyrical themes?
What we wanted to do with this track, was produce something that was unexpected, rather than an anticipated progression. Structurally it’s more like a classic prog track – it has lots of different leitmotifs that we created separately and then built together to make a full track. In fact, at the time of arranging it, it was so difficult to remember what order everthing went in, that we had a huge piece of paper in the middle of the room with an audio story board scribbled out in sharpie pen to help guide us! It was additionally problematic as different member of the band referred to certain sections by different names, as it sounds different to each instrument, so we had quite a few cross wired conversations about it in the early days before it came together!
Toward the album’s conclusion, pieces like “Metamorphosis,” “The Waters of Kashgar,” and “Forever Bound” bring the narrative to a melancholic resolution with intertwining male and female vocals. How did you structure this final transformation, both lyrically and harmonically?
The structure of thse tracks was based around the story with the lyrics, written by Vikki, based on prominent aspects of the narrative. Metamorphosis describes the changing of the general into an oasis, as he spent the reset of his life searching in vain for the soul of his lost love. The middle section emulates the male and female voices, the male being the guitar, the female the violin, coming together in harmony and then losing each other, like ships in the night, passing within close reach but never touching. Waters of Kashgar is the most standardly structured of all the tracks on the album, and is completely centred around the lyrics. The accompaniment seeks to evoke a mysterious melancholy during the verses, but slips into a major key for the more uplifting message of the chorus, reflecting his undying love persisting through the ages. Forever Bound was written after the rest of the album was put together, as a coda, set years later, to bring the experience to a close, much like a story teller would. Harmonically it is much more sparse, illustrating how although everything in their world has been stripped away by time, their love still endures. The theme of the guitar and Matt as the male voice entwining around the female element appears again in this one.
You chose to release “Taklamakan“ as a double CD featuring both a narrated edition and a non-narrative instrumental/vocal version. What inspired you to offer listeners these two distinct ways to experience the album?
We know that people experience music differently and may want to listen to tracks without narration. However, we feel the album is best experienced as the full narrated version. It’s a brave choice, even in prog, to do a narrated album, although there are precendences like War of the Worlds, and Henry VIII. We recognised that many people might not want to experience the full narrated expereience, so we have provided a choice. The songs still tell the full story by themselves and you can even just read the booklet yourself alongside and enjoy the artwork.
Andy’s spoken-word interludes serve as vital structural pillars throughout the record. How did you script and record these spoken segments so that they flow seamlessly into the musical tracks?
The script is actually just thematic sections from the original fable that we wrote. We made a story board of each section of the story – again on one of Matt’s huge pieces of paper with Vikki’s scrawling sharpie – and planned the song writing around it. It was really fun to see it develop like this. During the recording Matt had the idea of using his tongue drum to add a magical, ancient and ambient atmosphere behind Andy’s narration. We also added wind effects to join the narrations seamlessly with each track. We spent ages listening to all kinds of wind sounds! Some were too wet, some too dry, some too crackly, some too much like the sea… we eventually found one we really liked, and then somewhere along the lines we lost our note of which one it was, and had to listen all over again! We had a lot of help from the sound engineer and mastering engineer to get the final article – it was a real challenge to get the tracks to flow fluidly into one another, but we are really pleased with the final result.
The physical edition includes a 6-panel digipak and a 20-page booklet fully illustrated by Vikki Ings. How closely did the visual artwork develop alongside the song composition during those two years?
The artwork for the album cover had many many iterations. As the album music developed over time, this informed the mood of the artwork and helped guide Vikki as to what would suit for the cover. She pulled in elements of the story into the design, experimenting with different ways of illustrating the princess, the general, and a lot of different ways of painting and drawing sand dunes! The booklet was done later – Andy had the idea of making it look like an ancient text, in keeping with the theme of the album. Matt had a beautiful photo of a very old cupboard door which he used as the basis for the cover. Vikki designed the illustrations depicting the story throughout the booklet – you’ll notice that the colour palette changes as you go through the story to reflect the mood and direction the narrative takes.
In a digital-first era, why was it important for Splink to invest so much care into a physical release with physical artwork and detailed liner notes?
Although many people consume music digitally now, increasingly music lovers are turning back to embrace physical media again, often in the form of vinyl and casettes as well as CDs. Physical media is nostalgic for us, harkening back to the days of the original gatefold albums. With Taklamakan, we wanted to create a multimedia experience for our listeners, adding more sensory input as you experience it. As it is written as an ancient fable, it seemed appropriate to present it as an old book. We are so proud of it, we wanted to put as much effort into the presentation as we did into the music, to do it justice.
With such an intricate narrative and complex instrumentation on “Taklamakan,” how are you translating these arrangements and spoken interludes into your live concert setlists?
At present we’re not doing the spoken interludes live, but we would love to have the opportunity to put the entire album on in one night. When we are playing, particularly to new audiences, we want to play a mix of tracks from different albums so it wouldn’t make as much sense to the listener to put the narrations in.
Looking ahead past the release of “Taklamakan,” what are the next steps for Splink, are there upcoming tour dates, live video releases, or new musical ideas already taking shape?
There are already new ideas taking shape! And lots of gigs too! Some notable ones are Summertime Blues festival this coming weekend, and next year we are playing Nene Valley Rock Festival, A New Day Festival and Summertime Blues Festival to name a few. We are also hoping to release Takalamakan on vinyl, and plan to organise a crowdfunding project to support this. We are excited to be creating new music again and about what opportunities that will bring.
A heartfelt thank you to Splink for taking the time to speak with Progressive Rock Journal and giving us such a detailed insight into their creative world! Their spectacular new double album “Taklamakan“ is out now, and make sure to catch them featured on our upcoming compilation “PRJ Volume XXIX.” Stay tuned to Progressive Rock Journal for more news, reviews, and tour updates from the band.
Read our Review of their new album “Taklamakan” here: [Review] Splink – Taklamakan
Matt James Evans / Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Andy Crickett / Bass Guitar, Narration
Vikki Ings / Electric Violin, Acoustic Violin, Piano, Vocals
Tim Chapman / Drums, Percussion
Read our review of their previous album “Magnifique Eccentrique” here: [Review] Splink – Magnifique Eccentrique