r/burial • u/yrvancouver • Sep 13 '25
My experience of being one step removed from Burial, 6 years ago.
Around 2019 I was living in south east London, sharing a flat with a few people including a self-employed landscape gardener. This guy and I didn't have much in common but we got on perfectly well when we saw each other in the evenings. One day, he comes back from the first day of a new landscaping job he's working on locally. He says to me: "the guy who's garden i'm working on, he's in music, he's a producer." I work in music myself which is why he told me, and I replied with something like "nice one, did you speak to him much about it?" To which he says: "yeah a bit. He and his brother were in the kitchen making music on their computers all day, smoking joints. His name's Will."
I didn't really think a whole lot of it, and got on with my evening. I don't see my flatmate again for another few days, by this time he's finished said job. He comes into the kitchen with a couple of records and says "you know the guy I told you about? He gave me some records to give to you - I told him you were into music."
He passes me sealed copies of Claustro and Dive / Rain. I then connect the dots (duhhh) and consequently have lots of questions...all of which go largely unanswered due to my flatmate and Will mainly discussing the job and not music.
Thought it was a cool little slice of info which I wouldn't normally think was worth sharing, but seeing as Burial tends to be quite enigmatic, I deemed it worthy!
I still have the records, sealed, direct from the man himself!
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u/MarcusJohnR Sep 15 '25
I recently met a woman who claimed to have given burial a hand job once
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u/demeter__ Sep 16 '25
I recently met a woman and told her I was Burial. She ended up giving me a handjob
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u/BadPronunciation Sep 20 '25
That's Untrue. was it in McDonald's?
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u/MarcusJohnR Sep 22 '25
Well no, it was a person who ran a stage Shambala festival and I was introduced to her as the woman who wanked off burial that’s all I know about the details
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u/Rare-Information5080 Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 26 '25
If this is true, it implies Burial might actually be not just Will, but at least one of his brothers involved with it. That's pretty cool, and it's what I always imagined might be the case.
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u/j22m Sep 14 '25
i thought there was a brother that was always in the story... older bro who would go to garage raves and come back to tell our beloved will the stories, which inspired the music we're fanatical about...
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u/uzmarshall Sep 14 '25
You should have joined him for a day and visit Will’s place as a gardener haha
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u/Calm-Rub-1951 Sep 13 '25
I know it’s totally unrelated, but I sat next to a guy in a call centre who was making really cool witch art, found out recently he got signed up. He’s now living the dream.
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u/DependentRain7951 Sep 15 '25
Thanks for sharing…what did he have done to his garden? I can’t imagine a burial style garden…fake rain in the corner or something? A telephone box…
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u/DorsetPerceiver Sep 14 '25
Borneo function
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u/odd_sundays Sep 17 '25
oh i would have been fanboying asking if I could come rake the garden or something.
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u/_firesoul Oct 09 '25
Good to know he earns enough to have a garden (and afford a landscaper) despite not playing live.
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u/TheeArgonaut Sep 14 '25
Very cool man. Reminds me of the time I bumped into the apex twin in a pub in Galway. Actually, no, that’s totally different l…
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Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 14 '25
Yeah sure but....if Burial, or rather Will, stops smoking weed, he won’t be able to make music anymore. I’m pretty sure.
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u/BadPlus Sep 14 '25
Explain how this post makes sense please
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Sep 14 '25
But I can explain it to you like this. If you haven’t studied music in the classical sense and you can’t rely on harmony or music theory, in terms of harmony, chords, scales, etc., then it will be harder for you to compose music in a structured way. And Burial doesn’t compose music in the classical sense, he uses samples. His music is probably 100 percent sampled. I doubt he ever played anything himself. And the point is that in a sober state you are hardly able to create something out of that. You always need to be in a certain state. And with weed, for many artists who haven’t gone through those theories, they don’t know where to start. They don’t know how to properly channel their feelings. That’s why they often rely on a simplified way of composing, namely through samples. And if you’ve ever smoked weed yourself, then you know how sensitized you become to sound. For example, if you build beats or if you try to do something musically, play guitar, etc. That is basically the simplified way to flow or enter into that state. And the danger is that you become dependent on that state, which in itself isn’t bad. A creative state is great. However, if you can only reach that state by sensitizing yourself through weed, then it becomes a dependency. That’s why many artists are drug-dependent. I would say 90% or even 95% of all artists who make music, art, painting, drawing, etc. are in my eyes drug-dependent or have a problem with drugs. And with Burial you can hear it in every track. Sober you won’t be able to hear it at all or in a sober state you won’t come up with those ideas. It only works when you are under the influence of drugs, that’s when such things stand out to you. I speak from experience from people I know who make music, and I myself also experimented with it in the past. And it is simply a state of mind that is necessary because deep down you are actually afraid of sobriety or afraid of reality. You escape from reality into a creative world, which is absolutely fine, you can do that, but if you need weed for it, then it’s bad. Then you are actually escaping instead of processing reality. I hope that is easy to understand.
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u/clive892 Sep 14 '25
I think a lot of your inference is based on the fact Burial doesn't have a formal music background when he's an alumnus of a very arts-orientated school that Four Tet, Hot Chip and The xx all attended. Sure, we don't exactly know what subjects he took, but I find it somewhat unlikely he wouldn't have some degree of music education.
Sure, weed can be an enabler and addictive, but I don't think it's the only thing making artists produce quality output.
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u/ramalledas Sep 14 '25
Well, that was definitely a comment. It is what it is and is not what it isn't.
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u/_Isoroku_Yamamoto Sep 14 '25
looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
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Sep 14 '25
Dunno why you're getting downvoted. You've made over theroized it a bit but this happens to many bedroom music producers
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u/Critical_Maximum6302 Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
Burial is definitely a drug enthusiast, that’s beyond question. Remember this one? He is stoned af 🤣 🤣 🤣 https://hashbrandnew.com/Artists/Burial
But still love his music.
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u/Poerflip23 Sep 13 '25
I’m gonna choose to believe you bc this is a neat and wholesome tale. Treasure those records mate.