Proprio

What or who inspired you to start making music?

I've always had naive flirtations with playing instruments, never mastering any, but losing hours just messing around with whatever I had, a casio keyboard, guitar, cassette recorder I guess those are my early memories of what you might call musical inspiration. And vinyl. Records were ever-present at home and I would listen to random records, quite obsessively.

From a production point of view, I guess indirectly I would say the hip-hop sampling mentality, manipulation of sounds and rhythms, the very idea of remixes and re-interpretation, and slowly realising the excitement and possibilities for re-framing a sample or played loop in a totally fresh context.

Can you say a little about an artist or two that have influenced your music, but in an implicit random or surprising way, that might not be immediately obvious through listening to your music?

Early jazz has always been in the background so I guess people like Sidney Bechet and Lionel Hampton have always stuck with me. I've listened to a lot of International / Outernational music in recent years, particularly fascinated in recent years by the vast sea of Bollywood productions, particularly 60's, 70's & 80's era, but quite a lot of International stuff in general.

Can you name a couple of albums that you’ve particularly enjoyed recently?

The fourth album from Badbadnotgood, IV (on Innovative Leisure) has been a definite highlight, unrivaled in their forward jazz-beat meanderings and the fascinating release from K.Barley (Bambooman), Auditory Learning [on Health], a remarkable release of intimate sound-sample manipulation and finely-tuned atmospherics, as part of the Open Music Archive series.

Can you give us a clue as to what else you’re working on at the moment?

I've got a bunch of tracks that have been waiting to be finished for a while, I often leave tracks and ideas stewing for a long time, not sure if it's intentional procrastination or that I find it useful to have an indefinite break from tracks.
But an EP of some sort is in progress, a remix or two and a stack of ideas.

Can you name a record label that's been catching your attention?

I've always got time for Sublime Frequencies' output, endlessly passionate and interesting. Principe's fierce releases out of Portugal have been sharp and exciting, French imprint Born Bad seem to release a brilliant blend of original material and re-issues, and Health are looking pretty fit!