Can you tell us about your background and how you first got started in music? How did you become interested in electronic music and what drew you to it as a medium for self-expression?
It is a story as old as time itself. I’m the youngest of four and musical instruments were always about because of the exploits of my siblings, so it was something of a drip down economy. My teenage years were absorbed by learning how to play them – guitar, bass, piano – whereas in hindsight maybe I should’ve put more effort into learning how to talk to the opposite sex but everything is 20/20 in hindsight. Alas.
The first forays were about emulating the people I was listening to. John Mayer, Toto, Coldplay. So I was a cool guy obviously. I had cool taste. That’s clear. Making little pop/rock noodles with no singing in sight. There was no clear path at this point, it took me a while to figure it out, so I played around in bands here and there and had a knack for playing in bands that played a single gig before disbanding. I think the record stands at four. May they RIP in peace.
The band that defied my black widow curse brought about the first version of Fractures – I was asked to sing backup vocals and a show and followed the thread from there, experimenting with putting my voice on these recordings and shifting the style of music almost instantaneously.
I’m not sure I see music as an outlet when I go to write a song, at least not one for instant relief or release, but it’s all I’ve got. More than anything the idea of creating something from nothing brings a satisfaction(when the song isn’t shit) that I can’t really manufacture elsewhere, so the promise of that is the delicious carrot that’s dangling when I venture into something new. Truth be told I haven’t tried my hand extensively at much else so who knows, but I’m happy with this for this life.
You’ve just released your brand new album ‘Shift’! How does it feel to share it with the world, and how long did it take to create?
It’s a relief to have it out. It’s never as momentous as I think it will be, having done it twice now, not from my side anyway. It’s just something I’ve had ready to go for months, maybe even a year and now finally we’ve taken the veil off of it so people can see it themselves, so from my end it’s more the end of a progression rather than an acute moment. Maybe I’m protecting myself that way, but it’s a mixed feeling. I am glad people can hear it though, I’m proud of it, I think there’s a lot of depth to it and it’s more considered than most things I’ve released prior.
It’s something of a technicality as the album itself was finished over a year ago from a mix/master point of view. I think I wrote Burnt first of the batch, at least 3 years ago, and then lockdown happened and I had free rein and all the time I could ever need to follow the path I’d laid out. So I did. So let’s call it a year and a half to two years until I was confident enough to hand them over to my mix engineers and let everyone who isn’t me do whatever they need to do to make it all that much more official.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences, both within electronic music and outside of it? How have these influences shaped your sound and approach to creating music?
The ones I’ve already mentioned were all encompassing in the early days. As I’ve gotten older I find I listen to music less and less. Just not something I really have a yearning to do beyond maybe referencing something so it’s a shallow pool. Radiohead are always there; at the moment it’s hard to avoid the Fred Again thing, in a good way. I don’t think he’s necessarily reinvented the wheel but what he does he does so well, and opening up the broader world to emotionally driven dance music suits me just fine. Hopefully I get some of the runoff my way, some second hand fandom. All are welcome. In the scope of my life I’m relatively new to electronic music – I had a weird snobbishness towards it when I thought my destiny was to be an instrumentalist so I’m still playing catch up a bit. Every song on the album probably has some origin of influence. Secret is a Burial song dressed up like a pop song. Strangers is basically me doing Rufus Du Sol. Bereft was kind of an ode to Kiasmos and Olafur Arnalds. Tact is for the Max Cooper fans(me). So there’s influence all over it, but they’re all fleeting, it’s more the idea of what these people do rather than leaning on any deep listening I’ve done to their music, because my attention span is certainly not what it used to be.
Can you walk us through your creative process for writing and recording a new song? How do you typically begin a new track, and what are some of the key elements or techniques you focus on as you develop it?
It’s not a romantic process I’m sorry to say. It’s a lot of sitting at my desk(currently a trestle table), scrolling through presets on soft synths, through instagram videos of drummers, kind of waiting for something to pop up that I can use as a launchpad. If I have access to a real piano then at the moment that’s been a real source of inspiration, kind of removing myself from ‘producer land’ (not a real place) for a bit and just starting with actual music. To continue the trotting out of cliches, every song is different. For this project having the production at a point where I can feel the emotion of the song enough to write to it is the lowest bar I have to pass – it’s different to writing a song purely instrumentally, and it probably informs the lyrics and melodies that much more and makes that side of things that much easier when there’s an atmosphere in place already. When I can almost ‘picture’ the setting of the song, or visualise some aspect of it in my head – could be a place, a type of lighting, whatever – then I know I’ve got something I can play with and mold until it makes a beautiful shape resembling a song.
These days more than ever, I’m trying not to overload the songs with production – it’s still a challenge. If I see a gap I like to fill it, but I’m getting there. So restraint is a new method compared to the more the merrier approach that has carried me through to this point.
As a musician, what message do you hope to convey through your music? What themes or ideas do you find yourself returning to again and again in your work?
No particular message. That would probably become irksome after a while but there are certainly themes that repeat themselves as I write. A lot about feeling lost generally speaking. The idea of being an adult was a lot more appealing as a kid but now I’m here I spend a lot of time trying to make sense of the whole setup and I’m still drawing blanks, so a lot of those contemplations bleed through to the music and I imagine will continue to do so until I find an answer or something in my life that scratches the itch, but yeah, I don’t think people want to hear that kind of thing every song. I don’t want to write about it every song even though it’d be easy to. Some songs call for a different approach and so that’s when the songwriter side has to come out and imagine a situation to match the music. If the song feels a bit sensual, then a sensual lyric you shall RECEIVE. If it feels like it needs a yearning lyric, then off I go. It’ll never be consistent and that’s what keeps the appeal.
What has been the highlight of your career so far? Can you talk about a specific moment or accomplishment that stands out as particularly meaningful to you?
I think being able to travel with my music is the greatest thrill, relative to where I thought I might end up when I started this career in earnest. Spending a long stint in the UK just recently has reinvigorated me more than anything else has in a while, especially so because so much of the music I do(occasionally) listen to comes from there. That sticks out the most – just connecting with people on a similar wavelength in a part of the world where the music scene is so fertile and so much aligned with the parts of music I am drawn to.Maybe just because it’s the most recent memory in my mind but it’s probably the first time in a while I’ve backed myself in a situation outside my comfort zone, so even though there’s not much of an ‘achievement’ to show at this point in time, it feels like I laid the foundation to something greater and I’ll be chasing that high for a while.
How do you see the music industry evolving in the next 5 years? What changes do you think we’ll see in terms of technology, distribution, and audience engagement?
It’s hard to keep track of it week to week at present. The landscape has already shifted so much in the short time I’ve been a part of the industry, in my case not necessarily for the better. Having been an artist that has survived off the back of the shift to streaming, hopefully better remuneration from the various DSPs becomes a reality as the nature of playlisting has evolved in such a way that seemingly benefits artists less and less. I’m not the best person to speak to about audience engagement. Social media is not a strong suit of mine, but having said that I’d love for the insistence upon it from an industry side to dissipate. Undoubtedly people build their communities and fans from it but with luck it stops being a one-size-fits-all avenue to pulling a crowd, because not everyone is built for it and the impact on mental health it can have is very real. It’s hard to escape the constant comparison to your peers at the best of times and so when it becomes so metric driven it only exacerbates those anxieties, of course in my opinion and experience. In short, I’d like more money please. Thank you.
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians trying to make it in the industry? Are there any particular tips or strategies you’ve found to be particularly effective in building a career as an electronic musician?
A lesson I learned probably too late is to just be active in the music community. There are so many positives to it. No matter how large the industry might seem, here or abroad, there is so much overlap that a path to where you’d like to be and/or who you’d like to be with exists in many forms. So reach out to people you admire, ask the questions even if they make you uncomfortable, because worst case scenario you get a ‘no’ back and you can get on with your life. Persist with everything. If you don’t get an answer at all, keep asking. Musicians/creatives and managers are as flaky as anyone so sometimes they need a figurative prod. A literal prod is something I would avoid, I’m not sure that would have any positive result. Important to note I’m still learning, I still feel very lost a lot of the time. It’s probably about overcoming the relentless doubt most of the time – if you can clock that, then good things lie ahead.
What’s next for FRACTURES?
More music, more features, more collabs, more UK, less money. I’ve got half an album done so I’d love to wrap it and get it out to the world sooner than later. About time I had my moment in the sun I think. Again figuratively, as I am very pale.
Thanks for having me
