The Rhythm of Ordinary Things

The UK arguably has one of the most influential cultures when it comes to music. What was it like growing up there as a musician, and how did you figure out it’s what you wanted to do for a living?

I don’t usually consider myself having grown up a musician, but I kind of did musician-like things. Like playing and singing in front of the class in primary school, writing songs etc. At that time I was into Oasis, Michael Jackson and The Police (the only good influence my mum musically gave me!)  and then picking it back up and getting obsessed with making beats and hip hop at the end of secondary school.

Manchester was a big football and brit pop / rock place, Oasis, Take That, Happy Mondays, The Hacienda. When I was a teenager I hated all that stuff, didn’t relate to it at all. So I was playing basketball, listening to Hip Hop, collecting records (which makes you discover a lot of random interesting music) those were sub cultures in Manchester / UK.

But whilst all that was going on I was equally into art and drawing. I was nudged into it a bit because I was a bit of a tear away at school, I didn’t really know what was what, truanted a lot, didn’t really study or know how to study but enjoyed creating stuff visually and writing, looking back at it, just expressing myself. The school I went to wasn’t that great so i’m not sure they knew what to do with me really, same goes for college (16-18 here in the UK), I studied art, english lit and sport science, but really only enjoyed the art and english. I remember writing whole essays in rhyme schemes, which looking back is quite interesting, but that’s not how you get good grades, same for art, i didn’t know how to pass, or work to a criteria or marking scheme.

Anyhow, I went to study fine art at university, I had no other options because I didn't get good grades but got in on the strength of a test piece. I dropped out after 9 months or so, I was pretty confused and troubled mentally at that age. All that time i’d been making hip hop and collecting records, so after dropping out the only think i was into was music. So, i went back to college for a year to study music, then got into University straight after that to study music tech at The University of Huddersfield. Pretty lucky I ended up there. It suited me very well in lots of ways, it was a lot about thinking, philosophy, concepts, contemporary music thinking, basically art  / academic music as much as you wanted it to be. Which i wasn’t even aware of prior but a lot of it really sparked my brain and I loved studying all that stuff. So yeah, that’s how I got into music…

As doing it for a living, i didn’t know anyone doing anything creative for a living growing up so didn’t know those jobs existed, pretty lucky I stumbled on this stuff, then I guess I was okay at it.

For years now, there’s been a resurgence in vinyl, cassette, smaller live venues and so on. In many ways, it feels like an opposite force emerging as an answer to streaming and the massive concert venues we see particularly here in the U.S. What is your relationship to this more analogue and personal side of music these days and what is your favorite way to enjoy music? 

I never like big venues, don’t like big crowds of people, or loud places so i was never really into that scene anyhow, but i definitely think, maybe because of social media and how it creates this simultaneous closeness and distance between us, there’s a barrier, even with a constant connection, it’s like hugging through a pane of glass or something, maybe because of that, we value more intimate things, like smaller venues and going to events or more obviously crafted things. 

I think vinyl can be two fold, it can be a bit of a cynical cash grab rereleasing classic things and charging loads for new releases, but then also, it can be wonderful because you get to hold and use this magical large plastic sound disc. There’s a ritual to it, like reading a book or going to the cinema, the media changes the interaction quite a bit. You feel more, or differently. No? You work harder for it. There’s probably some psychology behind the actual sound too, as it’s not as high fidelity, maybe it’s easier to listen to, or the fact it will certainly feel different to a digital track (generally). Cassette tapes are hilariously bad quality in comparison to what we have now, but noise, warble, clicks etc, they add a story and we like stories. I like reading older used books vs. new ones for that reason I guess.

Saying all that, I pretty much only listen to stuff on Spotify (!!) and podcasts on YouTube. I use them for convenience and I like it trying to throwing me things i might like or find interesting, finding new music is wonderful and it takes way longer to do that in other ways. I used to do that manually in record shops back in the day, get half a dozen things, taking them to the record player in the shop and skipping through, i don’t really have time for that at the moment. Maybe because I like the “analog” process or physical process more when i’m making music, i don’t feel the need to listen to music regularly that way. I still pick up records sometimes, i found a wonderful Charlie Parker record last month with a wonderful cover. Books are a bit like that too, finding an edition with an interesting cover with someone’s writing in the front page that’s 50 years old, it’s just more interesting than a new edition or something on a screen. We make and feel stories about these things i think right?