“It’s a beautiful day you’ve just got to look at it the right way”. These are the wise words of a certain Mr Strangelove one particularly blustery in the City. Strangelove by name, Strangelove by nature most definitely applies to this closet techno shamanic hippy. Strangelove arrives with an eclectic collection of hats for his photo-shoot. He first dons his favorite - a stripy Dr Seuss number – and the humorous contradictions begin.
Strangelove is unable to disclose his real name, which he later reveals in secret. Confessing to be a true Essex boy he appears to have been born (but not bred) in Yemen in the Middle East. Working by himself in order to maintain his much admired creative control, he muses in the next breath how he is contemplating collaborations soon. The kind of music he likes to listen to differs wildly from that which he produces. He likes music with a dance psychedelic trance vibe, but claims that has little influence on his own concoctions. Strangelove is a man of mischievous anomalies indeed.
This big poncho bundle of trouble has a penchant for bubble wrap – but the first sound effects he discovered were in a more classic strain. Messing around in his free time at boarding school on pianos and keyboards nurtured his musical ability. The first piece of music he ever liked was the Ghostbusters soundtrack, which only goes to show his immaculate taste. Being in London has exposed him to different forms of music, not only finding many areas to dance to the psychedelic trance he loves, but has expanded his repertoire.
The elusive (but he prefers mysterious) Mr Strangelove enjoys innovation. He hails the new computer power revolution finding analogy with solo electronic music projects to the garage rock scene when everyone played a guitar, but importantly “the beauty of computers is anyone can” – unless you’re technophobic that is. Strangelove’s ultimate Hybrid creation would be a ‘real’ spider-monkey that was half spider half monkey. Once he woke up in a skip – I did say Strangelove by nature right?
His own musical explorations play around with a pastiche of sound-bites keyboard effects and dashes of complete randomness making him pretty unique. In philosophy he likens himself to what group Gorillaz does – fusing an eclectic mix of styles together in boundary breaking ways. Strangelove admires the working ethos of Daniel Bedingfield “he’s one man with a computer, producing stuff in his bedroom, and entirely dedicated to a solo project”. Strangelove’s own music production works in a similar vein, building up a mesh of sounds and fusing music methods. He songs are basically punchy break-beating dance infused pop. Sometimes they take on natural orchestral sounds so it never sits in one genre. Full Metal Racket – his most popular track to date samples the Kubrick film of the same rhyming name – and has too much swearing for us to show it here, but if you’re curious, brave, or looking for a giggle check out the tune on his myspace.
By Miranda Vinall
