INTERVIEW W// DRUMS OF DEATH

So I had the chance to shoot over a few questions to Drums of Death, and took advantage. You can read my previous post on DOD here, and download a truly insane disco track by the voodoo hoody after the interview. 

1. So you've made some pretty sick techno music, but I was reading that you were originally in metal bands when growing up in Scotland. When did you first decide to start making electronic music?

I was always interested in electronic music of some type or another but it all goes back to my childhood. I remember the strange, almost alien sounds in government warning adverts and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop work in old TV repeats of 1970's Doctor Who episodes. Those strange tones and textures mixed with my immediate excitement for 80s pop like Tears For Fears and Michael Jackson started me off. However, my teenage years and need for screaming noise propelled me into grunge and metal bands and so . It finally took a friend taking me to raves that changed the course of my life.

2. What is your favorite part about making music? 
The finishing..? I love the playing piano part at the start, the ideas stage.... swirling possibilities and the potential for anything... and I also love the feeling of finishing a piece of music but almost everything in between is slightly irritating. I dearly want the sounds and music in my head to be realised faster than they currently do so there's a constant feeling of annoyance with myself and the whole process. I'm trying to work through such self-involved, narcissistic attitudes by occasionally leaving my apartment and seeing friends.

3. What people or bands ultimately inspired you to make music your career?

For my sound, no. I try to make a broad type of music. This is, however, definitely pop music. My pop music. There's particular artists that have in their own way inspired me and at various times of my life really altered my idea of music-making. These range from DJ Pierre & Green Velvet, Tom Waits, Michael Jackson (and Quincy Jones), Captain Beefheart, Radiohead, Betty Davis, Chilly Gonzales and Peaches.

4. What groups do you currently enjoy?
Starkey from Philadelphia, Debruit and Fulgeance from Paris. Two guys who make crazy sick hiphop. TV On The Radio, Queens Of The Stone Age. Joe played me 2 new Hot Chip songs... One of them is totally awesome.

5. What song that you've made best describes you as an artist?
Voodoo Lovers hits the broken Bacharach running through my veins, it's what I finish all my shows with.... but Work Yr Neck is the party alarm call at full volume. Both are equal sides to my music. As you will hear on my album. Love songs and rave horns.

6. What is the latest tune that has made you tap your feet?
My remix for Mondo Diao - Trance hiphop. They're a band from Sweden and I've been playing the instrumental of my remix for them in these USA tour shows... massive reaction. On the tour bus I've been listening to old Tool, BBC Radio spoken word theatre and new Animal Collective and Health.

7. What was the greatest live experience you ever had?
My debut live show at Glastonbury with Greco-Roman last year or Chigago on this USA tour with Peaches just last week. All I can remember is flashes, snapshots of some moments... I just remember after the show all the people screaming, I felt utterly ruined and couldnt give anymore and the atmosphere... I've never felt anything like it, not even close. I feel with these shows I'm getting closer to the live performances I want everytime. Raw and honest, punkrock energy and love song raves.

8. What are your plans for your debut album?
Generation Hexed is pop music from your new favourite voodoo hoodlum and will be released on Greco-Roman in September 2009. It was at first to feature lots of my friends...other artists and musicians. But through the writing process it became alot more personal. There's string quartets on it, there's crunchy 8-bit rave freakouts, ballads and breakdowns.

9. Other than that, what's next?
Travelling the world... Drums Of Death is eager to start work on his second album and the birth of the live band is near. Returning to the States in Winter then to Australia for Big Day Out with Peaches, Japan, Mars... Saturn. Onwards and inwards, downwards and under...

DRUMS OF DEATHDODFUCKSUPANESCORTTUNE