If you look at the world objectively, there is inspiration everywhere you turn – especially in nature and the natural form, according to U.K. underground electronica hero Max Cooper.
If you look at the world objectively, there is inspiration everywhere you turn – especially in nature and the natural form, according to U.K. underground electronica hero Max Cooper. One-time professional geneticist, he’s left his day job behind him, but science has left its impact on his music and still makes its way into the studio every now and then, as Cooper reveals.
“I also find it helpful to take in modern art and listen to music, of course. I’ve always been fascinated with perpetual illusions, symmetry, geometry, dimensionality, the interaction of disorder with order, and all these sorts of things which seem to underlie both the arts and sciences. They are everywhere around us in the real world when you look for them. When I look at things like that then it’s easy to be in awe and then I’ll try to translate some of that feeling into my music. Or sometimes I’ll just write a club banger!”
And the formula seems to work, too. After his 2009 underground smash and breakthrough track Harmonish Serie, Cooper went on to release his tunes on over 20 different labels, including the likes of Traum, Pec Trax and Autist, all the while still holding down two of his earliest residencies at Firefly and Stealth. Initially influenced by DJ Craze and Q-bert, Cooper’s first sets were as a turntablist, though he’s since moved to producing his own tracks over the last five years.
“It takes me longer than most to write each track,” he confesses. “And there are a lot of people that release much more frequently than I do. But I’ve been working hard on productions for the last few years, so I’ve managed a reasonable steady flow. I would like to cut back so I can spend more time experimenting and developing each track, but it’s always a balance these days, as you have to maintain a regular flow of releases, at least at the start, in order to build a profile. When I’m playing live, I don’t ever decide on a setlist or style before a gig. I have all my music, more than 100 tracks, in my live set, which I play partially like a DJ set, whereby I’m trying to build a set and progression that I think is most appropriate for the event. So sometimes I’ll go really deep and melodic, sometimes more electronica and glitchy, or sometimes I’ll just bang the shit out of it until peoples ears bleed.”
Which is exactly what we’re in for when Cooper makes him way down-under. And while others complain about the distance and time it takes to get to Australia, especially from Europe, Cooper claims his new-found interest in traveling and discovering new environments and attitudes means that he’s got the best job in the world.
“Generally I am interested in everything that has some depth to it,” he states. “My prominent interest of recent is to do with all the traveling I am doing. I’m been interested in comparing the lifestyles, attitudes, politics, media and customs of different parts of the world – it’s really interesting how people’s mindsets are influenced by their surroundings. In some places it’s scary the crap that people get indoctrinated with, but I guess the internet is starting to break that down as we can see. Some of my favourite places to visit so far have been Tel Aviv, Moscow, Paris, Porto and Amsterdam. London will always be a favourite place to play, though, because then I can have a night out with my friends. That’s not to say it’s the best place for gig in the world, though, that is more dependent on events than cities. There are good and bad parties in every city.”
Max Cooper [UK] plays Red Sky with Vibrasphere [SWE] at Brown Alley on Friday April 8.
