Lone : Download|Interview by Tom Scott

As fans of his previous outfit Kids In Tracksuits, we’ve been following Lone’s work for a little while now. With the release of his new album ‘Ecstasy & Friends’ we took the opportunity to talk to the man himself Matt Cutler.

B&F: To start off, tell us where you come from, where you’ve been and where you’re at now.

Lone: I’m originally from a real small town on the outskirts of Nottingham. I moved to the city about 6 months ago.

B&F: For the person listening to your music for the first time, what’s the lasting impression you’d like them to take away?

Lone: Hopefully a melody would get stuck in their heads, like when you hear a good pop song. It would be nice to imagine someone humming one of my tunes and thinking to themselves “where the hell did that come from?” Hopefully not in an annoying way, but I like the idea of planting hooks in people’s heads without them realising where it came from.

B&F: You’ve got a new album about to release, what can you tell us about the development of your sound since Lemurian?

Lone: More structered and drawn out this time I think. Lemurian was all about little snap shots to soundtrack imaginary places. That’s why the songs are all so short on that one. This time I guess the tracks are more leaning towards proper ‘songs’. Also the inspiration is from real people and real places this time.

B&F: Do you follow a typical procedure when making music? Is it a planned process, or do you only get down to it when the moment’s right?

Lone: I think I’m getting better at preparing myself these days, as in, I rely less on good accidents happening. I can pretty much make whatever comes into my head now and most of the time it sounds pretty close. Having said that, it changes all the time. Some of the best tracks come about when I’m just jamming around and some wicked accident happens that creates ideas, like a snowball effect. I love it when that happens actually, way more fun.

B&F: The cover art for Ecstasy & Friends is very different to Lemurian. Can you talk us through the changes?

Lone: This one was designed by Davin Gormley who handles all the artwork for Werk Discs, I think he summed up what I was trying to do with the music perfectly. There was no intention to make it totally diffrent or anything, we just went on instinct I guess. I’d like all my sleeves to be completely different every time though.

B&F: Do you think you are nostalgic in your tastes and interests?

Lone: Yeah I’m totally nostalgic, to the point where I think it’s slightly unhealthy. I spend way too much time looking back and not enough looking forward. That always comes out in my music. I guess I’m obsessed with holding on to memories which are fading away. It’s quite sad really, that beautiful memories from childhood are slipping away as we get older. Making music is a good way for me to hold on to those things I guess.

B&F: Do you view Lone as your chance to make the sort of music that you couldn’t with Kids In Tracksuits, or does one feed into the other?

Lone: That never entered my head to be honest. I was making Lone stuff years before K.I.T. so this was always there in the background. Doing the K.I.T. stuff sounded the way it did because there were two of us – with Lone I get to dictate exactly how it sounds because it’s just me. That’s the only way I can explain the difference in style really.

B&F: Where did your interest in music production begin?

Lone: Listening to bootleg rave tapes and the altern8 album. I could tell that stuff wasn’t created by live instruments or anything and was fascinated by what exactly it was made with. As I grew up, I started to find out how it was all done. I’m the sort of person that when i get interested in something I want to make my own version of it, so I think I was probably always going to end up doing this.

B&F: How’s the music scene in Nottingham? Does the City play a part in the music you make?

Lone: The music scene is wicked at the moment to be honest, there seems to be more and more producers coming up and parties which are a lot of fun. The beauty of it is it’s a small city so all the producers, DJs and promoters know each other which I think is totally healthy. The actual city itself doesn’t have an effect on my music – its more the people and the atmosphere.

B&F: Name an album or artist you like that people wouldn’t expect you to be into?

Lone: That’s a bit of a tough one because my music’s pretty strange at times so I guess people wouldn’t be too suprised to hear I’m into all sorts of shit. Last year there were two pretty commercial albums that I liked a lot. I kinda suprised myself with getting into them actually. The Horrors album I thought was wicked, Geoff Barrow’s production was nuts. I also liked the Friendly Fires record – genuinely good pop music on that one I thought.

B&F: What do you get up to when not involved in Lone projects?

Lone: The usual stuff really, hanging with my girlfriend and my mates, going out and talking shit. Talking shit is a big one for us actually – I think it’s healthy. We’re pretty much constantly trying to make each other piss laughing, almost like a competition. It gets pretty surreal at times too. To be honest though I’m pretty much thinking about tunes the whole time, so in a way, the Lone project is ALL I do. Ha!

B&F: Where can we see you playing live in the next few months?

Lone: I think there’s a Werk Discs night happening in London soon, but I cant really go into that right now. Other than that, I’ll be DJing in Nottingham quite a bit then doing a load of live shows for festivals in Summer. Check the Myspace for details.

Ecstacy & Friends is out now on Werk Discs and is available from Cargo, Boomkat and Chemical amongst others.

As an added bonus, Lone has provided [Back and Forth] with this exclusive free download of an unreleased track.

Lone : Douche