FRACTURES is content in his own company.

1. EPIII feels like a truly cohesive and realised body of work. When discussing it recently, you highlighted the influence of “pop”. Do you think the pop element played a major role in this cohesiveness or do you attribute this to your continual development as a songwriter and producer?

The cohesiveness might well be a case of luck more than anything. The songs were all written without the other in mind, I guess it just so happens that my tastes for sounds were all coming from the same place at that point in time so it all wrapped itself up in a nice little bow without me having to think much about it. 

The pop element probably stems most obviously from the song structures more than anything - I adhered to that pretty rigorously, the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-choruse thing. Keeps it nice and neat and I’ve probably largely stuck to writing that way for the majority of my songs in general, it’s more the sounds and styles within that structure that have shifted and will continue to do so I imagine.

2. While we’re on the topic of pop and considering it is such an intrinsic element to this release, did the pop direction originate from any artists, producers or records of note? For instance, were there any reference tracks or records that persisted throughout the development of this EP?

Undoubtedly there was indirect influence of these songs but I can’t for the life of me remember who they are and what they influenced. There were pretty significant gaps in time between most of the songs creation, as well as between the beginning and completion of them being written, so I’m sure the scene had changed considerably enough between each tune that the influence was pretty varied at any given point on time. 

Overall, I don’t listen to a great deal of music, at length anyway, so if anything there would be a LOT of referencing happening for sounds and production styles if the situation called for it, but I’m always wary of lifting a sound entirely so didn’t want to be overly reliant on the work of others. 

It’s a boring answer but it’s the truth damn it.

3. In the past you have tended to steer clear from having guest vocalists and features throughout your own releases, however, you have featured or co-produced with other artists in the past (Lane 8, Katz, Essie Holt etc). So why the shift on EPIII and how did the collaborations with ROZES and Montgomery come to be?

It is true, I am a solitary gentleman. Content in my own company. It’s all true. 

I wouldn’t say it was a concerted push to include others on this release, it just so happened that I ended up with a batch of songs that seemed cohesive enough that I happened to have written with other people for a change. Admittedly I haven’t co-written a bunch of songs overall, so perhaps it was FATE. Or not.

I’d written many songs with my old pal Will Luby over the years and they were just gathering dust without a real home - we’d never really figured out what we had planned for them so they just kind of sat there.

It didn’t make total sense to me, for no particular reason, to release them yet but then after the release of my last EP, I was ready for a change up stylistically and those songs were there(Feel, Addiction and Give Me Love), they were strong, so they just needed a new lick of audio paint to make them a bit more suited to these modern times we live in. 

The Montgomery collaboration was one of those very contrived management setup writing sessions - we were both willing participants mind you - where a few emails are exchanged without the ‘talent’ really having said much to each other prior. Phoebe came around, we got along and I had very bare bones of an idea that we fleshed out together and more or less had the final product by the end of the day. So that was just one of those nice moments where it all came together.

The ROZES collab was a very similar affair in the sense that it was all setup by mutual management and labels, etc. Not the most organic experience but that’s the ‘biz’ for you. 

I’d had ‘Chains’ sitting around for about 5 years or so, always knowing it had strong hooks but just needed the right musical bed so eventually I finished it and was fully poised to release it as my own song until the prospect of maybe turning it into a duet was raised, which I was in favour of.

So we sent it off, ROZES did her thing, then a bit of back and forth and we had a song.

It was all very business like and admittedly not the wholesome ideal of collaboration I typically strive for but we got the result so hey. Fuck it.

4. Can we expect feature vocalists and co-writing to become a prominent part of your future releases? Further, can we expect music in a similar sonic space to EPIII or are you going to keep us guessing as you have in the past?

I’ve definitely starting making an effort to get into rooms with other people, or at least let them influence my songs a bit more than I have in the past, so if nothing else there might be more hands involved in the delicious musical pies I create. Having said that, I very much like my own company(I’m funny and nice) so that’ll always be a constant and I’d hate to force it. 

Sonically, the electronic elements will remain in what’s to come, if anything they’ll be heightened. 

More of a dance feel to what’s coming next, you might say, and in fact I am saying. A few bangers in the works for your festival druggo crowds. Some chill numbers. It’s a mixed bag but even beyond that I’ve got a whole different bundle of songs that are totally disparate to that so it really just depends on how far forward you’re looking. 

I’m always open to singing on tracks too so long as they’re worth singing atop of so yeah, with luck more of that. I’d like to fill the airwaves again if they’ll have me.

5.  The obligatory “what’s next” question must be asked. Going by your discography, you appear to be a songwriter who is constantly working toward something new, is this a fair assumption? What should we expect from you in the near future, potentially a sophomore LP?

 I feel like I just gave the game away but yeah - there is always something in the works. By the time you go through the rigmarole of getting a song out, let alone an EP, there’s a lot of downtime from my point of view between me actually completing it and it being released to the world, so I fill it with writing.

As a result, I’ve got roughly what I think will make up another LP, or at least a very extended EP. My intention is definitely not to have to wait too long between releases - I don’t enjoy the waiting so the sooner the better but I’ll make sure EP III has enough time to shine on its own merit and then I will strike again. I’ve got several of the songs mixed already so fair to say you’ll hear something more this year. 

Stream EP |||: out now – http://fractures.lnk.to/EPIII