Fwonk* Monday

So it's official, Ketamine will obliterate your bladder, leaving you peeing into a bag for the rest of your whiffy, sloshy life.

For those of you who don't fancy rubber pants as a life-choice, there's a new, safe alternative. It provides an equally potent trip, mashing and mangling your mind but thankfully it is free from unpleasant side effects such as organ failure.

I'm speaking, of course, about the music of 2ndMOUSE, an artistic purveyor of warm, fuzzy, occasionally frightening psychedelic experiences in handy, easy to swallow MP3 format.

His music is melodic, electronic, strong in the groove department yet prone to industrial bursts and unexpected glitched-out twists. It summons images of terminators chasing sweaty, wide-eyed ravers through unconvincing 1980s Hollywood versions of night clubs. Well, it does for me anyway.

Now celebrating his second release on Fwonk*, we thought it was high time to catch up with 2ndMOUSE for a chat.



How would you describe the your music?

Experimental electronica / idm.

Which of your Fwonk releases are you happiest with and why?

Levite, because its the most recent, and is a better representation of what I'm hearing in my head. As my knowledge of production grows, the picture is able to be realised much more clearly, so I always prefer my most recent material.

When and where do you make music?

I make music constantly 'cos I'm surrounded by sound all day and always thinking of ways to assemble it differently. If I'm on a train, I listen to the rhythm of the carriage on the tracks. When I hear people talking, I'm thinking of ideas. My mind never stops.

What inspires you?

what inspires me is sound itself. I like to disassemble it, and find new ways of putting it back together again. I'm inspired by rhythm and always put as much thought into the rhythm of a melody, as I put into the actual notes themselves. Sound is as much to do with rhythm as it is intonation.

How does your creative process work?

My creative process just involves auditioning sounds until a particular nuance catches my ear, then I audition more sounds until I find something to complement the original.

Generally, I find that there is almost a DNA in a sound that determines how that sound should be used, almost like I hear the whole track inside the nucleus of the very first sound I choose.

What hardware / software / instruments do you use to make music?

The only hardware I have is an M-Audio Fasttrack audio interface , and an M-Audio Oxygen49 keyboard which isn't working properly right now.

Software I use is predominantly freeware VSTs. I like finding new little machines that mess with buffers and screw things up in satisfying ways.

Who are your favourite bands / producers / DJs?

I'm inspired by many bands, not all of them electronic. Plaid , Boards of Canada, Vesna, Plone, Luke Slater, Luke Vibert would be a few that I'd consider to be awesome.

I try not to copy what they do, but sometimes its inevitable and you can't escape.

Whereabouts in the world do you come from? And is that where you live now?

I come from Northern Ireland , near Belfast.

What's your favourite noise?

Favourite noise would be those planes you always hear in summer when the nights are getting brighter. It just says "summer".

What's your least favourite noise?

Scratching fingernails on a blackboard.


Download 2ndMOUSE's 'Levite' here and his first Fwonk* release 'Full Of Earth And Stars' here.