Category: Releases

TCTD has interviewed some pretty amazing people in the past and today we continue that tradition with one of the true titans of Chip Music. Prodigy of Malcom Mclaren, licking the ankles of Crystal Castles and stepping on the groin of Timbaland, Ladies and Gentlemen, hot off his tour of the Asian Sub Continent and his release of his sprawling masterpiece “MKE or BRK”

We give you, Ten Thousand Free Men and Their Families.

LB: Who are your influences?

10k: Well David, my number one influence was, is and ever more shall be, Malcolm McLaren. He is the master of exploiting underground sounds. After reading the article that he wrote for Wired, I started making chipmusic. The way he presented the chipmusic ideal in that masterful piece set my sights on Game Boy music and I simply could not turn back. He was the reason that I got in on the ground floor of the sound – he was there right at the beginning, really on the money, like he always has been and I was mere seconds behind him. I was really keen to be a hacker, a bender, a softpunker and a buffalo pirate and to use illegal software, because that is the way to be truly punk. I mean, what is more punk than using ripped software on a janked up consumer toy to create music? I have an answer for you: doing exactly that, then screaming your lungs out over the top of it. I think Malcolm would be proud of me, I stepped up his game to the next level. In the scene, I am really liking some of the tracks TV Death Squad had up on his myspace a while back – I hear he is killer live, too.

LB: Were you really kicking yourself when you realised you had spelled “friends” wrong on the song title?

10k: Mate! Are you suggesting I spelt it wrong? We do things different here Down Under and I guess this is one of those things we do differently. If I spelt it the ‘correct’ way, it would have really have increased the length of the EP drastically and that is something that obviously could not happen. Anything more than eight minutes is not punk enough. Next question.

LB: You mentioned you’re from Australia, what is the scene like down there?

10k: I find it really hard here sometimes, not having anyone else in the scene. I’d like to think that me putting myself out like I have will encourage others to get into it all. Maybe people down here should start some blogs, put on some regular chip parties, maybe even develop some ways of creatively interfacing with consoles? Who knows? Out of my hands. (more…)