We have written about Ben Butler & Mousepad on this blog before. Numerous times. So we though it wise to send him one of our ten question interviews. And here it is:
Where are you right now and how is it?
I'm in CEM studios, at WORM in rotterdam, its a vintage audio lab, with tons of modular synths and other fun stuff. It's great, very hot inside though.
How did you come up with your name?
I'm pretty sure 'Ben Butler & Mousepad' came to me in a dream, with some vague details of how the music would sound and a sort of character I guess. This is always handy, as it stops you worrying about finding something good, subconscious does it for you!
What are BB&MP's biggest musical influences?
I would say the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto over the years, from YMO to later piano stuff. Finding out about 'Synergy' (aka Larry Fast) was kind of revelatory - he was a session guy who did keyboards for Genesis and the like in the 70's and 80's. Eno's done a lot of good stuff, right? Who else - James Pants, skweee, Bernie Worrell / George Duke, Weather Report, Max Tundra....
Have you got any releases lined up for the near future?
We've got a 7" thats just come out on Oslo's DODPOP records, check that out. Next is an e.p on LOAF, followed by an album on LOAF. I've got some other stuff that I'm not sure whats happening with yet. We just recorded 4 songs in this studio this week too.
What is your current studio set-up?
Well, right now in this studio - gigantic vintage Tascam desk, Arp 2500 + sequencer, Arp 2600, Korg ms20, VCS3 Putney, Serge modular, Concussor percussion synth and tons of weird old radiophonic filters and octave dividers.
at home, its usually just a macbook, yamaha cs01 monosynth, midi controllers, EHX vocoder and an EHX microsynth.
Done any exciting gigs lately?
I'm just about to play a show for tons of kids in a paddling pool, surrounded by inflatable junk.
Got any coming up (marriage not included)?
Wedding Dress (Berlin) on July 10th, then Shade Inc (Berlin) on July 14th, then a break. Not so many gigs on the horizon right now as we're mostly working on our album and I'm moving back to Scotland.
Any aspects of German culture you could happily live without?
I tell you what I would like to see - a decent curry! German curry is bland, unspicy and full of ghee, which i can't eat, as i'm vegan. They also hate coriander. What a bad combination!
Who would you like to see win the World Cup? And what about Wimbeldon?
I'd like to see the tennis players who played the infinite tennis match win the World Cup. And Holland win Wimbledon.
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