A POPular Phenomenom - Micachu

What else has influenced you sonically?

Micachu: There’s so much stuff. Captain Beefheart, Nirvana, good pop and I love dance music.

Can you hear all of that on the album?

Micachu: I hope so. Half of it’s been my production and half of it is with The Shapes.  Which is really interesting because it’s half of it’s like cleanly put together and the other half is live. We’ve been making it in Whitstable in Kent which has been nice.

In Mathew Herbert’s studio?

Micachu: Yeah. He’s been great. He gets it.

Lyrically what inspires you?

Micachu: To be honest with you, simple things.  I try and avoid doing things about love just because I haven’t really had that much heartbreak; it would just be contrived and a little bit boring. ‘Golden Phone’ we found out had a quite interesting resonance though. It was originally about monsters and then we found out that on the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Fransico, there is a golden phone that people who are going to commit suicide can call up.
Marc: So the whole song’s basically about suicide

Not quite as light hearted as monsters. How did your mixtape come about?

Micachu: Oh, I’d done all these tracks with these rappers and I’d also done all these pop songs and I was never going to release the pop stuff so I just gave it all away on the internet. I’m actually doing another one, It’s going to be a bit shorter this time though.

And how about your night, the isle of S & M?

Micachu: That was a bit like and experiment in music. It’s gone a bit under, but we’re bringing it back this year. Basically it’s getting a balance between a respectful audience because the places are quiet and having an unpretentious atmosphere as well.  It’s pretty relaxed, but it’s sort of like you have to be, because it’s quiet and you really have to listen.

Marc: You look at schools in like Newham and they have to sit in concert halls and take stuff in properly, there’s not enough of that now a days, there’ just people everywhere, people don’t just chill out and watch something.

Micachu: Yeah, it’s good when you don’t have those social barriers, people can be lost in their own little world. It would be great if people liked it either way though I guess.