With so much new music floating around the interwebs, sometimes it’s hard to dig a little deeper and find out more about a promising artist.
That’s why The Profile is breaking it down for you. The Pitch takes care of the nitty gritty factual bits, The Plot serves as a Q & A with the artist, and The Plug is where you can go for more.
The Pitch
Super Magic Hats is a Melbourne-based musician, beatmaker and producer whose work embraces melody, noise and experimentation. As an accomplished guitarist and bass player, live instrumentation makes its way into many Super Magic Hats tracks, while a love of the unusual leads to a range of electronic gadgets featuring prominently.
Super Magic Hats also loves experimenting with a wide range of samples, including chopped up vocals, field recordings of streetscapes and everything in between. This sound is underpinned by his interest in production trickery and effects, which washes intricate edits, delicately placed details and other sonic mutations with layers of reverb and delay.
The Plot
Hometown: “I was born on the Isle of Man, a tiny island between England and Ireland, and there’s not a lot to do there apart from forming bands or get drunk. After living in the north of England for a bit, I ended up in London, which is where I was introduced to clubbing and got into DJing and producing electronic music.
London is very intense and chaotic, and a lot of people don’t really like that, but I loved the energy of the place. I was playing in bands for a lot of this time but started to find making music on my own less of a headache, mainly because drummers. Melbourne has been home for the last few years, and I like it here. It’s pretty chill compared to London but I find it inspirational in different ways.”
Influences: “I find places really inspirational, so travelling, seeing new places and finding new things in familiar places are things that get me going. Of all the places I have been to, Japan has had the most profound influence. I use a lot of field recordings taken in Japan in my music too – so many things there sound crazy, from the little tunes that play to indicate which station your train is at to the sonic onslaught of a Pachinko parlour.
Musically, I am influenced by people like Four Tet, Gold Panda, Super Furry Animals and James Holden, who all approach music in interesting ways, as well as making music that I love. There’s a wave of amazing producers coming through at the moment, both here and overseas, guys and girls who are continually raising the bar and making great music. Right now I am really into a Korean producer called Yukari, her music is amazing”
First Song You Ever Wrote: “Ah, this is embarrassing. It was a remake of a Sisters of Mercy track with lots of samples played backwards, additional PortaSound keyboards, and me singing. Put it down to one of youth’s awkward phases, learn from it, move on.”
Favourite Local Act: “There are so many great acts from Melbourne, it’s hard to pick one! I think Brightly are a great band, and I have been enjoying the new cuts from Sui Zhen, Oscar Key Sung and JP Klipspringer (who I have just finished a remix for), as well as having a lot of love for friendships and Japanese Wallpaper.”
Favourite Local Venue: “My favourites are the Workers Club and the Northcote Social Club.”
Dream Collaborations: “Gold Panda or Cuushe – two of my absolute favourite artists and two people who I would be happy to just sit and watch work.”
Dream Rider: “An epic cheese board and a couple of Negronis would be really welcome.”
Best gig you’ve ever been to: “I have seen Holy Fuck a few times and they always put on a fantastic show, but I finally got to see Gold Panda play at the Corner in March, after missing his last couple of tours. It was every bit as good as I had hoped it would be, the performance he puts on is so energetic and captivating.”
Venue Or Festival you’d love to play: “Meredith or Golden Plains because the vibe is spot on, Fuji Rock because it’s on Mount Fuji, Sonar because it’s just epic. As for venues… probably Womb in Tokyo. That place looks unreal.”
The Plug
Super Magic Hats’ new single ‘More Than Words’ is out now digitally and on and limited edition clear vinyl. His second EP, Kumori, will be out later this year. To keep up to date you can follow Super Magic Hats on Facebook.
