Today sees the long awaited release of Midland’s ElectroPop heroes Futurecop!’s new EP.
In true Futurecop! style the EP is titled ‘The Adventures Of Starpony’ and the cover references just about every anime archetype there is. Inside is six tracks, some new, some reworkings (the Futurecop! way) of tracks you’ll already know and MPM’s winning entry in the Starworshipper reMix competition. Futurecop! truly are are the forefront of the current ElectroPop scene, their music is clean, crisp and instantly nostalgic in a way no-one has really been able to emulate.
To celebrate the release of the new EP the guys took some time to chat with us about where they come from, what they do, to clear up some misconceptions and to talk cartoons.
Read on for words from the wizards.
ER: So where did Futurecop! come from? How did you guys get into making music and get together?
F: We met at university, we were both very different I into punk rock and Pete was more the clubbing type. But our obsession for the 80s made us best friends. We’ve always been in music; Pete was a DJ and I was in an punk band. Futurecop! started after university and looking back I think Futurecop! stemmed from us trying to escape the real world, so we setup a website with ‘80’s artwork and decided to recreate the ‘80’s sounds of our childhood movies, cartoons. Few blogs picked it up randomly, and we started getting shows all over the world, it was happening really fast, we never intentionally made it for anyone but ourselves, so it was amazing how people liked us all the way in Australia or USA. We had no knowledge of music production or the industry, we created tracks by just messing around, I remember a producer (Mylo’s co-producer) once looked at our files and was amazed in the unconventional way we made songs. It was fun though, as we were just kids making sounds in our rooms then suddenly being flown all around the world. Its only after our huge 2009 USA tour we realised there’s something special we got here, not just sounds.
♫ Futurecop! (Feat. Keenhouse) – The Only Way
ER: And how would you like your music described?
F: It’s definitely Pop music, inspired musically and visually through our childhood ‘80’s cartoons and movies and our love from Sci-Fi. I saw a blog once referring to as retro, cute, poppy, heartfelt, space music; which is spot on.
I think a lot of people didn’t know where to put us at the beginning, Dance or Indie. I think when a new sound comes out people just panic and get worried so they start making sub genres of music which doesn’t make sense, once someone called us Fantasy Disco. When I started I thought Disco was ‘70’s john Travolta stuff, haha. Our music isn’t about whether it contains Rap, Dance, Rock – it’s more about a uplifting nostalgic feeling. Just like the cartoons we watched when we were kids.
♫ Futurecop! (Feat. My Tiger My Timing) – Far Away
ER: Who are your heroes and influences, both musical and otherwise?
F: Overall the influences for Futurecop! stem from the ‘80’s as we were born in this decade, but I think everyone’s childhood whether in the ‘70’s or ‘90’s is a big influence because of its cute, innocence, fun, heartfelt nature.
For Futurecop! I think our biggest influence is Stan Bush haha! from his soundtrack to the ‘80’s TransFormers movie. Then there are other ‘80’s soundtrack artists like, Van Halen, Kenny Loggins (‘Meet Me Half Way’ from Over The Top), Rock ballads and countless more eighties soundtrack music.
However personally we both like all different genres of music, whether it’s Passion Pit, Sigur Rós to Phil Collins, Goo Goo Dolls or even Taylor Swift! Growing up though I came from a more Punk Rock background, e.g Funeral For A Friend (massive fan) Enter Shikari, Deftones. While Pete’s always been into Dance and Hip Hop music, he introduced me to artists who bought Indie and Electro together like Mylo, Cut Copy, Daft Punk and Justice. Daft Punk and Justice influenced us a lot, especially for me as I used to see people that were into Dance/Techno like the popular type kids which was never my thing, but these artists mixed the genre into a more Pop sound, which was really cool.
ER: What band do you see as your contemporaries, do you feel like part of any scene?
F: We like to see ourselves as different (I guess all artists do) but there’s loads of bands, with similar vibes that are creating the same type of music like Fiero, Black Cards, GRVRBBRS, Renegade, Chromeo, Robots with Rayguns, Family Force 5. The synth ‘80’s vibe is the future for Electro music. There’s so much Dance music on the radio but the problem is they are all sound the same, even commercial acts are trying to sell out using House/Electro music, this usually happens when a scene is just about to end and lose credibility. There needs to be something new to the Electro scene.
♫ Futurecop! (Feat. Jane Hanley) – Street Hawk
ER: Where do you find your collaborators, both for your music and your artwork?
F: Friends we have met though touring or Facebook and MySpace. We make sure the people we choose feel and understand the overall purpose of Futurecop!, it’s very important the artist feels what we are doing for individual tracks. Some of the new tracks we made have taken from only few weeks to more than a year to create.
ER: If the TransFormers had crashed not on earth but on Third Earth, would The ThunderCats have been able to kick Megatron’s ass?
F: Yeah !! I think Mum-Ra would unite with the ThunderCats and kick ass!
ER: If you could have written the soundtrack to any movie, what would it be?
F: TransFormers (1986 movie) / Flight Of The Navigator.
♫ Futurecop! (Feat. Renagade) – Afterburner
ER: With your amazing début album ‘It’s Forever, Kids’ already available in Japan (http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=CSMC-3) when do you think we are likely to see a domestic release?
F: I think a lot of people got confused about this release. This was a Japan only album release, the label found us a year ago and wanted to release an album, so we decided to create an album with a Japanese touch, which meant researching Japanese pop culture now and in the ‘80’s therefore watching immense collections if Anime, which was a great project!.
But on Tuesday we will be releasing our second EP: ‘The Adventures Of Starpony’. We are very excited about it and we have lots of cool reMixes, Tees and even a music video to come out soon!
ER: Would Futurecop! be able to blow Jem & The Holograms off stage?
F: No way dude! Jem would totally win, we haven’t got a chance!
ER: So, what’s in Futurecop!’s studio studio? Do you have any favourite synths/drum machines?
F: Linn Lindrum LM2 and Juno 60 is our favourite.
ER: And what makes up your live rig?, How does playing live work for you?
F: There are 2 types of shows we do depending on the promoter’s requirements. As its Electro and Indie we end up with Dance promoters asking us to play clubs, here we play what we call ‘Synth House’ ,we basically choose very uplifting, retro sounding, big build up House music, and then we have Indie promoters wanting us to play a stage. The DJ style consists if us 2, where we mix our tracks and play synths/samples over it, the live show consists of drummer, lots of synths, guitars and singers.
ER: If money was no object, what synth would you go after?
F: The cosmic key from the Masters Of The Universe movie, hah.
♫ Futurecop! (Feat. Captain Capa) – Is It A Crime?
ER: Are Futurecop! a cereal or fry-up for breakfast kinda’ act? Would that change the morning after a gig?
F: Cereal; Special K for Pete and Crunchy Nut Clusters with chocolate bits for me, f**kin love that sh*t!
ER: If you could support and band in history who would it be?
F: Manzur: Weezer, Peter: Daft Punk.
♫ Futurecop! – Starworshipper (MPM reMix)
Many thanks to Manzur and Pete for taking the time to chat with us.
The tracks featured here are from Futurecop!’s new ‘’The Adventures Of Starpony’ EP, which is out today!
Buy Futurecop!’s music from:
electronic rumors 