Introducing :: Gold Panda

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With the likes of The Bug making bedroom, lo-fi, self-produced music cool again (I’m looking at you Daniel Beddingfield, for ruining the prospects of thousands) Gold Panda has immerged as a perveyor of quality low-tech techno. Now, that might be doing him a dis-service, but playing the forthcoming EP Back Home (released via Various Production’s label) it grab me by the throat more instantly than The Field’s latest. And, with this EP, it’s The Field that it most resembles. Its clipped, crackling beats and repetitive electronica breathes life into your head – it’s an organic blend of electronica that has a human heart to its processed exterior.

In an attempt to find out a bit more about the creative juices of the man behind Gold Panda, we fired off some questions to find that he’s obsessed by VHS tapes, twitter and he’s scarred by working in a hospital car park…

For people out there that have never heard of you. Give us three reasons why they should…
1.They might like my music
2.They might not like my music.
3. see 1 and 2 again.

Can you recall the moment when you first decided you wanted to become a musician?
It was a gradual thing. Music was always there but it wasn’t until recently that I started realizing how important it is to me to make music, probably when my friend passed away. It is kind of cathartic. The actual process of building tracks with samplers and stuff. Sampling records, drinking tea, making sounds. I read somewhere once that the finished product should be more important than the process, I disagree, both as an artist and as a listener.

Where do your songs come from? What’s your inspiration?
Sometimes I’ll find a nice sample and loop it or make a nice sound and build everything around that. Dreams play a big part I guess, trying to make something sound like an image you remember from a dream.

Name your Top 5 records.
I just can’t. 5? No way. A Michael Jackson album. Err, Oh I don’t know, can I pass on this one? It changes every day anyway.

What was the first gig you ever played and was it a success?
I think it was as “NoGutsKik” with my friends. It was in Borough, London with Si-begg, Tubejerk and Subhead. I triggered a sampler and I think my friend played some synth, maybe we used an Atari or an imac, ah, was it an Amiga? Anyway, yeah, Si Begg said he liked it and the crowd were dancing so I guess it was a success. It was kind of funny because we were also mc’ing over the top saying stuff like “phowar look at those tits!”. I think I’d sampled a porno or something too.

What one piece of criticism has stuck in your mind and was it justified?
I wanted to study Japanese so I went to this open day at a University. This one lecturer who looked like he’d been up all night doing lines out of rent boys’ arse cracks gets up and decides to give a speech on what they are looking for in application statements and shit and says “It really isn’t enough to just say that you want to study Japanese because you like the language, you wont get accepted, you really need some other interests in Japan.” You know, you find something you like about something, study it, and through that you find out something new. This guy is pretty much saying “If you want to come here to learn forget it, you need to know it all already, like me, innit, ‘cos I’m a big headed cunt.” Also when I was doing GCSE art all I wanted to do was draw manga characters and the art teacher says to me “That isn’t art.”

What one thing has caused you to waste your free time in the past 6 months?
The internet. Twitter mainly. If I didn’t have the internet I could make 10 times as more music instead of checking my emails every 5 fucking minutes. Then again I always find nice new music software to download. There is so much good freeware stuff now. I spend a lot of time tidying my room, moving stuff around, drinking tea. Looking for vhs tapes on ebay.

If you weren’t making music, what do you think you’d be doing?
Looking for vhs tapes on ebay.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
Maybe it was working in a hospital car park. Shit that was bad. Some poor sod comes in cos his mum is dying, parks without thinking, his mum dies, he comes out to get some fresh air, sees me giving him a ticket and explodes. I just couldnt bring myself to do that job properly, giving people tickets, I felt so bad, plus the parking fee was like “£1.25 for 49 minutes EXACT CHANGE ONLY, so I just sat in the office. I found an old tv, a hoover and a fan. I used to watch citv while putting biscuits through the fan and then hoovering up the crumbs. Oh wait, working at Stansted was pretty bad. I used to have to help people get on buses to ferry them to and from the car park to the terminal. The buses get full cos everyone comes back from Magaluf at once and is mad tired and pissed off and wants to be in their car straight away. You are the first point of contact and they go fucking nuts at you for having to wait 10 minutes for the bus.

We’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
Theme : Jobs
1.”We Don’t Need To Work, We’re In A Trendy London Band” by Rich Dad
2.”Mr. Jobsworth” by MC Militant Traffic Warden
3.”Grande Latte Promotion” by Brown Nose and The Clerks
4.”Reprographics Blow Job (Photoshop Mix)” by The Desktops
5.”Jobcentre Dub” by P45

Gold Panda on Myspace