Boxcutter: Synchronicity and luck

A change is as good as a rest, they say. And Barry Lynn, it would seem, is certainly not afraid of change. An oft-republished press release casts Lynn, known as Boxcutter, as Northern Ireland’s sole dubstep artist. While he clearly enjoys a bit more company today, he was certainly at the forefront of the country’s burgeoning scene – as early releases on Hotflush attest.

Today, Boxcutter is four albums into a remarkably eclectic career that has seen him gradually move away from that now-ubiquitous genre. His latest record, The Dissolve, seems like the culmination of that journey; the point at which he leaves dubstep behind altogether.

The Dissolve, Lynn’s fifth record for Planet Mu, is a rich, psychy collection of tracks that often seems to have more in common with Parliament than with Pinch. We spoke to Boxcutter by email – and got some entertainingly curt responses.

Hi Barry. What are you listening to right now?

A new EP I’m gettng ready for Kinnego. It’s by a Scottish artist called Beaumont. It’s very…emotional.

The Dissolve seems to mark the next step in your gradual move away from dubstep. Would you agree? Did you make a conscious decision to move away from those influences?

It’s assuming you can make a conscious decision to shape your influences. I kind of feel that the music I get most into seems to find me rather than the other way round. It’s always mired in synchronicity and luck. I know people who deliberately expose themselves to lots of a certain sound, so it’ll seep into what they’re doing. I can’t really contrive that though – or at least I can, but rarely get good results.

What’s the scene like in Northern Ireland now?

The scenery is lovely, you should visit.

Cute. I read an interview you gave with AU, in which you said that NME was the only place to read about counter-cultural things while you were growing up. What do you read now?

Interview questions in my email. Record sleeves. Sci-fi (currently Vernor Vinge). Trippy religious pamphlets from the early 1970s. Twitter. “Quality” nodes of online musical discourse. ‘Jazz Theory’ by Mark Levine (thanks to Ed Lawes for the tip). The locally-produced Vacuum newspaper.

Tell us a bit about your live setup. Has it changed much over the years?

I’ve honed in on a “locked groove” loop sampler setup over the last few years for live club sets now, after years of messing around with Audiomulch, Traktor, “live” sequencing in Reason and Cubase, playing guitar / bass / melodica / synths over tracks, all sorts of amateur noise-making… I’m currently planning some live sets with the electric guitar though, something I used to do years ago, building up loops and doing the odd spot of wailing.