A musical timeline

Above: a picture of the new and improved (but yet not finished) Matching Heads studio.

Things have once again been set in motion. No more beating around the bush. Because after all; nine songs does not an album make! The last song I will be recording for this session, just happens to be the title track – A Partial Print – and has turned out to be a real little gem of a song, clocking in at approx. 9 minutes. When finished that is. The road is long, slippery and less traveled for sure. I spent monday and wednesday of last week editing drums for what seemed like for fucking ever. When I made The Loyal some songs were written, recorded and mixed within two days … this time around … not so much. Seems strange to go about things this way … but the end result has so far been extremely satisfactory. And both funky and fresh!

I've come to realize that this album is the most personal and innovative piece of work I've ever extracted from my self. And if my musical upbringing and influences would be made into a perfume, much like the one courtesy of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, it would probably smell like all kinds of shit – but sound just like my new album will. A strange but humble and respectful blend of all the music I've been chewing up and spitting out for the past 15 years or so.

When I was 12 – 13 my gods were Depeche Mode, Front 242, Skinny Puppy, Slowdive, The Cure, Front Line Assembly, Nine Inch Nails, Swervedriver, Ministry & the soundtrack for Judgement Night (a Rap Vs. Rock mile stone).

Between 14 – 17 all things Hardcore & Emo made me tick: Refused, Snapcase, Battery, Split Lip, Sense Field, Sunny Day Real Estate, Ignite, Undertow, Earth Crisis, Copper, Texas Is The Reason, NOFX, Ten Foot Pole, Promise Ring are some of the bands du jour.

From 18 to 19 I fed on predominantly acoustic/folky sad-ass stuff like Gillian Welch, Whiskeytown, Ida, The Secret Stars, Red House Painters, Sophia, Mojave 3, Idaho, Low, Rex, Codeine etc.

20 – 21 where better know as the DJ-Days; hosting a line-up to die for, including: semi-god DJ Shadow, but also DJ Vadim, DJ Krush, DJ Cam and DJ Spooky. Around here is also the time when I engaged in some serious deep sea diving of the electronic depths. Many thanks to Napster for providing me with the necessary tools to make my explores as fruitful as they were.

And as far as 22 to present goes, I've been on a steady diet of all of the above, plus a lot of Techno (favs include all the artists on the upcoming TgrLouRmx-disc) and film scores (to name a few: Solaris, The Assassination of Jesse James, The Fountain, The Piano).

There's also been a few artists hovering about for the past 15 odd years, transcending both genres and periods – helping me walk the righteous path. They include Portishead, Afghan Whigs, TOOL, Radiohead & Blonde Redhead. What's up with that Head obsession?

So there you have it. Take a little here and a little there, add a little something and – wham bam, there you have it! – it's the new Tgr Lou album. Plain and simple. Can you dig it?

Below: Matching Heads seen from outside.