Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Moving forward, the label planned to focus on archival projects and special reissues.
Now,Britpopis the neatest merging of all sides of Cook.
(He insists theyre made with reverence.)
Easyfun, and onCharli XCXs upcoming album,Brat.
You called this albumBritpop, and your recent album with Thy Slaughter was calledSoft Rock.
Whats the thing that would make itnotthat?
If I dont have that end goal, then it could be anything.
It seems like that impulseto define things is whereBritpops Past, Present, Future concept comes from.
I was against albums, really.
I didnt want a canonical A.G. Cook sound, even though you could argue there is sort of one.
Work as a producer seemed to define what I was doing in a really satisfying way.
I wanted to do something more jarring.
Then with Present, these are songs with in-the-moment lyrics.
Thats not to say the album isnt a thing for some people.
You enjoy drawing those hard lines.
For it to have an identity within its first year or two was really shocking.
Its also very much riffing with the crazy speed that the music industry is changing.
Thats actually a lot of PC stuff.
Its acknowledging that that is a very defined era for all those peoples work.
Its saying that the label is really meaningful, but the work goes beyond it.
Therefore, you have to make the label a really clear boundary.
I cant even perceive it, honestly.
Britpopis coming out on a new label called New Alias.
Im very proud of the range that PC Music had.
And I dont necessarily want to re-create something at that scale.
I am definitely doing releases that arent justBritpopand arent just strictly A.G. ones.
We should clone ten websites and put it out like that.
Anything that I could work on that would have a very unusual way of hitting streaming.
The playful electronic songs on the Past disc are closest to what weve heard from PC Music.
The first track on the Future disc, Soulbreaker, is by far the oldest song.
Its more like trying to imagine a headspace, and constantly playing with that time loop.
I recorded her doing it in the middle of us working another song.
I think it took literally under a minute.
It was so familiar to us.
Music is just so referential anyway.
In my mind, songs go beyond the version that you might have on your setup.
Im always drawn to music that does that.
I think some people find that a bit annoying, as if theyve been cheated.
Like, I thought I was getting a new hook here.
I paid for a new hook.
Thats the saddest thing.
I saw it when Britpop came out.
People were a little confused, feeling like this wasnt fully a new song.
But thats the fun here.Its the irony, right?
If youre in Boiler Room and its suddenly a familiar vocal, everyones like, its their favorite bit.
Youve said that the Present disc features these one-take, more raw songs.
How was making those different?Im not normally a lyrics-first person.
But every now and then, Ill have a very defined idea.
Its interesting to hear that Without was one of the songs that you wrote right away.
it’s possible for you to only do that by yourself.
We obviously had a lot of mutual friends and family ties, people I would talk to.
But that process is an isolated, truly reflective, kind of strange one.
And the track is more about that.
The tributes to SOPHIEs personality are in other parts of the album.
Thats still a voice thats part of my mind-set when Im doing those things.
I was working on it beforehow im feeling now.
But it didnt make sense.
Id been writing with Addison.
Shes so encyclopedic about music.
She has a pretty strong perspective on everything.
Then I realized it fit perfectly into this.
I thought I had heard it before.Thats what I mean.
The verse sounds like its some other pop song that you might know or might not.
Thats what I love about the Charli and Addison remix theyre basically talking.
I always think anything could become mainstream.
These established people will be like, Oh, have you heard my other project?
and itll be something crazy.
When I go deep with another artist, we can really talk about all these things.
My campaigns are quite risky.
Im not really trying to chart.
Im just trying to have a meaningful dialogue with an audience and see if theres others who are interested.
My photo shoots are all over the place stylistically.
Even what Im doing right now with Witchfork and Wandcamp.
This is where the internets at.
