"the Johnny Marr of electronica"

Pretty fast after last years “the point_misser“ Arne van Petegem is back with another album. First meant to be an e.p. it turned out to be worth a full-length release on morr music.

Arne was the guy that gave Thomas Morr the idea of calling the morr music compilation last year “Putting the Morr back in Morrissey“ as they both realized that they are into the melancholic Smiths and early Morrissey stuff. But this isn´t about guitar pop... Arne used to be in indiebands (for example Amber #2) and also is the guy with the flying saucer attack-like dronefolkpop project Tin Foil Star. But a while ago he decided to switch to synths and samplers. Usually this produces tracks with heartmelting melodies and some decent vocalsamples. I guess it´s a good describtion to call Styrofoam “the Johnny Marr of electronica“. As there are more vocal samples on the new record you might like to modify this to “the Michael Stipe of electronica“....

I asked Arne about what changed last year.

Arne: »The first half of the point_misser album was still more closely related to my previous Tin Foil Star Stuff - more droney tracks with very little rhythm. I think this album sort of takes off from the second half of 'the point_misser'. there's been a big change in working methods and gear used since the first album and I think this is reflected in the music. it's very hard to think about my own music in terms of the qualities other people use to describe it. Maybe I could say that the tracks on this album have more of a narrative content, that they show a bigger clarity.«

Narrative? Hmm, okay... what about the more direct use of vocals?

Arne: »I was really thinking about doing another Tin Foil Star album, but this time really an electronic pop album with full-on vocals, more like the earlier tfs singles but with better production and more complex rhythms. Thomas (Morr, morr music) sort of showed interest to release an album like this and while I was over in berlin to master my new morr release I brought over a cdr with some of those vocal tracks. Listening to those tracks back to back with the new ep stuff we noticed they fit really well together so we decided to transform the ep into a full album with half instrumental and half vocal tracks. It was all a very last minute decision, the day before the release got mastered.«

As Styrofoam really gives me this deep pop feeling and really sounds warm and beautiful most of the time I was curious if Arne could imagine to use even more pop elements and add some guitar stuff to his tracks as this is the instrument he started with in bands?

Arne: »I don't have a computer or hard disc recorder at the moment, so I'm not really able to do so. I hope to get a computer sometime this year and I suppose I might start using acoustic instruments again then, because I will have the means to process them and turn everything inside out. at the moment I'm more interested in real sound synthesis - creating my own sound patches on dedicated machines. I think synthesized sounds are able to sound at least as organic as sampled 'real' instruments. Anyway, it's not that important which sources you are using, as long as the end result sounds interesting.«

As I asked him about his favourite music last year Arne gave me this rather long list:

Arne: »Some artists, labels, records, tracks, shows: prefuse 73/vert 'köln konzert'/kelis album + live/vlad 12"/capone'n'noreaga 'invincible'/dj premier/phoenecia disjecta rmx/r.devine lily of the valley track/broadcast album+eps+live/morr/snd/ghost dog ost/beachwood sparks/cco/nobukazu takemura/go-betweens/neo ouija/doctor rockit 'indoor fireworks'/isolée/planet mu/quasimoto 'unseen'/destiny's child/duncan browne/lowfish/electric birds/eminem/mu:m/afu-ra/common 'the light'/farben 'raw micro'/fizzarum/defocus/badly drawn boy/cali agents/ditc/missy elliott.«

Arne is a booklover. Do books take him to spheres music can´t take him to?

Arne: »I love how a book can create a certain atmosphere, can radiate a certain glow without being too literal about it. I think in a way that's something I'm also trying to do with my music.«

Are there books you can imagine to be read to “a short album about murder“?

Arne: »Maybe some Rupert Thomson stuff. Michael Faber's 'Under my Skin'.«

And here´s something that Arne told me about these songs:

“no matter what“

Arne: »This was supposed to be one of the instrumental songs on the original ep, until I decided to add some vocals the day before mastering. Uwe Zahn (arovane) was kind enough to record these in his studio. He has a very nice studio. There's also a nice strings section on this track which I really like. It's about love and destruction.«

“it´s just that we don´t show it“

Arne: »This track used to be called 'failure to deliver' until I changed the title so it would fit in better with the rest of the album's titles. There's a small hiphop a capella sample saying 'took me 360 days' and I thought naming the track 'failure to deliver' would be somewhat hilarious. I think there's a lot of humour in this album but maybe it doesn't really show so well. It's about trying and not succeeding.«

“bad night is falling“

Arne: »This is the track that inspired me to get the 'short album about murder' album title, because of the line 'wishing everybody dead' at the end of it. There's also this little sigh at the very end which sounds very funny. It's the track I finished last the day before leaving to berlin. It's about past failures.«

“if you tell me the truth i will kill you“

Arne: »I think this is my favourite track on the album. I did this one at a very nice studio at my job using lots of software stuff (which is very different from my normal working methods). A few days after this was finished I got kicked out of the studio (for private use at least) :( There's a sample from my favourite movie at the end of this track, which really kills me everytime i hear it. The sample was recorded from the web through an ibook's little speaker onto a md walkman with the md's headphones acting as microphone and than mixed into the track with a dj mixer, also the day before mastering the album. It sounds really nice. Sometimes it's better not to tell the truth. It's about wanting to forgive but not being able to.«

“by anybody else i mean you“

Arne: »I think this is Thomas' (Morr) favourite track. It's probably the most upbeat and poppy I've done so far and I will ever do. I've played lots of live sets over the summer and fall of 2000 and this together with 'no matter' and 'it's just that' were always in there. It's about walking over to the next one.«

“A short album about murder“ by Styrofoam is out on morr music. Go and get it. Listen to it while you´re out in the city or cycle your bike. Rem