Remember Pramface?
When that metally looking guy sampled Switch’s drunken voicemail to him at 4.44am, sparking off the ‘big sausage roll’ phenomenon? If you can call it that. Boy 8-Bit took a little time out from making Italian horror movie mixes for Dazed amongst new material and touring to talk to Slutty Fringe.
SF: Hi Boy 8-Bit, you’ve been a bit quiet this year, have you been taking a break or working on new stuff?
Boy 8-Bit: Ha, I suppose it does seem pretty quiet from a release schedule, but it’s been anything but quiet. I did both US and European Mad Decent Tours, the Parklife tour in Australia and I’m currently doing my first US solo tour. The EP took a while to finish, a few of the ideas on there are so old I had lost all confidence in them so I was constantly tweaking them instead of just getting them done. I’ve also done a few remixes, some which never saw the light of day for various reasons and I’ve been working on my album etc etc.
SF: Where did the name Baltic Pine come from for your EP? I googled it, mostly hardwood/conservatories came up.
Boy 8-Bit: It’s a hardwood / conservatory company that used to exist in my home town of Penzance! I was listening to Russian folk music when I made that track and I couldn’t think of the name for that territory I kept on coming back to “Balkan” then I thought of the Baltic region and remembered the name of this company. So basically the name is a bit random, has nothing to do with Russia or Balkan stuff, but I thought it kinda fitted. The whole EP has pretty weird titles I sourced from various places.
SF: I heard you were influenced a lot by metal which if you think about kind of makes sense in considering the composition of your tracks, have you ever considered making metal?
Boy 8-Bit: Yeah I like metal… I’m not an obsessive fan who knows everything, but I like to try and keep up on it / find out about old bands. I have definately taken lot of influence from the harmony parts people like Maiden use. That whole thirds thing. That’s probably the biggest reference in my compositions. I’ve played the guitar for quite a few years and would love to start a metal project, just need to meet a decent drummer! There are actually some really stupid mp3 clips of metal ideas I had a few years ago. I also set up a fake band page, but I’m not going to tell you what it is!
SF: What are your hobbies outside of music, maybe golf, cross-stitch, Italian horror movies, watching Come Dine With Me?
Boy 8-Bit: Wow, Italian horror movies was a pretty lucky freak guess huh? Yes, thats one of my vices. More to research and read about rather than watch – some of it is really quite bad. To be honest I’m pretty bad at the moment as my music takes up a lot of time. I don’t really have time for much else. But yeah, movies, the odd video game (I don’t have the attention span I used to).
SF: Have you ever thought about setting up drunk DJs so you can make more Pramfaces?
Boy 8-Bit: I think just miking myself up for one night would be enough to make a whole album.
