In case you missed it, blocked it out from your memories, or were simply too scared to watch Aphex Twin’s headline set live streamed from Field Day London, let me tell you: it was cooked. The visuals alone, pieced together by a figure named Weirdcore, were hot enough to boil an egg.
Not wanting to waste any time, design publisher It’s Nice That tee’d up an interview with the mastermind. There’s a few nuggets of wisdom in there for sure, but one thing seems clear; whoever this estranged, almost outsider artist is as enigmatic, odd and proficient as Richard D. James himself.
After working with Tame Impala, M.I.A and most recently Aphex Twin, the anonymous visual artist Weirdcore has spoken out on their creative process.
While Aphex Twin is at the forefront right now, a quick look at the Weirdcore portfolio reveals they have worked with the likes of Tame Impala, M.I.A, Radiohead, Miley Cyrus and many more.
“When people ask me what I do I tend to struggle a bit to be honest with you. I guess I just do anything that’s visual in some way. I think of myself as more of a designer, but it’s open to whatever medium. It has taken me years to get to this point though.”
Speaking on the Field Day performance, they had the following to say:
“With Richard, I kind of bombarded him with loads of different references and once I’d figured it out what he liked, it was fairly simple. He’s got a similar taste to me so I’ll be like let’s try this, I’m pretty sure he’ll like it.”
“It’s all live generated stuff, lots of it is footage from the crowd, fed into my computer and manipulated in real time, with some 3D generated stuff too,” he explains. “When it works, it’s fantastic but if there is one thing that doesn’t go quite right, it will affect the rest of the show.”
“It’s a bit like the difference between theatre and cinema. With theatre there’s all these things that could go wrong on stage, but when it works it’s magical. Whereas with cinema, you’re safe, you know exactly what you’re going to get.”
Check out Aphex Twin’s Field Day set below, and head to It’s Nice That for the full interview. It’s a great read.
