Jimmy Edgar – ‘Push’

A decade in the music business has seen Detroit-born musician Jimmy Edgar, age 27, produce a varied and progressive body of work. With five years of cathartic soul searching as inspiration, he has a new album on !K7 tantalizingly called XXX.

In an age of teenage pop stars, there is always the question of what might happen to them once they’ve been through the music industry’s machine. Jimmy Edgar’s first music releases were in his late teens for IDM labels Isophlux Records and Merck Records. He quickly gained a following and it wasn’t long before an eight-year relationship with Warp Records began.

His EPs Access Rhythm (2004) and Bounce Make Model (2005) found him experimenting with a much more dancefloor-centric tempo and style, drawing inspiration from heroes Michael Jackson and Prince. These explorations led to the full-blown and confrontational electro-pop of 2006’s Color Strip album. The album, with lead single ‘I Wanna Be Your STD’ shifted styles from bouncy Detroit electro to menacing bass monsters and light, beautiful meditations. Released amidst his growing involvement in fashion and photography, it heralded a new and bright future for the young artist.

FACT caught Edgar fresh from a move to Berlin, where we talked to him about the trials that brought about XXX, his work in photography and film, and synesthesia and hypnotherapy.

“It’s been sort of a rocky road, to be honest.”

You recently moved from New York and Detroit to Berlin. What brought this transatlantic relocation about?

“Yeah, this was approximately…47 days ago, so it’s still kind of fresh. It’s easier for me because I’m traveling a lot these days and Berlin is more centralized than New York or Detroit.”

As a music performer for almost 10 years, how has it been to essentially grow up through your music career?

“Well, it’s been sort of a rocky road, to be honest. It didn’t really start off easy. I’ve been basically living off music my whole life but it’s only recently that I’ve been able to take time off when I want and enjoy places that I visit. Most of the places I go to I have friends there now. It’s different than when I was first new to it.”

My first exposure to your music was My Mines I (by kristuit salu vs. morris nightingale, a “dual alter ego”) on Merck Records in 2002, which was a classic IDM album. Your recent work on Color Strip (Warp, 2006) and XXX (!K7, 2010) are very different from that sound. Could you talk about your evolution as an artist?

“Yeah, my earlier work was strictly made on computer, but I grew up playing instruments and writing songs on piano. So when I was subjected to computers, it was exciting for me because I could produce an entire album myself. I didn’t have to worry about having help recording the music. That was really good introduction to producing electronic music. But over the years, I was learning better songwriting skills and post-production techniques, and in the end I’ve been combining all the skills and styles I’ve learnt.”

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Features, Interviews, Top Slider and tagged with Jimmy Edgar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.