Max Cooper: Visualizing the Infinite

MAX COOPER TALKS ABOUT HIS LATEST ALBUM, BRINGING SCIENTIFIC IDEAS INTO MUSIC, HIS PASSION FOR VIDEO ART, WAYS OF VISUALIZING THE INFINITE AND OTHER INTERESTING THINGS

Max Cooper has always stood apart from most popular DJs and electronic music producers. His music couldn’t be clearly categorized and marked with some understandable for the masses cliché. His approach is based on a lot of musical influences and on his scientific background as well.

Studying genetics and system biology at university has made a large impact on Max Cooper’s art. His impressive shows, which he plays all over the world at big festivals and some of the top clubs, are full of scientific ideas. These scientific concepts, plus his passion for video art and emotional electronic music turns each of Max Cooper’s performance into a unique and unforgettable audiovisual experience.

Max Cooper’s latest album “Yearning for the Infinite” was specially created on its base visuals and, for now, is the quintessence of his practices in bringing global messages into the art by linking music, science and video art together.

We had a chance to talk with Max Cooper about the underlying themes of his latest album, the way he visualizes the infinite, his works in the field of audiovisual installations, musical influences, favorite places to perform and many other interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Max! You have just made a great new album “Yearning for the Infinite”, which is a really big and serious conceptual work complemented by stunning and impressive videos for each track and also has a special visual content when played live. Can you please tell us a bit about this work and its main idea and message?

This work was a commission from the Barbican Art & Music Centre in London. They commissioned me to do a piece with the main theme being around new technologies and their impact on society, especially things such as fintech and machine learning. They sent me their brief and asked me to come up with a project idea for a show and for an album. I tried to take the main idea of showing the results of the technological advance and how humans endlessly pursue things like wanting more money or their football team to win or to achieve some things – this endless need for growth and pursuing of goals which are the characteristics of the western culture. These are the main underlying aspects of this work.

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The sound and visions of Moonlight Breakfast

Moonlight Breakfast is certainly a must-see band. Their original approach to creating music is based on mixing together different ingredients – Electro, Nu-Jazz, Swing, and Balkan Beat. And the result is what you can expect from a talented mixologist – a cocktail with an interesting and unique taste that will make you want to dance and feel happy.

The trademark of this groups’ shows are the conceptual visuals that are fully synchronized with their music, representing the band’s style and turning them into a unique experience. Their first ever show was in their native country, Bucharest when they were the warm-up show for 35,000 people before Jamiroquai.  It was a great start to their career. At the moment, Moonlight Breakfast has two successful albums under their belt and a lot of gigs all over the world, helping them to form a strong fan base.

The band is in a really good shape, focused on the future and has a lot of creative plans, helping them to have fun from the thing they enjoy most of all in life – making music. Having gone through a few changes, the band is currently a trio, with lead singer and frontwoman Christie, her husband and the main mastermind of this musical engine, Bazooka, on drums, keys and clarinet, and Adita on keys, guitar and sampler.

After a really busy summer full of shows all over Europe and their first US tour, Moonlight Breakfast frontwoman Christie finally found time for an interview with all-andorra.com in which she talked about her most memorable shows, the band’s musical roots and inspirations, future plans and their view on the possibility of performing in Andorra someday.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

It seems like you had a busy summer with many gigs! And not only this summer – you are touring regularly and doing different types of gigs – big festivals and cozy musical clubs. What kind of shows do you enjoy most of all?

Yes, we’ve been keeping busy. We love performing so we have a lot of fun every time we’re on stage. Performing has been a memorable experience since the very beginning. Our first show was opening for Jamiroquai in front of 35,000 people. Though memorable, we weren’t really able to enjoy it that much since we were really stressed out. It was my first show ever so I was really nervous. I remember I couldn’t even sit up straight for the 2 hours in-between sound check and stage time.

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