Ghost in the machine

Call it the warp factor. Despite being a dab hand at insidious little melodies, Choice-nominated debutante Si Schroeder (aka Simon Kenny) also exhibits a fondness for all manner of abused, manipulated, corrupted, debased and distorted sounds.

It’s a predilection all too evident on his Coping Mechanisms album, and one he can trace all the way back to toddlerdom.
“I have a habit of wrongfooting people in lots of ways, even beyond music,” he admits. “None of that is contrived, that is genuinely how I wanted the songs to sound. It’s what I like. I grew up listening to a lot of the Beatles’ more experimental stuff. I had a seven inch of ‘Hello Goodbye’ and ‘I Am The Walrus’ and I remember bringing it to the creche with me one day because it was such a big part of my life. I left it in the back seat of the car and when I came out and brought it home it had been warped by the sunlight. I thought it sounded even better because it was even more distorted.”
Schroeder also prefers unorthodox instrumentation to the standard Ikea catalogue of rock ‘n’ roll hardware. Coping Mechanisms’ soundscapes were constructed utilising an armoury of oddities and anomalies, including beergoggles, scanners, spiritvessels and zithers. Even the samples sound fresh-minted rather than off the rack. One imagines his CD collection is seriously eclectic.
“I was in a band years ago that was very derivative of My Bloody Valentine, I think that’s still in evidence,” he concedes. “I think there’s a bit of U2 in there, a bit of Warp Records, Kraftwerk, lots of big names I guess. I was really keen that the record would be as dry as possible, that it wouldn’t sound like it was playing in a stadium or a cathedral, and all the sounds would be very close and jostling for attention. I would have to say, a lot of contemporary records I find very hard to listen to. I really like Beck’s Sea Change, but it’s not really a very relaxing listen because it’s so heavily compressed compared to say, Syd Barrett.”
As for that Choice nomination, Schroeder finds it heartening that there’s now a forum where records like his can receive some measure of mainstream media scrutiny.
“With The Meteors, the artists involved in that kind of a horse race are compelled to get into the media in order to be more visible, so the public will know about them and vote for them,” he observes. “It’s very reductionist in relation to the actual product, which is music. I guess it’s just symptomatic of the way the culture is going in general. But there’s no doubt that the premise of the Choice Prize is a much better one.
“My feeling personally is the fact that my record is on the list is a vindication of the possibility of eclecticism. I’m not entirely why it’s on the list (laughs), but it is, which is brilliant. I was also surprised and delighted to see Messiah J And The Expert’s record on the list, it’s really reassuring. If records like mine can get onto shortlists like that, it means it’s always going to be a more dynamic, more imaginative thing.”
The Choice Music Prize-nominated Coping Mechanisms is out now on Trust Me I’m A Thief. Si also plays live at the Choice gig in Dublin's Vicar St. on February 28.