Late last year, Turtle's track 'Lavender' seemed to come from nowhere to conquer the web.
A dexterous, effortlessly beautiful piece of electronic music, the track just kept building and building. Blog posts were written, social media shares were completed and – not before long – a producer who was previously almost unknown had clocked up more than 100,000 plays of his music.
“It doesn't seem real,” he says, speaking to Clash from his home outside Glasgow. “I try and just play it as cool as I can. When you spend so much time working on something it's quite scary to then release it. It's out of my hands, people will just it and either love it or hate it. On that note it's very gratifying.”
Turtle's debut EP 'Who Knows' seemed to cut across boundaries – chilled out tapestries of sound matched to propulsive percussion with a physical edge. “I never really see myself or my sound as club-oriented,” he insists. “I'm certainly not conscious of it.”
“I don't always start with a rhythm,” he continues. “Some of them are born out of texture or a sound. I think sometimes it's determined by the rhythms and sometimes it's the actual texture.”
There's a remarkably tactile element to Turtle's output, with follow up EP 'Colours' boasting some bright, vivid tones allied to crunching, cutting slabs of sound. “It's all about atmosphere, personally. I am very conscious of that,” he states. “I enjoy listening to ambient music, so I try to keep an element of that, even if it's just underneath certain elements of the mix.”
Currently working on his live show, the Scottish artist is determined to make sure that each tiny detail, each minute facet is in its correct place. “I'm very super critical. When I'm generating ideas I'm very compulsive and I go with the flow, but when I'm producing and mixing it's very carefully considered.”
Eager to tackle new projects, the producer hints that something of a visual nature could be around the corner. “I really love film scoring, music for gaming, different types of media,” he muses. “I'd like to focus on that as well, to be honest. Music that can be used, and appreciated, in many different environments.”
Words: Robin Murray
What: Gossamer electronics
Three Songs: 'Silent Weapons', 'Lavender', 'Colours'
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