Believe it or not, bleepy electro producer Boy 8-Bit AKA David Morris is not just a collection of jagged sprites on a monochrome screen (at least, under this particular alias he’s not). He takes his name from where he made his resourceful start in crafting electronic music: over a decade ago at the age of 15 he began fiddling around with a Commodore Amiga 500, churning out sound samples that were 8-bit of course.
In the years since Morris has been producing music under a range of top-secret aliases, but Boy 8-Bit has gained him the most attention in recent times, mostly due to his memorable reworking of tunes from of the likes of The Black Ghosts, Burial, Mika, Chromeo and Armand Van Helde. As he prepares to tour Australia for the very first time with Parklife, ITM has a shot at decoding Boy 8-Bit.
Can you define a point where your career really took off?
Probably with my remix of the Black Ghosts a couple of years ago. Seemed to go down really well, which is nice. It’s kind of the last thing I did with a particular sound before I wanted to move on and try something new. So perhaps it came at a strange point!
When technology plays such a significant part in what you do, how does a live set work? Do you feel restricted by what you are able to do live?
I probably won’t ever do a full live show. I might embellish my DJ sets a little, but you’ll never catch me doing a laptop recital – as you say I’m probably a bit restricted with what I can do. Perhaps I could get really technical, but people just want to dance at the end of the day.
What do you think the best technology for making music is?
A computer.
Do you have a favourite technical trick?
On some mixers you have these knobs that make the bass disappear, crazy!
You once said about remixing, “If I like something enough, I probably won’t want to change it.” So how do you feel when someone remixes your own work?
Ha ha, good question. It depends. I haven’t had that many remixes in the past, but I always try and find someone who can take the track off in a new direction. For example my next track Wolfen is pretty stripped back by my standards, so I got my friends the Loose Cannons to do a remix as I knew they would do a more in your face ‘electro’ style take on it that will appeal to a lot of people. I have also, hopefully got a mix coming from Loefah, one of the dubstep main players. I approached him with the track as I thought it would suit something darker and more bass driven and will take the track to a totally new group of people. He seems to be really into it, so I’m really looking forward to it.
Having said that, is there anyone you’d love to remix or work with/on?
I’ve always wanted to work with Kissy Sell Out, the guy is a genius.
Can you hear of any of your drum n’ bass background in your current work?
Well it was a big influence in my youth. I don’t go out of my way to include reference to it, but I’m sure they are there.
Will this be your first trip to Australia as Boy 8-Bit?
Yes, apart from having to change flights on the way to New Zealand, when I stopped at Brisbane. I’m looking forward to it!
Do you ever get sick of explaining why you called yourself Boy 8-Bit?
Only when people start hassling me for not being “8-bit”. I didn’t realise it would become such a big thing and in hindsight should have changed my name a long time ago, but hey ho… I find it funny as most of them are young kids who didn’t get the chance to grow up when 8-bit computers were at their peak.
Catch Boy 8-Bit as he gets hi-tech at the following shows…
Fri Sep 26th – Sydney, Oxford Art Factory (w/ Diplo)
Sat Sep 27th – Adelaide, Parklife
Sun Sep 28th – Melbourne, Parklife
Mon Sep 29th – Perth, Parklife
Fri Oct 3rd – Melbourne, Prince Bandroom (w/ Diplo)
Sat Oct 4th – Brisbane, Parklife
Sun Oct 5th – Sydney, Parklife
madam meow says...
its 30hz long lost hippy brother! LOL!!