Vancouver’s Vincent Parker has an air of mad scientist about him. A self-styled musician/artist/designer, Parker is steadily amassing a tidy little back catalog of post-glitch synthetic weirdness. Inside of the cage matches that are his tracks, frizzled synths duke it out with stutter-tech breakbeat insanity, often straddling the line between kinetic dancefloor bliss & supreme headnod material. Hyphy influences pop up along with a tendency toward melancholic, serene melodic turns. All in all, the kid’s got it goin’ on & after winning Seattle’s Laptop Battle this past December (clip below), he’s primed to release a brand new full length on Run Riot Records (holla!), Prism Myst. We had a chance to chat with Parker about his process & working with Run Riot Records, one of the PNW’s most industrious independent labels.

On March 19, Parker will be at Lucky Bar along with Megasoid (!), Eames & The Big Reds for a night of dubstep, glitch-hop, lazers & everything in between in a tasty sandwich. Hope to see you there. Here’s the Facebook event.

Vincent Parker “Prism Myst” from the forthcoming Prism Myst

You’ve been a busy boy over the last few year. There are quite a few releases…

Yeah, I have a few releases under my belt now; Bit Rocker came out in 2006 & the Clack Clack EP was released in 2007 on Run Riot Records. Artemis Jackson is a collaborative project with my friend Andrea Blakey, we put out Asps & Adders in 2008. And now I am just about to release Prism Myst also on Run Riot Records.

Talk about Prism Myst a little bit.

The Prism Myst is a mixture of a lot of different things. It comes out of the musical setup and process I used for Artemis Jackson, except this time more dancey. It’s packed with tons of trill beats, washes of arpeggiating synths, more everything. My main thing is I didn’t want it to be derivative & at the same time have it touch on a bunch of different styles. It’s like gamma radiation that may get you pregnant. Brilliant lights in your eyes that penetrate your skin & self until you are no more & the myst remains refracting in the sun…

Who are some of your main musical & visual inspirations?

That’s a big question. Musically I love & am inspired by just about every type of music. Musical influences that are electronic would be Sebastian Tellier, Mr. Oizo, Madlib, Jay Dilla, most hip hop, old school electro & new wave.

Visually I like a varied selection of styles & approaches; German painters from the liepzig school (Neo Rauch, David Schnell); the late Jason Rhodes (especially his project Black Pussy); drawers. There are also many local Vancouver artists that I admire; Fiona Bowie, Stan Douglas, Benjamin Larose, Ben Jacques, Jen Aiken, Kelsea Hieno & many more.

Are your musical/visual “creative engines” linked or separate?

My musical/visual “creative engines” are one and the same, but I have been focused lately on music. Everything is about process & practice for me.

You seem really driven by the idea that your records should reflect your live performance – not the other way around…

Yeah, it is backwards from how electronic music & much pop music works. I feel I should be able to perform my music perfectly before I can record it. The same way you would want to have a band be practiced up & ready to record in one take… folk music & blues artists didn’t have midi or pro-tools. Ever since the Artemis Jackson record, I have been all about my music being live. [The idea is] to capture the energy from a live show & make a product. That product can infinitely change from show to show or moment to moment… if anything it makes it more interesting cause every show is a brand new [performance].

Vincent Parker “Slippery” from the forthcoming Prism Myst

I must credit this change in approach to my close friend and mentor Matt Willox (aka Spark aka Winnie the shit). He melts my mind on the regular. Art school & reading lots of critical theory may have [also contributed to this approach]. I feel a recording is just a recording, an album is just a collection of moments that were recorded… my music isn’t just the beats or notes; it’s the energy of the live performance.

Talk a bit about how you perform live & what you’re trying to accomplish.

I run Fruityloops controlled by an Akai MPD24. The sound goes through two Kaoss Pad IIs. I’ve written music systems & multilinking patterns that each have different effects sends & parameters. I explain the live setup a bit better in this video. On stage, I usually have some space to dance and rock out & a microphone that I use to either hype or sing. Then I start it up and rock out and shake my money maker till they tell me to stop.

So your live performances are unique? There’s an element of one-off-ness to each live performance?

Yes, my performances are unique. There is definitely a one-off element. It forces me to keep on my toes & also keeps me experiencing [my own music] music fresh, much the same way a DJ “feels” the audience & adapts to the crowd.

Do you have go-to sequences that you know will work, or are you trying to do something completely brand new each performance?

I do have a bunch of sequences that are tested & true, but every show I try to unleash at least one new sequence, it keeps me writing music.  Since I finished Prism Myst, I have writen another 13-14 tracks ready for a follow up.

How did you get involved with Run Riot? How has it been working with them?

I met Kitimat through a mutual friend back in 2007. Just recently I met Juan De Fukya & Graintable of the crew at the laptop battle in Seattle. Everyone has been super nice & very accepting. It’s hard to find people that will support you when you want to do something dramatic like stop tracking beats & move to a full live set up like Artemis Jackson and then go back to make something like my new release Prism Myst.

photo: Kathryn Mussallem