ISO50

Names: Clu = Kev + Sean
Current City: Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Website: www.clu.ie

ISO50: Tell me about your first musical memory?

Sean – I remember going to collect dj equipment and with my father, he used to dj at partys as a job for abit,
i always remember he used to set the gear and lights up in our sitting room for the fun times, will always remember dancing about to 2 Unlimited – No Limit, we actually just found this on a home video aswell, must upload it.
Kev – Playing Mary Had A Little Lamb using the telephone.

ISO50: Can you list off a 4 song playlist of what you listen to while you’re preparing to work on either Audio or Visual end of Clu?

Sean –
Objekt – Ganzfeld
Ricky Eat Acid – Inside your house; it will swallow us too
Macintosh Plus – リサフランク
Fez – Disasterpeace

Kev –
Aphex Twin – Xtal
Oni Ayhun – OAR003
Nina Kraviz and Luke Hess – Remember
Laurent Garnier – Wake Up

ISO50: If the world lost electricity tomorrow, would you continue to make music and how?

Sean – Yes, id get a very nice piano, so nice that i would have to get very good at playing, and then pick up a hang drum or steel drum and slide onto a nice tropical island.

ISO50: What is your favourite sound and why?

Sean – The hiss as i open a fresh bottle of fizzy water
Kev – The sound of yawning – v addictive.

ISO50: Is there any sort of emotional subtext, or something that inspires you to write the music you make?

Sean – Yes everything has a point, some of it instinct with no emotions attached other then the ones i was feeling at the time of making, and there is also things going on and memories in my life that directly make me chase a certain sound/mood to try and portray what i was feeling & thinking about.

ISO50: Something your fans might not know about you?

Sean – If I’m having trouble sleeping i put on a WWF dvd or PPV, like a royal rumble or something, its my white noise.
Kev – I do it all for them.

ISO50: Dream gig (location, mood, pick a show opener or closer) and how important is it to you to have a live show?

Sean – I would also love to do a Blast off to Mars AV show, we could play in the missile silo full of funkion 1s, under the sea inside some sort of aquarium to start, id also like Binary Finary to open and Atlantic ocean to close.
Kev – Let us do the AV show for the people that are being blasted off to Mars. The show has to be live, we’re not RTÉ.

Here’s the video for the single Mirrors:

ISO50: Do you collect anything other than music gear?

Sean – Yea i have collected quite a few video game consoles, i also had a strange obsession with collecting subbuteo, its a minature table football game where you flick loads of little players about who are glued to a semi-circle, on a felt pitch with sometimes a fake crowd.

ISO50: Who would you want to take out of hiding dead or alive and sit in the studio with, even if it was just for one song?

Sean – I have always wanted to work with Gary Numan, or Moondog, both are idols of mine.
Kev – C. Cunningham

ISO50: Why do you think US beat scene isn’t as prolific as Northwestern Europe?

Sean – I actually have no idea, i think it is still quite popular and growing, i just think everyone doing fresh stuff is moving away from genres in general, now artists, if they want to get though on raw talent, have to take their own path, in every single way not just the music, needs to be authentic to fly now which is class or it can just be heavily backed, which is crap.
Kev – No idea, good question though.

ISO50: Whats the story behind the ideas in the “Mirrors” video?

Kev – “A lack of want”

ISO50: Name off 2 records each you’d take to a deserted island, these would be the last 2 records you’ll ever here.

Sean – Bon Iver – For Emma
Aphex twin selected Ambient works V 2 ( Me and my friend Rob used to stick it on before we went to sleep on our shitty burst blow up beds when we lived in a tiny little basement in Vancouver, we put it on for 4 months straight.)
Kev – Oneohtrix Point Never’s R Plus Seven and Kurt Vile’s Walkin On A Pretty Daze

Support: Buy DIGITAL

Inspired by 1980’s science fiction films, contemporary dance and 8 bit computer soundtracks a la Donkey Kong… Dublin born musician Sean Cooley and visual artist Kevin Freeney formed Clu in 2011 as a way to play music and showcase artwork simultaneously to their friends in venues and galleries across the city. Growing up in the 1990s, they witnessed the birth of mass produced 3D computer animations and the conceptual god complexes that came with the internet.

These two very apparent influences made the guys immerse themselves in the ever intertwining mediums of sound and vision, giving Clu a very unique approach to their live AV shows. Cooley’s productions bubble with multitudes of synths and maintain a focus on bass driven twists that create soaring galactic oddities while visually Freeney engages in a surrealist depth that skips on the brink between digital film and generative animations. This connection between the two, forms a symbiotic chemistry that hopes to bridge the gap between the white cubed galleries of visual art and the dark basements of electronic music.