Atomic Robo Kid creates videos combining awesome visuals and music from many musicians on his YouTube channel.
You can check out his channel here: Atomic Robo Kid - YouTube
When did you first become interested in art?
I've been interested in art for as long as I remember! When I was very young, around 7 years old, I was fascinated by nature and would spend hours sketching from wildlife books. This evolved into sketching from comic books, mostly Batman, and much further down the line I went on to study Art and Design at College and mixed disciplines of Graphic Design and Product Design at University.
Do you have anything that inspires you to create?
I draw lots of inspiration from music, listening carefully and visualising, in my mind, whatever I interpret. I love album cover art; good cover art is a kind of commercial conceptualist art set against typographical elements that is forged as that single point of communication between the potential listener and the overarching ethos of the music itself. Or at least that's what it used to be!
I also admire a range of the more traditional design movements such as Bauhaus, Constructivism, Dada and various eras of conceptual art. I love visual communication that makes you stop and think. Thinking will lead to questioning things rather than a passive acceptance, wanting you to react, and that's potent stuff!
Music has been the driving force for my creativity for many years, I love being immersed in that creative train of thought and music is a powerful drug that invokes deep emotions and visualisations. Whilst at college I produced a conceptual installation inspired by Pantera's 'Suicide Note, part 1'. In this, I essentially recreated a gruesome suicide scene in which the participant (the viewer of the installation) listened to the track and explored the scene, the inner demons and spiral of self-destruction that led to this event. I'm not sure why but I was trying to replicate the darkness that one's mind and soul must go through to lead to such a final act. I was 16 when I created this, whilst my classmates were painting, sculpting, photographing some truly beautiful things I was exploring death and the dark corners of a tortured soul. I'm still slightly surprised my teacher didn't pack me off in a straight jacket! My creativity has different outlets these days, much to the delight of my family, I imagine! My creative passion is almost exclusively focused on curating music for my YouTube channel and editing accompanying visuals to that music. When I can, I tinker with some basics of music production and still like to explore ways in which technology can be used to create art, in a way that loosely ties me back to my university days.
How did you get into electronic music?
My initial interest in electronic music was sparked by a relatively unexpected source! I remember being in my early teens and listening, for the first time, to Fear Factory's 'Demanufacture'. That opening track with the way the drums were triggered and the tight use of samples was mind-blowing!
My taste in music is eclectic and despite starting my passion of music with rock and metal, in my later teenage years I was into the UK club and rave scene and enjoyed listening to everything from Speed Garage to Hardcore Techno. The counterculture of warehouse and underground parties was alluring to me, allowing yourself to 'let go' is a hugely liberating experience and strangely enough I found this to be the perfect environment for doing so. I still listen to much of this music now, especially Drum and Bass and Hard House.
What is one of your favorite early memories when you started listening to electronic music?
Again, in my early teens watching 'Top of The Pops', which was a UK music chart show, and seeing The Prodigy's video for 'Firestarter'! What a powerful track! Deeply subversive Electro Punk! It stood out heads and shoulders above other music of that time, where a popular music diet consisted of Britpop bands like Blur and Oasis and radio time was filled with soulless manufactured girl and boy 'bands' like the Spice Girls! That music had a strong hold throughout much of 90's. But I was always seeking that something else, that something different. Keith Flint, running through a tunnel yelling at the top of his voice that he was 'twisted firestarter' stood out from the otherwise bland pop scene of the time. I wanted to be a twisted firestarter too! For my mind the track echoed an evolved Sex Pistols with John Lydon screaming 'I am an anarchist', from their track 'Anarchy in the UK', and that feeling just resonanted with my teenage self.
Who are some of your favorite musicians?
I have a lifelong love for Kiss, like since forever, it's pretty much imprinted in my DNA with much of family also being diehard fans! We have attended many of their live shows together. Being a kid watching a demon spit blood and breathe fire was obviously something I aspired to be! They were my gateway drug to harder and darker styles of music. Which leads to my next favourite musician Dimebag Darrell, for me his shredding and heavy groove is second to none. May he rest in peace! Liam Howlett needs to be included in this list, I've admired every step of his career and the way he has driven the continued evolution of The Prodigy.
What is your favorite genre in music and why?
Having such an eclectic taste this is quite a tricky question for me. But, over the last couple of years my main listening experiences have been focused on the genres of music that I feature on my YouTube channel. So, Synthwave, Darksynth, Cyberpunk, Chillsynth and a handful of other sub genres. The styles of each are very different, but all resonant emotions, memories and feelings for me which should be the guiding force and power behind any music style.
What can we expect to see from you in 2023? Any announcements or news you would like to share?
I am devoted to promoting the music I love and developing a forum for artists to share their music. Raising the profile of Synthwave and related artists has been the aim of my YouTube channel since day one. I'm pretty rubbish with social media but growing these areas are inextricably linked in achieving my aims. So, please check out my channel and consider subscribing and if you have a track you would like to share, please get in touch.
Aside from my channel I aim keen to continue with a newfound interest, writing music reviews. So, definitely expect to see much more of that in 2023.
It would also be really cool to release a couple of my own tracks at some point! I have been a keen hobbiest for a number of years, but I don't get much time to indulge! Strangely enough though, my 'music' is quite percussive and experimental in nature and are unlikely to align with the styles of music I feature on my channel! In fact, I'll possibly release under a pseudonym, so you may never know it was me!
I have met some remarkable people doing this, and I hope to be in touch with many new artists next year. But, for now, to all the extremely talented, humble and kind artists that have contributed to my channel I wish you all every success in 2023.
A BIG THANK YOU to Atomic Robo Kid for doing this interview.
Be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out one of his videos below.
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