Despite having fallen into a career in music he has his own label, Notown Records, has toured the world twice over and he’s released three studio albums, each an improvement on the last. Together they are an unintentional trilogy that signifies the end of an era and the start of something new. Looking to the future he wants to change the way he makes music and grow into a musician he’s less embarrassed to be. It’s not obtuse to think he’s in a transformative time in his career, even if he is just unpacking the dishwasher as we talk.

Where in the world are you?

I’m in my kitchen in North London, I’m just about to unload the dishwasher, that’s my next job.

An exciting insight into the life of an electronic producer. Is that where you’re based now?

Yeah, I moved from Germany about three years ago and now I’m living here with my girlfriend. I lived with my grandmother for a while, in Essex, which is North London and then I met Laura Lewis, who I worked with on the last record and we fell in love and now we live in London.

Oh, that’s beautiful.

She did the artwork for the whole album. Well she did the cover photo and the artwork for the EPs and she did one of the videos called ‘Pink & Green’. We also did a book sort of loosely based on the album photos. Basically all the photos she took in Japan which could have been used for the album we turned into a book.

I was thinking that with your obsession, or should I say love, for Japan; have you ever considered just moving and basing yourself there?

Well, I lived there for a while and I do like it there but, I dunno, I got annoyed with it when I was there for a year so I don’t know how I’d feel about going back. I guess I couldn’t speak Japanese at that time. The quality of life is really good there, the food is great, and you can live relatively cheaply, everything is nice quality but that got a bit annoying after a while.

So what annoyed you was that it was too good?

[Laughs] I go there twice a year but I think the fact that I don’t live there makes me really fond of it and living there might have a different effect.

Have you heard the term Weeaboo before?

Weea-what? [Laughs]

It’s a word for people who are obsessed with Japanese culture. I was wondering if anyone has jokingly called you a Weeaboo before but I guess if they have, it wouldn’t have been to your face.

Not to my face [laughs]

*Googles Weeaboo*

Oh I see these people. No that’s not quite me [laughs]

Lots of people find themselves into an obsession with Japanese culture the same way you did, through anime. You watched Akira, but did you ever watch any other anime?

No, I find anime now to be really terrible. Everything after 2005 has just become really badly animated. It’s just all made on computers and it all looks terrible, no one ever moves. Someone told me to watch, I forgot what it’s called now, something about giants? Giant people attacking a castle or something? Do you know that one?

Can’t say I do.

I thought it was terrible. I still read manga. I’ve just been reading this one by Takehiko Inoue called Real which is about people who play wheelchair basketball and then Tokyo Tribe which is a famous kind of thing, emulating American ghetto life in Tokyo and this other one called Ayako by Osamu Tezuka who did Atom Boy or Astro Boy and lots of other weird stuff. But with modern anime… I think the last good film I watched was Ghost In The Shell.

So you’re just sticking to the classics now?

[Laughs] Yeah just the classics. Anything ’90s or early 2000s was good. I think it’s just gotten really lazy recently.

Let’s get to your music. So I’ve been stuck on something you said in an interview once about how you used to feel embarrassed about making happy, melody-driven music. Do you ever still feel like that?

Yes and no. Melody is good, I still like melody. I think the problem is that when you make music that is your own and it sounds like you, you worry about what people think of it. It’s hard. I want it to be taken seriously at some point, like I’m sure all musicians do and I felt like my music was at the pop end of electronic music. And I think the music I listen to doesn’t always reflect what I make. I assume that’s true of most bands and most musicians, that they listen to a lot of stuff and the things they make are very different to some of their influences. I guess I’m not embarrassed but I find it frustrating when you have all these great ideas and you make a song and it sounds like you and then you’re like “Oh no, I’ve made this again”.

Do you still experience that frustration when making music today?

I’ve been doing some different stuff recently and experimenting with different ways of making music and that’s really helped and I’m feeling less frustrated and a bit more free, so we’ll see what happens.

When you talk about moving in a different direction did we actually get a taste of what’s to come with your DJ Jenifa track ‘Dresscode’?

Oh no, that was something I made for a laugh but no I don’t think it would follow that path at all that’s just something I had lying around.

I’m actually obsessed with that track.

[Laughs] You liked that one? Did you listen to the Kingdom EP that came out after the album? It didn’t really have a full proper release we did a limited CD and digital version. I think I was more proud of that because those tracks were recorded fairly quickly and set up in a way that recorded a stereo take of what I was doing at the time so there wasn’t any arranging going on and it was more free form. They weren’t really songs. That made me a lot happier and when I listen back it still sounds fresh to me because I hadn’t worked on it as long as I had my record. So to get things done quickly is a thing I want to do more of in the future.

Do you ever think you’ll revisit making hip-hop beats?

Yeah, I’m doing some actually for a rapper in LA who I’ve worked with before and hopefully we’ll have something at some point but there aren’t concrete plans to even do it yet, it’s just like, make beats, see what I come up with, see if he likes them and then take it from there.

Who’s the rapper?

It’s a guy called Open Mike Eagle. I did one track with him, I think it was two years ago now, called ‘Ziggy Starfish’ and that went really well. I did a small tour with him in the States last year – he’s a really nice guy and there are plans to send him more beats but if I can do something longer with him than just one track it would be good.

Back to that DJ Jenifa track just quickly, I found it because it was playing at the end of your ‘In My Car’ video, was that just promo for your new project?

If you look at old hip-hop videos they did a lot of stuff like that. I’m trying to think of one now… Like Busta Rhymes in the ‘Woo Hah!!’ video, it’s either at the start or the end he’s doing a different track to what the video is for, I think it’s ‘Everything Remains Raw’ or something. So it’s a hip-hop tribute really, to have another song there in the video. That’s all it was really because I had the track lying around. Also the track is about the town where ‘In My Car’ is filmed, a place called Chelmsford.

The video for ‘In My Car’ is really beautiful. It’s like Youtube Yoga, in that I feel really at ease every time I watch it. But now after reading an interview you did, I can’t watch it without thinking about how you were initially going to do a hip-hop inspired video with you driving around town in an expensive car with your friends pouring beers out of the window. Why didn’t that happen?

[Laughs] No, because it would be not true and more like appropriation and not honest and that’s where things start to take a turn for the worst. It would have been fun and funny but I wanted it to reflect real life in a way. Driving my grandma somewhere and buying her a cup of tea or getting something for lunch is real. So I don’t think I’ll ever do a hip-hop video and if I do with [Open Mike Eagle] it will reflect reality.

Yeah, I guess if you did make a hip-hop video for a Gold Panda release it could come off as a parody and that would be totally wrong.

I think if I made hip-hop earnestly, if I was a rapper or something I could do a rap video taking the piss out of rap or hip-hop culture but I’m not. But I think the [In My Car] video has elements of hip-hop in it. I’m driving my car in it.

How is Notown Records going? Have you got much planned for the future for the label?

Yeah, we’ve got a new release. Luke Abbott who released a couple records on it a few years ago did a track called ‘Modern Driveway’ that did really well, he’s got a new project called Earlham Mystics and that is coming out on March 24 I think, it’s a four-track EP. I put it on the shelf for a while, because it’s stressful to run a label and as much as I love music, it isn’t my priority. The reason I made my own label was to release music in the UK because I didn’t have my own record label here and then it just went from there and I started putting out other people’s music. It’s hard to release other people’s music because you have to be a good label basically [laughs] and you have to do work, and I’m not good at doing work. I run it with another guy, Gareth, and I think if I leave more of the work up to him he’ll get it done. So it’s something that is there for when I want to release music and for friends to release music but it isn’t a priority. I’m not going out searching for new things to release.

It seems as though a lot of producers are running their own labels and it appears as though it is this chill side-project they run without a second thought and you’re one of few who have come out and said, “Hey, this is hard”.

[Laughs] It is hard work! Because you’re responsible for someone’s career to some extent so if I’m signed to a label I want to know that they’re doing this, this, and that. It’s good on a small level when you’re just releasing a small run of vinyls and putting them out as a small indie thing but when you’re trying to sell records and you’ve got to put work in… I think a lot of people have labels but they don’t have to do the work, they get someone else to do it, you know… because they’re famous [laughs].

I watched this weird MTV interview you did where they asked you questions about your set up and gear and filmed you as you put it all together before the show. I think my favourite part of that interview was when you opened a suitcase that you had your loop pedals in but you had wrapped them all in t-shirts and you got slightly embarrassed because you didn’t want your underwear to fall out. Years on, are you still cushioning your gear in your clothing?

Oh no [laughs]. I bought PELI cases, which are lightweight cases that are tough. Actually I do have some of my clothes in one of the cases but that loop pedal now has a laptop sleeve over it. So now I’m famous, I have a case for my loop pedal.

[Laughs] You and your famous laptop sleeves are heading to Australia in March for Pitch Festival

Is it going to be hot then?

It’s really unpredictable but hopefully it’s not too hot when you’re here. You’ve toured Australia a lot. What makes you keep coming back? Besides getting booked.

I dunno [laughs] The food! The food is good and the people are really nice and friendly. I haven’t been for a while but that’s because its so far away and I hate flying. I tend to say no to Australian gigs and it’s not because I don’t like it there, it’s just the thought of being on a plane for two days is just horrible and I have to build up to it. This time I’m only there for five days and there are three shows and we fly for each of the three days, so it’s going to be tough because I’m moving house at the same time. Everything’s happened at once, which is stupid because the rest of the year is really quiet. But it’s a really beautiful part of the world to see and I can’t wait to get there. I used to drink coffee and the coffee was great but I don’t drink coffee anymore.

Maybe there’s a trendy decaf place you can go to?

I think decaf has the same effect on me though because my body thinks its caffeine, it’s like a placebo. But maybe I’ll give it a go?

[Laughs] Back to your tour though… What do you do at big festivals like Pitch – do you socialise? Check out other sets? Hide in your dressing room?

No, I come in, play, and then I leave immediately and go and see the city. I don’t know the lineup off the top of my head but maybe there will be someone I know. Who is on the lineup give me some names.

Âme, Axel Boman, Ben Klock

Oh, I know Axel

We’ve already found your friends. Toro Y Moi, Stimming…

I like Stimming, I don’t know him though

Potential for a new friendship maybe? Recondite, Nathan Fake.

Oh, Nathan! I might stick around then [laughs]

So you’ve got this wild tour to look forward to, but what’s in store for the rest of 2017?

Mainly just making music. I’m hoping to travel around the UK with Laura to kind of explore the UK a bit more because I’m always going to other places and forget that I live in this country that has loads of cool stuff. Also it’s a really weird time right now where everyone wants to leave Europe, well not everyone but we voted to leave Europe and it’ll be interesting to see what’s happening outside London. Because London is a bubble that doesn’t really interact with the rest of the country.

Gold Panda will be appearing at Pitch Arts and Music Festival, March 10-13.  His album Good Luck and Do Your Best is set for release on May 27.  

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