Lektrogirl is Emma J. Davidson. Born in Australia, now residing in London, she records for Rephlex Records, who have recently released her LP I Love My Computer.
Igloo: At what point in the process of recording music and then releasing it do you gain the most satisfaction ? [ eg. making sounds / hearing that someone bought it for their mother’s birthday / reading reviews / playng live etc. ]
Emma J. Davidson: All different parts of it are satisfying along the way. Someone that I met on the internet told me that they recorded a couple of tracks for their mother to go horse riding to – that was pretty good. And it always freaks me
out when i am online chatting to people and they say – i am listening to your album. But making the music myself while i make it is the most satisfying – i really do make it for me.
It is fantastic that other people like it as well but i love making my music with my headphones on in my own little world. It is lush hearing the music in a club with a good sound
system so it fills the room. It makes me feel pretty good though when i receive my email and in it is a link that someone has included to a flash animation they have made to one of my tracks for no other reason than that they were inspired. My mum actually said she was proud of me for the first time about anything after the album came out.
I have never been in a club when one of my tracks has come on though, but other people have reported it to me. I find it (playing live) really hard to do and i have actually been crying while on stage (not totally obviously) with shyness but i made myself do it. It hasn’t got any easier.
Igloo: Do you think that the practice of MP3 bootlegging in the elctronica genre has an impact on smaller labels? Have you experienced this with any of your releases?
EJD: I am certain that there are some people who do not buy albums because they can download the whole thing in MP3 files. I also think that there are people who hear an MP3 and then go out and buy the album. It works both ways.
Igloo: You recently moved your homebase overseas -just how much of a leap is it in terms of electronic music community / events between Australia and Europe ?
EJD: Well it was not that recently that i moved over here – it was five years ago with a years break in between back in Tasmania. I am from Tasmania and when i left there was not much of an electronic scene to speak of – and the people that were into electronic music were few and far between. I was living in Sydney (Australia) for the year before i came to London (England) and would listen to a program on radio skid row – to get it the aerial of the stereo would have to be attached to a colander and hung from the light fitting by someone –i think called biz e and someone else and they played all this strange electronic music that i was in love with.
There were also these parties – i think psy or something – i am really trying to pull up information from years ago
now!!
Igloo: Do you think that Melody is slowly becoming a more prominent and acceptable ingredient in electronic music today?
EJD: I think it always was wasn’t it? Look at all the great music made by bands from years ago like pop stuff from the eighties, or look at Yellow Magic Orchestra have fucking amazing melodies. Maybe it was out of fashion for a
while more recently.
