Origin

2ndMOUSE (aka – Chris M) came about after hearing an old russian folk tale in a film called Catch me if you can starring Leonardo DeCaprio , Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken.

In a speech near the beginning , Christopher Walken says ……

“Two little mice fell into a bucket full of cream.
The first mouse struggled for a short while but quickly gave up.
The ” 2ND MOUSE ” struggled so furiously that , EVENTUALLY , he    churned  the cream into butter, and crawled out.
Today , I am that 2nd mouse”

As soon as i heard this , i knew it was perfect symbolism for tenacity and determination. Something that would cement my resolve and enable me to persevere as I set off into the murky world of online promotion. The Focus for me , was on the word EVENTUALLY.

“Eventually” allows you the luxury of mistakes , and of falling down 7 times , but rising 8. Eventually is a stubborn , dogged , obstinate word , and this is why I chose the name.

As a music listener , I’ve had many influences over the years , but my very first musical memory was of hearing “The model” by Kraftwerk. I’d never noticed music until the point I heard that track.

I’d been used to hearing my mum playing Her Elvis records on a sunday , and it was traditional , normal and kinda generic to me when I was 12. Too comfortable and normal.
I remember lying under my bedcovers , with a pocket radio i’d saved up for , listening to radio luxembourg , and “The Model” came on and sounded so different to everything I’d heard previously. It was some kind of musical revelation or epiphane , and very definitely , the precise moment that the musical switch ” tripped “
This was the first time i’d heard synthesizers , which were kinda new to everyone then ,  and this is  where it all started for me.

The next revelation came years later when i heard “Master and servant” by Depeche Mode.

I became a huge fan and eventually bought every album , every 12 inch , and i learned a lot about sound layering and track structure from those guys. Even though I wasn’t actively making music then , I can see , in hindsight , that I was very aware of the structure of their music , and I loved the way they built their tracks using very carefully thought out layers , where every note felt so deliberate and profound .It was very Germanic and ordered , just like Kraftwerk

The Next major influence , was Detroit Techno , but specifically a track called “Techno music” by Juan Atkins. This track nailed it for me. It was on an album called Techno 1 : the sound of Detroit , and between that track and ” It is what it is ” by Rhythm is Rhythm , I knew then that I wanted to make those sounds , specifically the beats and the phat saw-wave basslines.

Over the years , many more bands have influenced me , such as Plone , Future Sound of London , Boards of Canada , Dan Curtin , Luke Vibert , plaid , Vesna , Leftfield etc……. and i’ve went  about trying to emulate that feeling i got when i listened to the tracks that really got under my skin , trying to recreate the mood and make something futuristic , yet soulful….experimental , but grounded squarely in melody , man making machine music , and trying to give soul to a machine.

I know not everyone will get it , but in a nutshell , what I’m trying to achieve is a fusion of the experimental curiosity of people like Aphex Twin ,  Squarepusher ,  Vesna etc…. with the strong melodies of  Jarre  , Vangelis , Jan Hammer , Tomita etc….and create a middle ground I can call my own. I’ve no intentions of becoming so avant-garde that it becomes anti-music without discernable melodic structure.

Melody is crucial to me.

It is the whole point.

 

peace.

2M