Tom Hughes isn’t necessarily an ‘alt lit’ artist, but he did create the ‘Which House’ macro for Internet Poetry, which led me to his mega magical cartoon “Mercy,” based on the life and death of Donald Crowhurst, a businessman and amateur sailor who tried to circumnavigate the globe in a race and ended up going insane and possibly drowning himself. Picking a good point of inspiration for art is difficult, and Tom nails his elusive, crazy subject. So I asked him about his favoured tunes (or pronounced in the British way, ‘choons’). He introduced me to the magic of Magic.fm, as well as his opinion of cables.
[what music do you listen to when you draw/create?]
im usually in my room on my own when i draw so a lot of the time i find myself listening to calming or downbeat music. i made a playlist of songs that i find sad that i usually listen to on trains but sometimes listen to in my room when im feeling nostalgic. it has stuff like arthur russell, bob dylan, the books, jon martyn on it. this guy called paul lansky who made an album of old folk tunes on a computer in the 90s is really good particularly ‘barbara allen’. i like how much emotion he managed to get out of primitive digital instruments. i think i like feeling sad sometimes + want to amplify that feeling - i think thats something music does well + helps you get in a particular zone
[what kind of music do you listen to before you “go out” (i.e. pre- socializing music)?]
i like to get jacked up before i go out so ill listen to stuff like drake + commercial hip hop or rnb. or magic fm
[how do you listen to music (headphones, speakers, computer, vinyl, boombox, iPhone, etc.)?]
when im travelling i listen to music on my iphone. i find this is practical. when im at home i have my stereo hooked up to a bluetooth receiver so i can play music through my computer without loads of cables. i think it actualy downgrades the quality + occasionally the signal drops + it buffers + then starts playing again speeded up. its really annoying, but fuck cables. i also have a record player but only have records my dads given me so its stuff like chic + luther vandross. im not complaining
[favorite song of 2012?]
erm. the song i listened to most was probably some drake track that wasnt released in 2012
[favorite song of 2013 (so far)?]
been listening to this a lot recently. it was sampled in ll cool j’s ‘doin it’. great video
[what music did you listen to five years ago?]
i was probably listening to lots of post rock like explosions in the sky, sigur ros, mono, mogwai along with pretentious math rock + idm
[what music did you listen to ten years ago?]
i was probably just getting into the smiths + indie rock + reading the perks of being a wallflower + totally relating
[what music will you listen to five years from now?]
probably feeling nostalgic listening to taylor swift