UK producer and label manager Glimpse, known as Chris Spero to his tax agent, is set to arrive in Australia for a series of live dates. He'll be getting things underway in Perth this weekend, before heading east for shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
So far, 2009 has been a busy year for the Londoner. He's dropped three well-received singles, spent time in the lab with Alex Jones, and, more recently, put the finishing touches on his Crosstown Rebels-bound LP. Spero's only mode of performance is his live show, which will be on display on each stop on his upcoming tour.
We recently had a phone conversation with the excitable Brit, where he explained his live show, his thoughts on a possible DJ career and his new album.What's your live setup at the moment?
It's pretty simple. I have two different live shows. One's analogue, with my laptop, a 909 drum machine and a synth. It's fine for doing really big shows, but if I'm on tour, I just run Ableton with a MIDI controller and sound card. If I have a full analogue setup while I'm on tour, it's too much kit, and stuff gets damaged—it's not really viable.
How does the 909 go on a club system?
Incredible. Unfortunately, the 909 is quite hard to take on the road. It's fragile. It sounds phenomenal. It has that really powerful analogue signal, bigger than any other drum machine. Every time I hear a drum sample that's not from a 909, I find it doesn't have that same attack.
Have you ever thought of pursuing a "Glimpse DJ set"?
I started out DJing when I was a teenager, so I can DJ. When I started playing professionally—where performing live was my main job—four years ago, I was always being asked to play live. I do love to always play my own material, but I would like to be able to DJ for, like, five or six hours. I currently have different live sets, so when I get to a club, I can play a down-tempo set, or one which is for 3:00 AM in the morning in a techno club, so I can vary my show. However, it's not like pulling out a record and playing whatever you want.
My agent has been asking me to do it for a while. I'm a big vinyl fan, so when I do it, I'll just take vinyl. I'll need to do some serious record shopping, though. I'll probably hit Hard Wax in Berlin.
Your new album is on the way, right?
My next album is coming out on Crosstown Rebels in either February or March next year. My press agent does all the press for Crosstown Rebels, so she said, "Just give me the album," and she took it to them and they signed it. I was in Berlin with Damian recently—he's really cool.
How is it sounding?
It's finished now, finally. Hopefully everything works out and it will come out when it's meant to come out. It's really deep and jazzy. It's the sort of thing you can listen to at home, and in a club. I'll be playing the club tracks while I'm in Australia, so you'll hear a lot of it.