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In 1993, after finishing the second Flight Commander album, I started working on some ambient music - I put together about ten tracks over the course of a few months, came up with the name "Aurora," and eventually sent out a few demos to see what kind of reaction it would get. Right around this time, a friend introduced me to a couple of fine fellows, James Bacon and Robin Downe, who were just starting to experiment with synths and samplers. They too had a handful of demo tracks, but like me, were a bit lacking in direction. Their stuff had a strong rhythmic quality and mine had atmosphere, so we decided to try putting the two together. Remarkably, things immediately fell into place, and so began a 3 year collaboration which produced some great music. After three name changes, we settled on the name "Mindfeel." Mindfeel were one of the few electronic bands to take all the gear out and actually play shows. In a very short time we established a reputation as the hottest thing in town, playing between DJs at dance clubs. There were tracks on compilations, plus our first single Cranium, all of which met with overwhelming critical acclaim. We had an album - Constructive Interference - which we could never find the backing to release. It's a huge piece of work, and the fact it wasn't released at the time just made me hate the music business even more than I already did. I left the band - or rather - I left the country in 1996 and moved to New Mexico. There was a plan to continue collaborating on music via the internet, which didn't work out too well in the long run, though some great tracks were written "Trans-Atlantic-ly." During this time a publishing deal with V2 was signed, and another single was released. The other lads continued as a two piece for a couple more years until 1999, when their frustration with the lethargy within the music business finally took its toll. It wasn't until 2015, with me
having returned to Sheffield, we put our heads back
together and finally self-released the lost album
Constructive Interference. You just
can't leave these things undone. |