Written excerpts–

Introduction by Fred Deakin:

I watch in awe as his desperate need to achieve the impossible, to visualise the intangible essence of all that he loves in the history of popular music, drives him to create the astounding imagery in this book. This love seeps through every brush stroke, line and pixel. The intimate relationship he has with the specific musical artifacts he has bonded with is something we can all relate to, but Michael has managed to (partly) tame this madness and set it to some use, specifically to create this remarkable body of work.



Conversation with Justine Frischmann:

J: So you just moved over here (San Francisco)?

M: Well, it was a process; I wanted to do it legit. I didn’t want to come over and have to hide. I knew it was hard enough to make a living doing art in the open! I had to get an American agent to sponsor me for a visa, and there was literally one place that I was suitable for: Art Department in New York. So I came over to visit.
I had a friend that worked for the ceramicist Jonathan Adler in Soho, and I talked to him about it.
“Oh Jonathan is best friends with Stephanie Pesakoff (who ran Art Department), but if I ask him to look at your work, he’ll avoid it. If we get everyone to cluck around your folder however …” It was a coup, it worked a treat; his curiosity got the better of him and he came over, “Oh that’s great. My friend Stephanie is around the corner…” Result!

J: Wow. Brilliant.

M: Yeah! And then I got an interview with her, and I remember sitting in reception forever.
They also had a model agency, so I was sitting there, all these willowy girls sitting around, nicely diverting! Ages passed and then these male models started coming in and they’re looking at me like, “Is this the competition?” I started to realise that this was my shot at moving to America. My mouth was so dry I ate a couple of Tic Tacs, and she came out right at that moment. I spat the Tic Tacs at her face as I introduced myself! She was like, “Your teeth!” I was mortified. I went beet red! Her little dog ate the Tic Tacs. I was still red-faced an hour and twenty blocks later!
She was sweet, however, and she liked the digital work. I'd just started doing it...


 Life with the Aphex Twin:

He wasn't hampered by any need to please others, be famous or wealthy. At one point, mid 90's, Madonna wanted to work with him. He ignored her people, finally she phoned him to get the short answer. One of the later remixes he did for cash was a limp Lemonheads song, he didn't bother listening to the track, just pulled some random tune from his enormous stockpile. He told the record company that he'd compressed their entire song in to the sound of a hi hat!