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A.G. Cook is fascinated with binaries.
I feel like a lot of those discussions are pretty inaccurate and kind of funny, he says.
Saying that, like, Adele is more authentic than Lady Gaga … thats random.
Theres no way its not two brands that have the same mix of real and fake.
Looking at the pop landscape with that sort of X-ray vision has helped Cook become pops preeminent futurist.
Through their prolific partnership, Cook developed one of the definitive sounds of the 2010s.
Hes visibly jumpy and excited, doing his first proper press cycle after nearly a decade in the industry.
7GandAppletoy with those same binaries Cook has spent his career thinking about.
It actually feels ideal for me to have two debut albums, he says.
It felt very in tune with how I think about releases in general.
This notion of contrast is something that I think were going to find more and more.
Technology
At the beginning of his career, Cook banned instruments from his music.
I wouldnt even touch a guitar, he says.
Later songs like Charli XCXsFemmebotmore directly addressed Cook and his performers relationship to technology.
Cook went intoApplewanting to define my take on PC music literally as personal computer music, he says.
The funny blend of authenticity and the realness, the unrealness.
I think its a really blurred line, especially when youre editing yourself on a computer.
It became interesting to me again once Id gone completely around the loop on it, he says.
A DIY aesthetic
Cook admits hes not a singer.
Yet hes never been afraid to sing on his music, from his early 2016 standoutSuperstarto nearly everyAppletrack.
(A live acoustic performance of Superstar appears on the guitar disc of7G.)
I think even if you put tons of effects on a vocal, the personality still comes through.
Thats never something I was really drawn to.
QT), Tommy Cash, Alaska Reid, and Cecile Believe.
She couldnt even remember a couple of the tracks likeAlright,she had no memory of it.
I think we give each other a lot of confidence, he says.
He remembers PC Music tracks standing out in a London mid-10s electronic scene.
Wed just be playing the music we liked, Cook says.
That said, he insists he doesnt see his new music as gendered.
I dont think it sounds that masculine or feminine necessarily, Cook says.
Its not something I think of tons in my music.
Stylized images
A PC Music release is visual as much as it is sonic.
Everything that really cuts through has something thats just not all about [the track].
Maybe in the past it wouldve been their live show, like Whoa, theyre crazy!
Its how they collaborate with other artists and how they do production.
It was just very important to communicate visually, Cook says.
I think it lends itself to a lot of that mystery.
Even without as much mystery today, Cook still thinks of releases visually, even his own.
A lot of different PC artists have had sort of very specific color spaces, he says.
Its so much about context and a piece of music having conversations with each other.
Now, Cooks new projects find him revisiting his old work.
(Bonus:Applealso includes a cover ofAnimalsbyOneohtrix Point Never.)
Everyones just building on everyone, he says.
I felt pretty committed to it being that confrontational, Cook says of the album.
I like the feeling that anything could happen in a track or a track order.
Hes still developing his understanding of music-making as he continues trying to tease out contrasts in his music.
I think Im finding subtler ways to do that as well, and smarter ways, Cook says.
He takes an example from7G.
