With his debut EP 'Crayons' out next week and a star-studded launch party to prepare for, we managed to catch up with new kid on the block DNCN.

'Crayons' is out Nov 24th on Phush.

Alright Duncan, how are things?

Not bad, slightly stressful, but fun too.

So the debut EP (Crayons) is finally out next week, you happy with it?

Yeah I am, but not as happy as I am with the new stuff. The tracks on 'Crayons' are pretty old to me now, but that's just the way of the world, by the time something comes out, the person who made it always seems to be sick of it. I still like the tracks though, and some of the feedback has been great already.

Any plans for an album yet?

Well I have plenty of material ready, but I think I'd rather put another EP or two out first, raise my profile a little (hopefully) before bombarding folk with a long player. I want to do something that works well as an album rather than just a collection of random tracks, if that doesn't sound too pretentious.

Your launch party is this weekend, got anything interesting planned and do you enjoy playing live?

Playing live is where it's at for me, although at one gig software issues restricted me. I am constantly making things more difficult for myself and (hopefully) more interesting for the people listening, although from talking with Pedro at 'In The City', we are both aware that it can just look like you are checking your emails, incidently, he was fucking brilliant that night. Hopefully I will have some extra weird shit goin on on stage for Saturday, although it's a little unplanned, I'm sure I'll rope some people in to spice things up a little. I am lucky enough to have a good visuals team (rtfm) which is pretty damn important to me. When I'm trying to keep loops and glitches running in some cohesive manner I don't have time to do synchronised dancing aswell (although it would be nice).

Do you think you are a bit of a geek? Most people associate laptop music with a nerd image...

I hope not, I think I have too much of a reputation as a space cadet for that. Anyway, geek is the new cool, or at least it is if I am one. Aw I don't give a fuck if I am anyway. What is cool anyway? Come to think of it what defines a geek? What is art? What is religion?........ are we really here? Oh, wait hang on, what was the question?

If you were going to invent anything, what would it be? And we want a name for it too.

A decent translator for German would be nice. I'm too lazy to learn it (shame on me - maybe one day) and there's been a lot of press attention regarding hippocamp.net over there, its the ace web label I do stuff for, run by a lovely fellow (and maybe g33k) who goes by the name of 'Blue Sky Research'. He even did a phone interview last week for their version of Radio 1 (in English) and there's stuff in a mag called De-Bug over there on it/us. Google has one but its ..er...shit. Comes out with some nice poetic alternatives to what they actually mean though. I wanna go play in Berlin though, there seems to be more of a scene over there for what I do, there and Montreal. A name for it? um...... the 'betterthangoogletranslatorisingismthingforgermantoenglishandbackagainmachine'.

So far, you've released loads of free music (namely on hippocamp.net), how many tunes do you reckon you have stashed away altogether?

Oh shit.. more than a hundred easily, probly more than 300. 90% of which is shit, although this may have something to do with the previously mentioned getting sick of your own tracks thing, probably at least 20 kicking around on the net in various places. I'll probably put another 4 up next week, unless someone wants to release them physically, that would be nice again. There's few physical releases I have done on other people's records, a remix on 'Lungbone EP' by Jello (aka Bola) on Peacefrog, where they got the track listing wrong (mines the 4/4 one with the bells on it), a Jukebox 45 for Twisted Nerve and the remix for Elbow's 'Fallen Angel' single. I love remixing. Mmmmmm.

Seen any films lately?

I watched the remake of 'House on Haunted Hill' last night. That was utter bollocks, and 'X-men 2', which was bearable, except for nightcrawlers shit German accent. Favourites are probably 'Delicatessen' and 'Donnie Darko' oh, and the 'Matrix Reloaded' is fucking rubbish aswell.

What are the plans for 2004?

Well, get more records out I suppose (any offers?), I am looking to do more remixes aswell, I want to help Phush establish itself too, there is some amazing stuff in the pipeline when we can afford to put it out. Also I am hoping I get to play in London, Berlin and Montreal. Oh, and SONAR, dont forget SONAR. At the moment my plan is just to try and keep improving and be as nice as I can to everyone, If only to make me feel better about myself.

What are you hoping Santa will bring for Xmas then?

Santa needs to sort me a new computer, if mine could cry it would, poor thing, I am stretching it further than it wants to go. Santa also needs to bring funding to Phush and other labels to be interested in releasing DNCN stuff aswell. Lets hope Poppa Crimbo has it locked down. I might forward this to him actually, Santa must use email nowadays.

Pepsi or Coke?

Coke, and also coca cola.

And lastly, we always do this... bought any cool records lately?

I wish, I've been brassic for ages, Phush 'svengali' Xander has some good stuff, I like the new Matmos stuff, and Drew Daniels' 'Soft Pink Truth' project is good, also Akufen is ace, Sascha Funke is amazing, I love Modelselektor too, but I was playing the warm up for Fuse so I missed 'em last week when the good folk from 'Ilektro' put them on. Gutted. Stazi's brand of madness is great too, also anything from hippocamp.net, where everyone is better than me (keep me grounded they do). Also John Martyn, Nick Drake, other assorted folky nonsense and Led Zep before they went shit. A word to Manchester's amazing 'Brothers With Different Mothers' too, if they dont get signed I despair at the state of live music.

Cheers Duncan.

(Photographer Mark Winkley)