Photo by Paul Maxwell
Following his history of space travel concept opus ‘Technology For The Youth’ in 2022, Peter Fitzpatrick has landed back on earth and returns as CIRCUIT3 with ‘Louder Than Words’.
Featuring the tasty sounds of a Minimoog Model D, Sequential Prophet 10, Roland Juno 106 and Oberheim OBX-8, the synth-obsessed Irishman has headed down to the disco for a glitterball pop groover unlike any of his previous works. This CIRCUIT3 track is an exclusive which forms part of a new AnalogueTrash Label Sampler which also features SPRAY and VIEON. ‘Louder Than Words’ also comes with a striking visual accompaniment generated by AI.
Peter Fitzpatrick chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about the making of ‘Louder Than Words’ and the impact of technology for the middle aged man…
‘Louder Than Words’ is a disco song, is this signs of a new direction?
I’m getting braver I guess. Over the last 2-3 years I’ve listened to a lot of current and legacy dance music. I can’t dance so it’s a little perverted that I dare try this. Feeling a burst of new creative energy after what was a challenging year health-wise, it’s going to come out in some form or another. Somehow I doubt I’ll be able to just ‘do’ dance tracks and there’ll have to be an element of classic synth pop miserable-ism in there. The title and lyrics came from my regular writing partner Brian McCloskey (host of the Smash Hits blog ‘Like Punk Never Happened’). When I started to put my own spin on his lyric the imagery which came to mind was the Silence=Death Project. “Silence has spoken…. Louder than words”.
The music came from a host of new instruments in my studio including the classic Minimoog and an OBX-8. Someone at the label said “ohh that solo is like CHROMEO”. Loved hearing that as I do like to listen to funk and sometimes late at night in the studio, I pretend I can play it.
You did the video using AI, how did that come about?
In my day job, I’ve been learning how to apply Generative AI and naturally instead of doing actual work, I was exploring how I might apply it to my music. Using a commercial Generative Video AI service, I learned in a few hours that I loved doing this. I’ve always enjoyed making video but I’m a frustrated visual artist. My prompts to the AI toolset allowed me use various models and piece together over a few evenings the video you’re sharing now. The technology is really enabling for me.
There’s a bit in the middle with the car which appears to be very Jack Vettriano in imagery, what that part of the brief you’d instructed?
Well spotted! Until I started playing with the AI toolset, I had no idea who Mr Vettriano is. With AI it can create a model based upon certain style or content. On my request, the tool created a section which used the style of Jack Vettriano. All I saw were some visual options I could use and I liked how it looked. After you pointed it out, I went back and indeed that’s the style of the model I chose.
Dunno about you, but I’m getting sick of these one minute reels that are passing for videos on socials appeasing listeners with low attention spans when those us with a bit more focus want a full length visual presentation… so with AI, musicians have no excuse not to make videos, discuss 😉
The dumbing down continues. When a 4 minute video is considered long-form, I think we’re in trouble! AI is another tool for musicians. For this video I chose to do it entirely using an AI toolset but my preference would be to use it to enhance other video content. In fact I’m working on making an AI model of myself with a view to creating hybrid real-life / AI video. Watch out though because there’s about to be a lot of really sh*t video created.
What is next for CIRCUIT3? I’m getting tired of the single track release strategy used by many acts to max the Spotify algorithm, are you going to join in on that one or will it be an EP, mini-album or full length long player for you?
I’m back writing and demo’ing across 3 different projects right now. One of them will be a Dystopian Disco building up on this first track ‘Louder Than Words’. The other 2 could not be further away from anything I’ve done before. My live show has been revamped to become more interactive and inventive. I’m working on a niche project which was offered to me by someone on the night of the Vince Clarke live show in the London School of Economics in late 2023 which signals the direction of that endeavour.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Peter Fitzpatrick
‘Louder Than Words’ is available now as a download exclusively on the AnalogueTrash Label Sampler Vol. 7 using a pay-what-you-can model via https://analoguetrash.bandcamp.com/album/analoguetrash-label-sampler-vol-7
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Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
29 December 2023
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