Bubble Headed Booby

Band Personnel... Mr Bubble: keys and computers. Richard Head: vox and further computerised mayhem. They play 3-4 minute pop songs full of sounds you might get from an acoustic instrument and some you will definitely not.

My first musical tools were a tape recorder, an old banjo mandolin and an ice-cream container. Then I got one of those home Casio mini keyboard things (actually, I think it was a Yamaha) along with an ABBA song book - the fusion of pop and electronic was born! As I earnt more money I accumulated more gear - a real synth you could program, a Dr Rhythm drum machine, a sequencer, 4-track and other recording gear. But dabbling with songs and sounds on my own eventually lost it's appeal, so I started working with vocalists and bands. This proved very rewarding - vocalists and other musicians took my songs to new levels and I was able to flesh out their ideas into finished productions. However, over time I lost contact with all that and other things - career etc - took over. So now I'm back at the beginning, messing around with music on my own and looking for some sort of direction. I'd really like to collaborate with others because the output is usually much better ("sum of the parts..." etc) and it helps in maintaining motivation.

I have in the past, but spent most of my time wishing that I had a massive bank of keyboards to hide behind. So I'm probably best suited to the studio (AKA as the spare room with computer) these days.

I like pop music - well constructed songs as written by the Beatles etc. I also like the electronic sounds that caught my ear in the late 70s as a new generation started to tinker with cheap synths. My favourite era of music is the early 80s because it combined new found synth sounds with classic pop song structures, as reflected in the music of New Wave, Synth Pop and New Romantic acts. This style of music has made a comeback in recent years via bands such as Ladytron, the Killers, the Sounds, the Bravery etc. I'm not trying to jump on that bandwagon or emulate the older acts, but the style of music they represent is definitely the "vocabulary" I like to work with.

I have a few "real" keyboards left over from the pre softsynth days - Ensoniq EPS16 sampler, Yamaha DX100 FM synth, Korg MS-20 analogue synth. But these days I just use FL Studio and softsynths.

Thanks to KFC and Pizza Hut for their kind assistance in the making of all my records.