Premiere: Readymade Utopia - "I'm A Snake"
David Poole (the character) was born and raised in Three Cloud City, the creative hub of the world of Readymade Utopia, whereas the artist behind David Poole’s music is based in Chicago. David Poole’s writing is guided by one ethos: Just because it’s sad doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. His new single "I'm A Snake", coming off the David Poole S/T EP out February 19th, sets out to explore this ethos in depth. Sad and fun intertwine from the first pop hook piano and skipping beat, melding with David's very specific voice, almost cutesy with dripping over the top 80's emotion.
The hook helps us understand David and The Readymade Utopia world a little more, belting "I'm A Snake" over mischievous funk and electro quips and blips, maybe David isn't as innocent as he looks (can he be trusted?). We sat down with David Poole's creator Thomas Thurlow and ask some questions, read up on "I'm A Snake" and stream it ahead of tomorrow's release:
For those new to Readymade Utopia and David Poole, explain how Readymade Utopia works and who David Poole is.
Readymade Utopia is a fun and colorful world -- detailed and alive just like our own-- inhabited by creatures just going about their lives. Some are artists, some are musicians...some are office workers just like us. The world of Readymade Utopia is brought to life through the audio-visual work we create. David Poole himself is a native to Three Cloud City, the entertainment capital of RMU.
He’s a lot like me, but filtered through his kinder futuristic world. He’s driven to a fault and can be very self-centered, but unlike me he has a sense of elegance and always makes time for the things he enjoys (making candy and writing music!). A lot of the artistic intent for RMU comes from what co-founder Kate Nikles and I see as an extension of the multimedia landscape already surrounding pop music. How we as consumers “see” the artist impacts how we “hear” them and through Readymade Utopia we have the opportunity to expand upon this :)
You seem to have a lot of electronic, internet age, and almost nostalgic elements to your sound, what inspires you most to write, especially for David Poole?
Every song I’ve written is about my ex or my dead dad lol. Okay, that’s an exaggeration but I was experiencing a lot of complex feelings of loss and I find that emotionally complex music tends to be a BUMMER. It really drove me to make the songs about the loss I was experiencing more FUN and lively because I wish there were songs like that for me. I am really interested in the way sounds outside of vocals can say a lot.
Each sound can bring up memories and conjure images and feelings; for example, there’s nothing futuristic about an arpeggiator, but they always make me feel like I’ve been teleported into a sci-fi tech future. I love how combining and layering different sonic elements like this can create a space and story that bolsters the emotions of the song. I like to imagine that the same way the world of RMU impacts the way we hear David Poole’s music, David Poole’s music impacts the way we see the world of Readymade Utopia.
Tell us more about the upcoming David Poole album due out next month.
On the 19th of February, S?T will be released via Readymade Utopia. On this EP I wanted to explore the bounds of bedroom production -- expanding it to be as lush and clean as any pop record.
I like to think of each of the songs on this record as a part of a world, an event, a moment, a space, a story, and then did what I could to bring the emotions of this story into fruition. What I love about music as an artform is the way it can play with time. A 3 minute long song can be about either a moment that passed so quickly you barely felt it or an entire lifetime. That compression and expansion of time is what I feel links the songs on this EP.