Corpsepaint, blood and glow sticks: how the synthwave project captured the imaginations of metallers.
Perturbator has turned metal elitists into ravers and is leading one of the underground’s most unexpected phenomenons. and he’s only just getting started…
For the first time during our conversation today you can almost hear James Kent, better known to the world as Perturbator, smile. he’s recalling the moment he took to the stage to headline Belgium’s Nidrosian Black mass Festival, on a bill full of hardened extreme metal bands, to look out at an audience of hardened extreme metal fans... all standing silently with their arms folded. It was a moment, he tells us, where he couldn’t help but think to himself: “Just what am I doing here?”.
“the stage was full of dried animal blood and charred remains of whatever it was they were burning,” he continues.
“It stank of death and I could just feel the eyes of these elitists in corpsepaint and bulletbelts looking at me. they stood there glaring for a couple of songs, but they started to thaw out, and by about halfway through my set it all changed and they ended up all waving glowsticks and partying with me. that’s probably the weirdest memory I have so far.”
as anecdotes go, it’s a good one, but these kinds of reactions are becoming increasingly common in the world of James Kent. Perturbator has, against all odds, been welcomed into the bosom of the underground metal scene, despite playing a type of 80s-slanted, retro-heavy synth that you’d assume would bring metal fans out in hives. So, let’s try and get to the bottom of his original question: just what is Perturbator doing here?
“my parents were very open-minded to music,” says the producer of his Parisian upbringing. Both were in the music industry (his father is the influential British writer Nick Kent), and taught the young James to “respect all different genres. I soon started to learn the guitar, but there was never any suggestion from them that I should be stuck to it forever. I think those formative years, and their ideas on music and art are a huge factor in the creation of Perturbator.”
It was, he tells us, the most natural thing in the world for the teenage James to begin playing in bands, diving into the French underground scene in a series of shortlived extreme metal bands, although he soon became frustrated at the democratic process involved in such endeavours.
“I’m single-minded and I don’t like to compromise my ideas,” he says in no uncertain terms. “Being in a band was not good for me. You’ve got five people and it’s rare that everyone has the same idea, or the same ability. I got sick of carrying passengers, I got bored of having to entertain ideas that I didn’t feel were of a good enough standard, and I just didn’t like playing live.”
Instead, he realised that the most enjoyment he got from music was not being put in front of people and being made to cooperate, but from the solitary thrill of creating his own vision.
“I got more of a thrill from creating riffs than from playing them,” explains James. “It made sense to find a way that I could do that alone, and that’s when I started to experiment with electronics.”
When asked if he’d ever go back into a band situation, or work with other musicians, James says he is open to the idea, even if his demeanor suggests otherwise.
“Perturbator has taught me to be more open to other ideas,” he answers vaguely. “If I were to join a band again then I’d be better prepared for it. I want to add other musicians to the Perturbator live show, but it’s hard to do that because they would have to commit to it like I do – and it’s easy for me to commit to it, because I will always make all the decisions.”
that last sentence is spoken with a steeliness that you don’t always hear in modern musicians, and it neatly sums up the kind of person James is. our first exposure to his work here at Hammer was last year at Iceland’s eistnaflug Festival, where Perturbator played alongside
“I HAD CORPSE PAINTWEARING ELITISTS WAVING GLOW STICKS AT ME” PERTURBATOR IS TURNING THE UNDERGROUND RAVEY
Meshuggah, opeth, marduk and many more metal luminaries. It was a stunning set, taking place at 5am and invoking much the same response as he described at the beginning of our conversation. offstage, he came across as a deeply intense and serious individual, although one with a typically enigmatic French flair – part Serge Gainsbourg, part Fenriz from Darkthrone. at the time he described his music to us as “black metal... made by electronics”, and seemed to almost delight at positioning himself as the ultimate scene outsider.
“I guess I’m not very… sociable,” is his argument. “the thing that really appealed to me about making instrumental music is that I don’t have to explain what I’m talking about. I don’t really care about people getting to know me. I really don’t care about being a ‘face’ of anything.”
But Perturbator is becoming the face of the nascent synthwave movement that is sweeping up more metal fans every day. Did he aim for acceptance from the metal community, or has it come as much of a shock to him as it has everyone else?
“I started doing gigs with metal bands because it’s where I come from, it made sense to me,” he explains. “When I do eDm gigs they look at me like, ‘What are you doing here? this music is metal!’ When I do metal shows they wonder why there is a dance act playing. I don’t fit in anywhere.”
Despite the DJ’s insistence that he is slipping between the cracks of two very opposite tribes, it’s clear that our world has been quicker in claiming him for our own. Stage-headlining sets at hellfest and Download have shown that Perturbator is quickly becoming more than an underground concern.
“People react similarly wherever I go,” he says with an audible shrug in his voice, “but the metal scene has been the more open-minded one. I guess the darkness, the intensity appeals to them.”
erturbator’s music is definitely dark and intense, and latest release New Model is testament to that. Six tracks of throbbing, threatening, icy synths that eschew the vibes of his previously more upbeat material for a more brooding soundscape, it was partially inspired by the theory of roko’s basiliska, which centres around a thought experiment showcasing the dangers of aI rising up to control mankind, and punishing those who did not help in bringing about its existence. It’s a pretty metal concept.
“I came across it online and thought was interesting,” James tells us. “Usually I could tell you exactly what the narrative and inspiration of every piece of music I’ve made is, but this time it’s not so easy. It’s much more about capturing a different feeling than I have previously, and that concept gave it a unique flavour.”
there is also the sneaking suspicion that Perturbator is primed to capitalise on the current zeitgeist of 80s nostalgia culture – a phenomenon highlighted by the success of pop culture juggernauts like Drive and Stranger Things. all things, it should be said, heavily featuring soundtracks inspired by the music of John carpenter or Vangelis – as is Pertubator himself. Simply put: synthwave’s sonic tableaux is becoming one of the biggest things in alternative music right now.
“I try not to think about things like that too much,” he replies, unsurprisingly. “I’m quite shocked at what has happened to me – who could’ve predicted it? I did this out of a genuine love of this music, but it’s cool to see it happen. I’d have loved to have been able to do something on the new Blade Runner movie, that would’ve been a dream for me.”
there, again, we get a brief glimpse of excitement in James’s voice. clearly, there is ambition for Perturbator; it’s just – typically – different to most of the other musicians you’ll read about in Hammer.
“I want to come back to every country with more of a show, more of an immersive experience,” he says with that steely conviction. “It’ll be hard to get that right and to the standard I demand, but I have plans to continue making more of this.”
and if Perturbator blows up, which make no mistake, is not out of the question, and turns James Kent from the shy, thoughtful and unsociable person he is now into one of the biggest stars in the music world… what happens then?
“I just have to deal with it,” he says after a pause. “as long as I don’t have to put up with any fucking paparazzi.”
Stages full of dried animal blood and black metal fans? Fine. celebrity culture? Not for James Kent. there’s no denying it: Perturbator truly is one of ours.
“PEOPLE LOOK AT ME LIKE, ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?’” WHEREVER HE GOES, PERTURBATOR IS THE ULTIMATE OUTSIDER