ULYSSES 21: Mini-Autobiography

This is the artwork to the first AUTOFAC album that was made in 2001. This is the tracklisting.

1. Massive Existence Failure
2. Monochrome
3. Displaced
4. Ulysses 21
5. Rollerdiscolover
6. Corridors
7. Spacerage
8. Bingo Bus
9. Zamyatin
10. Pluto

This album was constructed and recorded during the summer of 2001 by AUTOFAC. This album was exclusively constructed, layered and mixed with royalty free loops. The emphasis was on sound and rhythm. The album was constructed on the computer, mixed and mastered onto Mini-disc.

What follows is a mini-autobiography created for myspace in 2006 and updated tday website by AUTOFAC.

Started getting interested in music when I was 8, watching the likes of Soft Cell, Japan, OMD and ABBA on Top of the Pops in the early 80s.

I eventually got a decent 'ghetto blaster' in 1985 and taped my favourite songs from the Top 40 every week. Often these would include a-ha, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, New Order and Depeche Mode. When I was 13 I got a paper round, bought a record player and bought my own 12" singles, and albums of the aforementioned bands, and also got into Kraftwerk and a lot of Euro disco/pop and Chicago House music.

When I was 15 my income was supplimented when I collected glasses for a nice pub, and could buy even more records, and beer.

At 17 I had a sizeable record collection, and also got into dance music, and stuff by 808 State, and The KLF (totally, inexplicably bypassing the much of the Madchester period, save for Electronic and New Order), I became a DJ. (Not the mixing kind, or the naff Wedding kind, but some kind of reasonable compromise between the two).

As the 90s progressed I did have a mild obsession with MTV Europe and many of the techno pop tracks that were often played, long before the MTV signal was split into each European country and MTV became nothing more than reality TV. These were the days of Ray Cokes, Steve Blaine, Paul King and Simone. 

I DJ'd for a while, worked in a nightclub (but not as a DJ all the time) and got into that German techno-trance vibe, but also into serious commercial artists, such as Radiohead, Mercury Rev, Manic Street Preachers, Flaming Lips, etc. I also listened to classical music and stuff by Philip Glass, and the twisted sounds of Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada.

I've been writing and developing stuff since 1990 but only took it semi-seriously in 2001, when I actually began to enjoy what I did. I work with keyboards and things like that. I tried to learn guitar but I was hopeless and it was pointless since I didn't even at least look cool like the many famous non/bad guitarists in history. Still, in this climate of guitar dominated pop what the world needs even less than another electronic enigma is another guitar band. 

Since 2001 I've produced a couple of albums and EP's. 

In 2007 I had the privillige of being featured on BBC 6 music digital radio  for a whole hour where I gave an interview and played a selection of music.

Throughout 2007 I worked on and produced an album of songs I co-wrote in the 1990s with a friends of mine called Shane. This album was completed in late 2008.

I've recently completed two albums (I Survey Everything and World War Terminus-2010) and have been working and putting out new EPs via Bandcamp and Soundcloud.  

I still love listening to music, mostly electronic, but also Italo disco, classical and bits of everything. When I'm not making music, or thinking of making music, I like compiling 'mixtapes' of my current or old favourites or writing about things. 

I'm working on more projects and things for the near future, although they'll be ready when they're ready.