How it started

I started Asteroid Deluxe with two long-standing musical friends, guitarist Andy Taylor and drummer James Phillips. We shared an appetite for free-form playing, psychedelic rock, extended grooves and music that could head somewhere unexpected without a prearranged destination. The early group was a trio, with other musicians joining at different times.

The approach borrowed as much from improvisation as from space rock and krautrock. My Roland GR-55 MIDI bass was an important part of those performances: rather than sticking to conventional bass sounds, I could contribute brass-like lines, detuned flutes, distorted strings and other unlikely textures.

The Cube, Bristol

A 2013 performance at the Cube was a continuous 45-minute improvisation, part of the experimental ¡hen~do event. The wider circle of collaborators included Dani Landau, who at one show joined in on bass clarinet from the back of the room, and Mat ‘DJ Dinnermoney’ Wigley.

Film scores at Green Man

In 2015 we wrote and performed an entirely new live soundtrack for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain at Green Man’s Cinedrome. The score ran to almost two hours, shifting between pulsating rhythms, abrasive guitars and quieter acoustic passages. The music was played live rather than assembled from backing tracks.

The following year we returned to Green Man with another rescore, for René Laloux’s animated science-fiction film Fantastic Planet (La Planète sauvage). The film projects involved a four-piece line-up with keyboardist Helen Stanley alongside Andy, James and me.

Recordings

Alongside the live work we recorded a suite called The Moons of Jupiter, including a piece titled “Callisto”. Our debut vinyl album, The Lawn, arrived in 2017. Visuals have also been a part of the band’s live work, including contributions from David Hopkinson.

Asteroid Deluxe belongs to the more experimental side of my live musical history. It is also one of the connections between my earlier band playing and the improvisation that became increasingly central to my modular performances.