Real Lies introduce Boothroyd

Boothroyd is a young producer who builds battered sound worlds using a laptop and cheap headphones. Real Lies are a band from North London who write pop songs about finding the beauty in the bleak realities of urban life. Their music may not bear many surface level similarities, but there’s a shared outlook and understanding between both artists. They’re also mates – Boothroyd even appeared in the video for Real Lies’ latest single, Dab Housing. With Boothroyd’s debut EP ‘Idle Hours’ set for a release through Tri Angle Records next week, and with an appearance at Evian Christ’s next Trance Party lined up, Real Lies tell you why you really ought to be paying attention to what Boothroyd is doing.

Real Lies: “The first time we met Boothroyd, aka Peter Boothroyd, was in the smoking area of Peoples Club on Holloway Road. He was walking around in an ’02/’03 Man United shirt and told us that, despite being at a nightclub, he didn’t listen to electronic music – all he liked was Oasis and The Beatles.

“It was a bit of a surprise when he sent us his EP, ‘Idle Hours’, and it turned out to be a half-hour collage of emotional industrial music; dark city soundscapes put through a shredder and rearranged to sound like a train crashing in slow motion, or a mind trying to reglue itself having woken after a night out on the roof of a tower block in mid-demolition, exterior walls half chewed away by machinery, making a grotesque museum-piece of the places where children used to sleep.

“It’s fun to talk in this overblown way about noise music but Boothroyd’s has more personality to it than most. His music’s not pointless enough for the ATP crowd and he can’t grow enough facial hair to get in The Wire. There’s threat and menace, but there’s sensitivity there too; mostly it comes in cut-up vocal samples that sound like suffering angels. It sometimes makes you wonder what’s going on in his head. We often look at him when he’s sat in the pub and think to ourselves, ‘You poor fucker.’

“Boothroyd has an innate love of piss-taking; he claims to have invented neo-grime, and reckons he used to keep goal for a semi-pro football team. He claims to hate Londoners and art school but moved to London to go to art school. He turned up to the pub once trying to sell some moody Margiela jeans for a tenner. No one bought the jeans but we bought Boothroyd a pint anyway.

“London can be a confusing place for northerners but Boothroyd doesn’t seem fazed by it. We can’t wait ’til he returns the favour and takes us all on holiday to Radcliffe.”

Tri Angle Records release the ‘Idle Hours’ EP on September 29th 2014 (pre-order).