Introducing....Le Carousel and their fabric Mixtape

This Saturday night, Phil Kieran is set to debut his new project, Le Carousel, in Room One. It’s a real progression from the no nonsense techno he’s established for himself over the years, going deeper into his immediate connection with music he’s creating something that couldn’t be closer to his heart. We’ve already shared snippets of the live set on the blog and previews of the album but as this is such a special happening we took time out to catch up with Phil to find out more about how this project came about and the ins and outs of facilitating it. He’s even recorded us a very exclusive mixtape complete with previously unheard out takes that never quite made the album. DOWNLOAD: Le Carousel Mixtape So I’d really like to talk about Le Carousel, that’s quite a move from your Phil Kieran work – what sparked this new direction? Simply a desire to write some honest music that I felt was a true reflection of me, something that had meaning and worth . Obviously you won’t have only just been listening to techno your life, what kind of artists have influenced the new sound? So many things, I’ve always been a big fan of postpunk/ New York disco from the early 80's, Krautrock and everything that goes along with it , all the usual ones like NEU! and Kraftwerk etc , Brian Eno has always been there and I love all his old prog rock stuff. And then I guess I grew up on that era of Primal Scream’s and Screamadelica, through to dance music around that time on Warp Records and Andrew Weatherall joining the dots between the two is a good way to describe it. Can you tell us about your production process, how did it differ? I used just about any instrument, live, outboard, plugin anything I could get my hands on to see if I could add anything to it. I tried to keep it as outboard as I possibly could to get my own individual sound going and with just a lot of attention to detail. I also called on some of the best musicians around the Belfast area and we have some great talent here. Who is it you’re working with in the band now? Roisin who sings on every track on the album also plays bass and vocals in the live show, she has been there almost from the start until now and is a big part of the live performance, also a great guitar player called and then we have Stephen ( Leaky ) on drums , they are all great musicians and when it comes to playing live in bands they are the strength in the band , great guys . And what’s your role when you play live? I play keyboards and vocals You’ve also really considered the concept with Le Carousel, the artwork and its presentation is a part of your presentation on stage can you share the ideas behind that? I worked alongside Glenn Leyburn who designed the cover, he is a very well known and respected designer and more recently a movie director , his recent movie was "Good Vibrations." He came up with a great image and then we had it blown up onto a huge 16' X 16' canvas , which we have used to hang behind us at the album launch , the plan is to cut it up into 254 squares that are 12" X12" then these become the individual unique covers for the LTD edition vinyl release. Each copy will be numbered and one off . And finally can you tell us about this mixtape you’ve recorded for us? I’ve put lots of unreleased and unheard stuff on it , some remixes to be released in the future and a few ideas for the album that didn’t make it on, not sure if it’s a good idea , but wanted to try and make it something different! Phil Keiran will be making his UK debut of Le Carousel in Room One this Saturday for The Nothing Special with Andrew Weatherall b2b Ivan Smagghe and Craig Richards. For more info and tickets go here.