Our friends over at The Quietus have posted a nice, extensive interview with the one and only John Maus, who played at Incubated 07. His new LP We Must Become Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves is still on heavy rotation at the Incubate office! Check out the whole interview here.

“John Maus is a man of many talents. He’s a composer who met Ariel Pink at music school and was part of the original Haunted Graffiti lineup. His new album, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves combines a Moroder/Jarre/Vangelis synth palette and sinister, fog-veiled images straight out of the Ridley Scott playbook with a vocal style that sounds like it comes from a monk who’s spent too long in some echoey dungeon, precisely copying illuminated manuscripts. For all the talk about hauntology, retromania, and all the hand-wringing about how the current moment is a tail-eating cultural dead end, Maus’ aesthetic is much more considered, and ambitious. Maus has spent years studying towards a PhD in political philosophy, and he explains how his songwriting choices are made in protest against neoliberal ideals. He’s looking to write music that uses elements from the 80s soft-rock palette and action film scores, as well as medieval modes, to create something both of this moment and beyond. It’s not about literal copying, but choosing the right sonic responses to articulate a universal response to right now.”