Clubs / Get To Know
‘Playful, provocative, challenging’ – Bruce’s next chapter
Dancefloor innovator Bruce came from club music and, after an experiment with vocals-led alt-pop, he’s back to shake things up again. He’s started a new label, Poorly Knit – a place, he says, for music that’s ‘scary, avoidant, misunderstood’.
Bruce opens up about the evolution of his sound, the difference between being honest and being nice, the reasons he can never leave Bristol and why he wants people to both love and hate his new music.
Set the scene: how has your sound evolved over your years in the clubs?
After a dalliance with vocals-led pop, Brcue is back to making music for the dancefloor – but this time it’s deliberately playful, provocative and challenging
“It’s been an interesting revolution of a spiral. I started off obsessed by UK-focused dance and club music. I worked hard and was lucky to release on underground labels like Hessle Audio, Livity Sound and Hemlock early in my career, and did the touring thing as a DJ.
“I was very content, until I realised I didn’t have time to write music, and that I was seeing the ceilings of clubbing culture – I couldn’t carry on doing weird stuff while the rooms were getting bigger.
“I decided I needed to do something completely different – I started singing on music I was making. The response, often, was that it was ‘brave’, which is funny! I didn’t get the same affirmation as from the dance stuff, but I learnt alot and was really fulfilled by it emotionally.
“Then I realised, actually I do have more energy to give with club culture, but I want to do it my way this time. Less focused on scenes and culture, but rather cultivating my own sound. I’m now writing music and setting up a label with music that is designed for dancefloors but it will definitely shock a few people. I want to see how far I can push expectations.”
Are you writing with the audience in mind?
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“It’s something I think about all the time – I envy artists that can create without thinking about their audience! For me it’s a balance. Kae Tempest’s book On Connection points out the importance of connecting the creative circuit, where all real art requires three things – the writer, the piece and the subject.
“I’m finding I’m now far more aware of those elements and which of them I want to emphasise. There’s a confidence in me with my writing now.
“The listener plays an important role because this music is provocative and challenging. There’s a playfulness to it, I’m pushing people and seeing what reaction I get. I need them to both love and hate it. I want people to think ‘what the fuck’ or ‘that’s hilarious’ or ‘that’s terrifying’.”
You’re a thoughtful creator – is that a rare quality in club culture?
“I did a Boiler Room set a few years ago and the MC opened it with “one of the nicest people in dance music” which was sweet, but it makes me cringe – I’m not that nice! I’m honest: if you’re really good and lovely I’ll pay it back to you in shedloads; if you’re not, I’ll tell you.
“It’s interesting that people confuse honesty for niceness. I’ve been pushing for more honest electronic music for a while. My singing stuff, that was almost too honest.
“My authenticity has blossomed because I’ve fed more into it. But branding is everything nowadays. It winds me up that people feel the need to assign themselves to a certain aesthetic or character or style. I don’t understand why people want to hide behind their music if they put themselves into it. But that’s easy for me to say as I’m a very outgoing, grounded person.
“For me it’s more important to energise and cultivate people to come out of their skin, inspire them to realise that authenticity is the best way for us all to get along.”
How has Bristol influenced you and your sound?
Bruce was inspired by parties at Techno Towers, the Speedwell office block that burnt down in 2019, put on by the crew that now run Strange Brew – photo: BA Barracks
“I’m incredibly lucky, coming from a very boring Home Counties town, studying at Bath Spa and moving to Bristol because we’d rather commute and be in the amazing nightlife culture that inspired us so much.
“There were endless amazing grotty little venues that were just bursting at the seams with talent – early Thekla days, 5127, The Bank, Lakota, the Old Crown Courts, The Crown pub…
“The music was very UK sounding, which is obviously what Bristol is most famous for – dubstep, d’n’b, hardcore…
“But the Strange Brew crew used to run a party called Dirty Talk, in crazy spaces like the Hell’s Angels biker bar in Lawrence Hill or at Techno Towers (in Speedwell) which was a much broader sound: Balearic House, softer and more playful music that cultivated a sense of that disco energy. For me, that really inspired a sense of controlled chaos.
“I can’t leave Bristol now because of the community. I go out and spend half the night chatting because I’m seeing all these people that I have made a best friend connection with. I don’t see them outside the club but I see them there every week. Bristol is just so special.”
You’ve launched a new label, Poorly Knit…
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“It’s named after my Noods Radio show. I realised if I was going to go back to the dance stuff I needed to find a vein that made more sense to me. So it got more serious, darker, cathartic in a moody sort of way.
“Like Poorly Knit, a craft that’s not particularly well done, I was trying to emulate my big DJ inspirations – deconstructing typical club culture tropes like beat matching, tension and release, colour and texture.
“The first records came out in February. They’re 160BPM which is d’n’b / dancehall tempo, but there’s nothing of those genres about them. They’re daft and fun. I like the idea that someone’s at an afters and is like ‘mate, have you heard this, put this on, what the fuck?!’
“I want Poorly Knit to be a safe place for stuff that is considered scary, avoidant, misunderstood.”
The Price/Mimicry is available now. Look out for another Poorly Knit release in April.
Main image: @leolopezfoto
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