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US dubstepper John Dadzie, aka 12th Planet, is a gamer
"I draw a lot of inspiration from video games. I’ve been playing Diablo since its conception in 1997. I remember the day it came out; it totally blew my mind. It was very addictive and replayable, and one of the only games I played at the time that got better after I beat it. Now I play a lot of Diablo 3, and for some reason, the hack and slash of the game totally relaxes me.
After you unlock the Inferno mode it gets so hard you need serious time to figure out new specs and strategies to continue to the higher levels. I’ve got three level 60 characters, but the one I’m most proud of is my Wizard. He’s a pure instrument of death; I think I’ve devoted about 100 hours to his cause."
"Aside from music, I’m an art director for a shoe brand. I’ve worked in design and fashion for best part of ten years, and it’s always been my first love. When I first started designing, all I ever wanted to work on was record sleeves. I actually set up a label in 2002, but after I realised my A&R skills weren’t up to scratch I took away the one aspect I loved about running the label: design. I always try to blend my design work and music together, as they go hand in hand. I spend so many nights on my own listening to records; it’s my favourite thing to do.
Most of my inspiration comes from my own life experiences, from the people I meet and the places I’ve been. A lot of the tracks I make are ideas that have been lying around for years; when the time is right they resurface and turn into new tracks. I have productions from ten years ago that have been sampled or warped to fit into things I’ve put out in the last two years."
"Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities was first published in 1972 and has all the cosmic resonance of the era. And no, there isn’t really a connection between the author’s name and the disco flavour. However, it’s sort of a psychedelic rework of Marco Polo’s diary during his journeys across the world. Each chapter depicts a bizarre imaginary city; surely Armilla, the city with no walls, no ceilings and no floors can’t exist?
It’s surreal atmosphere is enhanced by the knowledge that the only two characters don’t speak the same language. There’s also a conspiratorial-sounding theory about sine waves and the book’s numbered sections. We obviously like it."
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