Reluctant Protagonist

Jonathan Bates is so indifferent to industry mythology. Hilariously so… Almost. In the past handful of years, Bates' unassuming solo project has gone from random bedroom experimentation to international cult act beloved of Daft Punk, who he remixed for their Tron: Legacy OST, and M83, who he recently joined as live guitarist. Yet, there isn't an ounce of grandstanding or posturing in the man.

“When I started off, I didn't imagine I'd be speaking to you today. I'd taken some time off music. Eventually, it was either drink or make music all day long. Eventually, I started making music,” he laughs. “I was trying to do the nine to five thing but, America being what it is right now, it wasn't going that well. Eventually, I just decided to try and play a show because I didn't have much going on.”

His debut album, 2011's BBDLP1, wasn't even originally intended for release. Bates had borrowed a laptop off a friend (one-time Nine Inch Nail Alessandro Cortini), knocked together a handful of sketches and chucked them online. As time went by, those recordings grew in notoriety until Bates was almost obligated to release them officially. “At the time, I was just putting it out myself and just using the internet. A friend of mine just offered to print up the record for me and we printed, like, two hundred copies. That sold out and a little while later momentum just built up and we had all these labels overseas wanting to release that record,” Bates explains. “By which time I'd completely moved on.

“You know, I had a whole other album of new material I could have released. As a compromise, labels just kind of went – 'well, why don't we do half-half?' and I just went with it. I mean, it all ends up in the same place, right? I don't really care if people buy my music or not. If they enjoy it, I hope they come to the show. If not, I'm sorry I wasted their time.”

Bates' success seems to coalesce in direct proportion to how little he invests in it. Previously fronting indie-rock act Mellowdrone, he spent over a decade trying to make music his living – even signing with Columbia Records, at one point. However, it's with his skittish, noisy, synth-heavy retro-electro work as Big Black Delta that his career has truly taken off.

“I seem to be most useful in this universe if I just put my head down and make stuff. Regardless of where it ends up,” he says candidly. “Mellowdrone kind of started off like that. Then, it became a band and it never really went anywhere. The reason I call this project Big Black Delta is because I love UFOs and ufology and, when I started this project, I decided I had to be like a five-year-old with it.

“You know, just some five-year-old kid sitting in the middle of the livingroom playing with his four or five favourite toys. One might be a Transformer and the other might be a piece of Lego and they make no sense together but I'm just going to have fun with them in my own little world. There's a lot of people who confuse wanting to be entertainers with wanting to be musicians.

“What I've learned is I am simply not talented enough to be that; to be a Beyonce,” he says, utterly serious. “Like I said, the only time the universe ever even hints at acknowledging my existence is when I just sit down, shut up and do what I like. Which is so much easier, because I am just not fucking smart enough to do anything else.”