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Apr 29, 2016 By Mark Redfern Photography by Robert Self NZCA Lines

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.).

For this My Firsts we talk to Michael Lovett from London electro-pop outfit NZCA Lines. Lovett is the main creative force behind the band, whose second album, Infinite Summer, came out in January via Memphis Industries. Previously NZCA Lines was more of a solo project for Lovett, but for Infinite Summer Lovett is joined by two females, Charlotte Hatherly (Ash, Bat For Lashes) and Sarah Jones (Hot Chip). The album was recorded over the last two years with Charlie Alex March (Veronica Falls) as “studio co-conspirator” and was mixed by David Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Super Furry Animals). Lovett says that the album is influenced by his love of science fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey) and Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep). Lovett has also been in Metronomy’s touring band for the last couple of years.

Read on as Lovett, who grew up in the ‘90s, talks about his first best friend, first pet, first crushes, the first time he fell in love, first kiss, the first movie he saw in the theater, the first album he bought, first job, and his first major disappointment.

First best friend?

I recall having a very tumultuous relationship with this guy David Border when I was about six. I’d go over his house to play with his Lego, and every single time would result in us having a massive fight and falling out. I guess he was technically my best friend at the time but perhaps it was more of an abusive relationship than I realized. Apparently he later got his ears pinned back and got married, possibly in that order. My first real best friend was Richard Giddens. We went to a Rudolf Steiner school and at break we’d go ‘walk and talk,’ which basically meant walking around the school grounds discussing what must have amounted to amateur philosophy, or possibly plans to build a treehouse. He’s actually my first musical collaborator too—we recorded a ‘mixtape’ called Rodent Fever, by DJ Mike and Richey Rich. My brother had a Yamaha keyboard which provided all the music, then we ‘sung’ over the top. I recorded this with a Panasonic double cassette deck from our kitchen. Once you’d cut your master, you could half hold down fast-forward and copy the tape onto the second deck at double speed. Hence the rodent/mouse vibe. I made the artwork too (the title rendered in classy ‘shiny chrome’ finish).

First pet?

My first pets were George the guinea pig and Milly the rabbit. We got them together-George was a real bully though, and Milly was a free spirit so she dug under her hutch and ran away. We then got Parsnip, another rabbit who I think George basically killed, giving him a bite which then became infected. We then realized rabbits weren’t a great idea, so began a dynasty of guinea pigs of which George was the first. I think we had about seven in total over the years. I’ve still got a lot of respect for George—he mellowed out in his later years.

First broken bone?

I’ve never broken a bone. Read into that what you will…

First time you had to go to the hospital?

...although, I did crack my forehead on the roof of our white Citroen ZX trying to clean leaves off it. I kind of slipped and hit the top of the doorframe. I didn’t really know what had happened but when my Mum saw me she freaked out. I remember being driven to the hospital lying in the back of the car to keep the blood in. They gave me six stitches, and I was six years old.

First time you fell in love?

I was completely in love with this girl called Bridie when I was about eight. Weirdly she was kind of plain as a child but later grew up to be very beautiful, but I didn’t fancy her then. Maybe I could detect something of her potential. Once she got mainstream I wasn’t interested, basically—she was like that band you go see in a tiny venue who end up playing stadiums.

First person you kissed?

Not Bridie. My affections were never returned. I think it was a girl called Zosia (great names right? And people ask me why I chose such a difficult band name). From my memory, it was outside a village hall where someone was having a birthday party. I will forever associate the taste of vodka and orange juice with awkward teenage kisses.

First time your heart was broken?

I don’t want to talk about that. Safe to say, I didn’t realize it was possible to feel that kind of emotional pain up until that point.

First movie you saw in the movie theater?

Babe. I think I cried at the start because the intro was so loud and intense.

First TV show you were obsessed with?

Saturday mornings were all about The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest—I loved that show. It’s an update of the ‘60s series which features Jonny and his pals going on adventures investigating various mysteries and phenomena. It’s mostly animated in a pleasing ‘90s Hanna-Barbera style, but there’s also sections in QuestWorld, a virtual reality domain, rendered in early CGI. Okay I’m going to go track down some old episodes!

First record your parents played for you?

Sorry, I’m watching Jonny Quest episodes. Okay, I would say Annie Lennox’s Diva, my mum loved it and had a tape in the car she’d play over and over again.

First album you bought?

I think it was a Blur Best Of CD, the one with the Julian Opie illustrations on the cover, when I was 13. I was actually worried I’d stolen it. Worried because I bought it when I was drunk. Basically me and some friends would go out on a Saturday, get someone to buy us booze (or nick it from Safeway using a big coat) and then get pissed. This often resulted in us going home drunk, when I’d confess to “feeling tired” and go to my room. On the day in question, I got loaded and went into Woolworths, where I evidently bought the Blur CD in a fit of passion for the group, and subsequently lost the booklet somewhere in town.

First favorite band?

The Smashing Pumpkins. It’s not a very cool answer but it’s the honest one—I loved Siamese Dream, and subsequently Mellon Collie. I got my mum to attach laced wrist cuffs to a black jacket to be like Billy Corgan in the “Ava Adore” video too. It definitely resonated with my teenage angst, and I loved the aesthetic of the band around the Siamese/Mellon Collie period, also how long winded and intense everything was—eight-minute songs, multiple sections, and, above all, great pop hooks.

First favorite song?

I’ve always loved “Baby Please Don’t Go” by Them, for whom Van Morrison was the lead vocalist. It’s got an incredibly cool groove to it, and a really iconic guitar part.

First musician you had a crush on?

I would say it was probably D’Arcy Wretzky from the Pumpkins. I think I tried to fancy Kim Gordon but something prevented me from really getting into it.

First actor or actress you had a crush on?

I would say Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Alyson Hannigan. Basically my dream girl at the time. Always very jealous of Xander in that respect, he didn’t know what he had there. Though, it could have been Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Might have seen that show first.

First concert you went to?

I think it was my elder brother’s teenage band The Upsides. The Upsides were a criminally overlooked harmony pop supergroup that should have been gigantic. My brother Gabriel Stebbing (Christine & The Queens/Night Works/Your Twenties) on bass, Joseph Mount (of Metronomy) on drums, and James Hoare (of Veronica Falls/Proper Ornaments/Ultimate Painting) on guitar. They had excellent Beatles-esque songs.

First music festival you went to?

Undoubtedly Fordstock, a music festival held every year near the village of Harbertonford in Devon. My first band played there a couple of times too.

First time you got drunk?

See my answer for “first album I bought.” I can’t remember the first time I was drunk, but me and my friends experimented with various different kinds of alcohol as young teenagers. We’d take little tours to nearby towns like Newton Abbot and Plymouth, go get drunk there. I remember one time this guy Chaz accepted a dare to hang off the edge of a multi-storey car park. These guys thought he was going to commit suicide. It wasn’t very clever of us.

First job you had?

Paper round, of course. There was this one guy who got The Sun every day. Needless to say I’d sneak a look at [the nude models on] page 3 before delivering it. Come on, I was about 12.

First computer?

That would be an Atari STM, previously owned by my brothers. I’ve still got it, and actually just brought it out of storage with the intention of upgrading the memory and finding a copy of Cubase for it. I would mainly use it for playing games though back in the day! My favorites were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (amazing music), Mega Twins (two player with my friend Kai, really fun buddy game), and Rick Dangerous (Indiana Jones-type side scroller). There was also an awesome program called 3D Construction Kit, where you could make your own 3D games.

First email address?

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)! You can still email it if you want. I use it as login for a few things. I think it came about because I was making an eBay account and had to think of something that wouldn’t already exist. Turned out Dr Giblets didn’t exist. I wonder why.

First major disappointment?

I was crushed I didn’t get into Brighton to study Illustration after my art foundation in Falmouth. I really thought I’d get in. I ended up randomly going to Edinburgh instead to study fine art painting, which was really cool, though I was ultimately unhappy there and moved to London after a year. Turns out I can’t get into BA degrees if I apply properly—I just turned up at ECA with a bunch of work and got offered a place. The same thing happened for Camberwell, where I ended up completing an illustration degree in 2013. I managed to get onto the fine art course there, and then switched after a month—if I’d have applied properly they wouldn’t have let me in, I’m sure of that. My work wasn’t really illustration. I realized by the end of my degree that I should be making videos, and the video for my song “New Atmosphere” was my final project.

First instrument?

The guitar. But I came this close to having sitar lessons. My first teacher was Indian. But I didn’t. Imagine what my life could have been like!

First band you were in?

The Social Hermits, which I started with my friend Luke. We had an amazing ‘girl drummer’ called Hannah. She was the best. Luke heard her playing bongos at Sport’s Day and then played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with her as an audition—she could do the intro and everything, which blew us away. Luke was a great guitarist, much better than myself—meeting him gave me a kick up the arse. We played in bands throughout our teenage years, and our second proper band was called The Tiny Girls (after the Iggy Pop song)—weirdly, with Hari Ashurst who later started Double Denim records. Sadly, Luke had recurring trouble with drugs in his 20s, and passed away a couple of years ago. That was a real shock—he was a smart, funny, and talented guy.

First recording device?

Apart from the Panasonic double-tape deck mentioned earlier, with which I could speed up anything I recorded by half-holding the fast forward button, I created a crude multi-track recorder by combining this with an old, though slightly more advanced, tape deck my dad gave me. This had phono inputs and a mic, so you could record something onto the first deck, then link it up to the second deck and overdub using the mic. I’m not sure why I didn’t just borrow my brother’s Tascam four-track— think he might have left for university by this point.

First professional recording session?

The first time I went to real studio was for sessions on the Your Twenties track “Caught Wheel,” a piece of pop excellence concocted by my brother Gabriel in collaboration with Joe Mount and Charlie March (who I would go on to make my two NZCA Lines albums with). It was being recorded at Press Play studio in Bermondsey, set up by Andy Ramsay from Stereolab. I was totally out of my depth and terrified. I actually came across some video recordings a took with an old Canon camera from these sessions (the iPhone had just been released—I owned a Nokia). They’re on this old hard drive I took out of my first computer, I need to upload them as they’re hilarious. Charlie: “and then it just needs this, like, wall of shit to come in.” Gabriel: “Mmm, wall of shit…I like the sound of that.” Etc.

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