How Maltese do you feel? What exactly is your Maltese connection, how did you get embroiled into playing here and do you look forward to it?

Well, I’ve got roots in Malta. I was born here and I’ve got a Maltese mother (and an English dad). We travelled around the world while our extended family stayed in Malta and we often spent summers on the island. I would skateboard around Tigne Point, back when it rocked! Skateboarding to heavy metal! They took my nationality away in the 70s but I was glad to get it back a few years ago. Getting my Maltese passport back was important to me. On a trip to Malta I decided to find out what was going on in the music scene. I’d noticed some Maltese people at international festivals (it’s like I found them by sonar) and it just so happened that my next door neighbour was Maltese DJ Woody Aki so it all fell into place. I’m very excited to be playing in Malta.

Do you think that, despite all the genre-bending/cross-cultural samples and influences, there is something common to everything that you do, something essential, at the core, which drives you more than anything else and gives your music cohesion…

The beat catches your body’s natural rhythm, which is handed down from our ancestors…the bass gets your bum moving - gets to the soul…the melody tickles your expectations: triggers memories, ignites hope…the vocal draws the listener in to a conversation, it’s the natural human response. Whenever I borrow from a different culture, I identify with the common elements. It’s like when you emigrate, there has to be a natural period of assimilation. I believe that your own culture becomes richer once you embrace your neighbour.

Do you feel like a child of our times? With the kind of music that you do, where technology and the web play an integral part, do you imagine yourself being a musician at in any other given era?

Well I was not brought up to fit a given role. I’ve been making music professionally for nine years now, mostly on a DIY basis. This means that I have to find time to work in my own studio, promote shows, run a record label and do artwork...I never really imagined that I would just sign a contract someday and then get drunk and be a rock star, so as media for delivery of music changes, as long as you have the desire to communicate you adapt. As the saying goes “stand still and rot!” That said, I’ve just spent the last couple of years playing in someone else’s band Touring the world and playing other people’s music was really refreshing, very old school. I kept thinking “wow! This is what it’s like to be a ‘real’ musician with all the technology removed.” You become an animal - get on a bus, drive, play a gig, drink, sleep, repeat.

Do you think that, nowadays, we can no longer look at the employment of technology in art just as something of a curiosity or an experiment? Do you think that it’s tied up to our most intimate memories and experiences?

Yeah your senses as a child are so powerful and each generation grows up with their unique imprint. This is an age of mass consumption on a bulimic scale so mechanical bleeps and synthetic squawks alongside virtual fantasy lives lived are as real as a leaf on a tree. My music has lots of bleeps and squawks and contains fantasies of perfect relationships! Things move very fast. Technology was a novelty in 1996 - now, most people just plug in an iPod and play a live show. It’s economical - the emphasis is on performance, the computer chip has become as common as the electric guitar.

Your collaboration with Toshiko Kimura for one of your videos is very interesting. Do you think your sound lends itself to that kind of visual accompaniment and experimentation and do you hope to do more of it? With your music being such a spliced mixture of things, do you think adding a visual element to it is a logical progression?

I dabble in film and imagery - I draw a lot and would really like to make a piece of music to accompany a film. I’m doing some animation work at moment and I’ve done some pieces of music for an artist friend to use in an installation. I’m also interested in storytelling and delving into a bit of reading and doing some comic shorts from USA and Japan. Thing is, videos tend to have a limited role as promotional tools, I want to exploit the form further and hopefully incorporate it in my live performances.

What’s the scene like in the UK? How did you eventually manage to establish yourself and do you feel happy with the kind of situation you’re in at the moment?

Scenes are very disparate things and I don’t really look at the UK music scene as a whole.
I view things more as a Londoner and for me, the ‘scene’ is really just the two or three square miles from my front door. I only ever feel as good as the last recording or show I played. I’m establishing myself through stamina and having delivered few absolutely classic pieces of music. I just finished making a new album [Nomad Junk, his fourth] and I think it’s really good, very wild. I await its release with baited breath…

Capitol K will be joined by Vinnie Vintage, Danjeli an Ai. Doors open at 10pm. Tickets are available at Lm4 from D’Amato, Poxx Bar and Buon Caffe. Lm5 at the door.
http://www.myspace.com/capitolk