Primary 1 on how to pronounce ‘Moog’, Nina Persson and Abba

Primary 1

Clubbers always know first, don’t they? Because getting out means discovering and learning from people you encounter. So they probably already knew some of the club friendly stuff done by Joe Flory before I ever heard of him. Flory makes music under the name of Primary 1, and his teaming up with gifted producer Riton resulted in some tracks for the dance floor. He came on my radar after I heard the track ‘The Blues’ featuring Nina Persson (she of the Cardigans), and after that one promptly media attention started to swell. With the release of single ‘Princess’ in June and a host of live gigs forthcoming we at Muso’s Guide thought it time to have a chat with film student-turned-musician Joe Flory.

Primary 1 is steadily becoming more of a name. As mentioned earlier, last year he did quite a bit with London producer Riton. Despite that, it doesn’t seem like a full fledged collaboration between the two is going to happen anytime soon: “Well we wrote loads of stuff together last summer and I think we’re gonna end up dividing it up into each of our own records, depending on what suits what best. So…Henry gets all the bangers, I get all the deep emo.” At the moment it seems Flory is more focussed on his solo stuff and his debut album.

Collaborations seem to be in his blood though, and he is learning from the experiences: “Mainly I’ve finally learned to relax and get out of my own ego and it’s a massive relief.” Flory hasn’t only worked with Riton, but he also did a song with Nina Persson from The Cardigans. So, how does one do that? Did he just pick up a phone book and call her up? “Yes that’s pretty much what happened. Only my Swedish collaborator Joakim made the call, she liked the song and, hey, presto! I wonder if I’ll ever meet her though…Internet Duet.” Oh well, the internet highway no? Everything gets done via internet, for better or worse. Even this interview, though if we would be doing this face-to-face apparently I would be closer to Miss Persson than I am now, as we would be in “Stockholm baby! in the scando sunshine!”.

Whether in Scandinavia or not, being around people is always a good thing because you learn so much, whether you want to or not: “My friend Matt recently revealed to me that name ‘Moog’ (as in synth) is in fact pronounced ‘Mouge’. As in, it rhymes with ‘Rogue’.  I’m quite disappointed really.” And other people always help you to broaden your mind: “My mates’s mum just gave me The Wasp Factory to read, because its ‘weird and dark’.” Apparently, the latter bit defines the kind of stuff Flory likes, which is also apparent from his choice of comics: “American Splendor is always amazing and my fave at the mo is Eddie Campbell’s Alec collection- “The Years Have Pants”. Its basically 30 years of his life drawing comics, I love him.” Campbell also illustrated the From Hell series, which was made into a Johnny Depp film, and in the cinema version of American Splendor Paul Giamatti turned in a good lead.

Running away with the Cinema link of the previous paragraph, former Film Studies student Flory especially likes “Chinatown by Roman Polanski and Cleo from 5 to 7 by Agnes Varda”. Good thing the people at Cannes are busy with a Polanski petition then. Agnes Varda is one of the exponents of the booming Fifties/Sixties arts movement in Paris, which led to one fantastic thing after another, something previous Muso’s Guide interviewee Jeremy Jay would probably concur with. In that interview he mentioned his love for French New Wave cinema. Flory said of his preferences: “I think I’m generally attracted to stuff that’s a bit on its own… Like attempts at making a ‘hit’ movie that end up somewhere completely different and weird… mongrel things that have their own world.”

So there is an expectation (they expected a “hit movie”) and it turned out a bit “mongrel”, that’s live isn’t it? Not necessarily in that order, but expectations might not turn out to become reality. Sometimes one thing quite quickly turns into something else entirely, take Flory himself: “[As a child] I was really angry and upset all the time, then I started playing drums and everything was fine.” Sometimes it’s only drums you need! Oh good. And to assure everyone the angriness is entirely a thing of the past , Flory says that “everyone should” come to Primary 1’s shows “because we’re like Abba, but more fun.” If you hear stampeding, that might just be the gay scene having read this interview (just kidding people, diversity in minorities trumps everything).

Oh yeah, based on the article by Guardian writer Paul Lester (who was on this guy way back in 2008, so kudos to him!) I expected on the basis of the line that Flory was a “computer kid” that Flory would know his way around computers: “I don’t. I can use Cubase. That’s it.” Still more than me though, he lost me at Cubase.

Ah yes yes yes, back to music. So Primary 1 is going to drop a new album “soon”, and we can expect, according to Flory: “Lots of different stuff and styles that I like squeezed into my style/voice/brain.” And we can expect the new single ‘Princess’ to drop in June as well. The vid hit the web not too long ago, which was “made by the directors of the Yeasayer videos for ‘Ambling Alp’ and ‘O.N.E’. That was a real honor and I think it’ll be a fun one!”. Furthermore he hopes to be an active player the coming months: “Hopefully [there will be] lots of shows and singles”. Oh, and if he’s DJing, don’t be surprised to hear ‘Carte Blanche’ by Gare du Nord: “Its ridiculous and great”. Which, incidentally (oh the strenuous link) also applies to his track ‘The Blues’ (which you should definitely be checking out), and hopefully the upcoming album will be deserving of such praise as well. Until that release you can watch him play live at multiple festivals  or at one of his solo gigs he will be doing in the upcoming months. Or you can go and watch him throw a DJ set, although I’m sure the clubbers already have their agenda sorted out.

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