EDM producer Jon Gooch revives his cartoonish Feed Me moniker. Danny Turner finds out how the use of live instrumentation changed his production approach

Debuting in 2008 as the first peripheral artist to feature on Deadmau5’s mau5trap label, Jon Gooch (aka Feed Me) exploded onto Beatport with his unique brand of bass-heavy electronica before creating his own Sotto Voce label to garner full creative control. As a former multimedia designer, Gooch has become synonymous with his green Feed Me monster character, infusing its fictitious narrative into his music and infamous ‘With Teeth’ live productions.

Alongside his drum & bass stage name, Spor, Gooch is known for his eclecticism and cutting-edge approach to sound design. On his latest, self-titled, Feed Me album, the producer decided to switch up his creative process. Alternating between his live instrumentation and programming skills, the record showcases Gooch’s audacious production skills and high-octane brand of anthemic bass and electro.

You’ve mentioned how you differentiate between EPs and albums, comparing them to magazines and novels. How does the latest Feed Me album play into that?

“I grew up listening to prog rock albums that had distinct story arcs and wasn’t exposed to pop music until I was a bit older so, to me, an album was something you’d put on and listen to in its entirety. I like the idea of an album being a journey and try to consider a screenplay element when I’m writing. There’s been an aesthetic to each one and I started Feed Me as a figurative idea, with the character not referencing food but being consumptive.”

So there’s an ideological component to the Feed Me character?

“I turned Feed Me into a character to turn the attention away from me because I didn’t want to be in the artwork, but it’s definitely a fantasy –a way of expressing my more mischievous and energetic side without having to be the central ego of the project. With this album I wanted to take the character back to the abstract and consign a colour palette that joined the sketches I’d made in the studio. I was also trying to work out how little information I could put in an image while still being able to tell it was the Feed Me character.”

Aligned to that, how do you think the music has evolved on this latest release?

“With the benefit of hindsight, the last two albums were a collation of ideas that I wrote on the road, off the road and all over the world. They’re like a scrappy diary of sounds and ideas. I was pleased with the end result, but pulling them together was like trying to fit too many clothes into a suitcase. Coming into a third album, I wanted to change how I approached making a record from the ground up, so rather than using emulated sounds I went straight to the original source. I’ve realised I’m no longer obsessed with fidelity or ever-improving a sound. The experience of making it has become just as interesting to me, so I brought in a lot of analogue media, expanded my modular setup and went out and bought a couple of guitars that I particularly wanted to use. Ultimately, I wanted to try and create shorter distances between the sounds I imagined and what I ended up with.”