Tom as Golden Features in 2014 with his self-titled debut EP, which, spawning the single Tell Me (featuring Nicole Millar), he says, “changed my life” – and impressed Porter Robinson. At what point is it about the artists and not the artwork anymore? We see it so much in pop music. “The idea of putting your face out there for everyone to see just had nothing to do with the art for me. I’m an introvert and, through and through, I enjoy being alone. I wanted that to transfer over to the music – because I am not an outgoing person. The worst thing that can happen is they see your face. It’s under the dark of night and you want people to see your work. “I grew up on artists like MF DOOM and Daft Punk and even The Bloody Beetroots, to a lesser extent, as I was discovering dance music. Indeed, he followed a hallowed tradition in especially electronica of concealing his identity – foregrounding the music while generating mystique. Yet the furtiveness of the graff endured. He began experimenting with electronic music, uploading early efforts onto SoundCloud. “If I told myself what I said just then when I was 16, I woulda called myself a fuckwit, I think! But, in growing up a little bit, you’re like, ‘Man, there’s more to life than getting up.'” I want more than a couple hundred photos of trains I’d painted by the time I die.'” He pauses, laughing. “It was like, ‘I know I’m addicted to this, I know I love this, but I wanna travel the world. He eventually abandoned the subculture, as observing other street artists copping jail sentences was “a deal breaker”. “I have a very hard time letting go of that, to my American agent’s dismay,” he says wryly.Īnd it was in Sydney where he, as a teen, first seriously threw himself into creative endeavour: graffiti. Surprisingly, too, Tom, who consistently plays the US, still resides in Sydney. Although “shy”, he’s genial, generous and unguarded in person, acknowledging lingering anxiety.
Flume album cover artist full#
Today he remains relatively unknown, his pressers full of streaming stats, chart positions and certifications rather than biographical details. You just kinda push it out into the ocean and hope it doesn’t sink.” “A large part of my life was consumed by writing the thing, so now’s the easy part. “Finishing the record was a lot more laborious than I thought – it just took everything out of me,” he rues. He furnished the album only days prior to his departure Stateside in mid-June, despite sharing the hooky lead single, Touch, featuring Melbourne’s Rromarin, over a year ago. In fact, he is feeling “a bit numb” about releasing Sisyphus. In the midst of a North American headlining tour, he’s exploring the city’s Lower East Side. Thomas, who goes by Tom, is conducting last minute promotional interviews from New York via phone, apologising for “a terrible line”. “It’s a love-hate relationship and it’s a double-edged sword,” he admits of his disguise. But he is ambivalent about the spotlight and on Sisyphus he frees the inner underground artist within. Now gradually shedding his persona, the Sydney producer is back with a mythic second album, Sisyphus – a paean to Berlin’s liberating party scene.
However, he’s long been reclusive, hiding his face behind a gold mask. Golden Features (Thomas Stell) is one of the biggest names in Australian dance music. Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.
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