WITH THE RECENT RELEASE OF 'THIRD ALBUM' ON CONSTELLATION RECORDS, MONTREAL BASED MARKUS LAKE DISTILLS HIS MARKUS FLOATS CONCEPT FURTHER. WE CAUGHT UP WITH MARKUS TO DISCUSS EVERYTHING FROM THE COVID-19 CRISIS, IMPROVISATION AND KNOWING WHEN GOOD IS GOOD ENOUGH.

The Global Pandemic we are in has changed our lives. The cancellation of gigs and live events is hitting our musicians hard. How is this affecting you, and what are you missing the most?

I count myself as extremely lucky because my life hasn't been particularly upset yet. I'm a financially stable adult, who has secure housing and no dependents. The sense I'm getting though is that this is really just the beginning and that life will be a slow-moving rollercoaster for the next long while and that thought has kept my brain in a semi-permanent fog. I miss feeling like things are more or less okay. 

How is the world going to change as a result of this situation we are faced with?

I'm not an economist, epidemiologist, statistician, politician or even a particularly interesting person. I make bleep-bloop y' know, I have absolutely no idea. The closest I can get is the fuzzy outlines of the trickle-up effects of 10-45% of the global population losing all of its income, some of the largest corporations being physically unable to function, the long term sociological effects of prolonged physical distancing, as well as the high probability of hundreds of thousands of deaths over the next 3-18 months all couched in a socio-political framework run by out-of-touch-legacy-millionaires who remain in power at the whims and wishes of even richer out-of-touch-legacy-millionaires. But like...shrug emoji…your guess is as good as mine about what kind of future that'll bring.

Your new LP 'Third Album' explores arpeggio and beautifully evolving melodic figures. With a background in Jazz music, how important is improvisation in your process?

Improvisation is important to me, it's hard to say how much that has to do with my jazz background but it seems like a pretty reasonable conclusion. It feels like the right way for me to be making music, so I use it. On the other hand, jazz isn't all about improvisation, if you really want to get nerdy. Jazz is kind of about being so good that you're effectively composing on the fly. The structures over which that instantaneous composition occurs are as arranged and predictable as any other pop song.

As a multi-disciplinary artist, how does the visual side of your art inform your music-making? Is it part of the activity?

In the same way that reading a good book affects the way we frame and understand the world. When you paint you start to relate things to painting, even unconsciously. That being said, I don't think I know any artists that aren't multi-disciplinary artists. I find the term misleading because all it really means is that you apply a certain discipline to multiple activities. Chances are, if you're really into drawing, there's another aspect of your life that directly feeds into it, whether you're aware of it or not. It's all, more or less, a part of the same activity.

How important is collaboration in your creative endeavours?

I find that collaborating with others - whether it be 'creatively' or just talking about a shitty movie with a pal - tends to spark a certain inspiration. On top of that, I wouldn't even be answering these questions if it weren't for my collaboration with the label and everyone who works there (bigups Joni), as well as my good friend/manager James. Markus Floats is a solo project only insofar as anything anyone does can be considered a solo project; which is to say, not very much at all.

When you perform in a live setting, you combine spoken word pieces from the Black Literary Canon with your soundscapes. How does playing live differ from your studio work? 

My recorded music is 90% improvised and then fussed with endlessly; my live performances are 90% improvised and then they just stay that way forever. 

 Do you find yourself creating lots of music and then making choices, or are you very focused on what you want to achieve when you set out? What are you looking for in a piece of music that choose to release? 

I'm of the mind that most of what you make is going to fall somewhere between "absolutely irredeemably terrible" and "not especially good". The hard part is just churning out trash until you finally stumble on something that doesn't seem awful. You still have to spend a bunch of time turning that not-garbage thing into something you can feel good about. It doesn't always work, but when it does you just kind of know. 

What does your studio setup look like at the minute?

Laptop, decent monitors, decent soundcard, 4 octave midi keyboard, Logic Pro.

 Who are you listening to at the moment? 

I keep coming back to Dirt Road Diamond by Childish Major, it's just a really solid record front to back. Other than that, I mostly listen to podcasts.

‘Third Album’ by Markus Floats is Out Now.