Self-isolation can either leave you drained of creativity or result in a flourish of your best work. For Mike Duce, better known as HEADACHE, it was the latter.
After spending most of his professional years in a band (Lower Than Atlantis), HEADACHE is ready to write his truth in his second EP, Get Off The Internet. With honest tracks and catchy beats, HEADACHE is someone to look out for.
We sat down with HEADACHE to talk about the process of making the EP, how he has been staying busy in lockdown, and what this project means to him.
— Lexi Matuson
Managerial Assistant for Ascribe
What was the process of creating this EP like for you?
“It was a labor of love. It was a love-hate thing. Like I get very obsessed, I’m that kind of guy, but also I feel like I really push myself in terms of like — I’ll always try and achieve something that’s out of my pay grade, out of my remit, and I’ll just push myself to become the guy that’s capable. I’ve only been producing for like three years now. Each project is always like I’m biting off a little bit more than I can chew, but you know, my jaw will be stronger afterward or something, I don’t know (laughs)!”
Now it’s my turn to geek out a little bit, I was a huge Lower Than Atlantis fan.
“Oh, sick!”
So, how did you go about finding your voice for this new project?
“After the band, I didn’t really listen to much rock music anyways. I always liked hardcore, but aside from that I didn’t really listen to any guitar music and I was going to the gym a lot, so I was listening to old school hip-hop stuff. I continued to make music because it’s what I do, but I didn’t want to touch a guitar, so these kind of weird, lo-fi beats just sort of just happened. And one day I thought, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be cool if I sang over them?’. But then my normal singing voice, it didn’t really work. So when I was writing the melodies I’d have a mic and I would just sort of hum at this kind of volume whatever it was I wanted to sing, and I was like ‘That’s pretty fucking cool.’ So I have a lot of the stuff I kind of kept, my little shitty writing vocals in there somewhere along the way.”
For this EP, who are your biggest influences?
“That’s always a difficult one, I used to always get asked that question in the band. Anything anyone makes is kind of them regurgitating the stuff that they’re into. Subconsciously you pick things up, like the music you’re listening to or the shows that you’re watching, you know? Even if you have a day out at the beach, it could subconsciously influence you in some kind of way. So, at the risk of sounding like a wanker — I know you don’t have that word in America (laughs) — I would have to say just life, I suppose. I didn’t really set out with anything intentional. I suppose limited resources, a limited knowledge of what I was doing kind of impacted the sound, I would say. On this one song, “That’s What’s Up”, the bass — the 808, sub-base stuff — is in stereo, which I found out afterward is a huge no=no. When you come to mix a track it’s supposed to be mono, and I had a bunch of people I played it to be like ‘The bass is stereo! You’re not supposed to do that!’. And I was like ‘I fucking, I don’t care, whatever. It sounds cool.’ If I think it sounds cool, it sounds cool, and that’s it.”
Well, I think it’s awesome that you’re breaking the rules. I think rules are meant to be broken. Do you find yourself listening to a lot of music when you do create, or are you one of those people who’s like “I don’t want to listen to anything except for what I’m working on?”
“I’m sort of my own biggest fan and my own worst critic. There’s probably about thirty or thirty-five demos in my Dropbox, all of varying degrees of finished-ness. And I pretty much exclusively listen to them. In regards to new music as well, I feel like there’s already so much amazing music in the world that I’m not familiar with, so I’m just kinda trying to educate myself on that. But I don’t listen to music really at the moment. If I was lifting weights or something, I would listen to Limp Bizkit or Sugar or something. It’s kind of themed, you know? I’ll have piano jazz instrumental stuff on in the car for a drive, if I’m cooking I listen to classical music, but I kind of just don’t listen to music.”
I like the concept of having different styles for different situations.
“Yeah! I’ve not actually thought of it like that until you just asked me, so.”
What’s your favorite lyric from the EP?
“Probably ‘the song’s a bit shit, I’ll admit it, but it’s not quite right yet and I’m quite high and that’s what’s up.’ That was like a fill-in lyric, and at first it was just the chorus loop, and then I came up with that melody and the lyrics sort of came with the melody all in one go. And I recorded it and sent it to my friend, and I was like ‘Obviously the last lyric is gonna change,’ and he was like ‘You have to keep that, that’s hilarious. Don’t change it.’ Simply because he’s my friend I was like ‘Fuck it.’ So I just kept it, that was it. I like it for that reason, the story behind it. It was always a working lyric I was going to change, but I just kept it.”
So, “Mike’s Back” is a pretty self-aware, stream-of-consciousness song. What was the process of writing it like?
“I think with that one there’s a comedic aspect to it. The first lyric is ‘Mike D on fleek with the melody,’ like come on, that’s the dumbest shit anyone’s ever heard. But I kind of like pissing people off with that shit. They’ll hear it and go ‘This is so shit’ and I’ll go “Fuck you, man, whatever.’ But yeah, I don’t know. The song is all about how amazing I am, that I’m sick, and I’m untouchable. It’s obviously a mask for insecurities, I think, because maybe I feel like I’m not, you know? That’s why people do that shit I suppose. It’s kind of vulnerable at the same time, now that I think about it.”
I think as writers it’s normal just to feel instead of think. Looking into the future, let’s say this whole pandemic is over, what’s your dream tour lineup?
“Honestly, it would just be me. I would tour on my own and I would just have a lot of my friends who are session players for pop people, and whoever could do whatever day. It would probably be like a revolving door lineup. That would be my dream, I guess, because then it would be fun for me as well. It would be different every night, I’d be playing with different people. It would be fun.”
How have you been managing to stay creative during quarantine and during the pandemic?
“I was just saying to Josh, man, that it’s been really hard. There’s been three or maybe four lockdowns in the UK now. And the first one and the second one were like, the world could have ended, it made no difference to me whatsoever. I was sat in the same seat doing the same thing day in and day out. During the second one, we made the decision to move out of London, so we put our flat on the market. My shit was everywhere. My flat’s small anyway, but like the kitchen is also the living room, which is also my studio, so I had to pack everything away into boxes to have photos taken and when people came for viewings. I haven’t unpacked it since, which has been good and been bad because I feel like when I was getting up and sitting in the chair every day to work on music, it was all kind of a bit stressful. Like, ‘This has to work out, like I should have like a song out at this point, and this should happen, etc, etc.’ And to not have it there has been liberating, because I feel like I really want to make music and I can’t. And it’s frustrating. But that’s like, an energy that I vibe with, I like it. I’m really enjoying not making music, also. Anyone who’s interested in the project and anyone who’s following it — we’re now kind of up to speed, like, we’re all on the same level. Because normally, as an artist it really fucking frustrates me that you finish a body of work and then you sit on it for an extended period of time, and you listen and you get sick of it. You’ve had to listen to it during the writing process, the recording process, like you’ve had to sit in, like, offices and rooms with people playing it to them. But yeah, this time around it’s like, no one knows what’s coming next and nor do I.”
Did you find this release process was a lot more free, and a lot more just kind of feel as you go?
“I think what I’ve realized from doing this is it’s a bit out of date, man. Like, oh, there’s a single and you talk about that. What I would like to do, and what I probably will do in the future — I love a body of work. I love an album, easy to market, you know, check out this one thing where it’s all my current shit, you know? It’s quite nice to have it tied up. And I listen to full albums anyway. So I think I would like to make an album, but I would just finish a track be like ‘This is fucking sick.’ What’s the mix say and you know, leave it a few days, check it out, check on different systems, you know, make sure the mix is right, and you know, new song out in three days, here it is. I would like to do that, just be a lot more free with it. And I think as well like, if you really space out releases and singles, there’s a lot of pressure, you know? It’s the first thing you’ve released in like four months, or three months, or whatever. It’s kind of stressful. But if you’re like, you know, even if you check something out, ‘New single out on Friday,’ and it comes out, no one gives a shit, it gets no plays, no one hears it — who fucking cares? You put another one out the week later. You’re only as good as the last thing you did. So I think I would rather work like that in the future. Again, this isn’t something I’ve addressed with myself, this is what’s coming out as I’m talking to you.”
All right, one more question and then we’re done here. What’s next for HEADACHE? Do you have anything planned? Or do you think that things are just gonna organically happen?
“Um… I don’t know! I should probably have some shit prepared to tell you.”
I mean, it’s hard in the time of the pandemic.
“Yeah, I’ll just blame it on that, yeah (laughs)! I don’t know. I don’t know what’s next. But I know that it’s going to be exciting, and it’s fun. This is me, musically moving forward forever. So it’s very exciting. Who knows what’s next.”
You can stream Get Off The Internet below.
