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 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.He’s not your average rapper. “M-O-C-K-Y sounds like Mocky, I’m from Canada but I don’t play hockey.” This statement, ad-libbed as part of his Collective session, is true. Unlike many famous Canadians, Mocky doesn’t play (ice) hockey. Instead, he raps, sings and produces a sound he reluctantly categorises as “existential R&B”. It’s a smooth summer funk, 80s kitsch in places, delivered with a wry smile and slippers on his feet.He’s by no means a classic rap act. A multi-instrumentalist with an almost sickly affection for his craft. “Music is the first thing I think of when I wake up. And before I wake up I’m dreaming it.” Dominic Salole has been through the musical mill and emerged serene. “This is my third album, you know. I’ve had it with trying to get over, trying to be the next hit thing, I’m sick of all that. I’m accepting that it’s something different.”  His approach has always been eccentric, from his beginnings in The Shit back in his native Toronto, with playmates Gonzales and Peaches, through to publicity stunts playing to the animal cages in London Zoo. “I did the show to the monkeys with the journalists at my back. It started as a joke, but I learned a lot about my own music there. I found my own voice.” He smiles. “If you jump around and be the craziest, the monkeys will start to jump around too, but it doesn’t mean they like it, it means that they’re upset. I had to tone it down and make something a bit more sweet. I had to come at it from a different angle. That’s where I started to develop my lyrical style and my kind of gentle delivery.”  There’s a tongue-in-cheek element to Mocky (“To make a meal you can’t just have salt, you need a little sugar”), but he’s a serious musician too, with production talents in demand. He’s recently contributed to Jane Birkin’s album, produced Berlin buddy Jamie Liddell’s acclaimed album, Multiply, and is happy to rattle off a number of projects in the pipeline. But, whoever performs it, it’s the song that matters. “A song is something that exists outside of production. It exists outside of the latest fad, the latest trend. If I can write a song to get inside people’s heads then I’m happy. It’s still me making music that’s useful to someone somewhere and that’s the bottom line.” This summer, Mocky tours his new album, Navy Brown Blues, replete with a seven-piece band. He hopes to “make it clear that I can’t be classified as an electronic musician”. If the session was anything to go by it’ll be a fun show. This is no laptop geek, more a musical Willy Wonka.
Alastair Lee
Mocky – Navy Brown Blues, released 22 May 06 on Four Music. See myspace.com/mockyrecordings for tour dates.
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