ARTIST INFO

 

British duo Futurecop! consists of Manzur Iqbal and Peter Carrol (both aged 26). The pair met at University and remained friends ever since, sharing a passion for 80s pop culture which has evolved into Futurecop!

Growing up in Manchester in England, Manzur developed a taste for a wide range of music, going through various stages of metal, indie, rock and punk. As his musical tastes evolved, one thing remained constant throughout his life; a secret love affair with and obsession 80s pop culture. He joined a punk band in college ( 'We were crap'), but the experience did consolidate a wide, eclectic range of influences which he continued into University. Taking a subsidiary course in Politics he met Peter and a friendship was formed. Manzur adds; 'We were just into the same things, music, films, and most importantly 80s culture; the whole thing started there really'.

Spending his formative years on the suburbs of London, Peter took a much less varied path in terns of his musical tastes. "Where I lived, there were only a couple of really popular musical genres" he explains. "Everyone was listening to hip-hop or garage when I was growing up, so that was all I was into until I was about eighteen. Then I came to University, started going to serious clubs and I haven't stopped listening to electronic music since'

After University, the pair remained friends but moved back to London and Manchester respectively. After two years passed, Peter was busy burning himself out with heavy partying and djing, while Manzur decided to spend most of this time locked in his room! with the aim of creating electronic music which emulated the 80's sounds of his childhood - Futurecop!was born. Using just a laptop and a midi keyboard, some free programs off the net and with absolutely no knowledge of making electronic music, he admits that 'At the beginning it was frustrating, trying to understand and program music; I didn't know anything. But through it all I had the strong motivation to create a sound and style which echoed the soft pop electro synths of the eighties and just basically capture my childhood experience of 80s movies and tv shows and make music out of it , i just wanted to create my feelings through music and the myspace of 80s pop culture.I think I achieved that in the end'.

Although Manzur happily admits that the sound is reminiscent of everyone who shared a childhood in the same era, he would prefer not to categorise it as a particular style. "I don't know much about genres, if anything its pop music" he confesses. The whole thing about Futurecop! its a lot to do with the brand, music is just one part of it "I didn't make music to try and be anything or impress anyone, and I have no pretensions about it; its just me having fun and creating something I wanted to because i felt passionate about the sound and image i wanted to create. Never thought so many people would be into it! So im not worried of people finding it cheesy / soft / too pop, especially with all the noise music around at that time. So its a special feeling to know there are people out there into this idea just like me"

About a year ago things really started to snowball, with interest from record labels, live performances and dj sets etc . This is when Manzur decided to get on board Pete to Futurecop! to look after the live performances and djing. Plus they gathered its more fun doing this with your best mate! The main forum that people have had access to the music is through the blogs and myspace adds Peter; 'Disco dust, Flou Kids, Valerie, Iheartcomix and Trashbags have been amazing for our gaining exposure, we've been grateful that they have featured it because it has been a great platform to getting the music heard' and we are living prove that myspace is big deal, all you need is a cool myspace idea and good tunes which you can make from free downloads!

They have performed in LA, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Australia with numerous gigs in London. Did the pair enjoy touring Australia? 'Definitely' says Peter; we were a little overwhelmed by the amount of fans out there, we had so many nice comments from Oz that we can't wait to go back.'

Do they have any final thoughts on the future? Manzur quickly replies "We just trying to keep having fun, it's a bonus that the music is appreciated, and as long as the enjoyment is there for us we will keep doing it, thats all that matters."