Meet Poppet

A self-portrait by, Poppet

Would you rather…

be able to grow your hair at will or your fingernails? What would you do?

Definitely my hair, fingernails would get in the way by far. If I grew out my hair at will I'd satisfy that evil witch aesthetic even harder.

Some questions with Poppet

Hi. Can you tell us a little about your project?

Howdy! My name is Mave and I have (amongst others) an experimental dungeon synth project called Poppet, named after a doll used in ritual folk magic. Poppet acts as a soapbox for me to express whatever the hell I want in music, be it incongruous combinations of genres or themes. I'm very interested in religious aesthetics, be that of Buddhism, Judaism or even Catholicism.

Android or I-phone?

I use an iPhone but I'd much rather use an android, simply because the emulation software is far better.

What gear have you been leaning on lately? Why?

I use mostly Logic Pro X. I was initially weaned on garageband and logic is a natural extension of that. I have also been creating impromptu gabber jams on my trusty Novation Circuit.

What was your first job? How did it go?

My first job was editing a wikipedia page of a digital media arts company in downtown manhattan. It was a lot of fun, but man there was a lot of downtime.

Your breadth of work covers a wide variety of genres within the synthosphere. Are there any sounds or styles that you have been meaning to try or even revisit?

The newest album I am working on combines house music with dungeon synth, something I like to call Haunted House. It was largely inspired by me hearing BIPP by the legendary SOPHIE and thinking "I have to make house inspired music now" - as for other genres, I might try to go for some more dungeon post punk/goth rock eventually, or even black metal with danceable beats.

What is your favorite childhood book?

Phantom tollbooth! It was the first book I read on my own in first grade, and a lot of it has stuck with me. Honorable mentions go to Calvin and Hobbes and the whole breadth of the Dr Seuss Mythos. If teenagehood counts as childhood I loved the writings of Lovecraft and Robert E Howard, mostly out of my deep appreciation for eldritch gods.

How do you stay creatively fulfilled to keep up with your output of releases?

Ooh! That's a good question. The summer has been very draining for me, so I've been taking a little bit of a break lately. What I try to do is create as much as possible, as well as consuming media that can inspire me, which can range from Castlevania games to old school doom metal.

What's your favorite fruit?

When I was a kid I loved lemons (still do) because I read a children's book where the villain was portrayed as evil by eating whole lemons and I was like "that guy's just like me for real!" Nowadays I love green apples, and if they count as a fruit, olives.

What attracts you to the darker ascetics of dungeon synth and black metal.

Excellent question! I think it has to do with finding comfort in things that are slightly out of the ordinary. When it comes to most black metal they'll have titles of songs like "Building a Spooky Monolith to the Gods of Ultima Thule" and "Age of the Flail" obviously they're not coming from a place of genuine sorrow, but rather an almost cartoonish evil. That stuff to me is very interesting because when I was a kid I always fixated on weird looking monsters and beings, and grown-up me I don't think thinks any differently. There's something satisfying about seeing a cool tentacle monster or an evil vampire. My lifelong fascination with religion often has to do with the surreal and otherworldly aesthetics, and these tie in with the aesthetics of dungeon synth and black metal. You could say I have an ascetic aesthetic.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Thanks to all my friends, family, foes and fiends! Thank you so much for having this interview with me, and stay numinous!

Poppet