Matt Cutler is a producer that comes too few and far between. From starting his music career with the vastly underrated project Kids In Tracksuits, Cutler was always on the otherworldly hip-hop tip, finding ways to exploit beats into tasty audible pretzel knots. When he took on the moniker of Lone, he twisted the knots even further and threw lush synth sounds to create audible journeys into an ethereal utopia clouded by the selective samples used in his tracks. However, since he’s always making tons of these fantastic tunes, he rarely has time to do a full-fledged interview. Luckily, we got a hold of Lone at the right time: right after his stellar album Ecstasy & Friends came out, and he gave us details on his musical uprooting, his tune-making process and his favorite artists at the moment. All that, plus an exclusive unreleased track down below for download!

URB: When did you start to become interested in music and what brought upon your interest in it?
LONE: I remember thinking all music [that] I was hearing was total shit until the age of around nine. Granted, the only music I’d heard up to that point was my parents cassettes of Gloria Estefan and Luther Vandross, which, by the way, I now think are absolute gems. But then I overheard my sister and her friends listening to early acid house, hardcore and jungle. As soon as I heard those tapes, I became obsessed. It totally struck a chord with me. Maybe it was because it reminded me of the music from “Streets Of Rage” or some other video games I was into. Anyway, I heard those tunes and was completely blown away. About two years later I discovered Aphex Twin’s I Care Because You Do album and it was probably around that point I decided to start making my own stuff on my keyboards and tape recorder.

URB: Explain how you started up Kids In Tracksuits, its origins and how it differs from the “Lone” sound.
LONE: The whole K.I.T thing was basically a way for Andy Hemsley and myself to escape the bullshit of sixth form college and work on something at home which was creative and fun for us. Our main shared interests were hip-hop and turntablism by this point. We were like 17, and I’d been making Lone stuff on my own since I was about 10, so my tracks were starting to sound half-decent, while Andy was getting pretty good at cutting and scratching and stuff so we decided to start that up: I’d make a beat and he’d rock some cuts over it. That was our only intention, to do that–there were no goals beyond that, really. It differed from the Lone “sound” because it was a totally hip-hop inspired thing at the start. I’d always play Andy some Autechre and Aphex Twin and stuff and he’d be like, “Yeah, it’s cool and everything, but let’s put on 36 Chambers again.” So, although I started to slip in as much of an electronica influence as I could, our main thing was Wu-Tang or DJ Premier or whatever–so I guess in our own naive way we were just trying to emulate that stuff… and getting it totally wrong, obviously. Lone has always been more personal to me, hence the name; it’s a one man show, not trying to copy anything, just writing music as honestly as I can.

URB: Explain how you came about with that specific sound; the dreamy synths and abstract beats, was this how you envisioned your music from the start or did it break off of something from previous work?
LONE: It’s been a real slow process, to be honest. Like I said, I had been working away on it pretty secretively since I was ten years old. My influences have always been all over the place. I think growing up you go through a bit of an identity crisis as a producer, trying to find your feet. Up until around 2005 every track of mine sounded totally different;  I was obsessed with the idea that it needed to be as intricate and complicated as possible, like relying on production tricks and stuff. But by the end of 2005 going into 2006, I’d sort of become more focused on what it was I truly loved about music–the melody. No tricks, just beautiful music and a beat I could nod my head to.

URB: It seems like your influences are of massive range; besides the hip-hop elements, there’s R&B, smooth jazz, folk, and many more… What influenced you to make this sound that spans so many bits of pieces of other genres?
LONE: Maybe it has something to do with the fact I’m now on the second album of mine to be released. After Lemurian came out, I got pretty terrified about being type cast as “wonky” or whatever, so semi-consciously with this album, I drew upon some of the the things I’d always loved, i.e. the vintage R’n'B,  soul, early house tinges, and thought it’d be a nice progression to include more of those… flavors.