A Chat with Massive Cranes (26.03.23)
Bring together a Polish super-producer, a cancer survivor and a classical pianist, then let them create powerful trip-hop melodies – this is Massive Cranes. The project began in the early 2000s when Adam Ostrowski and Dan Thurlow started making music together. Skip ahead to 2021, Thurlow was diagnosed with cancer and a few years earlier Ostrowski experienced the same thing; it was then that Massive Cranes became a thing. We speak to vocalist Dan Thurlow about the band’s new album Monuments, social media and AI, upcoming plans and much more.
OSR: Cliché but what made you decide to become a musician and how did Massive Cranes come about?
Thurlow: Hello, I am Dan from Massive Cranes. I am not sure I would consider myself a musician really, I just like words and mucking about with them. Adam (O.S.T.R.) and Helen are the musicians in this, to be honest. Massive Cranes is a project that Adam and I started a couple of years ago while I was getting treatment for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, we have been friends for years and used to make music together in the ’00s. When I got sick we decided it might be time to do something.
OSR: You recently released your album Monuments. What can you tell us about the album?
Thurlow: Basically, every time I went to hospital for chemo I wrote something, we ended up with a load of material and when I was well enough we recorded it at 123 in Peckham. I was very aware that I didn’t want to write anything specifically about being sick and certainly didn’t think we were making something as melancholy as we did. In my head, it is a record about hope and love and regret and all the things that you don’t often get time to think about in day-to-day life. I love the melancholy though, I am proud that we have made a record that has emotion so close to the surface.
The name Monuments came from the idea that everyone wants to leave something behind, a monument to themselves that may be a family or it may be a whacking great statue of themselves in Trafalgar Square, but everyone wants to be remembered for something.
OSR: What was the least exciting and most exciting thing about creating Monuments?
Thurlow: The most exciting thing was getting mountains of world-class production coming from O.S.T.R, he is a multi-platinum-selling hip-hop producer and I can honestly say working on music with him is a dream. He is so generous and trusting.
The least exciting is the ‘promotions’ side of things, I am just not very good at it, but it is part of modern music making, I guess.
OSR: Which is more difficult: lyrics or melody?
Thurlow: I shouldn’t really admit it but I don’t really think about melody while I am writing, I just love playing with words. On this record I really enjoyed popping in some homonyms, I like the way the challenge the old thought that you can’t use the same word twice if you are a rapper, not that I really consider myself a rapper, I am not skilled enough at flow and delivery. I also really genuinely don’t care what other people think of the way I write.
OSR: What stressors or challenges did you face during the creation of Monuments and how did you deal with them?
Thurlow: Only being ill and to be honest, in many ways that was a blessing I don’t think we would have made anything at all if I wasn’t diagnosed with cancer.
OSR: What makes Massive Cranes unique?
Thurlow: We are old and don’t care about zeitgeist or being cool. Also nothing above 80bpm ever….
OSR: What do you hope people take from your music
Thurlow: That it isn’t as bleak as it first seems and there is hope and love in everything we do.
OSR: Random questions: What is your opinion on social media and the growing use of AI?
Thurlow: Social media is a bore simple as that. It is the drunk bloke at a party that makes everyone listen to the same story again and again and again. AI and ML are super interesting however, I like the thought we can attach a soul to something made by a computer simply because we want to in the same way we think animals have human characteristics.
OSR: What do you like best about yourself?
Thurlow: My family.
OSR: What can we expect from Massive Cranes in the future?
Thurlow: We have a new project called Music To Sit Down To that is recorded and ready to go soon.
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Thurlow: Just be nice to each other, always. The world is full of shit and hate and chaos, we don’t need to add to that. Also sometimes it is nice to sit in the sun and have an ice cream.
Many thanks to Dan Thurlow for speaking with us. For more from Massive Cranes, check out their official website, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
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