You started off as a punk drummer. How did you get into DJing?
I got interested about ten years ago. I’d always been a record collector, and when James [Murphy, frontman] and I first started trying to make music as LCD Soundsystem we were both indie-rock musicians.
We were both totally fed up with that little world of ’90s New York indie and we were looking for new sounds. So I bought a couple of decks and learned how to do it, and started throwing parties in Brooklyn.
There must have been a huge void in your life when LCD Soundsystem dissolved, in April 2011.
There was – so I filled it. I got married and bought a house.
So what have you been up to?
I’ve satisfied my itch to make music by starting to make a record with my good friend Dennis McNanny, who is also known as Run Roc. We have a single that should be coming out in the next two months. We don’t even have a name yet!
And you’re drumming on it?
There will be some live drums – so far it’s all programme and synthesised – but I’m also singing. I haven’t sung lead vocals since my first punk band when I was 14.
Are you scared of the mic?
I sang back-up throughout LCD’s career so I feel confident singing, but of course now I won’t have the fat guy to cover up my false notes.
How is ‘the fat guy’, aka James?
He’s great. I haven’t seen much of him because he’s been living in London. His house in Brooklyn is just down the street from mine, but he hasn’t been there in six months.
Do you think you two will ever work together?
I certainly hope to enlist his sage advice on this project I’m working on. Maybe playing some instruments, banging on things, a little production – we’ll see.
It was James’s decision to call time on the band. Would you have been happy to carry on?
It was James’s project creatively: he called the shots. We all had creative input on several levels, but we all knew from the beginning that part of the reason it worked so well was because he was the general. So in the end it was his decision to move on, but it was something we had discussed for years.
So you saw it coming?
Absolutely. It felt like we were entering a stage of notoriety that was about to change a lot of the dynamics. It had the potential of turning into something that would be a less intimate experience for us and our long-term fans, and I think we just decided to not go there. The potential for us to wear out our welcome was significant. There was a fear that it would turn into something we never wanted it to be.
Pat’s new single will be out later this year. For more on Tiger Translate, see www.tigertranslate.com.
