Of late, synthpop fans have hardly been starved for good material. With excellent recent releases from Hot Chip, Passion Pit, Twin Shadow and Shamir, as well as the incredibly promising debut of Skylar Spence around the corner, the past year has been great for anyone looking to dance like it’s the 80s. Those looking to keep the party going would do well to add Mystery Skulls to a playlist or two.
Mystery Skulls is the pseudonym of former The Secret Handshake artist Luis Dubuc. Since the release of the project’s self-titled EP in 2011, Dubuc has been churning out reliably groovy pop songs tinged with an electrohouse edge and brought to life by his own R&B vocals. His lively take on familiar sounds has courted him both plenty of fans and interest from fellow artists, with Mystery Skulls’ debut album Forever featuring guest appearances from Brandy, Snowblood and, impressively, Nile Rodgers of Chic and “Get Lucky” fame.
Dubuc has been spending the year touring the album worldwide and is currently in the middle of a string of East Coast dates. We chatted with him in advance of his show tonight at Brighton Music Hall about songwriting, anime and, of course, working with Nile Rodgers.
Allston Pudding: Forever has a great throwback vibe to 80s synth sounds. Were you looking to any specific artists as influences?
Luis Dubuc: Yeah, I love 80s music. I think when I was making the record I wasn’t really listening to a ton of music, just focusing on making the record. As far as overall 80s influences, though, I love Zapp & Roger, Lionel Richie, Commodore, Prince and 80s Michael Jackson. All of that really helped to influence the sound you hear on the record.
AP: What was your songwriting process for the album?
LD: For the record it kind of spanned a few years. I had been making a series of EPs and giving music away online. There wasn’t really a plan to make an album in terms of how it happened, but somewhere along the way I got signed by Warner Brothers and worked with Nile Rodgers and Brandy and some other great people. I remember at one point thinking “oh, there’s a lot of great songs here,” so instead of just instead of singles or an EP it could make for a full album.
As far as the songs themselves, molecularly, I always start with drums and rhythm and often a vocal idea. Sometimes I’ll even have a song name beforehand, like with “Body High.” For years I said I wanted to have a song called “Body High,” so it was sort of a matter of getting to the point where I could write a song that sounded like I thought it should in my mind.
AP: Speaking of Nile Rodgers, how did you get linked up with him?
LD: Well, the man who had signed me is friends with him and had told me that he was going to hang out with Nile that day. This was before I signed. He told me he was going to show him my music, which was pretty cool, but I didn’t think anything of it. I had zero expectations. Maybe an hour and a half later, I get this random phone call, and it was Nile Rodgers. He was like, “I just heard your songs, they were awesome, come hang out with me!” I went and met him that night and we’ve been friends ever since.
AP: What was working with him like?
LD: It was really cool. Really sweet and very real. We’ve worked on a ton of stuff since then. Got some tracks on the new Chic record [the forthcoming It’s About Time] and worked on some stuff for some other artists.
AP: Are there any other artists you’re itching to collaborate with?
LD: I love Ghostface [Killah]. I’ve said for awhile that I would love to do a track with Ghostface. I would really love to do a track with Erykah Badu. I love Andre 3000. I love 90s and 2000s R&B and hip-hop, so a lot of those artists are ones I’d like to collaborate with.
AP: You’re a big anime fan, right?
LD: True!
AP: What are some of your favorites in the genre?
LD: As far as current shows, I just got the Space Dandy box set, so I’m really into that. I love the classics, but as far as the new stuff I really love Space Dandy, and Attack on Titan’s been pretty cool.
AP: A lot of artists, particularly Porter Robinson recently, credit their interest in anime as an influence on their music. Would you say it has been at all like that for you?
LD: I think it’s more an influence contextually and visually. As far as J-Pop or even anime music, I don’t think that comes through in my music at all. It’s really just contextualized and idea-based. Sometimes when I’m writing I’ll have something on, muted, and be inspired by the visual aspect of it.
AP: What’s your stage setup like for this tour?
LD: I’m basically signing and DJing. There’s a visual component as well, which makes it pretty interesting.
AP: What’s next for you after this tour?
LD: After this tour I’m going back to Los Angeles and doing a set of shows on the West Coast. It’s sort of the second half to this East Coast run, which includes New York, Philadelphia and, of course, Boston.
Other than that, I release remixes all the time on my Soundcloud. I release mixtapes- I had a summer mixtape that just went up. I also put a new track up on Tumblr recently called “Miracles.” There’s always new stuff online.
Mystery Skulls will be playing Brighton Music Hall tonight, 8/26. Tickets are still available here.