🎵 IT055: Duvet Simulator 2020
✏️ George Manson
🗓 27.02.20

---

George is an artist and illustrator based in Cardiff, Wales. 

Howdy George. Can you tell us a little bit about your tape and your song selections?

Hi! I sort of came up with the idea behind this playlist when I worked in a bar a couple of years ago. We opened at 12pm and were very quiet in January. So I spent the first few hours with the heating on, playing music that best emulated the feeling of being in bed. This sort of continues on from there with a choice of sleepy, dreamy music for when you might not want to be at work or school or anywhere other than bed. Don’t worry, it’s not necessarily a sad playlist :^)

Song selections are old and new, songs you might recognise, some you might not. Late night YouTube trawling certainly played a part. This is just a fairly low-tempo collection of music from some of my favourites.

Oh and I also have the ability to listen to a song countless times without ever hearing the lyrics so themes of songs will be all over the place, because I usually don’t know what songs are about.

What direction did you take with your cover art, and what was your process?

I’m generally quite literal with my drawing so I’ve just tried to portray the theme/title as best I can. My process shifts around, as everyone’s does. I drew this in a sketchbook with a pen and very inelegantly photographed it on my phone and added some colour and a couple of edits in Procreate.

What are your fave album covers, records with a great music and artwork combo, or musical projects with a visual component?

This is sort of cheating because it turns out this isn’t the original artwork but I love this as a whole. Watering a Flower by Haruomi Hosono is a collection of two/three tracks commissioned by MUJI to be played while customers shopped. It’s so lovely and strange.

The artwork accompanies the YouTube video that introduced me to this, but was actually a poster from 1980 by Ikko Tanaka, who was the artistic/brand director of the first store. The original cassette artwork is lovely too, but the first artwork I saw just seems to accompany the music and the story so well. Mysterious and lovely. The music isn’t on streaming so I included a Haruomi Hosono which sounds the most like this collection.

What did you listen to growing up?

My parents were into punk and new wave, which has always played its part in my music listening. The first band I really got into from about age 11 was Blur, which had me interested in guitar music, I suppose.

About age 14 I found a love for electronic music. I loved that 2004 Prodigy album, which I don’t think was particularly well regarded, but it certainly bridged a gap and had me searching for more music in that direction.

Loved the Ed Banger French Touch lot. Lots of horrible technical guitar music etc. Lots. The internet was suddenly an endless resource for discovery. Myspace, blogs, Hype Machine, Last.fm!

And what’s on heavy rotation for you at the moment?

SALES, Empress Of, Caroline Polachek, Mr Oizo, Blood Orange, Charli XCX, Tera Melos, NNAMDÏ… lots. I love gigs. A couple of weeks ago I saw Dan Deacon, which is always such an enjoyable, funny, collaborative live show. And I saw Girl Ray yesterday - they’re fab. Islet are playing next week and I can’t wait. Again, another very fun live show.

What’s happening in your creative world at the moment?

I found myself committing to a quiet start to this year but have picked up recently. I’m enjoying making comics and will be tabling at a few upcoming fairs so will be printing/making some new bits.

Where can we find you?

For up-to-date things, I’m best at Instagram @gergemanson - for my real website and shop I keep promising to open, I’m at georgemanson.com

Thanks George

TRACKLIST
The Flamingos - I Only Have Eyes for You / Haruomi Hosono - バイオ・フィロソフィー/Bio Philosophy / Tess Roby - Ballad 5 / NNAMDÏ - Wasted / Hiroshi Yoshimura - Soto Wa Ame - Rain out of Window / Empress Of - Again / Rozi Plain - Old Money / The Durutti Column - Beginning / Julee Cruise - Floating / Minnie Riperton - The Edge Of A Dream / Novisad - Tokimeki-Pinpong / Cate Le Bon - Here It Comes Again / Yasuaki Shimizu - Umi No Ue Kara / Oshwa - Haze / SALES - Rainy Day Loop / Domenique Dumont - Sans cesse, mon chéri / Beach House - Take Care / Fábio Caramuru - Anu-Branco ︎