Simon Curtis: 8 Bit Update...

Are you one of the 80,000+ people who has downloaded Simon's brillo free album from his website? I mean, that's an awful lot of people who have sampled the excellent 8 Bit Heart and this quite obviously pleases me greatly (read my review here; I'm currently on a mission - like a woman on a mission - to get Attitude magazine hooked :P) You may want to check out rather excellent reviews from Popreviews now, melismatic and Alien Hits (fabtasticmusic, i'm drumming my fingers impatiently at you!!). For now though, before you dive back into the album, here are some highlights from the delightful Larry Flick interview Simon did on the always brilliant Morning Jolt yesterday (31st March)...

• They played Delusional. It does sound rather marvelous on the radio to be fair. Radio One should B-list the bejeezus out of it
• "terrific pal and world class blogger"... oh stop (don't stop, etc)!
• Simon hasn't actually heard Delusional on the radio before so waiting on the phone for the interview was his first time! Which is ace, but also a little bit heartbreaking that he wasn't blasting it out in his car...
• Simon is 24. Larry thinks he looks about 12. In his early shots he does look incredibly young. His more recent shots place him late teens (see pics above for "exhibit A and B") :P
• Simon talks about Max Martin, A*Teens, N*Sync, Britney Spears and being verbally knocked back by Matthew Knowles, who advised him to drop the musical theatre vocals if he wanted to be a popstar. Where was Matthew when Joe McElderberryJuice won the X Factor?!?!
• No offence to Delusional, but Diablo sounds OUTSTANDING on the radio. There is a reason that the song is my number one song so far of 2010...
• 8 Bit Heart is not only a homage to his history with sci fi movies, but also those artists who have inspired him throughout the years including Mozart, Britney and Lady Gaga...
• Dustin in Canada says "why" in a very deep voice and makes it sound really sultry when he phones in to ask Simon a question. I'm so taken with the way he purrs "why" that I can't even remember what the question is!
• Simon gives a little "ooo" when Larry announces he is playing the title track, which is one of the most beautiful songs you will hear all the live long year. Perfect in every respect of the word...
• Simon went to West Virginia where Jeff "Jadion" Wells (his producer) lives and recorded the entire album in 13 days. Not surprisingly it was a bit of a mindnumbing experience. I can barely write 13 pages in 13 days of the long awaited novel...
• Larry talks about the process of releasing a "free" album and not making it sound like a free album! Simon is aiming for the album to have such an effect on his career that he will be able to sign to a label thanks to a galvanised fan base. The Robo-Army lives!!
• Simon earns some additional "pocket money" through being an actor as well and having some income from that, which helps him get to where he needs to be. It's been tough, and I'm hoping that he will be able to translate his fanbase in to getting him some money. No one likes to be poor :(
• I really wanted Simon to say fuck on air after Fell In Love W/an Android but tragically he doesn't.Darn
• Simon talks a little about his leukemia battle. I'm rather repulsed by some of the comments on the popjustice forum about this, but people are always cynical and repugnant sometimes :/
• The final 3 songs on the album shift to darker symbolism and The Dark is the culmination of that, with the artist questioning how to break into an unbreakable circle. The Jay-Z sample comes from his song Encore btw...
• The interview was utterly charming. Simon sounds absolutely delightful. What a lovely young fella

Back soon. I've been slack lately. Must do better...