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‘People think I hate pop’: super-producer AG Cook on working with Beyoncé and honouring his friend Sophie
As the boss of PC Music, the godfather of hyperpop confounded critics but won over Beyoncé and Charli XCX. Now, with a supersized new solo album, he’s continuing his mission to make pop more unpredictable
As a producer of elasticated outre pop his output is as varied as it is frenetic, taking in everything from bass-rattling electronic workouts for cultural behemoths such as Beyoncé to celestial dreamscapes for underground newcomers, via collaborations with Caroline Polachek and longterm partner in crime, Charli XCX. Unironically referencing so-called “guilty pleasures” of the past (90s German happy hardcore outfit Scooter, for example) while giving a taste of an unexplored future, its output was influential, helping to define and platform the burgeoning genre of hyperpop, while spreading its tentacles across pop via major label acts such as Charli XCX and Dua Lipa. Despite all the collaborations with pop megastars and like-minded oddballs, for now the indefatigable Cook’s focus is purely on Britpop and the extended world he’s building via Witchfork (sample news story: “Travis’ Fran Healy Says He Inspired David Beckham’s ‘Hoxton Fin’ Mohawk” by Pat Stool); his social media presence (one TikTok features him morphing into trite British signifiers such as a red bus); and the artwork’s fantastical reimagining of the union jack.
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