Danny Hargreaves: So, who is Tristen Polar anyway?

Gary Spence: Tpolar (Tristenpolar) was originally a name for a track, then I decided it would be a good idea to use it as the brand name for the type of music I had been making - almost like a fictional character to lighten it a little. Electronica / House etc was always a little serious I thought so why not include myself under a name that was a little tongue-in-cheek.

DH: There seems to be a trend for obscure - some would say even nonsensical - names for minimal tech-house these days. It could be argued you are following it; is this because the track names aren't really important?

GS: In way the name isn't important and just to be awkward in a way it is!! But its more fitting to the music which I think is very personal and obscure itself - so the names in a way reflect it. It leaves more to the imagination!

DH: Your recent album 'Department of Stealth' is hard to categorise - do you aim for a coherent theme with your releases or is it anything goes?

GS: Hopefully anything goes but there's definitely a similar vein to the tracks. I like to make my music as original as possible so a lot of the time the tracks might not be very genre specific. Theres soul/funk/electronica/house/techno/breaks all going on in my head so theres a percentage of ingredients from all the genres.

DH: Is there a commercial angle / crossover potential in modern electronica?

GS: I think depends on how abstract it is; I can't see too many artists like Supercollider or a lot of the Perlon-esq music appealing to many people too often...although it does seem to fit comfortably within most sorts of creative video media which is why so many adverts use tracks.

DH: There is an Irish netlabel called Electrotoxic www.electrotoxic.com/audio that you've remixed for. What's the story there?

GS: I record for Electrotoxic as Citezen which I like to think of as Tpolar's laboratory, very experimenta, dark and atmospheric - much less groove-based. The label itself is based here in Ireland and is a collective of some of the finest producers and djs from a slightly more leftfield area. Its been going from strength to strength in the last few years and is responsible for, in my opinion at least, some of the more creative nights in Belfast. Cid (Barry Lynn) in particular I'd expect to be hearing a lot more of in the next year or so on the production front.

DH: Is there much support for electronica at home in Ireland?

GS: It's a small community and maybe there are a few too many people putting nights on for the crowd that's available, but there is a definite interest. The majority do prefer the more straight up nights though!

DH: Some of your tracks are characterised by strange / quirky / bonkers vocal samples. Where do you get these from?

GS: Ahh, sometimes I make them myself other times I sample things - though I always make sure to batter it into an unrecognisable pulp before using :)

DH: What inspires you to create your music?

GS: Obviously other music I've heard in the past which tempted me into trying my hand at production, but since I began about seven years ago its never out of my mind - chasing the perfect track which - thank god - will never exist, so I'll be going forever, trying to create my own little slice of soul, soundtracks for imaginary films, lots of things like that.

DH: What's your approach to performance - DJing, laptop, or both?

GS: I generally use a laptop and x-session. I dj with it and do live stuff with Electrotoxic. I would like to incorporate it into some sort of band structure soon in the future and see what happens - a very good vocalist is needed so if anyone has a spare one...?!

DH: Are we likely to be seeing T-Polar on tour?

GS: Hopefully in the near future I'll be doing some sort of traveling, though at the moment I'm concentrating on production.

DH: Do you use any live instruments in your productions? If not, any plans to?

GS: Yes it would be nice; there are certain things about electronica and live instrumentation meeting up that I find a little obvious but if things are used in the right context then it can have a great effect.

DH: What's in store from you in the future Gary?

GS: I really like the concept of Splatter-Haus so I'm going to be tinkering with that again plus the abstract soul side of things has me gripped. There's a few releases this year which contine on from both so hopefully people will get to hear them and appreciate them!

For a taste of Gary's sound, be sure to check out T-Polar's 'Department of Stealth' on Morris Audio. 'Splatterhaus' is out now on Karloff.