Q&A: Max Cooper
Interview
As part of Music Beyond Mainstream's 25th anniversary touring programme for 2026, musician/ multi-disciplinary artist/ music label founder Max Cooper visits Warwick Arts Centre on Friday 15 May 2026.
Coinciding with the release of his new album, Feeling Is Structure, his 3D/AV Tour - which came out of a commission for London's Royal Albert Hall - sees Max continue to expand his unique immersive approach to live appearances, merging the boundaries between concert experience and installation art.
In between engagements, Max spoke to HotMusicLive ...
Feeling Is Structure 'explores the relationship between physical form and human emotion' - what has been some of the personal prompts/ inspirations for you?
I spend most of my life in an abstract place connecting musical patterns to my states of mind, and after spending time in the Royal Albert Hall thinking about how to connect the architecture with structures of light I got thinking about our capacity to imbue external form with meaning, and the same process happening inwardly, with the biological structures that map to our states of mind as well. Each chapter and piece of music became a sub-story amongst this idea. Like Chrysalis, which was a light scaffolding inside the space, with us the audience inside this developing structure.
Where did that idea develop from?
It came naturally from the request to build a show for the space, along with my lifelong obsession with the question of what we are. I've tackled it from several different perspectives. For example with Unspoken Words - what we can express that we can't put into words ( unspokenwords.net) , which flowed into On Being, a public database of what is really important to us which we can't express in everyday life ( onbeing.maxcooper.net ), and now, Feeling is Structure which looks at our capacity to create meaning as a central aspect of what makes us.
No two venues are the same, and your 3D/AV dates aim to utilise the spaces, visually and aurally. There's a lot of tech' naturally involved in that. What have been some of the challenges you've faced in staging this project live?
Signal transmission has probably been the most frequent challenge. I have a lot of different projectors to make the visual wrap the audience and interact with the architecture of each space, and patching and formats in video can be time consuming and unpredictable, so I've resorted to bringing all my own cables wherever possible. More specifically to Feeling is Structure, I've been playing with 3D projections into haze, and 360 audience format as well, which has introduced several new challenges.
You also run the MESH label - any forthcoming releases you can tell us about?
There's so many amazing artists working with at Mesh at the moment it's exciting times. Rob Clouth is a Madrid based creative giant building custom software tools and techniques and music like no one else in the world, Odalie from Lyon brings her beautiful acoustic world into electronics, Pleizel and Non Square are Istanbul based bringing a very particular electronic vibe of their own, Throwing Snow is already a UK electronic legend who has recently signed with us with super strong EPs, Jake Oleson is an NYC based film making and composer who is making mind blowing stereoscopic films and music, Drum and Lace from London is a composer and live electronics artist who has recently signed with us, Reid Willis from New Orleans has a magical electronic cinematic touch entirely of his own, Llyr is Berlin based bringing that flavour along with detailed conceptual projects, Jinje is killing it with Berghain and Panorama shows and live percussive electronic AV fusions, Alex Banks is a sound design don and cornerstone of the label with his huge club oriented sound and one of the latest signings Aleph, from Vermont in the States has blessed us with some of the tightest bass fine art.
And how's the year ahead looking for yourself? Any releases or projects you can discuss that you're excited about? Any remixes for other acts lined-up?
I've got some arts projects and installations to work on, but also some club focused projects as well - there's so much I love about both sides. Remix wise I just finished one for Grandbrothers which I'm excited about.
• Max Cooper 3D/AV Live: Feeling Is Structure visits Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, on Friday 15 May 2026. For tickets see: warwickartscentre.co.uk
• Max Cooper is presented in conjunction with DeliaPhonic, who will take over Warwick Arts Centre's gallery foyer from 7pm with DJ sets and interactive sound experiments from School of Noise.
Audio
