Hip hop beats czar Sten King, aka Earthboundboy, once auditioned for Echobelly. Even now, in post-Britpop sobriety, he won’t hear a word against them. This is because he’s Hertfordshire’s nicest man. FACT.

Fortunately, this also means he didn’t mind a bit when Queenie Harrison presented him with a set of shoddy, halfwitted questions and announced he was the subject of the inaugural Postculturist pop interview. Hooray!

Welcome, Earthboundboy. Tea or coffee?

I prefer the idea of tea, but mostly drink coffee. Tea = a nice sit down, coffee necked by grasping corporate types. I don’t know what that says about me.

It has to be tea with a bacon sandwich, however. Anything else would be Very Wrong.

How old were you when you created your first beat?

Um… I used to write songs when I was quite young, maybe 8 or 9, and accompany myself with a couple of pencils. In the hip hop sense it would have been when I was about 14 and probably with an old 4-track and one of those cheap old casio keyboard samplers, playing everything in by hand. Sophisticated stuff. I’ve not really progressed much from the pencils, to be fair.

You play bass, you play drums and you’re a backroom knobtwiddler (official job title). What’s most fun?

Drums, unquestionably. Knobtwiddling runs a close second. I miss my drums, and I do regret never having played them in a band. Bass I did play in bands and have no real desire to go back to. Auditioning for Echobelly really was the pinnacle of my bass playing achievements, even though I didn’t get the job. How could I hope to scale those heights again?

So what’s the best thing about live performance?

It was something I never imagined I would be able to do, and then people say nice stuff to you afterwards and it’s a rare occasion when it’s nice to be the centre of attention and then you can go and get a bit pissed.

On top of drum, bass and knob twiddles, you’re a father. Has it changed your outlook on fame, success and ambition?

I don’t know really, I never craved any of that before I became a Dad, I would have been happy to eke out a modest living making music in some shape or form. Now I’d like to leave something half decent behind that my daughter might be proud of me for. That would be a success for me. Ah!

Bless. OK, on to more serious questions. You’re playing a charity benefit with Chuck D (Public Enemy) and he insists everyone wears fancy dress on stage. Which of the following outfits would you choose?

A – Wetsuit, fins & snorkel
B – Regency gentlemen’s outfit inc. tailcoat & breeches
C – Drag
D – Bumble bee inc. yellow tights.

That is a great idea, can we make this actually happen? Can I have one element from each? If not, then C – Drag. I reckon I’d scrub up quite well in a nice frock. Flav can have the bumble bee outifit.

What’s more important, money or love?

Love, unless it’s love of money. Er… I feel very lucky to have lots of the latter and no worse off for my general lack of the former.

Earthboundboy in 1830 (or Queenie's been fiddling with iPhoto again)

You’re world famous. Who will play you in the Earthboundboy Channel 5 miniseries?

Perhaps Romain Duris. He is about the same age as me but infinitely more attractive, talented and French. I think he’d be able to handle it. After all, his Wikipedia page states: “He has a reputation for versatility, having played a French student in Spain, a thug, a bandit and a homosexual.”

Do you believe in ghosts?

The living are enough to contend with without having to deal with the concept of the dead milling about everywhere as well.

If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do?

I’d like to say I’d do something really worthwhile and useful, but I’d probably just head for the ladies’ changing room.

If you could live anywhere on earth, where would it be?

Aha! Yes, it would be somewhere in France. Mirepoix, a lovely little place sort of near Carcassonne.

Who’s the world’s most underrated musician?

Friends whose music I have loved but who don’t get the recognition they deserve. Some of my favourite music has been made by people I know.

If you had to do life all over again, what – if anything – would you change?

I had a chronic lack of self-confidence when I was younger, I would change that if I could. I missed out on a lot of things. It’d be nice to be able to go back in time to visit my younger self and give him a firm shoe up the arse. Or apologise. Perhaps both.

Nearly the end of the interview and still everything to play for…

According to Scientific Fact (i.e. something Queenie once read on some blog or other), whatever you wanted to do between the ages of 9 and 11 is your ideal career. What did you want to be when you grew up?

Simon Le Bon or Adam Ant. Neither position has become available yet, to my knowledge.

And one for luck. Tell us a secret.

I haven’t a clue what I am doing when it comes to music. Oh, a secret you say?

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Catch Earthboundboy’s next radio slots by clicking here tonight (Friday 7 August) between 7pm – 11pm and on Monday 10 August 9pm – 10pm. Click the logo to visit Earthboundboy’s Myspace page and hear some tunes.