Donor Lens
Donor Lens
Artist Bio
Donor Lens is a production duo and live electronic act consisting of Thom Hosken and Jay Sabourin. Based between London and South Wales, their work blends experimental Post-Vaporwave with catchy Dance-Pop that recalls the diverse electronic styles of the early 2000s. They sometimes call their fusions “Bluetooth bangers” or “breakbeat ballads”. They release mainly on the My Pet Flamingo record label which was co-founded by Jay.
You can now listen to the full interview with Donor Lens on Episode 3 of Mythic Rhythmic Presents only on Massive Radio.
World Premiere
Mythic Rhythmic had the distinct honor of featuring the world premiere of their latest banger “Get Back @ U” with Jana Tyrrell in Episode 3 of Mythic Rhythmic Presents on November 9th, 2023. The song was officially released at Midnight on the eve of our Episode 3 world premiere, so when you say you heard it first on Mythic Rhythmic Presents, it’s often true.
“Get Back @ U” is a super catchy dance infused ballad of sorts, neatly encapsulating a devil may care attitude inside a cross-genre synthesis of Dance-Pop, Post Vaporwave, and a meld of other Post-Modern stylistic influences designed to get you moving on the dance floor.
Jana’s beautiful voice layered over Jay and Thom’s carefully crafted beats truly transports you to places you’ve never been just as the song says. This collaboration between Jana and Donor Lens only serves to reinforce this power duo’s ability to seamlessly blend their collaborative work with other Artists into their own unique genre-amorphous yet clearly distilled soundscape.
Put this track on and let the fun begin…I double dare you!
“Get Back @ U (Feat. Jana Tyrrell)” – Donor Lens
Inspiration
“We have quite different listening tastes in general. Jay’s background is in Metal/Emo, and he also studied Indian Classical music for years. I grew up playing Western Classical music and Jazz, and mainly listen to ’80s Indie music and Disco these days.”
“Our tastes really align with UK dance music from the ’90s and 2000s. We like IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) stuff like Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and Autechre for sure, but we also love UK Garage, Jungle, and Bassline stuff. We have a particular soft spot for tunes where those underground sounds infiltrated the Pop charts such as ‘T2 – Heartbroken‘.”
“We also grew up playing games consoles such as the Sega Dreamcast, and take influence from the soundtracks of that era such as Jet Set Radio etc.”
Future Goals
“We’ve been putting out a single a month recently, starting with ‘Seeing Voices ft. Kiera Pixie’, then ‘Made This About U’ and ‘Mirror Mirage ∞ 鏡の蜃気 楼 ft. Eulalie’. We’re going to keep this release rate up as long as we can, plus we have a new album ready to drop in the near future. We want to keep growing our profile online/internationally, and build up more of a local following, too.”
What does each of you bring to the duo that complements the other’s strengths and weaknesses in the creative process?
“I think the best thing about being in a duo is holding each other accountable to commitments and deadlines! We both have solo projects—Jay is Kid Neon, and Thom is Wichita LimeWire and Love in Dust—that are far less prolific and less well-known. We even have solo aliases that have never released any music at all. As for specific skills, we are both decent multi-instrumentalists but Jay is a better guitarist than I am. My keys playing is probably more confident. Jay is a great lead vocalist and frontman, and I am happier being the mad scientist at the back-or the second Pet Shop Boy/Sleaford Mod, getting unusual sounds out of a sampler or set of CDJs.”
What do you think is the most important aspect in collaboration?
“Communication, particularly not dismissing each other’s ideas out of hand. Their musical choices will be different to what you’d do by yourself, and that’s the whole point of working in a duo or group. Allowing music to take shape with two (or more) creators is a special, symbiotic thing.”
Who are your favorite duos of all time and why?
“Music Producer and Vlogger FrankJavCee likes to call us Tom and Jerry, so let’s shout out those guys first! There are so many great comedy duos that don’t directly inspire our music, but have fascinating dynamics and creative processes nonetheless: Mark and Jeremy from Peep Show (the show was also written by a duo), Matt and Trey of South Park, and (my faves) surrealists Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.”
“When I lived in East London, I used to see legendary art duo Gilbert and George who have maintained their partnership for decades, and are permanently in character as a pair of ‘living statues’. We don’t quite take the Donor Lens project to these extremes!”
“Musically, loads of great electronic music of the Y2K era was made by duos like Matmos, Boards of Canada, Chemical Brothers, Moloko, Daft Punk, Orbital etc. I think there’s something about working in a pair or group that makes the music less solipsistic, more fun, and maybe more likely to cross over to a Rock/Indie audience as the dynamic mirrors that of a Rock band.”
“Speaking of dynamics, we both really like the working methods of Vaporwave group Death’s Dynamic Shroud, who are sometimes a duo, sometimes a trio, and make unusual and unique music.”
Listen to the Full Interview
If you’d like to hear the full interview with Donor Lens as well as enjoy hot tracks from this Artist and other Indie Electronic Artists around the world, please tune in to Massive Radio for Episode 3 of Mythic Rhythmic Presents.