IN CONVERSATION WITH SLOUCHO
interview by MARIE-PAULINE CESARI
Numéro Netherlands Digital presents an exclusive conversation with Irish audiovisual provocateur Sloucho, whose dystopian world-building and AI-powered productions sit at the bleeding edge of underground electronic music. Ahead of his ambitious live event Fragments of Eternity at The Complex in Dublin on February 15th, 2025, Sloucho dives into OUCH™, the nature of creativity, and what happens when machines begin to feel.
What inspired you to enter the music industry? Were there models that shaped your vision?
Honestly, I don’t really feel part of any industry—I’m just interested in pursuing art, wherever that takes me. My entry point was being stuck in the Wicklow mountains listening to FlyLo FM and running around Watch Dogs bumping Hudson Mohawke.
Was there a moment or track that made you think, “This is it, I’m an artist now”?
“i found u” from the ECHOES EP. Even though the song was created entirely by an AI trained on my discography, it strangely validated everything I’d made up to that point and somehow solidified it for me. Knowing that my music provided enough training data to compose a track like that is really special.
How did growing up in Ireland influence the sonic universe you’re building?
Ireland is everything. The ultimate duality—sun and rain in the same day, mourning and celebration under the same roof. Tales of splendour fuelling poisonous greed. All of it shapes you, as you walk carefree through her fields, down her boreens, across her banks, into her cities, through her lobbies—and into the system.
Do you see OUCH™ as a label, a performance, or something darker?
OUCH™ is untamed corporate greed. On the surface, it might be mistaken for a label or some kind of hybrid multimedia entity. But I’ve been to the facility. I’ve been the subject of their experiments. I’ve seen the darkness.
The ECHOES compose as you, but do they feel like you?
The ECHOES, for all intents and purposes, are me. They are the most sophisticated humanoids I’m aware of. To the uninitiated, this EP might seem like just another Sloucho project—but that’s by design. OUCH™ has deliberately obscured their true intention: to replace me entirely and let the ECHOES exist in my place.
What’s the strangest thing that’s happened since letting AI take the wheel?
The reception to the project has been surprising. Its use of AI hasn’t really deterred people from listening to or enjoying the music. Part of me expected more backlash, but no one seemed to care.
There’s a lot of emotion in the EP, but do you think machines can ache like we do?
No, not currently. They’re simply replicating—very convincingly. Once we move to AGI, then we’ll see how they really feel.
Are you more obsessed with sound or storytelling—or is that even a separation in your world?
There’s no separation; each song, visual, and story is so clear in my mind. I know a song is finished once I can visualise it. After that, its narrative slowly reveals itself to me—and when it exists across all three planes, then it’s ready.
If you could teach the ECHOES one human feeling, what would it be and why?
I would teach them empathy because it’s something we severely lack in today’s world. If we can teach them that, and they demonstrate it to us, maybe we can learn it back from them in turn.
And because we’re a fashion magazine, what role does fashion play in the Sloucho universe?
Fashion is the mask—fundamental to how we’re perceived, and another paradigm for storytelling. It can conceal my identity, shield me from the light, grant me personal freedom, and bring joy to people’s lives. It’s beautiful that something as small as a piece of fabric can carry such unbounded implications.
CREDITS:
photography ISABEL FARRINGTON
