Mellowdrone might just be another struggling troubadour, but when he supported Johnny Marr last month on his UK Tour people left venues proclaiming him a genius and better than the former member of the Smiths. A one man tour de force he builds up anthemic soundscapes piece by piece until the finished results tower like skyscrapers. Designer Magazine caught up with this modern day genius to find exactly where he's coming from.

Q: You've just finished the UK tour with Johnny Marr before heading back to the States for some more shows. How was it supporting such a legend?
A: Well being the retarded Smiths fan that I am first I didn't no how to handle it, but it's safe to say that  were kind of friends now. By the end of it we were just kind of hanging out like two old women. The States was crazy because he's got more of a mysticism and he's more of a figure over there whereas in the UK I find him to be more of a human being. It was fun playing those shows over there because everyone was like "Oh Shit, it really is Johnny Marr" whereas in Europe it's just like "Oh, it's Johnny Marr".
 

Q: Born in Venezuela, live in Boston and now based in LA. When did the love affair with music start?
A: I sucked at sports and it went very well along with the drug use. So I put two and two together and there was nothing else to do. I played in bands at high school, but it was just complete shit. When I was in Boston it was just impossible to be in a band due to the fact there was no place to rehearse and there was no place to play. That's why I started doing things on my own because me and my friends would just do acid and we would make music to listen to...that's where Mellowdrone came out of.
 

Q: Seeing you on-stage last week it was quite empowering seeing one guy up on stage building up this soundscape piece by piece?
A: I don't want to come across as a John Maher folk guy because i'm not trying to preach or be cute because it's just what I'm doing in my living room and so far they're paying me to do it. I'm not the smartest of men so the easier for me the better, so each song is the culmination of 3 real simple parts going at the same time and it sounds complicated even though it's not. When the label decides to give me more money we'll have more band members and go even further.
 

Q: When people talk about influences, 9 times out of 10 they'll list the usual suspects. It's not like that for you is it?
A: Danny Elfin is probably the biggest influence and then a lot of French composers like Chopin. And then Nigel Godrich who a lot of people don't consider a musical influence, but I do because he's responsible for sound - he's a Phil Spector of this age!!!