Dave.I.D likes to think for himself. Always has done. It’s the reason why his debut album didn’t go quite according to his initial plan. He was going to make, to use his own words, “something pretty simple and straightforward”. But then he noticed lots of his friends were discovering new beliefs. Some even tried to convert him. “I’m very open-minded to different beliefs, but I question and see things slightly differently,” he says. Without necessarily wanting to, he found himself reflecting on existential questions. “The album is a record of the time that it was made, and that’s what was going on in my life at the time. I didn’t necessarily want to make the debut album like that. I felt I had to make it.” The cerebral inspiration catapulted him into music’s outer rim. He beamed back a dark, dense sometimes confrontational sound, but ultimately compelling sound. But, in the end, it turned out to be a happy accident because the resulting record, called ‘Response’ appropriately enough, is mind-bendingly inventive, brilliantly off-kilter and constantly surprising. Crucially, the tough sonics are paired with killer melodies: this is deep, heavy music you can hum. The records he was listening to while making ‘Response’ help make sense of his singular sound. “I got into a lot of noise bands like Ex Models. I felt a strong connection to the second and third Liars albums, ‘They Were Wrong, So We Drowned (2004) and ‘Drum’s Not Dead’ (2006). ‘The Drift’ by Scott Walker is a great album. I think those are the people that have had an effect on me musically.” The common thread is a prioritisation of sound over melody. Ask him about the future, and he responds instantly. “My dream is for this to be an option. I’m ambitious. I want people to like what I do. The difference is that I’m not going to sugar coat it for you. I don’t have that need. I really just like pleasing myself at the moment.” It’s more of a passive statement than a modern update of Suicide’s confrontational stan