Mathieu Gendreau (electronics) & Pieter Van Dessel (vocals / electronics) are Plastic Operator. Respectively hailing from Montreal and Antwerp, the pair met at London’s Westminster University in 2001 where they were both studying audio production. Bonding over a shared love of two decades of fine electronic and indie music the pair began to make sweet music together. When the course finished Pieter returned to Antwerp to work on sound design for film and play in a few bands, and Mathieu remained in London to work as a sound engineer and record producer, working with a broad cross-section of the UK’s musical talent. The pair kept up their collaborative efforts over the internet, meeting face to face in either London or Antwerp once a month.
In 2004, their efforts came to fruition when then the pair released their debut three track CD through a handful of record shops, with Rough Trade making it their CD of the week. Once the tracks were out there in the public domain, things accelerated at a pace no-one could have predicted. The lead track from the CD, ‘Folder’, had been posted on a web blog, and within weeks Plastic Operator were receiving emails from fans in New York, Mexico City and Bangkok enquiring about the group. Radio stations as far apart as California, New Zealand and Tijuana began championing the song. In London Radio 1’s Rob Da Bank began playing the track on his Blue Room show, eventually signing the track to his Sunday Best label.
Plastic Operator have just released their debut album, “Different Places”, on May 14, 2007 on Fine Day Records in Europe. The album will be out in Japan on P-Vine/Fine Day Records on 5th October 2007. |
