Max Cooper

Max Cooper (born 1980) is a London-based electronica and techno producer.   He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland to parents of Australian descent.Prior to dedicating full-time focus within music, Cooper received his Ph.D. in computational biology from Nottingham University in 2008. He was inspired to become a geneticist after reading a Stephen Hawking book as a child.During his doctoral training, his research interests focused on modelling the evolution of gene regulatory networks, specifically examining the evolution of feed-forward loops,and studying the evolutionary influences of binding site organisation during transcriptional processes.After completing his doctoral work, Cooper held a brief post-doctoral position as a geneticist at University College London.   Following the non-renewal of the associated supportive fund cycle in 2010, Cooper decided to redirect focus entirely on music production. He has been releasing music since 2007 and has since received positive criticism from magazines including Clash.Although he does not have any formal music training, he started playing violin at age 12 but eventually quit because he hated it.His best-known releases are the Serie trilogy, three dancefloor tracks whose related videos by animator Whiskas Fx were each inspired by a different scientific or mathematical concept.Now a full-time musician and performer, Cooper has released more than fifty original tracks and remixes,with originals primarily appearing on German label Traum Schallplatten.His remixes range from avant-garde composer Michael Nyman to bands like Hot Chip and Au Revoir Simone to techno acts such as Agoria and Dominik Eulberg.He encourages fans to produce their own videos for his music, with the results displayed on his website.   His music is influenced by his science background and he also cited Jon Hopkins, Sigur Rós and Ólafur Arnalds as influences, adding "mainly electronica more than techno". He has also commented that some of his album cover artwork is inspired by a graphic designer who is also Cooper's flatmate.As of 2011, he is working with software company Liine on music-production software influenced by science. He has performed several festivals including Glade Festival, Bestival,Alpha-ville,Picnik Electronik Festival and the Decibel Festival.He has also shared the stage with artists such as Echaskech and Baltimoroder and released a two-part EP, Conditions One, on 10 December 2012 featuring Braids, Ghosting Season and D/R/U/G/S (aka Callum Wright).In December 2012, he wrote a blog for British music magazine NME. That same month, he achieved the #5 spot on BeatPort's "Top Artists of 2012"and was voted a top 20 live act by the readers of canonical electronic website Resident Advisor. He also released a music video for the song "Pleasures" which was animated by artist Cédric de Smedt.   He uses Ableton equipment and Akai APC40 controllers.He is also an early adopter of unusual club sound systems, performing in Aug 2013 on a 3D sound system called 4DSOUND.   In December 2013, Max announced his debut album Human released on 10 March 2014, and preceded by the single "Adrift" (16 December 2013) from the album. He mentioned that the album will move away from the "club music scene", saying "It's more of a personal music for me than a club tracks, and that's basically the approach I’ve taken for the whole album".