Vape Flutes & iPad lutes: A pint with Proc Fiskal

Fresh, fantastical and downright absurd feel appropriate in decoding Canticle Hardposte, the latest output of Edinburgh experimental artist Proc Fiskal, aka Joe Powers. From behind his pinte in the Stereo Cafe on Renfield Lane, the 28-year-old DJ and producer quickly demystifies the ‘e’ as purely performative. It’s a way to make the concept of ‘hard posting’ on social media a little more medieval. An hour out from taking his brand-new live set to the club downstairs, in between a steady flow of fans passing admiration, we pick the brains of the Hyperdub signee who just casually dropped one of the most mental videos of the year.

The Skinny: What’s the plan for the show tonight? 

Proc Fiskal: I’m doing a ‘group chat’ show. I looked up the words ‘pint’ and ‘dream’ in my Facebook archive... you can find some crazy shit from a 2014 group chat. So, I’ve used text-to-speech to turn the dialogue excerpts into a big story that I can use in a live setting on top of the EP and other clubbier stuff I have from the time.

How did the EP come about and why did you choose to drop it on your Shleekit Doss imprint? 

I was making a lot of tunes in a similar kind of style, and I just wanted to get them out there. I love Hyperdub as a label, but there are a lot of people involved, so it can take a while to get stuff released. The video was the longest part of it all for this... the tracks were done in December.

What was the thinking behind shooting the music video for uHazsh? 

I think music videos are making a comeback, like that old thing of making a good video and getting it on MPV. There are a lot of tunes that are good in the club, but nothing outside of that. I think it’s good to have another context they can exist within.

Where did the narrative come from? 

I had these visions of an old man playing vapes like a flute, two wee guys zooming about on an e-scooter and one playing an iPad like a lute. It could have been the worst video in the world if we had done it in a certain way, but we just went into it with a buzz, you know, we’re not trying to make a philosophical point about vaping.

How did you get the video to look the way it does? 

Yeah, the fidelity is fucked... it’s this HDR effect from this photo app on my phone called Snapseed. Finn Dove, who I worked with on the video, exported a big pack of every single frame from each shot and I would edit each one individually on my phone... it was the only way we could get it to look right.

I’ve never seen anything that looks quite like it. 

We spent ages working on it... there were about 8000 frames to go through, but this kind of filter looks really good to my eyes. You know how people do that old nostalgic video style where you’re meant to feel something because it looks like it was shot on VCR or whatever? It’s that kind of thing but hopefully applied in a non-nostalgic way.

Who are the characters based on? 

I live in a flat overlooking Leith Links, so I regularly see people flying around on e-scooters clinging to each other, almost like they’re hugging... it looks really fun. Like stealing a bike and rallying it probably feels amazing.

Would you steal one? 

Eh... no, probably not. I’ve always been interested in how much of a buzz it would be, but I got the scooter from a shop that gave me a good deal when I told them about the video. They asked me to send it to them so they could put it on their page, but I hadn’t told them it was about people vaping flutes and shit.

Where did you shoot it and why? 

I didn’t want to make it into this hood video, so Finn had the idea that we should do it in the poshest area of Edinburgh. You know it's such a little snow globe city. We went to Stockbridge, and I think it worked out well because the actors Jonny Brown, Sorley Macrae, and Andrew Smith had never seen that bit of town before, which already made it into this kind of magical journey for them.

What was the journey like for you on your directorial debut? 

It was such a buzz. A few people told me their mum cried at the video, and I think mine liked it too. The visual side of music is a whole thing in itself, and right now, I think I’d prefer to do that than make tunes.

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Canticle Hardposte is out now via Shleekit Doss
Proc Fiskal plays ARMOUR, The Poetry Club, Glasgow, 23 May
IG: @procfiskal