The Albums That Shaped My Sound: Fossick

We recently spoke to Charlie Fossick, who is the frontman of Leeds-based band Dense. Charlie is now working on a wonderful solo-project that has got us extremely excited. We caught up with Charlie talks about the records that shaped him, recounting how hearing Gary Numan as a child changed how he thought about music and explaining why Hiroshi Satō's Orient made him fall in love with all things synth. Here is Fossick's Albums That shaped the sound for his new release 'Tree Ritual'.

Gary Numan/Tubeway Army

Replicas (1979, Beggars Banquet), The Pleasure Principle (1979, Beggars Banquet) and Telekon (1980, Beggars Banquet)

"I've cheated a bit here and included 3 albums in one, but they all resonate the same influence that elements of Gary Numan has had on me. My love for Gary Numan started when I first saw the video for 'Cars' when my dad showed it to me as a young kid. I was totally blown away with how futuristic it looked and how he had this 'android'-esque image. The 'Sci-Fi' elements he included to those bodies of work such as the subject of 'Metal' being an android who longs to be human and 'M.E.' being sung from the perspective of the last machine on earth, still hold up as illustrating a dystopia landscape to this day. Particularly, his use of the PolyMoog and MiniMoog on those albums were synthesizers I became obsessed with and wanted to implement in my own music."

佐藤博 (Hiroshi Satō) -

Orient (1979, Kitty Records)

"Perhaps not a very obvious influence in my music as the other artists listed here, but Hiroshi Sato is one of my biggest musical influences ever when it comes to my interest in synth-based music. Another PolyMoog and MiniMoog user (as displayed on the cover of this album), he's an incredible songwriter and utiliser of a variety of instruments in creating dreamy songs that really do take you to another place when you listen to them. My personal go-to jam on this album is 'Picnic' and that song never fails to put me in a fantastic mood. It's jazz, funk and synth-pop infused and it's glorious. His ability to construct unique and incredibly well layered music is very inspirational to me in pushing myself to understand musical theory and how sounds and instruments interact with each other to create different 'auras' if you will. Everyone needs to fix themselves a tall glass of Hiroshi Sato and down it in one."

Prettiest Eyes

Volume 3 (2019, Castle Face)

"Prettiest Eyes are good friends of mine and I've had the privilege of playing with them on a couple occasions as well as seeing them play a gorgeous venue when they supported Oh Sees at Albert Hall. Perhaps one of the most criminally underrated contemporary bands I've ever heard, they offer a killer live show which should be mandatory that everyone witnesses. Their album 'Volume 3' has absolutely no filler on it and all the sounds and unique song structures on it have been really influential to me. Specifically songs like 'Marihuana' and 'The Shame' are fast-paced kraut-punk jams that really get your blood pumping."

Mort Garson

Mother Earth's Plantasia (1976, Homewood Records)

"This album is a synthesizer masterpiece. Entirely instrumental, this album was written specifically for plants to listen to and has some incredibly lush arrangements and sounds on it which are spot-on with being representative of the concept Mort Garson was aiming for. I believe Mort Garson utilised one of the first modular Moogs, those colossal beasts with an overwhelmingly large amount of dials and patches on it, in making this record and with the variety of fantastic sounds on this album it's incredibly impressive on its own that he had such a thorough understanding of the instrument he was using in order to create the sounds that appear on this album. Songs like 'Plantasia' are almost orchestral in their sound and I found this album particularly inspiring and motivating in learning how to use the synths that I utilised on my song 'Tree Ritual' and understanding how those synths work and interact with each other."

Damaged Bug

Bunker Funk (2017, Castle Face)

"Damaged Bug is John Dwyer, of Oh Sees, solo project which everyone who is a fan of Oh Sees needs to expose themselves to. It's mostly synthesizer-based, with this album including more guitar elements, and I think he's a wizard in creating the mental synth sounds you can hear all over this record. Particularly, the use of falsetto and hushed vocals on his solo material were very influential in how I chose my vocal delivery in my 'Fossick' material."

Thanks for interviewing me! I hope everyone enjoys these albums as much as I have. You can watch the music video for Tree Ritual here: