A. G. Cook works it out on the remix

“Let A. G. Cook”: this meme-referencing phrase his fans like to say sums up the pop innovator. Last year, his experimental label, PC Music, announced it would no longer be releasing new music after a decade. Since then, Alexander Guy Cook – or A. G. Cook, as he’s better known – released his three-part solo album Britpop, created a rock band called Thy Slaughter and worked on productions for J‑pop band f5ve. Then there’s the fact he led production on a little something called Brat, the Charli xcx album that would become Collins Dictionary’s word of 2024.

“I can’t really do a normal record release,” he says, speaking over Zoom. It’s true: A. G. Cook doesn’t do things by halves. The cheeky attitude that defined PC Music was in his folklorish rollout of Britpop, which arrived with a trio of spoof websites: Wandcamp, Wheatport and Witchfork. Each contained a series of articles, downloads and characters (true to form, all three siteshave since been “acquired by an Undisclosed Multidimensional Conglomerate Company”). Across his time in music, A. G. Cook has created (at least) 14 aliases, each with their own sprawling worlds and fantastical narratives – often overlapping.

When we speak, he’s gearing up to play the Stone Island stage at C2C (Club to Club) festival in Turin, a four-dayer programming some of the most cutting-edge, futuristic music going. Over the weekend, he shared a line-up with poetic rapper John Glacier, Arca, Snow Strippers and the enigmatic Dean Blunt. In anticipation of his set, we picked his brains on the future of PC, his love of lore, the Brat whirlwind and what’s next for pop.

A. G. Cook wears parka STONE ISLAND GLASS COVER-TC

“The projects I’ve been involved in that have aged the best have had this thing where the aura or the music itself can carry it, but it’s never going to give you a complete answer”

A. G. Cook

What’s it like for you now that PC Music is no longer releasing new music?

When we did the announcement about no new releases, I think there was an intentional ambiguity to that. But we did talk about doing either reissues and special projects, like this Finn Keane one we’re in the middle of now, where he’s rebranded from EasyFun because of this conflict with EasyJet. Being able to have a good time with something like that is quite unique to PC Music. It’s not like some ex-label that’s just gonna retitle it. It’s reusing visuals and this idea of de-branding or rebranding – all that stuff that actually PC has done, even in the early days.

Your work does lore so well. Is that something you’re attracted to, also as a listener?

I think the whole point of doing lore is to keep an atmosphere or tone going that feels larger than life. I never want it to feel like an info dump; it doesn’t work so well for me when you’re having to do a lot of digging. A really successful version of it is Twin Peaks and David Lynch – everyone knows the atmosphere, but it’s not like anyone can necessarily explain what the Black Lodge is exactly. The ambient tone of it works. The projects I’ve been involved in that have aged the best have had this thing where the aura or the music itself can carry it, but it’s never going to give you a complete answer. I avoid a really literal conclusion. So, this feeling of a vast world of potential lore and potential things – without having everything explained – is my sweet spot. I did that with the Britpop rollout. Arguably it’s there with Brat as well. An atmosphere is going on, on multiple levels.

Britpop came out earlier this year, and since then there’s been the Oasis reunion amid a renewed interest in bands of that era. What do you make of that nostalgia cycle?

If I still lived full-time in the UK, I don’t think I’d have been able to call an album Britpop. It’s really about the weirdness of being between the US and the UK for a year during the pandemic, when I lived in Montana. I started to see all these funny paradoxes within the notion of being British. It is a fun coincidence that Oasis have come back. I’m also still really looking to Blur and even Blur versus Oasis and all that stuff. What’s fun about those really specific genres, like britpop or grunge, is that all the main players have this discomfort with the term anyway. Does Pulp really identify as britpop? For me the fun parallel is honestly with the term “hyperpop” being thrown around, where pretty much all the main people don’t really identify with it. It’s fun for me to name something after a genre I’m not necessarily part of.

A. G. Cook wears fleece and trousers STONE ISLAND COTTON PILE WITH NYLON-TC

Will there ever be a remix remix album?

I wouldn’t rule it out, but I think the fun thing is we’re already hearing how people have done their own edits. It’s so easy and accessible now. When a project reaches that velocity, you start to expect these different versions. I’ll keep making my own edits of that material for my own sets, but I think the remix remix album, 3.0, or whatever, exists in the real world.

Where do you see pop going – or where would you like to see it go?

It’s nice because people are feeling more optimistic about it this year. I really like artists releasing – not necessarily multiple projects – contrasting things, or doing one thing that’s then challenged by another thing. That’s a nice solution to this feeling that everyone has to be prolific, but we also want there to be some mystery. Maybe the key is these different projects, versions and remixes and so on. That’s something I could see happening more and more. Or collaborative albums where two artists link up and have their own band name. I’m really interested in those kinds of things.

What can we expect from your set at C2C?

I haven’t been to the festival before, but the line-up’s pretty amazing. I’ve played a few different festivals, but this is probably the most strictly electronic one. The fun thing about my own work is there are some bits that are very electronic, and some are more songwriter‑y. So this is a nice opportunity for me to deep dive on some of the sound design, electronic and harder stuff. Which for me also is quite full circle because that’s a lot of the stuff I was doing when I was first messing around in the early, early days of PC as well.

Who else on the Stone Island stage are you looking forward to seeing?

From people’s shows I’ve personally experienced, I’d be excited to check out Mica Levi – they DJ’d a really old club night I was involved in a million years ago, and I really relate to the mix of noise, 20^th-century classical music, indie production and electronic stuff. Gabber Eleganza as well, I’ve seen [him] do an amazing set – a kind of rave documentarian, a gabber living museum, right? Honestly, the whole line-up is pretty wild. I think people are very excited for the whole stage and the whole festival.