Andrew “Os” Ostler is one half of the experimental duo Darkroom along with Mike Bearpark. Tim Bowness has collaborated with the duo on several occasions over the years. Andrew also contributed two tracks to the Flowermix remix album.
How did you first meet Tim Bowness and how would you say his songwriting has evolved over time?
I met Tim when no-man were booked to play at my college – this would’ve been 1990 or so, around the time of the ‘Colours’ single. Mike (Mike Bearpark) came with them to be their sound guy – we found we shared a love of the Alesis Quadraverb, and the rest is history!
I can’t say I pay enough attention to song writing to comment on how it’s evolved. I take more interest in the sound and instrumentation.
How did Tim get involved with Darkroom?
I guess strictly speaking it was Tim & Mike originally and I got
involved! They were invited to provide a live soundtrack to a film (the Roswell Alien Autopsy) at the Nevers Film Festival, and Mike asked me to help him prepare a backing track, over which they would improvise. That backing track, and the recordings of the performance, became the basis of our first release ‘Soundtracks’, then under the name ‘Collective’. Much of that album became the first proper Darkroom album, ‘Daylight’.
How did your involvement with Flowermix come about?
Steven (or Tim, honestly I forget) asked me to contribute. We’d done a number of gigs together by that point.
What drew you to remix “Simple” and “Soft Shoulders” for the project?
For ‘Simple’ I think it was the timeless line “no more dreams turning to armchairs again”. For ‘Soft Shoulders’ I’m not sure – I probably just liked the chorus. I was very limited in terms of what I could take from the original – the sampler I was using at the time had very little memory. So I would’ve looked for a strong hook.
Any chance of seeing you contributing to any future No-Man projects?
I’d be delighted to, but that’s very much up to no-man to ask!
All The Blue Changes 