Since the release of his debut album Love Is A Liability (2009), the career of FaltyDL’s Drew Lustman has been a journey of oblique experimentation. Yet by 2017 he’d begun to tire of the circular pattern of making dance music and gigging, sensing stagnation that year following the release of his introspective LP Heaven Is For Quitters. Awaiting inspiration, it was only when he embarked on songwriting sessions with American rapper Mykki Blanco that he finally felt a corner had been turned. Inspired by Blanco’s ability to create characters and freestyle vocally, the instrumentalist picked up a microphone for the first time and returned to playing instruments.
On his latest FaltyDL album, A Nurse To My Patience, Lustman’s diversion into vocal-based indie-rock is fully realised. Bold and ambitious, not only is it a sonic revelation, but his vocals stand bravely alongside Interpol’s Paul Banks, Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and avant-garde composer Julianna Barwick.
You did a two-way interview with Squarepusher a few years back. Did anything he said influence you in terms of how you think about music?
“That was right around the time that I opened for Squarepusher in New York and I was lucky to get the opportunity to chat to him for a while. I’d gone so deep into his music that I felt I had a personal connection with him, but what I took
