Medium Love is the latest incarnation of Californian born, London based KC Underwood. After the demise of his previous project Big Deal, (Mute, Fat Cat) the songwriter took a break from the good life but soon began hearing music in his dreams. Taking it as a sign to start creating music once again, Underwood named the project after a particular dream – one where he was part of an audience that became one super organism, feeling love move through them with the music. 

On his latest single, “Unibummer” Underwood seeks to find some small comfort in the endless waves of change of the current age, an effort to grow when the Universe seems intent on flattening you like a pancake. Partly inspired by fellow hermit turned outsider misfit Ted Kazinsky, Underwood decided instead of blowing people up perhaps a nice melody and kind message can break the spell of modern living. Underwood explains, “He felt like he had to terrorise the USA to get his message heard, which is both insane and relatable.”

Tell us about the genesis of your project. How did you get to where you are now?  Medium Love started when the last band I was in called it quits. It was hard but actually pretty wonderful to start over again. Starting over is underrated. It’s good for things to fall apart. Solve et coagula, as the kids say.

What does music and being an artist mean to you?  
For me it means living how I want to live, staying enchanted, staying in love with the world around you and finding all the magic buried in the dirt. Also being poor, but mostly happy.

What are some sources of inspiration for your lyrics and storytelling?  
I don’t think of myself as a storyteller type of songwriter, more like a David Lynch kind of story if anything , where it’s mostly making sense on a subconscious level. Most of my music I hear in dreams, and then I just embellish that with the lyrics, try to figure out what it all means. It usually only makes sense to me later.

Who is an artist that you look up to more than others today?  
I find myself in a long haul love affair with Stephen Malkmus and Stephen King. The Steves. Also quite mesmerised by Tim Henson and his guitar and production at the moment but reckon it’s a fling.All time favorite record? I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t Siamese Dream. Or The White Album.

Tell us about your latest release and how it came about.  
Unibummer is probably the last song I’ll release ahead of the album I’ve been recording. I started writing it before all the current madness sunk its teeth into us , so it was really summery and hopeful in the start and then became something else, a kind of protest against changing too fast but ultimately embracing it.

You seem to be fusing several musical genres. What inspires your sound? 
I annoy my friends and family because I’m constantly obsessed with very different things, which totally makes sense to me. I teach kids music and kids are totally like that, they don’t know that you can’t be super into the Beatles and BTS and Babymetal at the same time, they are all on youtube after all.

What are some things you do to deal with anxiety and creative blocks? 
Oh God. Right now the bigger problem is I lack the time to work on all the ideas I have. I’ve got about ten songs from dreams right now that only exist as weird semi coherent voice memos on my phone. That’s how most of them start.  I like to swim, which is good for anxiety I think. If I find myself creatively blocked its because I’ve been filling my mind with stupid things like twitter and video games, and all I need to do is find the real stuff again, the people making beautiful things, then its off to the races.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?  
Getting half way through  the dream song back catalogue.

What was the most daunting moment in your career so far? 
NGL this year or so of covid is definitely the hardest , as it’s made getting in a room with other musicians and doing what I’ve done for so long so difficult. It becomes part of metal health, to see that disappear was hard.

What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?  
Don’t wait for what you want to happen.

Where do you think the next game changer will be in the music industry and entertainment scene?  
I don’t know,  but I’d like to see things like Spotify and apple music completely bypassed , some magical block chain bit coin NFT mojo that lets artists connect directly with fans without both getting fleeced.