Born in Massachusetts to Russian-Jewish parents, Daniel Lopatin, 41, is an experimental musician and producer who has been working under the pseudonym Oneohtrix Point Never since the mid-00s. Now based in Brooklyn, he has produced for artists such as the Weeknd, FKA twigs, David Byrne and Anohni, notably her Mercury-nominated 2016 album Hopelessness. Lopatin also composes for film, including original scores for Josh and Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems and Good Time, for which he received the best soundtrack award at the 2017 Cannes film festival. Oneohtrix Point Never’s 10th studio album, Again, is out now on Warp.
1. Website
I discovered this during the pandemic – my friend Alan [Palomo], who records as Neon Indian, watches it all the time. I love it. Basically you collectively watch movies with a chat window where you can communicate, and there are different programmers and guest curators. I screened a night of “gritty New York City movies” such as Johnny Suede, which has a very early Brad Pitt performance. The closest experience I ever had to anything like it was the programming at All Tomorrow’s Parties festivals, where they had an ATP channel in all the chalet rooms. I like the homespun nature of it.
2. Food
I’m Russian, so caviar is practically medicinal for us. I totally love this one brand of vegan caviar: Tzar’s Gourmet Seaweed Pearls – don’t be fooled by the other vegan caviars. This one has this amazing little pop to it. I like to eat it on a nice crusty baguette with some oat milk butter – it’s my own weird alien version of the Russian way of eating it. I should have stockpiled it before the war because it has just disappeared. So this is more of a cry for help: I just need these things to come back into production.
3. Artist
I was in Paris recently and went to a show of his at Lafayette Anticipations and I was completely taken aback by his art. There were a lot of paintings but also installations and sculptures. He’s coming from the school of Jim Shaw and Mike Kelley but he’s doing his own thing. He places these archetypes from television, particularly South Park and Disney movies, as mythological figures in these tableaux that are completely idiosyncratic – they seem like they’re stemming from his unconscious. I’ve been thinking about him ever since I saw that show.
4. Social media
This is my favourite Instagram page. There’s this thing called smear frames in old-school animation: when there was a lot of action on screen the animators had to do their best to simulate the blur of activity, so they’d add these really chaotic scenes between key frames, like somebody’s head spinning around and around, or somebody’s eyes popping out. And this Instagram page has just those smear frames isolated as still images, so you can meditate on these moments – they’re weird and surreal and very beautiful.
5. Music
I’ve been obsessed with her music. She’s from Guatemala and lives in Mexico City, and plays a number of instruments but cello is her primary weapon of choice. It’s a beautiful kind of electro acoustic music that unfolds in this really strange way. I don’t even want to know how she’s making it – it’s so rare that I’m actually overtaken by the magic of someone else’s music, and I want it to remain that way. I’m rinsing this one record, Se Ve Desde Aquí: it’s mind-blowing.
6. Online store
I feel like I’m blowing up my own spot here because I collect books and I’m always looking for interesting dealers. Kristin Hanson has this incredible Etsy page where she sells these amazing secondhand books about mysticism, spirituality, feminism, psychology, hallucinogenic drugs. A lot of what makes her store so cool is her sense of humour: she picks some really funny, quirky titles. I’ve bought a lot of books from there – the last one I got was a book from the 60s called Computer Sex.
