I'm Alex Donald and I play bass in Tracer AMC, a band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tracer AMC began in 1999 with myself and Jonny Ashe (guitar). Keith Winter (drums) joined us after 6 months. We released a 7" single in 2000 and recruited Michael Kinloch (guitar) in 2001. Our debut album was released in March 2003.

We started the label to release the Song For Amber and Red / A Satellite Wish 7" in 2000. We had decided pretty much from the start that we were going to do things on our own terms; we weren't prepared to wait for someone else to release our records. For the first 3 to 4 years of the label we also ran a small distro for southern records stuff (Constellation, Dischord Touch and Go etc) but eventually we just didn't have the resources to be able to do this with everything else we had going on.�

In 2001 we released a 7" single by a band from Washington D.C. called Diastemata. Meade played guitar and Patrick played drums. We'd heard a few songs on the band's website and they were that good we immediatey wrote to them and asked them to let us release a record.� As it happened, they'd just been in the studio and recorded some songs for a cd e.p. that was coming out on Mud Memory Records (a label run by Justin from Supersystem, formally El Guapo) and we agreed we'd do a 7" in Europe. The whole thing was distributed by the Dischord half label in the US. Since then we've been too busy concentrating on Tracer AMC to release records by other bands but I'm sure if we came across the right band we'd do it without hesitation.

This is always a difficult question to answer as all of us in Tracer AMC listen to a whole range of different music. I think there's a�consensus that bands like Tortoise, Slint & Television have had a pretty big impact on the way we think about music and are probably bands similar in style to ourselves but the guitar playing of Mary Timony (Helium) or Ash Bowie (Polvo) is�definitely�very important to the Tracer AMC sound.

We've recorded two albums. Flux and Form was the accumulation of several years worth of songs and differs slightly from Islands in that the main body of Islands was written and recorded in a fairly short space of time. Once we had the main song structure Keith recorded the drums but it's a complex album�and it was only after we had the basic songs tracked that we could start getting really involved on the other instrumentation There is a lot going on in there and we certainly intended that the album�be listened to in headphones at least once!

Islands was a title that Jonny suggested for a track on the album and I thought that it worked as an album title; it leaves a lot open to interpretation and I guess it just kinda stuck.

The music scene in Northern Ireland is pretty muchﾊcentered in and around Belfast though there are some good things happening up in Londonderry; because of this the scene is very diverse. There aren't too many labels however,ﾊF獲lt, Howl Records & No Dancing have been putting out some good stuff. It's also hard for bands to get out of Northern Ireland but that said, there are some bands doing really well. Oppenheimer have just signed to Bar/None in the USA and a few other bands have been attracting some label attention.

I think the so called post rock scene is certainly picking up again and there are some bands that are taking the music, trying something a little different and surprising you both on record and in a live setting. For a while there were a lot of bands that were making almost tried and tested post rock records and not being too adventurous with their sound; I think this has changed lately and there is a nice marriage of electronica and post rock at the moment and I think that's quite exciting

We've just completed a short tour in support of Islands and expect to be pretty quiet until the end of the year when we'll be playing a show in Belfast with the Dudley Corporation. Next year we hope to go to SXSW in the spring and are looking into touring in Japan around April/May next year - we're going to try to make this happen, it's something we've been wanting to do for some time now.

Personally I'm really enjoying "Tiny Cities" by Sun Kil Moon and 13&God hasn't been off my stereo since I got it. Caribou has been played almost daily since I saw them a few weeks back and the new Arab Strap is really good too. Finally, I've been listening to the Amazing Pilots (from Northern Ireland). They've made a really beautiful record - recommended for anyone who likes Mark Kozelek.

Tiny Cities - Sun Kil Moon -�Caldo Verde�
13 & God - 13 & God - Anticon
The Last Romance - Arab Strap - Chemikal Underground
The Milk of Human Kindness - Caribou - Leaf
Hello My Captor - The Amazing Pilots - Decor

I've been learning Japanese for a little while now but i'm still not very good. I can speak a little and reading and writing kana is getting better. I think I can only�recognize 3 kanji characters though! I've a lot of work to do if I am to get better. It's a lot of fun and something I've wanted to do for a long time.
I've been interested in Japan since I started watching manga when I was 10 or 11 the animation really captured my imagination. I really admire the Japanese culture and art and I could walk around the cities all night just looking at the lights.�There are so many places I want to go to in Japan - I'd love to see the temples and gardens, Mt Fuji (I'm a geologist!) and of
course I would have to visit the Studio Ghibli Museum (I'm a huge fan of Miyazaki's work- and really annoyed Howl's Moving Castle still isn't out in Northern Ireland!). My friends who have visited tell me of so many places to visit... maybe I'll not want to go home!