Max Tundra


Ben Jacobs, more commonly known by the stage name Max Tundra, is an English multi-instrumental musician, singer and music producer. His work is predominantly electronic music but incorporates non-electronic styles and instruments.
Other than his full-length albums, he has also done remix work for bands of varying genres including Franz Ferdinand, Architecture in Helsinki, Kid606 and the Pet Shop Boys. In 2018, Tundra wrote and produced the comeback album by Daphne and Celeste, entitled Daphne and Celeste Save the World.

Biography

Max Tundra was born in the United Kingdom and grew up taking piano lessons, but mostly enjoyed playing television theme songs and music from adverts. As a teenager, he bought a Commodore Amiga 500 and began exploring electronic music with it. Warp Records received one song he recorded titled "Children at Play" and released it as a single in 1998. Following this single his debut album Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be was released by Domino Records in the UK in 2000.
The instrumental record was followed up with Mastered by Guy at the Exchange, his first to use vocals. Max Tundra explained "When I was writing Some Best Friend, I thought of all sorts of weird and wonderful machines and instruments I could use to make noises, but singing never occurred to me. I had never considered using my voice on any Max Tundra record ever, but hey, I like to keep things varied, so this time round I figured what the hell!" Mastered By Guy at the Exchange received positive reviews, including being named the 12th top album of the year on Pitchfork Media's list of top 50 albums of 2002.
In 2006, Max Tundra released a new single as part of Tomlab records "Alphabet Series" for the Letter M. The single included a cover of The KLF's "What Time Is Love?", made with his Amiga in 1989. In 2008, Max Tundra toured the UK with Hot Chip and released the album Parallax Error Beheads You which he had worked on for six years. The first single from the album was "Will Get Fooled Again" and was released on 29 September 2008.
On 5 June 2010, Max Tundra effectively announced on Twitter that Parallax Error Beheads You would be the final Max Tundra album. However, in a radio interview from May 2011, he mentioned that he was only taking a break in order to focus on his remix and production work. On 30 March 2012, he claimed on Twitter that he had begun working on a new Max Tundra album.
In 2011, Max Tundra contacted pop duo Daphne and Celeste through social media to offer his production to make a comeback. A single for their song "You and I Alone" was released in 2015, written and produced by Max Tundra. Three years later, Max Tundra announced a full length studio album he had produced for Daphne and Celeste set for release as Daphne and Celeste Save the World on 30 March through Max Tundra's Balatonic label.

Discography

Albums

Remixes