A.G. Cook

A.G. Cook, founder of PC Music as well as a producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, dismantles divisions separating mainstream pop from experimental electronic forms. Along the way he has defined both the sonic and visual character of the 2010s and 2020s. Through the PC Music label and collective he welcomed technology’s expanding presence in music production together with the distinct personalities of its users, yielding a glossy yet sharply eccentric style equally informed by ’90s Europop, K-pop, J-pop, superstar producers such as Max Martin, and corporate branding. Alongside Hannah Diamond, GFOTY, Easyfun, and fellow PC Music artists, Cook pushed pop to sugary yet abrasive extremes throughout the early 2010s. By the later part of the decade that approach moved nearer the mainstream through his role as Charli XCX’s creative director, the music of hyper-pop acts including 100 gecs and Dorian Electra, and Gen Z singer/songwriters such as Clairo and Billie Eilish. Although his collaborations ranked among his highest-profile releases, Cook also pursued solo work. In PC Music’s formative period he put out singles and EPs matching the fractured, playful character of the label’s other output. During 2020 he delivered two albums—the expansive 7G and the tighter Apple—offering a more personal lens on the disorienting sound he had originated. Further into the 2020s he received his first Grammy nomination for contributions to Beyoncé’s 2022 album Renaissance and departed PC Music with 2024’s Britpop, a project that merged his music’s past, present, and future with his trademark vitality.

Son of two architects, Alexander Guy Cook began committing seriously to music after reconnecting with childhood friend Danny L. Harle during music studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Together they launched the experimental project Dux Content, whose earliest releases encompassed Disklavier compositions and the score for the animated film Heart of Death. Another key early endeavor, 2012’s Dux Kidz, paired child singers with rhythms Cook and Harle tailored to the children’s vocal phrasing and drew notice from like-minded producer SOPHIE. Cook later gathered these efforts under Gamsonite, his “pseudo-label” and blog.

With PC Music he adopted a more structured, official method of building a record label that doubled as a creative collective of producers, songwriters, singers, and visual artists. Established in August 2013, PC Music enabled Cook to function as an A&R figure; artists such as GFOTY, Easyfun, Princess Bambi, and Hannah Diamond joined the roster along with Dux Content and the solo projects of Cook and Harle. Cook’s first release on the label, the 2013 EP Nu Jack Swung, featured vocalist Patricia Edwards and captured PC Music’s luminous, disjointed subversion of pop conventions. In January 2014 he issued the single “Keri Baby,” a collaboration with Diamond, followed in June by the Eurodance-tinged “Beautiful.” Additional 2014 projects included co-producing QT’s single “Hey QT” with SOPHIE and releasing “What I Mean,” drawn from his Personal Computer Music mix, as a single that December. Around the same time he collaborated with Oneohtrix Point Never on the track “Bubs.”

Throughout 2015 both PC Music and Cook gained wider visibility. January brought an official remix of Charli XCX’s single “Doing It,” initiating their extended creative partnership. In March the full PC Music roster performed at SXSW; another showcase followed that May at the Red Bull Music Academy Festival in Brooklyn. The next July Cook released the single “Beautiful,” while December saw his remix of Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Sticky Drama” from Garden of Delete.

Over the ensuing years Cook concentrated primarily on production. He contributed to both of XCX’s 2017 mixtapes—March’s Number 1 Angel and December’s Pop 2—and, alongside Harle, helped produce Tommy Cash’s 2018 album ¥€$. In 2019 he worked with Alaska Reid on her single “Quake” and served as co-executive producer of XCX’s September album Charli. He repeated that role on How I’m Feeling Now, the album XCX wrote and recorded in 2020 amid COVID-19 quarantine, and acted as executive producer of Jónsi’s October album Shiver.

Also in 2020 Cook returned with a wealth of his own material. Under the alias DJ Lifeline he released the Airhorn EP in June as a benefit for Movement 4 Black Lives. That August he issued 7G, a seven-volume album spotlighting seven distinct instruments and sounds and featuring covers of songs by the Strokes, Smashing Pumpkins, Blur, and Taylor Swift. September brought Apple, a set of pop songs and experimental instrumentals that included vocals from Reid. A companion remix collection, Apple vs. 7G, followed in May 2021. That year also produced multiple collaborations with Hikaru Utada, among them the Japanese chart-toppers “Kimi ni Muchuu” and “One Last Kiss,” the latter the theme for the film Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time; Cook additionally remixed her track “Face My Fears” as well as Lady Gaga’s “911,” a co-production with XCX that appeared on Dawn of Chromatica. In 2022 his co-writing and co-production on Beyoncé’s Renaissance earned an Album of the Year Grammy nomination. He stayed active as a producer in 2023, working with Utada, Christine and the Queens, Alaska Reid, and Troye Sivan.

Once PC Music ceased releasing new music in late 2023, Cook entered a fresh creative phase. Besides contributing to the Charli XCX singles “Club Classics” and “B2B,” he released the tracks “Silver Thread and Golden Needle” and “Soulbreaker” in early 2024. Both appeared on his third full-length, May 2024’s Britpop. Issued on his New Alias label, the triple album spanned throwbacks to classic PC Music textures and Apple-style ’90s alt-rock revivals, accompanied by an online multimedia project containing games, videos, and bonus tracks.