Though now more heavily associated with "Chap-Hop" (where he enjoys a healthy rivalry with Mr B. The Gentleman Rhymer), Suffolk-born, Professor Elemental (AKA Paul Alborough) has also found himself classified under "Steampunk," possibly for his outlandish attire and fiendishly clever wordplay.
Steampunk: What is it?
"Even the people who are really into steampunk and who are steampunks are a bit confused as to what it is," he admits, when asked to define the increasingly popular global phenomenon that began some 25 years ago.
"Basically the best description of it is, it’s very futuristic Victorian stuff. So someone might have a laptop with oak panels and brass handles, or they may make a great big laser gun that’s like a blunderbuss. It’s kind of mixed in with fantasy role-playing stuff and the slightly fetish-y side of things and just people who have a love of fantasy."
Suite101: So it's a bit kinky?
"Is it a bit kinky! I was quite surprised by that. It’s a little bit kinky, but very nerdy, which makes it quite charming in a way. It’s never sleazy and every single person I’ve ever met who’s into it, or does it in some way, is really nice as well. It just seems to be the nicest sub-genre. All the goths that aren’t moody are steampunks."
Fighting Trousers
The weird and wonderful characters that helped make the video for the Professor's song, Fighting Trousers, so memorable, should provide any viewer still unsure as to what steampunks actually look like with ample clue as to the sort of delightfully eccentric oddballs it tends to attract.
"Yes, there is a good contingent of steampunks [in Fighting Trousers]," confirms Paul. "It’s good because there’s a lovely mix of people I know from cabaret and steampunk and family and hip-hop and it was nice to see everybody converge, to have little representations of all of it in the one video."
Suite101: Where was it filmed?
"It was filmed in a place called Cheetah’s Gym in Brighton, that is otherwise terrifying, but they’ve got a little underground boxing ring. I can’t remember how I even found out about it, but they were very nice.
It felt like the sort of place where there should be a scene in a Guy Richie film about a heist gone wrong; it just had that real grimy edge to it and it was the first time I’d been in a gym as well, so it was quite exciting."
Professor Elemental: The Music
Having rapped from an early age, Paul now has a deep understanding of the genre, which has allowed him to hone his skills as a witty and imaginative lyricist. When it comes to the music, however, he confesses to receiving help from an outside, but thoroughly reliable, source:
"I do all the lyrics, but I don’t do any of the music and I feel a bit guilty sometimes because all the incredible music, without which I would be dead in the water, is all done by Tom Caruana, the producer who’s very successful in this little corner of the world."
Suite101: Why do you think your music has generated such an enthusiastic following?
"I don’t know - I’m very lucky. I think it’s a combination of finding the best songs. The songs that I’ve had any success with have always been with a universal theme, like tea or calling in sick to work – things that everybody’s done or that a lot of people can get on board with."
Professor Elemental and the Modern World
As his act incorporates traditionally English subject-matter and cartoonish tomfoolery, harking back to the days of British Music Hall, one could be mistaken for thinking that Professor Elemental would be at constant odds with the modern world, a suggestion he is quick to deny:
"I can’t be too much of a grumpy old man because I do quite like modern society," he confesses. "I like its speediness - I find it exciting."
Suite101: What can be done to improve our society in 2011?
"Do you know...it’s almost the answer you’d expect and it might not be that clever, but politeness, simple politeness. Politeness generates more politeness and niceness. It might be a bit of a banal answer, but it’s true!
If everyone was just a little more polite – opened the door here and there, gave their neighbours a Battenburg, helped an old lady, by doing her hoovering or something, I think everything would be fine."
Adrian Peel - Adrian is an English freelance writer and journalist currently living in Mexico. Over the past eight years, he has had articles, features ...
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