FUSE TV - Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs on Hating U.S. Radio & Journalism

Orlando Higginbottom—whose name is so English it almost defies belief—is the real name of DJ/electronic artist Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. If you're a fan of Cut Copy or Hercules & Love Affair, you'll find plenty to satisfy the urge for intelligently crafted dance music on his debut Trouble. That 2012 album was a winning mixture of disco, house, indie electronica and unforgettable melodies. Just listen to "Tapes & Money," easily one of last year's best dance tracks.

We spoke with TEED about the "mess" of American radio, why he remains unimpressed with music journalism and the reason we may see less of him on the road in the future.

Your real name already sounds so much like an artist name. Why did you go with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs?

TEED came out of a conversation about how I was bored with "cool sh-t." I was bored of trends. I was bored of the artist ego and I wanted to do something that could never be cool. So I thought I'd come up with the most ridiculous name I could possibly come up with. It's always slightly tongue and cheek.

Your father is a music professor. Did you grow up in a musical household that fostered your interest in music?

Yeah, I'd call it [a musical household] but it wasn't a pushy thing. It was just that I had this music around me and I got involved with it. I grew up by choice listening to classical music and then when I was about 10 or 11 I started discovering more and more UK artists, and then I got into electronic music.

How does your father see dance music? Does he like it or is he more classically oriented as a professor?

He wouldn't see it as lesser. I would 100 percent agree with him that way more craftsmanship, talent, learning and skill goes in to writing for an orchestra than programming beats on a computer. There's no question about that. If anyone wants to have an argument about it, I will have an argument about it. But music is not something that has to be judged on those things. It's what comes across to you when you hear it. That's how you should judge it.