Modern Ideas

Modern Ideas is a Melbourne/Naarm multi-instrumentalist songwriter who creates '80s-sounding synth-pop from his garage. For Modern Ideas, pop is not about perfection — it is about transformation. Our DIY power to change shape, to become new forms, new feelings, new identities. Nothing is fixed, and everything can be remade. Drawing inspiration from the synthetic glamour of 80s electronic pop, Modern Ideas stands for one simple proposition: that modern life may be artificial — but within that artificiality lies the possibility of something beautiful, strange, and forever new. For fans of Depeche Mode, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, and Nation Of Language.

‘Synthetic forms can be the most authentic way to express emotion. Something is revealed in the antithesis. Plastic dreams, electric romance, and machines humming with human desire. That’s my manifesto for Modern Ideas.’

‘Modern Ideas embraces contradiction: beauty and pain, melancholy and euphoria, romance and irony. I hope the listener can feel a calmness in that emotional ambiguity.’

"‘This Is How It Hurts’ certainly undeniably draws in influences such as Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, New Order, Human League, and Depeche Mode with its throbbing synth instrumentation delivering pure pop vocals and melodies. The antithetical themes are at play – the coldness of the instrumentation still delivering something warm and inclusive. It’s dramatic, theatrical, and cinematic. Stokes’s vocals are somewhat dispassionate and studied, yet create a point of distinction between the music and his yearning delivery and poetic lyrics." - Backseat Mafia

"Drawing from '80s synth pop and contemporary darkwave, Modern Ideas’ is anchored around a simple conceit: Although modern life may be artificial, within that artifice lies the possibility of something beautiful, strange, and new." - The Joy of Violent Movement