In 2013, Finn Keane had a very simple mission: "Make something really immediate and undeniable and perfect," he says of the ethos behind EASYFUN, the name under which he has been recording and producing music as a key member of the PC Music roster and one of the most pioneering and visionary producers of the last decade.

Just over ten years later, quite a few things have changed. A legal battle with airline easyJet, in which Keane's tongue-in-cheek imagery - most clearly employed on his 'Deep Trouble' EP as well as his artist pseudonym - was accused of trademark infringement and brand appropriation, became the catalyst for a name change. This coincided with a period of reflection and an intensely increased creative workload, as PC Music ended as an active label in 2022, and Keane continued working ever more closely with a range of different artists and collaborators, most prominently culminating in his work this year on Charli XCX's pop juggernaut 'Brat'.

The name change marks the end of an era in many ways as Finn Keane finally laid EASYFUN to rest at PC Music's Pop Crypt II this Halloween in London, with EASYFUN going out as he came in - throwing a gloriously bonkers pop party.

"I look back on the music and the name and what's associated with it and feel so unbelievably proud to have been part of this incredible culture surrounding PC Music, SOPHIE, Charli, and all the artists associated with that kind of music," says Finn, reflecting on the last decade of EASYFUN. "It's such a privilege to see it grow from this very fringe funny thing of going to these shows where there would be no one there and we'd just be playing music in a silly, fun and light way, to then seeing it contribute to these wider cultural moments in some small part. The passion of the fanbase around what EASYFUN was and what PC Music was has been so inspiring and really moving, to be honest."

Fans of PC Music have always been incredibly devoted, but the music of EASYFUN was perhaps the most beloved of anything put out on the label. The joyous glee of sparkling, irreverent electronic sounds - sounds that could have been concocted in a lab by a mad scientist existing solely on a diet of fruit Skittles - truly encompassed the PC Music spirit. Through a decade of invention, EASYFUN built up a staggering collection of EPs, one-off singles, insane mixes, and all manner of sonic ephemera to burnish his mythic persona.

With EASYFUN coming to an end, it felt right for Finn to mark all this music and what he and PC Music achieved, so now we have 'The Finn Keane Album', a compilation of previously released work and a stunning new remix of his calling-card classic 'Laplander'. But it's not just the name Finn is saying goodbye to. "I feel like there's a really specific sound associated with the name EASYFUN that I'm really proud of and feels really clear to me, but I'm definitely making a different kind of music as well," he explains.

Obsession has always been one of the driving forces behind Finn Keane's work. "I get very passionate about specific things, and I like to deep dive into things," he says. "When I was first making the EASYFUN project, I was really deep diving into Scritti Politti, Rustie and Max Martin pop, and it was a combination of those elements. It was a complete fixation.

"My music taste has now moved back to another thing that I had in my teens, which is more guitar-led music: Nirvana, Pixies, The Strokes, and The Beatles. The thing that's been really interesting is, as I revisit that music, I'm also seeing it through the lens of all the other music I've made, and I'm finding a really exciting hybrid between that more classic EASYFUN sound and this music I've been listening to. That's incredibly exciting and that has made the name change feel quite organic and natural."

While there is nothing new here for the real heads who have known and sought out this music through whichever digital means it was disseminated, there is a different, unique thrill about hearing it all at once - a staggering journey across Finn Keane's dizzyingly ambitious pop mind. The structured official release contrasts the chaotic and freeform circumstances in which the music was made, which is something unique to the culture fostered at PC Music.

"Something I really enjoyed about the way I did a lot of the EASYFUN stuff was the way it was quite piecemeal," he says. "I don't mean that as a negative; I mean the freedom and the chaos of it. The flexibility of it. 'Oh, I'll do an EP, now I'll do a single, I'll drop a mix that's ten minutes, or I'll do another artist project with a friend'. There's always been a flexibility and playfulness of how to put out music and what form it's going to come in that has been very associated with how I've been working and how PC Music worked, that I've really loved.

"The effect of that is you don't have this coherent big album; it's always been like that for me. I love things that are very condensed and concise. For example, I'm really proud of the 'Deep Trouble' EP, which is just three songs and feels very complete in itself. This is a great opportunity now to put it all together and present it. It's like the missing piece. Collecting everything together as a compilation."

Across the album, you have all the EASYFUN hits, like PC Music all-timers 'Fanta' and 'Full Circle', but also, importantly, a couple of his iconic mixes that, on the face of it, might be considered a bit throwaway as he messes about with some massive pop songs like Ariana Grande's 'Break Free' and Jessie J's 'Domino'. However, these mixes are actually incredibly emblematic of the whole EASYFUN spirit and why it's so intoxicating.

"The thing that I was trying to do with those mixes, like with 'Domino', was really treat that song and capture the deep emotion I feel when I hear a pop song, and celebrate that in a very serious and beautiful way - not see pop music as something frivolous and silly, but intensely ecstatic and emotional," he enthuses.

The experience of playing with these pop songs has gone on to inform his work making actual pop music for real big pop stars. "Those mixes are trying to bring out the joy I feel when listening to that song. That's been key to what I've always been trying to do. That's also been really funny - the way that I've been working simultaneously alongside more what you would call 'real' pop music. There's also another side, like doing the song with Rita Ora or 'Speed Drive' with Charli xcx. There's a real pop thing there where it's funny to be outside of it, commenting on it in a more emotional way, almost as a fan and trying to make pop music in that way that's more concise and trying to aspire for immediacy that can transcend things."

When you're forced to look back upon ten years of your life, it's impossible to love everything. But despite his tastes and sensibilities changing, Finn still included pretty much everything here, as every track plays a role in telling his musical story. It's an experience that conjures up some conflicting emotions. "There are moments on there where I feel it's almost too sugary. That's something I keep on noticing. It's too sweet," he laughs.

"It can be stressful in ways on an emotional level, but there's something quite nice about how I can look at something and challenge myself. There are moments where I'm like, 'This is so stupid or so strange; how could anyone enjoy this?' Listening to the first EP, that's so focused in a way that I can't really identify with now. There's not really a song at the heart of any of that, and now I'm just so song-focused with how I think about music. In that sense, it's quite jarring, but I also find that tension really interesting.

"On one of the secret tracks, literally the first track I ever made as EASYFUN is on there. You need to listen out for it. I won't tell you where. It's fascinating how amateurish it sounds but also something very consistent with what I'm still trying to do. There's an embarrassment about the amateurishness but a satisfaction that there's an identity there that I'm still interested in and associated with. It's complicated but rewarding."

In 2024, there are almost two twin competing impulses at the heart of Finn Keane's music, highlighted by his new reworking of 'Laplander'. "I wanted to challenge the sweetness and sugariness. I wanted to do something more abrasive," he says. "At the end, when it's completely blown out with distortion, that's something I wouldn't have done then but am interested in now. I wanted it to still feel like 'Laplander' and keep the same structure. I wanted to see it through a new lens and do something I wouldn't have done when I made it in 2014. It was the sense of trying to bring my new sensibilities to it but still make it feel like the same song. That was the concept."

Ten years later, Finn is older, wiser, and vastly more experienced as he looks for different ways to channel his brilliant creative mind. "I feel very much like when I first started making music I was very interested in just purely making something so experimental purely for the joy of the experiment. That was the essential thing," he ponders. "I think I still feel that, but now I'm interested in it as a Trojan horse - putting something in that's a song. That's the thing I've really noticed looking at the big picture and the arc, where I had this weird modernist perspective where I was trying to make something really challenging. I'm still interested in things that are challenging, but it's challenging in a way that's a Trojan horse. There's something challenging but also something more immediate."

He looks at artists like Charli xcx, who can seamlessly balance pure pop and fresh invention into one pristine package. "I've been thinking about that in terms of writing songs and finding ways of presenting ideas that are really immediate and do communicate on a wider scale," he says. "My experience when I was first making this music was I didn't know people like SOPHIE or Charli. Meeting those people was like, they are making pop music! Hearing 'Vroom Vroom' was like, there's this experience of this song couched in these aesthetics, but actually, there's a real strong song, and it's a really clear thing.

"I've also been working with a whole load of really talented and amazing songwriters, and, for me, it's been learning from them and finding something new but presenting it in a way that's still a really beautiful and effective song. That's why I'm so inspired by The Beatles, as that's how they worked. That's how they thought about stuff. They thought about songs, but also the presentation. For me, the sweet spot is a beautiful, perfect song - I'm not saying I've achieved this, I'm trying to achieve this - that is presented in a way that's fresh and new and challenging, but the perfection of the song sings through."

"People might be quite surprised I'm into The Beatles with the music I make," he laughs. "But for me, the spirit of them is still really relevant." If Finn Keane is the Paul McCartney of hyperpop, then his long-time friend, collaborator, and PC Music founder, A. G. Cook, is his John Lennon. The pair are again planning to hook up with their side project, Thy Slaughter, the next thing imminently on the horizon for Finn. Bubbling away in the background, though, are the seeds of his vision for what Finn Keane will be as an artist and how he might bring it to life in this new era.

"I have a very specific idea on how I want the next Finn Keane album to sound," he says excitedly. "Behind the scenes, without even realising, I've been planning new music and how I want it to sound. I have a sound I'm interested in exploring. This exploration of finding sounds that are much more live and analogue and having that as a chaos element but treating them in an extremely digital and produced way, and the tension between that. I'm thinking of ways of drawing that out even more. The tension between something very raw and is it a live performance? But it so clearly isn't a live performance. That's definitely going to be how the next Finn Keane music sounds."

2024 has been a landmark year for so many people connected with the PC Music movement, with career-defining releases from A.G. Cook with his album 'Britpop', the second SOPHIE record - which is a beautiful thing to have in the world - as well as, of course, the all-conquering success of 'Brat'. Saying goodbye to EASYFUN, though, feels like the clearest indication of how this group of singular and wildly creative people have reached a new level of success and new opportunities.

"It's very funny to think back to those early moments and early parties in London with people just not getting it or feeling very horrified or confused but feeling already at that point like there was something really exciting taking place; it was personal and communal," remembers Finn. "Now seeing it have any kind of small impact on what's happened has been so incredible. It's too much to comprehend and take in, but I'm so grateful and inspired moving forward."