Forest Swords

This one-man project from the Wirral has constructed one of the finest records the UK underground has heard for a while - imagine Burial crossed with the Velvet Underground, crossed with Seefeel crossed with Lee Perry, crossed with Ennio Morricone and produced by Timbaland, and you're getting close. Dagger Paths (out on Olde English Spelling Bee) is a record of shuddering psychedelic hip-hop/dub/drone, made from processed guitars and bass, fragmented vocal samples, dubbed-out drones and analogue celluloid atmospheres. It's a widescreen vision of an indefinably bleak-yet-lovely late night Britain, and I think, one of the few indispensable records of recent years. My friend Roddy and I grabbed Matt Barnes after he finished one of his rare gigs.

N: You've just played to a sold-out Stereo, despite being signed to a tiny label and having had virtually no press. How did that come about?
I dunno, I guess a lot of it's word of mouth. People just find out about it through YouTube and stuff like that, or they'll see my name on the bill and just stream it and decide to come along. Obviously it depends who you clash with, but it's incredibly flattering - I've never been to Glasgow before, and you never know what to expect, or to expect from a crowd. I'd maybe know what to expect from Liverpool or Manchester, but to come this far up and get a response like that is just amazing. I've not really played live before, so I guess that's why people are maybe curious about it. I had a kind of year off last year, because I had some hearing problems, so I couldn't make any new music or play any shows. It's maybe snowballed a bit.

N: You've not had a record out for a while.
Yeah, not for about eighteen months.

R: I bought the Rattling Cage 7", and it was expensive, it was eight quid or something. Then it was his birthday, so I had to give it to him. I went back to buy it and it was only on eBay, and it was twenty-five quid. That was just in a couple of days.
It's crazy. It's hard to explain without sounding like a dick, but maybe it just connects with people in different ways. In different ways to how people normally discover bands. It's maybe that it's just this different vibe, this different energy that people engage with.

R: I used to listen to a lot of ambient stuff when I was younger, but it seems like what you do is miss out all the bits that aren't really necessary.
That's really interesting. I agree with that. I went to art school in Liverpool, and did a degree in design, and the first thing we got taught was that everything you do has to have its own place, and justify its own place, within what ever you do. So it makes what you do more articulate. If something isn't necessary, you take it out. Because you can't justify it being there if it serves no purpose. You have to strip it down to the bare bones of what it has to be.

N: Is your music a hobby?
Yeah, I've got a day job.

N: Which is?
You won't believe this. I design the Celtic magazine.

R: No way!
I went to the Celtic shop before, and I was totally geeking out. We publish it down in Liverpool. They write it up here, but we design it in Liverpool. That's my job. Because of that I know everything about Celtic - I know fuck all about any other football team, but I could tell you anything about Celtic.

N: Do you sit down with the intention of writing a tune, or do they just come together?
I kind of play around with riffs and beats and stuff, and it's just a case of layering it, and seeing what works. It's just all layers.

R: We'd first heard of you through a skateboard forum. This guy from a place called Cumbernauld posted the Miarches video.
Oh, wow! You see, that's crazy to me. That's an example of word of mouth I guess. The internet just diminishes everything, so you don't need to make so much of an effort to find out about stuff.

N: What do you listen to yourself?
I listen to a lot of hip-hop. I listen to hip-hop radio stations so it just kind of seeps in. Old stuff's brilliant, but I like the production on the current stuff. It's quite pop-y, but if you listen to the sounds, there's these weird things that sometimes get through. It's very over-thought, whereas early hip-hop is a lot freer. It goes back to what we were saying before - it's articulate. There's no bullshit. Stuff like Ennio Morricone too. It's weird too, I was saying to my friend, there's a lot of Glasgow bands I grew up with. A lot of Chemikal Underground bands. A lot of electronic music. Lots of Kraftwerk.

Django Django

With their outstanding debut album appearing seemingly from nowhere earlier this year (only two super-low key singles preceded it), Django Django have recently embarked on a tour of much bigger venues than any 'new' band might expect to - and it seems that translating their avant psyche/indie/kosmiche/drone/techno pop from its beginnings in drummer Dave's bedroom to 1,000 capacity venues hasn't been a problem, because they're absolutely killing it live right now. Dave and singer/guitarist Vinny gave us their time.

Django Django. Photograph by Mikael Gregorsky.

The tracks 'WOR' and 'Storm' have been around for ages - they were both singles a while ago and have been up on YouTube for a couple of years. What have you been doing in the meantime?
D: Loads of stuff. I had to finish the post-grad I was doing at Chelsea Art College, Vinny was busy being an architect... Trying to make money. The weird thing was, we put out 'Storm' and 'Love's Dart' on this little Glasgow label called Shadazz in 2009, and we had no more music. We didn't have a band, or anything.

Those were your only songs?
D: We maybe had three or four, but they were so rough, and we just weren't ready. After we did that we were just like, "Shit, what do we do now?" We did 'WOR' to sort of bridge the gap while we were learning to be a band.

You make it sound like it isn't a significant part of the album!
D: No, no, no! It's still my favourite track, and it's one that people love live. But we had to literally hide away, and make an album, become a band and get a record label. Then when we did finish it we had to get it mixed, and that took ages...
V: ...and then there's the whole marketing thing, like when it should be released, and it was released eight months after we delivered it. But we did most of it at Dave's flat. We didn't want it to sound lo-fi, so there was a lot of learning to be done. We were trying to get good production values in terms of the equipment we had, which was next to nothing. It took so much longer than when you go into a production suite, and there's mics here, here and here, when the guy just mics it up and you're ready to go. It was kind of the opposite of how you'd have done it in the eighties or nineties where you'd build up loads of songs and play loads of crappy bars and just gig for years and get really tight; then an A&R guy spots you and you're ready to go. It was the opposite for us. We were trying to catch up with ourselves.

So did you have a supreme amount of faith in the album, to know that you could go away and make it yourself, and then just appear with it?
D: No, I think it was more that we just took one step at a time.
V: We kind of just went along with the knowledge that there wasn't much heat on us. That's what it felt like anyway. It gave us the space to keep going with it. Obviously when we did 'Storm' it created a bit of a buzz, and that kind of spurred us on to do more. Each new thing kind of geared you up for the next stage. It took us about a year to get the live set-up going, to be able to interpret the songs, because there's a lot of layers and they're quite complex. How do we represent that on a stage, with four people, when potentially you've got 150 layers on a track, you know? To pick the key things, then make that work was the hard part.
D: We're probably quite stubborn. We thought "Well, if we like it, then that's all that matters". With every track, we just thought "Does it reach our standard?" And then we had an album we liked, and we thought that was a good enough start. It was good to have a label that let us do it the way we wanted to, and do it in the flat rather than put us in with some super-producer or something.
V: They came in at the right time, because we had the album almost done.

Who produced it?
V: Dave.
D: Yeah, I produced it, and then we mixed it in a proper studio with a huge outboard mixing desk and echo rooms and stuff like that. That just brought it up another level.

Was it a big move going from making an album in Dave's flat to playing in front of thousands of people, with nothing in between?
V: I think our heads were so stuck in it we almost lost sight of what was happening. It's like if you're writing a novel, your friends eventually stop asking you how the book's going, and it gets quite claustrophobic.

You get lost in it?
V: I think so, yeah. And you've heard it so many times, because you're always tweaking things in the recordings. You might have heard a track 1,500 times, and you can't make a critical judgement on it anymore. Obviously it's been really great how it's been received, but we'd have been happy with a lower level, like a 'cult buzz'. Our aspirations were quite low.
D: Yeah, it's kind of smashed my expectations. I mean I hoped that people would like it, because we spent so long on it, and we really put everything into it. We just hoped that people would 'get it'. I didn't think it would break out like this, and be played on the radio, and us do gigs this big... I thought that maybe that would come some day, after three albums, but I never thought it'd be today. It's great. I guess we feel that we've just slowly built up and built up, so I feel that we're kind of ready for it now. I think that if we'd done the album earlier and then been thrust into this situation we'd be "Oh, shit!" But it's nice, everything's come at the right time for us. It's been good.

Is it your day jobs now?
V: Yeah.
D: Yeah. For this year anyway. Which is good, because it was a nightmare to try to work 'round jobs. This whole year is dedicated to touring, and we're going to Australia, America and Japan. You can't expect to keep your job!

Have recent changes in technology - with the downfall of MySpace and stuff like Spotify getting massive during the time that you've existed as a band - changed the way you approach making music, or approach marketing?
D: I think MySpace totally revolutionised the music industry, and it became clear to us that when you put four tracks up on MySpace, you've released an EP. Whether you like it or not. People will take those recordings and copy them, burn them, share then and put them on CDs. We soon found out that that's it - you've released music to the world - and I think that's great. It made everything really fresh for bands. It was exciting.
V: It was great that it by-passed all the formal routes people take to make music.
D: And it took ten minutes. You didn't have to wait for anything. You could put a song up in the morning and then by the evening you had a load of comments and feedback. People have got to move with technology. I'm a stubborn vinyl-head - I never moved to CD, and MP3s are beyond me a bit - but I don't think it matters how you consume music. It's a personal thing.

But does it affect how you make music? Were you writing for a 'side A' and a 'side B'?
D: Not necessarily two sides, but definitely 'an album', rather than just tracks to be put up here and there. But that's probably from growing up, from listening to The Beatles, and Neil Young, and Pink Floyd - proper albums. We wanted to do it like that, even subconsciously. As I say, I only buy vinyl, but you can't tell 15 year-old kids to go and get a record player or they'll think you're mad. To be honest I think most music consumption now is done through YouTube. I do that myself too. If I'm going for a shower I'll put on an album, or a mixtape on YouTube.

It was the first opportunity for a lot of people to hear your music.
D: Yeah. I think for as much music as we're into, whether it's dance or hip-hop or whatever, I guess we are in an 'indie' bracket, and you're not going to go down to (legendary London dance music retailer) Black Market Records and ask for a dubplate of us. You've got to be out there on blogs. I think blogs and SoundCloud are the record shops now, I think that's where people get fresh stuff. I won't DJ music unless I've got it on vinyl, and it's becoming more and more difficult because stuff doesn't appear on vinyl so much.

So it was an easy decision to have the album released on vinyl?
D: Yeah. We would never have signed to a label that weren't into doing vinyl.

What was your musical upbringing? What bands brought your individual outlooks together?
D: I guess we were all into sixties psychedelic stuff,  from our parents' record collections. Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Love, Bob Dylan... When I was eight or nine I was digging around in those, just discovering the classics really.

That isn't really stuff that's reflected in the music you do now though.
D: I think it's there, deep in it somewhere.
V:  I think that's the foundation, maybe, that you build everything else on. I suppose like most people with a healthy musical outlook we were open to new stuff. Like you meet guys who are 50, and they were into punk, but now they listen to some post-dubstep stuff or something. It's great when you meet people like that, who aren't stuck in 'their' era.

So what new stuff are you digging then?
D: For me, Night Slugs stuff. Jam City. This new breed of house, Pearson Sound. It's this mish-mash of dubstep and UK garage, mixed with classic house. I mean, my first love was hip-hop. I discovered Public Enemy and spent my youth DJing hip-hop, and then jungle. I think that after the jungle scene I started getting into anything and everything, and just started buying loads of reggae and calypso. I think the two things that have stayed with me throughout my record collection are hip-hop and house. Chicago house, like Relief Records and Dance Mania.

I think that's reflected in your production.
D: Well that's what I was doing before I met Vinny. I was sending tapes away to Trax records. I've always had this obsession with certain sounds of Chicago house, and I think now that kids are discovering that music again. In Jam City you can hear stuff like Wax Master Maurice or Boo Williams, those guys who were making - at the time - this mad, new, out-there music, and I remember first getting Boo Williams stuff on Relief and thinking "This is house, but it's nuts". It wasn't like anything I'd heard, and I get that when I hear some of that Night Slugs stuff. It's almost avant garde, and it shouldn't work. That excites me. Clone Records as well, from Rotterdam - the Jack For Daze stuff is really good.

In the way that you got to this warped version of house through Chicago house, do you think that people buying your record will get switched on to weirder stuff?
D: Maybe. We post up a lot of weird music that people might not expect that we're into. People might be baffled and hate it, but I think it's what keeps us us, you know? I mean,  I was making house, Vinny was writing songs and we fused those together. On 'Waveforms', the rhythm for that was for a dancehall record that Daddy Freddy was on that I did in Edinburgh years ago, and I just took the beat and it became 'Waveforms'. It's like the psychedelic indie pop, then you've got this bashment thing, and it works. So there's bits that have just fed in, but I wouldn't want it to sound like a guy who makes house meeting a guy who writes songs. It's got to sound like Aphrodite's Child, where you've got Demis Roussos, and you've got psychedelic rock. It's got to merge and become one sound. And sort of transcend genres, because I think the best rock, or pop, or indie breaks out of being just that. That was something that I always hoped we'd be able to do.

You're kind of in the deep end now, basically starting out playing to big audiences. What live music have you seen in your lives that's inspired you?
D: Well, my brother was in the Beta Band, so watching them was always a bit "Fucking hell!" You could hear stuff like Public Enemy in their music. I think that that's what keeps us at a parallel with them. We get compared to them a lot because we're not just into one thing. Watching videos of Public Enemy and De La Soul was a big thing when I was a kid. I had this skate video called 'Attack', and it was one of the first skate videos I remember seeing, and it had this fantastic, breakbeat, bombastic soundtrack...

Bomb The Bass.
D: It was Bomb The Bass. I don't know if you know a skateboarder called Gordon Dear, a Fife guy..? Goosho? I grew up skating with him, in the Factory in Dundee, and we got hold of this 'Attack' video. I asked Gordon what the soundtrack was, and he said "I'm pretty sure it's Public Enemy", so I went with my mum to Our Price and I got 'Fear of a Black Planet' on tape, and got it home, and it wasn't the music from the video. Because that was Bomb The Bass, but I was just hooked then, completely drawn in. I'd only ever heard The Beatles, and my parents' record collection, until then. It was like "Fucking hell! This is NOW!" It was bands like that who got me excited about wanting to make music.
V: It was probably the Beastie Boys for me. I saw them about five or six times. I saw them at Lollapalooza in Chicago when I was 15 - I'd never been out of Derry before - and it was in this massive arena. That summer, they'd just done 'Ill Communication', and it was all over MTV. I was watching MTV a lot out there, because we didn't have it at home, and then to see them was totally mind-blowing. Where I was from, there was no hip-hop around, so it opened this new channel. I went to see them every time I could after that.

Have you had time to think about what you're going to do next? New album?
D: New album. Trying to think about how we're going to approach the sound of it. I think this album was like a lifetime of musical influence, just sort of puked out.
V: Very slowly.
D: Yeah, puked out very slowly! Dribbled out over three years.

So you'd describe your album as 'dribbled puke'?
D: Haha! Yeah. The next one's going to be projectile vomit!

You're obliged now to have a 'difficult second album' anyway.
V: It's good in a way, because I don't think we're cornered. Sometimes that can happen if a band have a very particular sound, and you think how they'll go from there. Our album kind of leaves the door open for us to do whatever.
D: As much as we ever try to think about it, I know we'll sit down to make it, and it'll come out totally in its own. I think when we try and make music it's like a beast that takes on its own form and it feels like we've created a monster half the time. I think our only philosophy is that we just go with it, and let it happen.
V: Go with the accidents. Loads of the things we've done on this were kind of flukes, or accidents. Like you'll put the drum machine on, and it's at the wrong speed for the song, and you play with it anyway, and it goes somewhere else...

So you can't really approach it the way you did the first one?
D: I think that would take too long now. I don't hink we'll have that time. We've got our live heads on now anyway, trying to be a live band that people can come and see, and hopefully think it lived up to something.

Why are you called Django Django? I heard it's got nothing to do with the jazz guitarist...
D: Yeah. We wanted something like Liquid Liquid, or Duran Duran... More Liquid Liquid! We were looking around the room, literally going through doubles of everything in the room, and there was a rave record called 'Son of Django' - I guess named after the Western, although I never knew that - and it just became Django Django. It was just me and Vinny sitting with a MySpace account, and we'd never have thought we'd be sitting having made an album, talking to you now, waiting to play ABC1 with the name Django Django! We were probably pissed, after work. I asked Andy from the Phantom Band what he thought, and he said it was the worst name he'd ever heard. That was good enough for us. Although I think they were called Tower of Girls at the time, which is a great name.

It's a better name than the Phantom Band. Anyway, thanks for not spelling your name with triangles instead of 'A's.
V: Haha!
D: Haha! Yeah. A 'D' and a 'J' is hard enough. DJ Ango DJ Ango...

Laetitia Sadier

Laetitia Sadier founded Stereolab - with Tim Gane - way back in 1990, and for the next nineteen years (the group announced an 'indefinite hiatus' in 2009) helped introduced post-rock, krautrock, 60s European pop and experimental indie to countless enthusiastic pop-kids and moody musos alike, via their beautiful, hypnotic, analogue future-pop. Modernist and vintage, sophisticated and shimmering; Stereolab - with their swirling grooves and motorik rhythms - were a very special band. When the band stopped, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Laetitia carried on making music, and exactly the kind of music we would hope for, considering her role in the band. Following a short time with her own group - Monade - she's now onto her second solo album and it was with some pleasure we were able to interview her. Silencio is out on July 24th, on Drag City.

It almost seems like you're working in reverse. You were in a band who owned their own label, and now you're solo - and signed to a label. Is it easier to create knowing that somebody else is looking after the business side of things, or does it feel like an obligation to create for somebody else?
I don't know. That's a tough question. Like "Why?" and "Who do I do this for?" I certainly don't do this for a label. I don't even know what force it is that makes me do things! I guess it's a love of music, and wanting to express myself, but there's an evolution. There are different reasons each time, I guess. With each record you're somewhere different, and there are different motivations. It's complex and almost paradoxical at the same time I guess, because when I write, I write for myself. I write what I want to hear and what wants to come out, and I don't worry about who's going to hear it. I did wonder at some stage, I wondered what Tim would think - if it was corny or something! I'm freeing myself from that worry now, and it's very liberating because he probably doesn't care that much. If you start worrying about what people think, you won't do it. There's kind of this universal law of physics; there's always going to be someone who likes it and someone who doesn't. I don't worry about it, but at the same time it's about doing your best and showing your most authentic, sincere side. It's about relevance, whether a personal relevance or a societal relevance. And those aren't opposed. And I think that's what my work is about.

I agree. Especially this record. Do you see Silencio as a statement? It seems to be your most political record.
It is my most political record. 'Auscultation to the Nation' is the most overtly political track, and I didn't even write those lyrics.

Yeah, what is that? A translation of some rant by somebody?
It was on a phone-in show. It's a very political programme, and at the moment it really looks at the economy, and the forces of work within it. The stuff that you're never going to hear on the news - it's a big plot. Without being a conspiracy theorist.

Do you think the new French Socialist government is going to be an improvement?
No. No. They're going to have to find a political way of explaining to people that their wages are going to be lowered. They support the system, they're neo-liberalists. All their advisors are very dubious guys. No Marxists advisors. They want to carry on the system of debt, so that some financial markets can buy the debt and sell it on at a profit. It's completely nuts. This government, the new Francois Hollande government, is in support of this system, and always has been. If people think they're going to get a different system they're wrong. They're going to get more of this system, and maybe the differences will be played-out with, say, how aggressive the police are. And they're very aggressive in France. I voted against Sarkozy so that possibly my friends over there could avoid going through some very fascist and forceful things that people have to go through every day. Every day there would be enormous abuse of power under Sarkozy. It's been like that for ten years, and Sarkozy's been in power for ten years, because not only was he President for the last five, but he was also Minister of the Interior for five years before that, and they're responsible for the police and such things. It was very clear under his rule how you ought to behave.

With that in mind, was this an album that you sat down to write, or is it songs that you've been inspired to write at different times?
It's a funny question that, because at times I thought that I was sitting down to write an album, OK? It was in two batches. I sat down for four days between Christmas and New Year, and then there was another batch in February, for two weeks.

That's not long.
It wasn't much time, but that was when I realised I'd been collecting ideas for months, and I went through them. Without me realising it, I'd throw them onto Photo Booth, on my Mac - where you can record yourself - and I had all these little ideas, so all I had to do was turn them into songs. And that was the actual work I did. Then there was a song I'd been working on for about two months, completely alone, and that became 'Merci de M'avoir Donné la Vie'.

Does the available technology affect the creative process?
Hmmm... No. I think you still have to choose, and go with what you like. It's a complicated question, because when you record now, you can record a whole song on a train...

So does that mean you end up with a greater body of work? Is there a massive editing process for you now?
No. That's not how I operate. I have very little waste. I use most of what I do. I don't have much lying about. I mean, I could write a song a day for a year and just keep the best ones for an album, but you see, I went to the Tim Gane school of music. He would only write what he needed to write. It's not like I'll write 75 songs, then work on 50, then record 35, and 25 will be on the record, two will be on the tour single, one will go there, two will go there... Conveyor belt. No.

Tell me about the near-silent track at the end of the album. Is that to separate the music from whatever else the listener hears next?
No, that's not how it was intended. I intended to put the silent track inside the record, but somehow it did not want to go inside, it wanted to go at the end. That's where it sounded best to me. Something I've learned, is that you might have an idea of something, and that idea might not work. If the idea doesn't work you can't force it. The track had to go where it wanted to go, because there's a natural order, a natural configuration for things. There's no use in being stubborn! The intention wasn't to separate anything, but at the same time, it was to have a breather.

So it was intended more as a sonic element than as a psychological element?
Oh yes, very much.

Being able to re-arrange tracks sounds fun. Was it a fun record to make? It sounds like it was. Do you find it fun to make music? Is it easy for you?
Oh yes! I wouldn't say it was easy, but it gets easier with experience. What gets easier is choosing the right people to work with. That makes the task much easier, if it is people who work with their hearts, and then you can have a synergy going on. The first batch of songs, the 'Toulouse batch', I did with some French brothers and sisters. Some brothers and sisters that it took a long, long, long time to meet. It was more of a band, so I was more of a kind of orchestrator. We did four songs in four days. I'd written the songs, but they weren't necessarily arranged or anything. We didn't mix them, but we recorded them. Which is quite an exploit. It really came together quickly, because the were listening to what I was saying, and understanding what I was saying! It was hard work, but it was pleasurable. And it went somewhere that we liked. The second batch we recorded in Chicago, at my friend James Elkington's house, in his attic. He's a Brit, actually. You know how the British are. They're funny...

Well, I'm Scottish...
Well you are British. You're not English, but you are British. Whether you like it or not. First of all you're Scottish - I can hear that - and that's the main thing, but you are British.

OK. That's cool. So what about James then?
Well James is English. He's not Scottish. But he's really funny. We did have a really good laugh working together. It was fun to make and I'm glad that transpires.

Do you write music with certain musicians or engineers in mind? You've worked with some amazing people on your records. Like, say, Sam Prekop's on this album. He's got a very particular sound. Did you write parts knowing he'd be playing them?
No. No no no no no. You just write what you can. You write the song, then you see who's available, and who's willing. Then you have to ask people. I certainly don't have a 'final sound' when I write a song, I don't think it's possible. Maybe for some people who are really technical or something, but for me: no. I may have particular ideas. I was listening to David Axelrod, and you know how his music is so sculpted? It's not like "We''ll put the drums in, the bass in, the guitar in, the singing on top, and a bit of keyboard", it's like it's made of vibes, and there'll be a bass arriving, some strings arriving, and then BAH-BAH! Something else. And them maybe some crazy guitar. It's sculpted. So I though, "Oh, wow! I want to do something like that!" y'know? And that's how we started with Jim. It was track three, 'Silent Spot', and we just didn't want to use a click track or anything. It's very time-consuming to work like that, and I had twelve days to record seven tracks. It's a lot of work, and a day isn't very long when you're recording a track.

To adopt an approach like that, do you find it an easier decision to make when you're making a solo album?
Yes. With Stereolab I didn't have anything to do with the music, which was incredibly frustrating! But it was clear - my territory was the lyrics and the singing. Full stop. Occasionally I'd be able to slip in a title or something. With Monade, it was my playground, it was my beginnings. My experimental ground. Some of it was solitary, some of it was with a group of friends. I think that what, today, really gives me the freedom to change my mind and to be myself is just the experience of Sterolab, the experience of Monade finally come to fruition whereby I can really listen to myself and have the confidence in what I create. Although it's not necessarily 'mine' in the sense that I own it, but I can guide it. I have more experience to guide it.

In what way do you not own it? Is it because there's a band of musicians working with you?
I had this sensation when I gave birth to my son - that I'm responsible for my child but I don't own him. It's the same with my songs. OK, they come out of me, I create them, but I don't own them. The concept of ownership here, simply cannot apply. I'm responsible for them in that I have to make them as beautiful as I can on the record, and I have to go out and play them as well as I can, but I don't own them. They're not 'mine'.

Do you have a favourite out of the people you've worked with? Anybody you'd especially like to work with?
I'd love to work with Jim again, I'd love to work with Richard Swift again, I'd love to work with my crew of lovely people in Toulouse again - they're very talented, very hard working and not ashamed of their ideas. Yuuki Matthews... Sometimes I think of people and then I forget... I'd like to work with Phoenix. I'd like to work with Erykah Badu. I think I would learn a lot from her.

You worked with Common, didn't you?
Yes, I did do. I did. I recorded the tape at home in London, and sent it to him wherever, so it was all done via labels. I did meet him once. He rang me up. I wish I had been more awake at the time. I didn't like rap at the time, because I didn't know the good stuff - I didn't even know Common! But this guy was just so endearing, I couldn't say no. It was only later that I discovered how good he is! I didn't see that at the time. Silly me!

At least you still agreed to do the track!
Yeah, but it was only because it was so impossible to say no!

What about Nurse With Wound? Were you a fan of theirs before Stereolab collaborated with them?
Tim was. But I'm really a fan of that record we did together. I think it's really, really super.

Is the stuff you recorded with Mouse on Mars ever going to see the light of day?
No. Not that I know of.

Do you listen to any of your own music for entertainment?
No. No. But, actually, yesterday I was in the car with a friend and he had (Stereolab compilation) Fab Four Suture, and we played that. And it was quite entertaining. Not all tracks, but some tracks. But I don't. I should, because I'm so unaware of some of our records. Like, "What do they sound like with all this distance?" Not enough time!

Do you use much of your equipment from previous records on the new stuff? Some of it sounds familiar, some of it sounds totally alien.
Good! I like to hear that. The singing, I guess, will be reminiscent of Stereolab. But yeah, we use an iPad. The iPad Moog app. And that sounds like an instrument in its own right, like nothing else. Not even the Moog itself. So I was really pleased to find a sound that was absolutely new.

Did you use a real Moog at all? Any analogue electronics on this record?
No. Well, the stuff that Sam Prekop did was analogue electronics, although I couldn't tell you any names. I don't know what he's got. All I know is that it's analogue, and it sounds really cool. Haha!

Is a solo career a new era for you, or is it an evolution?
Well, there was the Stereolab era, and that subsided, then the Monade era, which subsided, so I can't pretend it's not a new era because it is. At the same time it's a continuation. I don't feel that there was a radical abandonment of the past. It happened very naturally, actually. I thought I had finished as a musician when the band finished, but then I realised I'd been building this body of work that was like a house that could house me, and house more work. And thanks to facebook I got invited to play in Belgium, in Greece, in Portugal, Brazil, Chile... All of a sudden people were like "Hey, you wanna come and play?" So I was like "OK! I'll come and play. I'll knock something together and come and play!" So it was circumstantial as well as natural. When I recorded The Trip, I mean I never thought I'd make a solo record, but the publishing company gave me some money and said "Record your new album". I was like "What new album? Oh, a new album! OK!" Everything just fell into place. And I love it.

Have Stereolab officially split? It was called an 'indefinite hiatus' at the time - is that still the case?
It's still an indefinite hiatus. But I'm not holding my breathe!

Sure, but it still isn't an official split?
Tim's too intelligent for that.

Does your son enjoy his parents' music?
Ah, it's a mystery. I think he secretly does.

And doesn't admit it?
No!

Is there anything you're listening to just now that you think fans of the music you do would like?
Ah... Shit... I'm listening to a beautiful record just now. It's a record that everyone who comes to my house wants to listen to, and a record that just seduces everybody who hears it. It's a record Elefant Records sent me, it's by Giorgio Tuma and it's called In The Morning We'll Meet. It's so poetic and it's so beautiful. I like Emma Pollock, one of your fellow Scottish people. I listen her latest a lot, it's called The Law of Large Numbers, and I'm sure she'll have another one on the way. I've been listening to the new Thurston Moore record, which is nice. We swapped records with Thurston. I like to listen to this guy Benjamion Schoos a lot. It sounds very Gainsbourg. We did a song together in fact. Oh, I'm doing my own promo here!

Go for it, do your own promo!
It's called 'Je Ne Vois Que Vous' and it's super fun! It's the perfect summer hit.

Nice. What are your plans for the summer?
The album will be out, and we'll be touring with it. I know that in America I'm putting together a three-piece band, and then I'll be touring Europe either alone or with the three-piece band. I think the songs can stand the 'alone' thing. I could do it alone, or I could put together a three-piece for Europe, but it's all about the people. I want my guts to say, "Yes! This person!" Rather than just doing it because it has to be done this way.

Dale Crover

Regarded by the wise as the finest band to ever come out of the American Northwest/Seattle area, the Melvins have spent the last (almost) thirty years releasing confounding, mesmeric, unconventional, smart and very often thunderous rock music. Equally as influenced by Black Flag as they are by Black Sabbath, and by Alice Coltrane as they are Alice Cooper; a Melvins record (or show) will do things to your mind that 'normal' music can not. Core duo of drummer Dale Crover and guitarist Buzz Osborne remain steadfastly two of the busiest men in music - seldom finding time between touring and recording with the Melvins and their various side-projects to even take part in interviews - so I was delighted when he agreed to talk to me. From playing drums on the first Nirvana demo, to touring the world with the Melvins and Mike Patton's Fantômas project (alongside his time with Shrinebuilder and as frontman of Altamont), he doesn't sit still for long.

Dale Crover. Photograph by Mackie Osbourne

You're just about to go on tour, and you're finishing it off by playing at Mogwai's ATP. Are you going to see any of the other bands playing?
Unfortunately I don't think we're gonna get to see Mogwai, because I think they play the day after us, and we're playing another gig in France that day. But it should be pretty crazy playing with Slayer, y'know?! But we're just there for a day, so all we're gonna get to see is our show! I think us, Sleep and Slayer is all that's happening that day, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, so you'll be in the same room as Dave Lombardo - can we expect anything special from the two of you?
Not yet. But you never know! We'll see!

You gave your last EP away for free. Is this something you'll be doing with future releases? I know you've been experimenting with packaging...
Well, unfortunately it ends up for free anyway! Haha! Pretty much every release we've done in the last ten years has ended up online before it's actually out. So one thing that's sort of cool about this, is that (label) Scion is actually giving it away free. And, also, they've paid us for that! I think it's kind of a unique situation. I don't know how much this will happen. With people being able to download illegally, it's probably going to make it so that we won't make full-length records any more. But we will be doing things like you mentioned, like special packaging. Usually it's vinyl, but we've done a couple of special-package CDs, and they're all limited edition. The way we see it, music is now free, so you're basically paying for a nice package. Nice artwork.

And you're gonna give us that?
Oh yeah. There's a bunch of different twelve inches coming out from the live record that we put out last year. Thirteen twelve inches, because there's thirteen songs on the record, and the flipside is a split with another band.

How did these splits come about? You're doing stuff with some pretty cool bands.
Yeah! Haha! We just thought "Who would be cool to do this with?", and then we thought "The bands don't even need to exist any more!", so we just thought we could use some old bands that we like, and songs that they've released already. Bands like the The Necros, Die Kreuzen, you can't really find their stuff anywhere. We figured that if they could give us an old song it'd be something kinda cool. I'm sure a lot of people haven't heard some of that stuff either.

It looks to me that everybody you asked must have said yes.
Pretty much, yeah! I don't think anybody said no. Haha! Which is great! Like The Necros, who don't exist any more, were like "I don't think we can do anything", and we were like "You don't have to do anything!" So there hasn't been much of a problem.

How did Melvins Lite come about? Is it something that's going to come and go?
I think so. We've played with (bassist) Trevor (Dunn) in the past. Before the Big Business guys were in our band he did some touring with us, and also did the Houdini live record with us. Once we got the Big Business guys in our band we said "We don't want you guys to quit your band, but while you're doing your thing we might do something else, possibly with Trevor and possibly with someone else". The Big Business guys did a big tour last summer, and we decided that - since they were gone - we would see if Trevor wanted to play some shows with us. Buzz had seen him play stand-up bass, doing a more kind of jazz thing, and he thought it was really cool. Really different. We thought that if we played with him for this, it'd make it really different from what we were doing with the Big Band. We booked four shows, and worked out a set. It was a set of old songs, and we thought it worked out really good, so we decided to do a whole record like that, and tour it and stuff. We'll be doing that later in the year. We're about to hit the road with the Big Business guys and Unsane, and then the Melvins Lite record will be out. I think in June some time.
                           

Is there going to be another one after this one?

Yeah, well, we recorded a whole bunch of stuff. We've got enough stuff for at least another EP, probably. Maybe more. We'll see what happens. Eventually we'd like to do a tour where it's Melvins Lite, and Melvins including the Big Business guys. We'd eventually like to do something where Trevor's playing with us as well. Two bass players. We've been playing with the first Melvins drummer (Mike Dillard) too, calling that Melvins 1983. We've recorded a twelve inch EP for that too. 

And you're working with (former bassist) Kevin (Rutmanis) again. What's that like?

We ended up doing a Roxy Music song with Kevin and Jello Biafra. We've kinda become friends with Kevin again. We knew that he had done this Roxy Music song before, with Tomahawk.

And what song is it?
Ahhhhhh... It's sort of a secret. Next year will actually be the thirtieth anniversary of the band, so hopefully we can do some sort of tour and have all three versions of the band play.

There are rumours of a new Fantômas album. Can you tell me anything about that?
Well, I don't know anything about it, and Buzz doesn't know anything about it at all. So if there is one, he's not including us. Haha! I read that some place too, like "Oh, there's a new Fantômas!", but I don't think so. It could be true, but I don't think so.

Melvins 2012. L-R Jared Warren, Coady Willis, Dale Crover, Buzz Osbourne. Photograph by Mackie Osbourne.

What about a new Altamont record then?
Yeah, I hope so. We've been recording some songs - slowly but surely we're getting stuff finished - but I've been so busy doing Melvins stuff that I just haven't really had time, y'know? Plus the other guys live in San Fransisco, so it's a little hard for us to get together and practice.

Where are you?
I live in Los Angeles.

Is anything going to happen with the stuff you recorded with Jason Newsted and Devin Townsend?
I have no idea. I haven't talked to either of those guys since we recorded that stuff. That was like... Oh gosh. I can't even remember when. That was like 1997 or so? It was when he was still in Metallica. The reason that that thing came about to begin with, was that Kyuss had split up - and Kyuss had done some touring with Metallica - and Jason had heard about it and called Scott Reader to find out what the story was, and Scott was really bummed out. He was like "Why don't you come down and we can record and have fun, and you can forget about this stuff?" That's when they thought of calling me, and having me come over to play drums. It was just this weird weekend recording/jam session kind of thing, and that was pretty much the last time I talked to either Jason or Devin. He should put it out. I don't know what he does. He's kind of disappeared off the map, musically. I'm sure he's financially set. He probably made a lot of money off the Black Album, y'know? I mean, that was huge! I guess he doesn't have to work... When I went over there and played, it seemed he was really into recording, and doing different projects, and playing a lot. I mean, he'd done a bunch of different projects with other people as well. He had his own recording studio at his house. It was really cool. I know he was in Voivod for a while, right? But now, I haven't heard anything.

Electrical Guitar Company were meant to be building you a drum kit. What became of that?
I think it's still happening. I talked to the guy not too long ago, and I think he's gonna have something for me pretty soon. He's just been so busy with building guitars that I think it's been put on the back burner a little bit. Actually, he built a bass for the new bass player from Metallica. And the guys from Cheap Trick are buying a bunch of stuff from him.

It seems appropriate that Cheap Trick would want his guitars now.
Yeah! He's having a bit of success.

What was that rototom thing you used to play?
Haha! That's exactly what it was. It was the bottom of a rototom. It kinda had a bell sound. I dunno, I think Terry Bozzio came up with that idea.

Is Bozzio your favourite Zappa drummer?
Probably. Actually, I like Captain Beefheart better. I like Drumbo. He was great.

Dale. Photograph by KRK Dominguez.

How were you introduced to ribbon crashers, and to Pete Engelhart's metallic instruments?
I found that stuff in San Fransisco a long time ago, and became a fan of it right away. I thought it was a really cool percussion piece. Very sharp and abrasive sounding. We were really into that band Pussy Galore, and he (Bob Bert) used to hit on a gas tank and stuff like that, and had all this metal stuff. We thought it was a kind of cool piece to add in with our sound. Now I use a bunch of his stuff. I really like his stuff a lot. He's great. I'm kind of surprised more people didn't catch on to his stuff. I think the people who use it are more kind of Latin percussionists. It's good for me, because it makes my sound more unique!

Where did you learn to do that 'gravity blast', the one-handed roll on your snare?
Haha! I just figured it out. I'd read this interview with Ian Paice - do you know who he is? He plays drums for Deep Purple - and he does this one-handed roll, and they were asking him about it, and he was like "I'm not gonna tell you!" Haha! So I just kinda figured it out on my own. Later, I looked up on the internet and discovered that there's a bunch of YouTube videos of people doing it.

And you can do it with both hands?
Yup.

You play brushes on one of the tracks on Freak Puke. Is that the first time you've done that on a record?
Yeah. Actually it is.

I guess it sits well with the stand-up bass, and with it all being mellower.
Yeah, it just kind of fit the song. Y'know, maybe, actually, that might be wrong... That's the first time I've played with wire brushes, but I've recorded stuff in the past where I've used these plastic brushes a bunch. But traditional brushes, yeah - that's the first time.

How's your hearing? Do you have any hearing problems?
Oh yeah, it's goin'! It's just gonna get worse and worse. Oh well.

Bill Bruford or Neil Peart?
Hmmmm... Ahhh... Jeez, I don't know... I'm probably more interested in Neil Peart.

Bill Stevenson or Robo?
That's a tough one. But Bill Stevenson. Yeah.

John Bonham or Bill Ward?
Apples and oranges. I'd say Keith Moon.

Elvin Jones or Tony Williams?
Ooh, that's a tough one. Umm... I definitely listen to a lot of the Tony Williams stuff from when he was playing with Miles Davis. But they're both pretty good. I'll tell you who the best drummer is I've ever seen. And he'll be the king.

Go on.
Buddy Rich. He's the best drummer I've ever seen, for sure. He's from another planet. Most drummers I can watch, and figure out what they're doing, but when you watch him, you see stuff and you're just "Oh my God", y'know? Keith Moon's a little bit like that too. There's some drum solos of his that are a little bit crazy. I like more the kind of radical drummers like that, y'know? A lot of people don't like Keith Moon, and think he's too sloppy, but I don't know what the heck they're talking about. He might have been drunk a few times, playing drums, but he's a great drummer. Also Ian Paice, I did see him a few times, and I was completely blown away by his playing. He's one of the best ones out there.

What's your favourite horror movie?
Hmm. Probably Evil Dead. Either Evil Dead or The Exorcist. I like a lot of the real vampire movies, from the Hammer era. Christopher Lee movies.

What would you be doing if you hadn't pursued music?
I dunno. I'd wanted to play music since I was about eleven. With it being that long, I'd have probably wanted to be a fireman or a cowboy. Or a baseball player. Haha!

How did the shoe come about? Nike SB made a Melvins Dunk.
We had a friend that worked there. I can't remember what he did there, but he was in the skateboard division of Nike. They asked a bunch of bands about doing shoes. We got Buzz's wife Mackie to do the design. There's two different ones. It's weird, there's this whole shoe-world that we didn't know existed. There are people who are big shoe collectors. Buzz was in a shoe store where they had the Melvins shoe, and this guy, this total hip-hop guy, came in and was like "No way, there's the Melvins shoe! That one's the shit!" And Buzz is looking at him and thinking that there's no way he knows anything about our band. He just knows the shoe. We've ran across a few people like that, who had no idea who the band was but were really into the shoe. We were selling some of them on eBay, and people always wanted to know that it wasn't a bootleg, and we were like, "There's not going to be any bootleg Melvins shoes, what are they talking about?" but then I saw one, somebody showed me one, and I was like "Oh my God, there really is!" There's actually bootleg versions of that shoe out there.

The Nike SB Melvins shoe.

People download your music for free, and now they bootleg your shoe...
Haha! I mean, since they're 'collectible', they go for a lot of money, so I could see why people would do that, y'know? I could tell the rip-off because the label was different, and some of the material, wasn't the same. But that was a real surprise. I couldn't believe it.

I think it's great that you did it. Dinosaur Jr. have one too. Whether people are interested in music or shoes, it's cool that people are into something. Was it a hard decision?

It was a no-brainer! "We want to do a Melvins shoe." "OK!" "We'll pay you guys in shoes." "OK! Sounds good!" We had no problems with it at all. 

What other Melvins albums would you like to perform live?
Well, actually, we're going to do the whole EP on this tour. So, the new one! But as far as a special performance, I don't know, but I think we're gonna make it over to Europe and do that whole residency thing that we did here. Eventually.

Do you have any plans to play either Hospital Up, Inhumanity and Death, P.G.x3 or I'll Finish You Off live?
Umm... I'd like to do Hospital Up, at least. That'd be good, but it might be kinda hard.

Do you have any pets?
 I do. I have a dog.

A loyal, noble dog? Or a wild, ferocious beast?
He's a very well-behaved dog. He's very mild-mannered. His name's Arthur.

Have you ever posted on themelvins.net?
Have I ever posted there? Nah. I wouldn't post there.

Have you ever had a scary encounter with a crazy fan?
Well, there's certainly people who are very enthusiastic, and that you see at a lot of shows, but nobody's stalked us or anything. Which is good. There's crazy people out there for sure, there's fans of ours who are nuts, but that's OK.

Melvins 2010.

What's your favourite Nirvana song?
Favourite Nirvana song? Hmm... Smells Like Teen Spirit! Haha! No, actually I think my favourite one is In Bloom.

Did you hear that 'mash up' of Revolver and the Beyonce song Single Ladies?
No! Is that on YouTube? I'll need to check it out.

It's not bad, it sounds kinda 'right'.
Who did it?

Just some guy in his bedroom I think. Nobody famous or anything. How did you get hooked up with Volcom?
Through Totimoshi. Those guys had a record on there, and they asked us to do a split. We figured it'd be cool. I guess I don't really know too many of the guys there, but I worked on the record by that band Tweak Bird, and Volcom put that out. They gave us suits a couple of years ago. Haha! For those times that I have to wear a suit. I still have a bunch of their socks too, Volcom's good for clothes.

It's cool that you get shoes and suits just for playing music. Apart from Tweak Bird, is there anybody you think people should be listening to?
I don't know... I've been doing a bunch of recording. The engineer that works for the Melvins and myself have been trying to work with other bands, doing either performance or production. Or both. I've worked with a bunch of bands that I've done drum parts for, or percussion overdubs, and one of those bands is a band from Canada called Indian Handcrafts. They're pretty good.

Is there anybody you'd like to work with?
Not particularly. I would work with pretty much anyone who was serious about doing something. Even if it was something completely not what I'm used to. I don't mind. It makes it more interesting. I always thought that hip-hop should have real drums. That would be something interesting.

The Roots do it quite well, but it's still just hip-hop drums. It'd be good to hear something a bit more out-there.
Yeah. The normal hip-hop stuff just now, it's not very exciting. I just think it could be way better. I used to listen to N.W.A. a lot, but they seem like a punk rock band, y'know?

Massive thanks to Kevin Parrott and Kurt Midness for helping me arrange this, and the good people of themelvins.net forum for the best questions.

Clyde Singleton

It's 16 years since the triumvirate of 101, Blind and World Industries released their Trilogy video, and consequently altered the direction of skateboarding (and its associated music and clothing) in a way that has rarely been seen since. The Wu-Tang, Lockwood and Polo Sport were as crucial to this package as the skating of Kareem, Gino, Dill, Daewon, Creager and Clyde Singleton. More than just skateboarders skateboarding, this was a movement, and Clyde epitomised everything that was cool about it.

Many of those involved have followed drastically different career paths since, some owning companies, and some quitting entirely. Clyde has skated constantly since, and has recently been honoured with a Blind 'Brotherhood Board' pro model. He's one of the most likable people in skateboarding, and has probably featured on more 'friends' sections than anyone else, over his time on Acme, 101, 23 and eventually Zoo York... He was good enough to have a very quick chat about the music he's digging.

 Clyde. Self-portrait.

What was the first skate video you saw where the music really jumped out?

I'd probably have to say either Love Child or Questionable... Hokus Pokus - and all the old H-Street vids - had some good classic punk in 'em too, though.

What's your favourite video section track, and why?

Sean Sheffey in Questionable. I was a huge fan of both him and Fu-Schnickens, and when 'La Schmoove' dropped on his part... Wow... I remember it like yesterday.

What's your favourite video overall, for music?

Minority Report, because I produced it as well as did the soundtrack.

Have you got a least favourite? Anything you had to watch with the sound down?

Any Thrasher video. Always good skating, always terrible music.

How do you go about choosing music for your sections?

Whatever I'm feeling. I usually keep about three songs to the side, and just picture myself skating to it.

Is there something you sing in your head to get psyched for trying something?

Depends. I could be singing a country song in the back of my head.

Clyde. Photo by Nick Garcia.

What's your favourite album of all time?

'Paid In Full', or 'Fear of a Black Planet'. Kinda tough... I can bump both all the way through, with little to no problem.

Was 101 the best company of all time?

Is this some kinda trick question..?

Does it bum you out what happened to the old World companies? Are you still in touch with those guys? 

Yeah, I still talk to a lot of my old teammates. They have this crazy new thing called the internet. You can communicate with people. And naw, it don't bum me out. That's them. I'm me.

What's your favourite album art?

BDP 'Sex & Violence'.

What was the first album you bought?

Motley Crue's 'Shout at the Devil'. My Momma thought I'd lost my mind.

What are you listening to just now?

Pac Div, 'The Greatest'. Dope song, dope beat, good message... Gets me hyped.

You ever meet T-Pain out there in Florida?

Nah. He's from Tallahasse, though. He used to be a really dope rapper, before he started singing. Dude can write a hit, I'll tell you that much!

Anything coming out soon you're excited about?

That M.A.R.S. project Cormega is putting together. It's Roc Marciano, Cormega, Action Bronson and Saigon. Albums gonna be produced by Large Professor.

Tell us how you got hold of the second KMD album.

Rodney Clarke gave it to me, on my first trip to Europe back in ‘93.. Rodney's the man!

What was your first show? How was it?

My first show... It was George Clinton. I was prob'ly about seven. My Mom and Dad took me. We were dancing, having a good time.

What was the last show you went to?

A punk rock show, at my friend's bar... These girls I know called, 'Dyke & Tuna Turner' were playing. 'Mr. Clit & the Pink Cigarettes' also played. It was dope.

What show in history do you wish you could have been at?

The Source Awards in NY, where they booed Snoop and ripped off Outkast for Artist of the Year.

How do you find out about new stuff?

I got connections...

What was the last album you acquired?

I'm about to be listening to that new Planet Asia, 'Black Belt Theatre', or new Torch (Tripple C)'s mixtape when i finish this.

Any band do you wish you could have been in?

Van Halen. They got a lot of girls, and drank a lot of brown liquor.

Who that you've met has the worst taste in music?

I respect everyone's taste in music. You might learn/hear something new.

Do you make music yourself?

I DJ. I use’ta make beats.

Why does everybody skate to shitty indie rock now?

'Cause skating's filled with posers.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Live. Be happy.

Anything else?

Stay away from women who wear Converse.