BITE MY WIRE, your top-selling skateboard gossip monthly, was able to
negotiate this WORLD EXCLUSIVE print interview with the HOTTEST new rap
talent on the block - the enigma that is JEREME 'J. CASSANOVA' ROGERS! Jereme
spoke candidly to our man, revealing his innermost thoughts, from
personal philosophy to his sleazy secrets as a bed-hopping SEX ADDICT!
We get the scoop on Jereme's SENSATIONAL move
into music, how it is to OWN his own company and his remarkable REFUSAL
to retire from professional skateboarding after his SHOCKING split from
Girl!
How are you finding it being a musician, a pro skateboarder and a company owner?
I eat, though I am not an eater. I talk, though I am not a talker. I am not
what I do, nor confined to what I do. I am a human being. At the core, I
am formless... Skateboarding, music and good business are just some
of the few things I do as a human. My strength and identity is inside and comes from nothing external.
Hip-hop's coming back into skateboarding. It was all shitty
indie rock for a while, but now people are skating to hip-hop again.
Obviously there's Lil Wayne putting his rap career on hold to skate. How
do you think this change came about? You were kinda ahead of that.
First off, thank you... Secondly, change always comes about. I have
definitely noticed skateboarders more openly claiming to make music,
rapping, etc. I was definitely the first from skating to actually openly
pursue music so head on with the ambition I did... But if anything, what I
wish is that all things I do to inspire in man, is freedom from
fear.
What's the longest you've gone without stepping on a skateboard since you started?
One year. When I retired in June of 2009, I didn't skate once or even own a board until the following June, 2010.
What's the longest you've gone without fucking a girl?
It's been a while... I don't fuck anymore, I make love. That does not mean
that it's slow with candles lit every time, or that there must be
wedding vows or commitments, but that it is pure; an act of Love.
There's married men who've never made love to their wife. The only
difference in the act, is the internal experience, whether one is
viewing their partner in a derogatory fashion, or purely; with Love. One
leaves you feeling unfulfilled, the other; inspired.
Do you ever fuck the same girl twice?
I have, but naturally this question is slightly cancelled out by my last answer.
What was the first album you owned? Do you still like it?
It was a Memphis Bleek album that I won mixed in with some other stuff at a skate contest. And no. Hahaha!
Do you go to shows?
I've been to some, but definitely don't make it a point to go.
People look at stuff in the street and think about how good it'd be to
skate. Do you check out which rooftops would be good for getting naked
on?
It's the only way to do it right.
Who do you want to do a song with? Have you asked them? Anybody cool asked you to work with them?
Everybody good, no, and yes... But I'm gonna work with everybody I
want. I'm in control of my destiny as much as a man has ever been.
Would you be happy for some people to see you as a skateboarder, and for
some people to see you as an artist? Or should everybody appreciate
that you're both?
There's nothing that everybody should, only things that everybody
could, and I would be happiest if people saw me as I am. But vision
is clouded by fear, and opened by Love. People can only see me as they
see themselves. It takes doubt in self to doubt someone else; love of
self, to love anyone else; and hate in self, to hate anyone else. All
starts with self, and ends with everyone else.
Which gets you most girls?
Freedom... Freedom from fear attracts all humans, men and women alike.
You're smarter than a lot of people think. Does it
depress you to see some of the reactions to stuff you do? Or do you do
stuff to wind people up?
Nothing outside of me has power over what's inside of me. If you let
external circumstances affect the state of your internal life, you'll
have no power over your external life. Internal power is the leading
cause of external power. You must first feel you are, before you
are... If you let what's outside of you have any effect on what you feel
you are, you'll never be what you want. By saying "You made me upset" -
or made me anything, you're forfeiting your power over self, and
giving that power to someone else.
What's Pink Dolphin? Nobody in the UK knows what that is.
I don't either, it's just some brand that gave me free clothes and I wore them over dirty ones.
Who else do you think would be a good fit on Selfish?
I don't... I think little, plan less. I live in the moment; present. What
matters most is feeling, and my thoughts are aligned with my
feelings. When someone feels right, it will be because they are.
Why did Selfish go to France, and not the UK?
I've been to the UK, more than once I believe...I've filled three
passports. My travel exploits are quite a blur, all of which I'm
grateful for and have had a positive effect on my internal make up.
What set up do you use for making music?
Pro Tools... Industry standard shit
How long does it take you to make a track?
One sitting, whether it takes 30 minutes, or several hours, it's still
done in one sitting. I come back to tracks for mixing and tracking,
but never for vocals or writing, that's all done in one sitting or not
done at all. And I don't actually write, I let it come to me
naturally... It never sees the light of day on a pad or phone or any
other place outside of my own mind.
How much music are you sitting on? Is there going to be a J. Cassanova album?
Of course. I'm always steps ahead of whatever content I got out. That's
just how it goes for anyone who wishes to continue doing what they're
doing. You must remain ahead of what you're perceived as or they'll stop
caring to make any perceptions of you at all.
Did you ever prank call a shop and pretend you were your own soundboard?
No, but I did listen to some of the prank calls made with it, and all bias-ness aside, they were thoroughly entertaining.
Why did you say you weren't getting royalties from Girl?
I was getting my cheque, just not my actual royalties. I got a three
thousand dollar guarantee a month, which operated as a minimum; meaning I
get that no matter what, but if I sell over the minimum, I get the
extras - royalties kick in. Thing is, everyone on the brand got that
same minimum, I believe on Chocolate as well. But everybody wasn't
breaking that minimum, which means it costs them money... Which is wrote
off as marketing costs. Though some of us were breaking it, myself being
one of them. Zumiez (big U.S. skateboard chain-retailer) told me I was one of their top three sellers for
years. So what had happened was, they were letting my royalties fall
back into the company to cover their overhead, which helped keep a boat
afloat that had some leaks. For two years I apparently didn't break my
three thousand dollar minimum, yet Zumiez alone - who I was a top three
seller for those same two years - had over three hundred stores in the
U.S. If I sold ten boards a month to each of their three hundred
locations - which is not a lot of boards for one of their top three
sellers to move each month in a mall shop - then that would equate for
six thousand dollars a month at two dollars a board, just off Zumiez.
Don't forget, we're taking about Girl here who sells all around the
world. So clearing a three thousand dollar minimum was not an issue. I
was rookie of the year that year, 2006... I was also the highest rank
street skater. Yet somehow, I was still not clearing my, what was at the
time, measly minimum. So I inappropriately blurted out at Tampa 2007,
after getting second to Koston, who had a flawed run, against mine which
was flawless, that all I wanted was my royalties, when Rick Howard asked
what I wanted after doing so well. The following month I got a six
thousand dollar cheque... The first time I broke my three thousand dollar
minimum, "apparently", and on top of that, it was April; tax time.
Coincidence... Sure.
How much do you pay your team?
We give them double the industry standard... Which is two dollars a board. We give them four.
I heard you lurk on a certain skateboard forum... Would that be right?
I don't lurk. I don't kill time, I cherish it. But God bless you guys, I
hope the forum is awesome, and I will gladly read every comment
after this to see what you magnificent humans have to say.
Can people send you beats?
People can do whatever they want if they apply the right mind, principles, and passion to it.
Jon Horner made this into a brilliant comic. See the full-size version here.
Cheers for doing this Jereme. Massive thanks also to the brilliant Andy Smoke and Jon Horner for the illustration and the comic. Andy drew Jereme's last Selfish graphic, and loads more of his work can be found on his blog, here. Jon draws all sorts of amazing things, and his blog can be found here.
Pro-skateboarding guitarist and friend of this column, Danny Garcia, was
recently in the UK to record an album with his friend Matt Costa (and half of of Belle and Sebastian) at Mogwai's Castle of Doom studio. Matt's signed to Jack Johnson's Brushfire label, and while he gets used to
playing bigger and bigger shows, Danny is finding ways to split his time
between skateboarding and musicianship. I caught up with the two of them to talk about music, skateboarding and life.
Danny Garcia and Matt Costa, Glasgow, 2012. Photograph by James Anderson
So what are you up to? D:
It's Matt's record. It's pretty much fully his thing. He lined it up,
and figured it all out, and just invited me out. We've been out here for
a couple of weeks. We went to Amsterdam, for a week, just to hang out,
then hit it here.
Amsterdam can be cool if you avoid the centre.
D: It was
crazy. We didn't know it was 'Queen's Day' out there. It's basically
their big national holiday. The reputation is that you can do whatever
you want in the street, but one this one day people go really
crazy. It's packed, and everybody's fucked up. It's pretty interesting!
We were gonna leave that day, and we couldn't leave, because you can't
move around.
How do you two know each other?
M: Through Raymond.
D: Yeah, through Raymond Molinar.
M: Raymond
would always show me stuff that Danny was working on, and he'd be all
"Yeah, Danny, he's pretty good", and then we ended up being in the same
place at the same time and we just sorta got along, and gradually
started hanging out.
Is this the first time you guys have played together?
M: The
last record that I'd done was the first time we'd done any playing and
recording together. Actually, we played together with Mothers' Sons, a
band Danny was in. They're not together any more.
Why did you come all the way to Scotland to record?
D: Matt
talked to a load of different producers. I think he talked to the guy
who works with the Flaming Lips in upstate New York or something, and he
knows Tony (Dougan), so he passed the songs over to him. He thought Tony would
dig it, and that it'd work out.
It's a long way to come. It must be expensive to stay here, just because it's where one producer is.
D: Yeah...
I think when you get into it, that's the thing though. You get the
opportunity to be somewhere else and work with different musicians.We're recording with a few of the guys from Belle and Sebastian - Bob (Kildea), Stevie (Jackson) and Chris (Geddes)are playing too. Matt's a big fan of the music that's come out of this area. He's a big Donovan fan.
Donovan was born in Glasgow, but I don't think many Glaswegians think of him when they talk about Glasgow musicians.
D: Maybe Bert Jansch? Yeah, more so. I think Bert Jansch fits with what people think of as Glaswegian music more.But anyway, are you going to be touring this record with Matt?
D: Probably. For the last couple of years it's been pretty easy for me to get in when I want, and get out when I need to.
So it suits your skateboarding?
D: Yeah. It's kind of the
other way around. I make music to suit the skateboarding. But I've been
concentrating on music more lately.
Danny Garcia and Matt Costa, Glasgow 2012. Photograph by James Anderson
Your Habitat shoe is out. Does that mean you're gonna have to be deep into skateboarding as soon as you go back?
D: The Habitat thing was pretty easy. I had a conversation with Joe
Castrucci, and I said I didn't want to go crazy with it, and skateboard
all day every day... I mean I skateboard every day, but I mean more like
doing the whole thing, playing the game, although I still want to be a
part of it it. Basically the conversation went, "We'll give you a shoe,
and here's the very minimal list of things you have to do", you know?
They're not going to pay me a bunch of money, it was a minimal
agreement. Which was nice, because that's why I did it. And because I
had left éS to free up my time. So you'd left éS before 'the announcement'?
D: Yeah. I didn't know if they were gonna can it or not.
So had it been discussed?
D: Yeah...
I dunno, I think they were probably struggling, but I always hear that -
that companies are struggling. So you never know what's gonna happen.
So I'd left to free up that time, and when Joe asked about the shoes I
was like "Nah, I feel pretty good right now, where I'm at". But then...
Not that he talked me into it! But he kinda talked me into it. And it's
Habitat, so it's kinda the same sponsor I've had all these years. It's
not a weird shift, or some shock to get used to new people or anything.
It was easy.
Easy to skate for your board sponsor's shoe division.
D:
Yeah, I'd just dealt with them before. You start stacking up sponsors,
and then you have like four or five jobs. Not like it's crazy, but
you're dealing with four or five different groups of people, and you
have different responsibilities to them, and sometimes they get in the
way of each other. It's always been easy riding for Habitat. I've always
been off on my own thing, you know?
What did you think about the reasons behind why Sole Tech pulled the plug on éS, and about Nike and adidas being in skateboarding?
D: It's interesting. I don't know
what to think about that. It's kind of happening now, that shift, into
those big brands. I don't know if I like the idea of it, but it seems to
be happening nonetheless. I think you can keep peeling the layers back,
and find positives and negatives about it. There's multiple sides to
that coin. They're supporting a lot of good skateboarders, and keeping
them in the game, keeping them around. It's a difficult one.
So you left éS without a shoe sponsor to go to.Was that not difficult?
D: No,
it was kinda nice. I wanted to make time to tour, and just play music. I
just wanted a little bit of time for myself, and financially I was able
to get by. It's nice to get those pay cheques and things, but I'd
gotten them for a few years. I wasn't completely well-off, but I was
able to get by.
Talking
of money, do you predict changes at Habitat now that Dyrdek's bought
DNA?
D: I don't know. I wonder. I just had a conversation with Joe,
and he said something about how it's back to Carter, Hill and Dyrdek. I think
it'll still be a year or so before they fully transfer the thing over. I
don't even understand how these things work, or how much change there's
going to be. I didn't notice any change when Burton came in, you know?
I'm kind of detached anyway. I think it's cool though. I'm backing the
story. It's a good story. And I like Dyrdek, so it's alright. Matt, you're signed to Brushfire Records, which is Jack Johnson's label. How did that come about?He's pretty big.
M:
I met him through Emmett Malloy, who does music videos and films. More
music videos, really, but he did some surf films too. They wanted to use
one of my songs for the soundtrack to one of their films, which led
them to hear more of my music, and then they asked me if I wanted to go
on tour. At the time I didn't know what I was getting into, because I
didn't know we'd be going and playing these huge outdoor shows. I didn't
know how big he was. So anyway, it was after that that he asked if I'd
want to put the record out through their label. Up until then I'd just
planned to put stuff out on my own. I'd even put it out myself,
independently. Before that I'd just done local shows around LA, around
Orange County. But it afforded me so much opportunity. Which is what you
want when you're making music, but you never expect it to happen.
D: Was the label new?
M: It was relatively new. It was maybe a year
or two old. They've expanded a bit since then, they have a load of
different artists now.
What's your background in skateboarding?
M: Oh man... I
started skating in Florida, when I was about twelve. Eventually I moved
out to Huntington Beach which - at the time - was like the Mecca. It was
at the time when the park was there, so it was like the meeting point
for the whole world. I ended up meeting a lot of people, and I wanted
to get sponsored and do the whole thing, and I guess I did. I worked my
way through some different sponsors, and filmed a bunch and everything.
I think I even met Danny at the Brea park, around by his house...
D: For some reason I thought we first crossed passed at that gap...
M: What gap?
D: In San Diego, the parking lot to parking lot one. Maybe it wasn't.
M: The big one?
D: Yeah, the big one. Have you never been there?
M: Yeah, I've been there. Maybe we did. I don't remember. So anyway, I
just wanted to skate a lot. I dropped out of school to skate, and it
kinda kept me out of trouble. I eventually broke my leg skating, so I
couldn't skate any more. More time to play the guitar?
M: Yeah... I'd gotten an
electric guitar when I was twelve as well, and when I moved to
Huntington and was skating a bunch I actually ended up trading my guitar
to Brian Sumner for a pair of shoes and a board, 'cause he wanted to
learn how to play guitar. The shoes and the board lasted about two
weeks... When I finally broke my leg he'd been playing a bunch and he'd
got a nicer guitar. Mine was just a janky Japanese guitar, and the frets
would fall out if you got too high up. So it was kinda useless. But
when I broke my leg, he'd call me up and ask me over to show him how to
play certain songs. I think, randomly, he gave that guitar to Jim Greco,
and it ended up somewhere, God knows where.
D: It probably ended up at the Whiskey A-Go-Go.
In pieces.
M: In pieces, or burned or something. But yeah. Of all people.
Is there a tour planned for this album? Is that something the label would deal with? M: Touring and stuff is more at my end, with my manager and stuff.
It's up to us to sort that out, but it is much easier when the label's
there to help with promotion, and to let people know that you have a
record out. That you exist. There's no tour planned, but it's in the
works. I didn't get a chance to travel to the UK with the last record.
It'd be nice to do that this time, especially since we made the record
here.
If you could have a band made entirely of skateboarders, who would be in it?
D: Based on the music or the skating?!
Based on the music! So you can't just say "Cardiel on drums" or whatever.
M: Ha! It could be fun, if it wasn't based on the music...
But look at, say, Blacktop Project. Or 'Blktop Project', as they're actually called.
D: Who's that? It's Tommy Guerrero, Ray Barbee, Matt Rodriguez and Chuck Treece. And they're awesome.
D: Ah, that's their thing? I didn't know that's what they'd called it.
Those are some of the guys that are pretty awesome. Umm... Stefan
Janoski can play. He's a pretty creative guy. He plays the same way he
skates. He just tries it, and just stumbles into being good. He played a
little bit when I was staying with him in Sacramento, and I was like
"Just buy a guitar!" He'd kinda mess around with my guitar but we went
one day and got him a guitar. He's pretty good. Raymond can play. I'm
just naming the Habitat team for you! I don't know Leo Romero that well,
but he plays music.
M: I know Don (Nguyen) has a full rock band, they put something out.
D: Don, really? I know Ethan Fowler can play, of course.
L'il Wayne or J. Cassanova?
D: (Immediately) L'il Wayne. Do you know who J. Cassanova is?
M: No, I don't know who that is.
D: Jereme Rodgers. It's like his rap pseudonym.
M: Oh, man. I'm not up to date.
It's
so bad you could almost believe it was a joke. If it was somebody else,
you might believe he was... I mean, you might think it was a pastiche.
M: Were you about to say "taking the piss", but you didn't? You adjusted it for the Americans.
Ha! Yeah.
D: The music's pretty screwed.
TNT or Rob Welsh?
D: I'd go Rob Welsh. From years ago, I was into that, Mad Circle and everything.
M: "There's panhandlers in the street", from that Mad Circle thing. He
was doing this whole Kerouac thing. That was rad. Remember the screen
was all green, it looked like night vision or something?
D: What, in 411?
M: Yeah, it was the Industry section. With Justin Gerard in it. Talking of something like Mad Circle, what companies just now do you think are doing things right?
D:
I don't pay too much attention to stuff like that... Slave, I like
that. Not so much the company, but some of the artwork's pretty cool.
Some of the Roger stuff's cool, I like some of their riders. It's cool
how they splice together all the video clips. It's a kinda Workshop
vibe.
Timecode.
D: Timecode.
M: There's a Vonnegut short
story that springs to mind. A story in Welcome to the Monkey House.
Sorry I can't elaborate any more than that!
Hieroglyphics or Gang Starr?
M: Oh, Hieroglyphics. But they're close.
D: I think I listen to Gang Starr more. But yeah, it's close.
Matt Costa and Danny Garcia, Glasgow 2012. Photograph by James Anderson
What skate videos do you think have really benefited from the music? Or are there any where the music ruined it?Like the Rhythm video, maybe...
D: Yeah, that's the one that popped into my head. But it's funny, because
now that I'm 'in' skateboarding, you can be biased towards certain
things but when that video came out I was totally fine with it. I was
just a fan, and I don't think I latched onto the music, but I still
didn't question it. (FTC's) Penal Code is a reference for great
music. That turned me on to a load of stuff. But the Rhythm video, it
hung around - we're talking about it now, you know? You either want to
be offending somebody or pleasing somebody. Maybe you need to go either
hard left or hard right.
I thought it was weird at the time, but at the same time I figured
they had a reason to do that, and therefore it must be the right thing
to do.
D: Yeah, it doesn't always have to agree with you.
Skateboarding's so abstract that you sometimes forget you can do
whatever you want. Even on a skateboard. But it's human nature that you create these walls, and these rules, almost to a pinpoint
where it's like, "This is it." I might not agree with it, but I don't
mind widening those rules, and opening it up a little bit. Everybody just skates to indie now.
D: Yeah. It's just... Rock. And even on your skateboard. Not that I'm backing it, or that I would do it, but it's funny that you just can't push mongo. It's just an unwritten rule. These rules are just kind of created out of the air.
Or like 360 flips, if your back foot's too far off, then you're doing it wrong.
D: Yeah, you're wrong! There's tons of rules like that,
M: Going back
to what we were saying, I think a by-product of Penal Code was kids
listening to their parents' record collections. They had two Procul
Harum songs, right? Yeah, 'Conquistador' and 'Whiter Shade of Pale'.
M: And
Van Morrison. That was how I found out about 'And It Stoned Me', because
I was looking for 'Caravan'. I went through my dad's records and I
found that. The first time I heard 'Domino' was in an old Sophisto
video. It was the first video I bought.
That was Andy Howell's company?
M: I don't know... Jamie
Thomas was on them, and I think Drake Jones was on 'em. They had that
'Get Thy Bearings' song on the video too, way before it was on Reynolds'
part in the Baker video. I thought that was, like, a reggae song!
Eventually when I got that record, 'Hurdy Gurdy Man', I was like "Holy
shit, this is that song!" and I freaked out.
Plan B videos were good for music. Like the Steve Miller Band in Virtual Reality, that was rad.
D: Plan B got me turned on to Cream. Jeremy Wray in Second Hand Smoke.
M: It's a crazy one, but Aerosmith for Rodney Mullen! I remember loving that! Why do you think that people are so pedestrian with their music choices these days?
D:
It's hard now because everybody has to pay for everything. It's
trickier to get what you want. Video makers these days can't even get
half way with it. It's just "Shit, we can't use Cream". Even if they
have permission, they're just scared to do it. These big companies like
Nike are so scared of lawsuits. Even if it was agreed they'd need
signatures, they'd need pictures of the artist signing it... They're so
scared to do it that it's not worth it. Like, "Who cares if it's a good
song? We just don't want to get sued".
You skated to a Françoise Hardy song in one of the Habitat Field Logs. Are you a fan?Are you a fan of any music that people might consider 'exotic'?
D: I
didn't choose that song, I didn't know we were gonna do that. But I
listen to a lot of British stuff, sixties British stuff, and a lot of
American stuff, and a little bit of South American. The Brazilian
Tropicalia thing.
You're South American.
D: I was born in California, but my Mom was born in Peru, yeah.
Is there any music you love that you'd never skate to?
D:
Probably most of the music I listen to. I've never been able to have the
ability to hear songs in the skateboard video context. I don't think
like a video editor, things just appeal to me sonically. Most of the
music I like wouldn't be proper for skating.
John Lennon or Jim Morrison?
M: John Lennon.
D: John Lennon. I never got into Jim Morrison. It's cool, but I never got down with it.
Sonic Youth or The Sonics?
M: I don't even really know The Sonics.
D: The Sonics are a garage band, sort of like a 'Nuggets' band. I never really got into Sonic Youth.
M: I'd say Sonic Youth, because I've heard of them. Just from Ed Templeton.
What do you guys think of composed music for skate videos?
Obviously there was the Flip video, but it goes back to Mr. Dibbs doing
the music for the Habitat section in Photosynthesis.Do you think there's a future in that?
D: Yeah, why not? Especially if it was skaters. I've even talked about
doing it. It'd be fun to really do it. I've never gotten the chance to
make music for a video, it's always just the case that you get a call
one day before they need it. If you're a skateboarder who is a musician,
and understands a little bit about the video thing, it might be
interesting to see. If they took it seriously and had time.
You skated to one of your own tracks in a shoe ad, didn't you?
D:
Yeah. But once again, everything that's ever been in a video, they
needed it so quick. Usually I don't even 'do' it, I just find something
that I've recorded already. I've never actually had an opportunity to
actually spend time with it and think about it.
Do you think there's too much music available, on things like Soundcloud? It was much easier to be selective with MySpace.
M:
Yeah, but I think the ratio of good and bad is still going to be the
same, because it's still humans making it. There's always going to be
taste, and there's always going to be reaction to things that are
popular, or other things that have been done. The idea of what
constitutes 'music' is the same thing that makes humans human. It's
something that comes from us. Even if it's just pushing a button or
something.
Do you think there's more of a nobility to being a musician than to being a skateboarder?A lot of people would.
D: Like it's a hierarchy? No, I don't think so. Maybe it's more romantic.
But it's the same thing. You're just playing with a toy, you know?
That's really it. You're trying to create something out of this piece of
wood, and people connect to it, and that's why they'll back you.
Somehow they connect to it because they do the same thing. Who knows?
It's a funny idea when you step back and look at it.
M: For me,
personally - yes. I remember skating with people who were just really
natural at it, and I always felt I had to work extra hard to do some
things that maybe someone could learn in a day. As far as songs go, I
feel a lot more comfortable doing it.
Skateboarding's dangerous, and it's hard. Do you think that's an equivalent value to the emotion that goes into writing a song?
M:
Obviously there's an artistic side to skateboarding, but it's more of a
physical strain than music. Physically, you could be really dexterous
and play lots of crazy scales, but writing songs takes a much more
introverted approach than skateboarding. I find that anyway. But there
are so many parallels. It has a different validity to each individual. I
definitely have less anxiety when I'm about to write a song compared to
rolling up to a handrail!
But being signed to a label is similar to filming for a section. Now people are expecting something good from you.
M: Oh yeah. The expectations are always being raised.
D:
It's internal stuff. It's always made up by yourself. You kind of give
yourself those pressures. It's nice to do that, but I find the with the
people who are a little more carefree, it comes out more naturally.
Delivering something with less anxiety seems to be a little bit nicer.
More natural. So how does the satisfaction vary between writing a song and learning a new trick?
D: It
kinda is the same thing. It's that funny sense of accomplishment. I
don't know why the hell I strive for it. Most of us need a little bit of
that every day, whatever it is we do. I get the same feeling if there's
a big load of dishes and I finish the dishes. I just feel that I can go
to sleep at night and feel comfortable. It's the slight obsessive
compulsive thing that everyone has. I little amount is healthy, a crazy
amount not so much. It's a healthy thing to have if you're a musician or a skateboarder. When you need to discipline yourself to get stuff done.
D: That's the thing. I've seen it in people where it's so too much. If you're so
obsessed with making music where you stay in all day, it's like being
in jail. There's a certain point where I feel bad for people who are so
obsessive, because they're kind of imprisoned in that obsession.
Danny, do you see yourself - at the moment - as a professional musician?
D: I don't know. I don't think so. Trying to make a living off it is kinda tricky. Any time I'm doing
something like this, I'm paying for it. I spend a lot of money, you
know?Skateboarding kinda allows me to do it. I could do it, but I
don't know if it could be a living. I mean, that's a living for a
really small amount of people.
Do you think you will, eventually?
D: It's
kinda hard. I don't know. I mean, I could do. I don't have any ties,
you know? I'm single, I don't have a family, so as far as going out on
the road, I could do that. To make it as a musician you have to constantly do that. It just depends if you could be away most of the year. I guess I could do it for a little bit.
But you were just talking about the parallel between being a professional
musician and a professional skateboarder. Would that not make the
transition easier?
D: Yeah, maybe. Maybe with the lifestyle. Yeah, it's really similar, so
it's just a matter of if I want to do it. Maybe that's why I find myself
playing with the idea, and being here, experiencing it. I'm benefiting
from my skateboarding, which allowed me to do it; and benefiting from
being able to do it because of my friend doing it. It's the experience
that I'm comin' after.
What things inspire you to make music, besides music?
M:
One thing I'll say, is that when I was growing up, watching skate
videos, that was the first time I actually 'placed' music with movement.
I think that spending so much time watching sound and motion together
played a lot into how - when I started writing - it was more of a visual
thing than it was an aggressive thing, or whatever. I was always going
to this visual place for it. I think that had an impact on why I started
songwriting.
A visual sound...
M: Yeah. That was the goal.
D: I've
never thought about it like that. For me it's the feeling of
accomplishment, the need to get something done, day-to-day, and feeling
kinda good for the day. Not just to get it done and out the way, but to
feel good about something. Almost posterity too, for some reason. To log
these things, and have 'em. Just like how you would take a picture.
That's the skateboard mentality talking.
D: Yeah. I would go out and shoot a photo, just because it felt good and it would put me in a good mood.
M: It makes your place on the Earth feel worthwhile for a little bit longer.
D: Because we're humans, everybody's doing something all day. Pecking
away at something, whatever the hell it is. Everyone's got their own
version, but that's my version.
The basic need to create and evolve.
D: Yeah, that's it. Especially to kind of pass along some sort of
tradition. And to live longer. We all know we're going to die, so in a
weird way, I think that informs the way we act sometimes. We're going to
die fairly soon, so in a weird way you're always trying to live a
little bit longer by fuckin' painting on walls or things like that.
Trying to communicate longer.
M: For me it's almost like a barometer of who I am. Like I'm getting to
know myself every day. Placing yourself and gauging yourself. If I don't
have it I almost have a self-crisis. I need it to reflect myself,
almost like a mirror. Even just to know how far you've come. It's the
closest thing to perceiving yourself from the outside, and a lot of
times it helps you learn what you need to improve about yourself in
other parts of your life. Interpersonally, or maybe things about
yourself that you've neglected in the past.
D: Gaining perspective, and being able to look at yourself objectively.
Who inspires you musically?
D: There's been a lot, and it changes over the years.
M: I like Dando Shaft a lot. I've been listening to them a lot lately. We're gonna go see some Chopin today.
D: I get into stuff sonically, like the way things sound, and sometimes I
get into songwriters. Sometimes you just get into the attitude of
something. It's usually American music of the last hundred years. That's
what I always go back to.
Danny's solo album - as Reverend Baron - is available on Amazon, iTunes and Spotify right now, and it's great.
Thanks to Danny and Matt for the drinks. See you guys next time. Massive thanks to James at North Colour for taking the photos.
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.
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 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.
