| What
was your first introduction to electronic music? Well
without knowing it, it would have been years ago really. When I was
young I just liked pop music and was lucky to grow up in that kind of
Krafwerk/Human League era – so most of the things I liked when I was
young were electronic pop, but I didn’t really think about it until
about 1989/90. Even in the late seventies I used to like stupid things,
what were they called? Landscape – Einstein A Go-Go, Trio – Da Da Da,
and Prince, but he wasn’t so electronic, funkier I suppose.
When did you become more influenced by the dance
music scene? Well, again I liked loads of hip hop stuff, especially
The Message – just as pop music without thinking this is hip hop. I
knew the blokes were rapping and that wasn’t singing, but it didn’t
make any difference to me really. So, yeah, I was lucky in that it was
ingrained in my head. I remember when I was about twelve I had a go
on a drum machine so I already had a rough idea what kick, snare and
hi-hats were. Then in 1988/89 I had one record deck and a rubbish tape
deck and I’d try and make hip hop mix tapes and things, which was accidentally
when I made up the word ‘trip hop’. I did a load of instrumentals because
a few of my mates couldn’t take rap, and I called it trip-hop because
I thought it was funny.
So you’re the man who invented trip-hop? I
think it’s one of those weird ones where someone else invented it as
well a few years later, I think it was like 1995 when most people thought
that trip hop was around. But then I was only joking, because it was
instrumental hip hop and some of them were quite weird sort of tracks
and trip-hop seemed to suit it, but it came back to bite me on the arse
later because I got called trip-hop by everyone and I thought “uugh,
it’s not fair”. But never mind, it wasn’t as bas as drill’n’bass, that’s
the one that really upsets me, when people say, “you invented drill’n’bass,
how does that feel?”, and I’m like, hello," what the fuck is drill’n’bass?"
I knew you were into drum’n’bass, but not drill’n’bass?
I think it was just because I was the first non-jungle person trying
to do jungle in 1994. I just couldn’t do it, I mean I think it was the
same story for Squarepusher and Apex Twin – we’d have liked to have
been making club bangers but didn’t know how to make it that good. Instead
of using quite simple beats we were always a bit up our own arses, so
it just came out as rubbish jungle. But loads of people liked it better,
so that was pretty cool (laughs).
You’ve released a lot of records under the names
Plug, Wagon Christ and Kerrier District, are these used to classify
the genre of music you’re making or to keep fans guessing? Definitely
not for guessing or anything, I don’t care about that. I came up with
about three names originally for different record labels so I could
release more stuff, I was making so many tracks and didn’t have to care
what the style was. But then I suppose I got into the feeling of having
different names, and now, just the other day I started doing something
that sounded different to anything I’d done before and I immediately
thought, shit, I’ll have to make up another name because it doesn’t
fit in my head with whatever existing names I’ve already made. So, yeah
I think it is about the style mainly, not that I’d ever know, with Kerrier
District it’s kind of Disco, but the rest are harder to pin down really.
You’ve already released three albums this year,
do you writing music to keep food on the table or are you just obsessed?
Yeah, I’m actually just a horrible person if I don’t make music.
I’ve discovered that having kids and with having a few months off every
now on then, I just get really annoyed easily and it’s something I feel
I have to do to be a normal functioning person. The DJing is more of
a money thing, even though in a way it’s more fun than track-making,
when it’s good at least. I have to do it every weekend as records aren’t
selling so well; there’s definitely more DJing needed to keep my kids
in clothes.
So you’re conscious of the effect of file sharing
on record sales? I don’t know if that’s what it is – it’s probably
something to do with that but maybe I feel somewhere it’s more that
kids don’t really care about owning a product so much these days, they’re
happy having an MP3 or iPod, whereas my generation was probably one
of the last ones to love records and CDs and wanted to own as many as
possible. I’m sure it won’t be like that forever, there will always
be some kids who are into it – my kids are fetishist about vinyl even
though they’re only five and seven. They get really angry with me occasionally
and say, “You haven’t played a record for a few days; it’s all computer
music, come on, put a record on!” It’s proved to be a pretty reliable
format.
I’ve noticed that you tend to switch labels with
almost every release, have you always struggled to find a stable home
for your output? No, it’s not so much that actually. These days
they just can’t handle putting that much out, occasionally I’ll say
I’ve got another record and they’re like, shit you’ll have to wait a
year or two we don’t have enough money. That’s why I’ve been chucking
them out on all kinds of different labels, but I think Planet Mu, Rephlex,
and hopefully Warp and Ninja Tune are always permanent, it’s just the
latter two that have said you’ll have to wait a couple of years. When
you sign contracts they’re supposed to give you more money with each
album but they just can’t afford it at the moment.
That’s certainly not a bad collection of labels
to be releasing electronic music on? Yeah, I mean Planet Mu’s
doing the best out of all of them, although that’s only because there’s
one guy who works for them, whereas Warp has about 50 staff members,
so you can’t really compare them but most of them are doing pretty badly
at the moment and not getting the sales they need.
Your more recent releases, Benefist (The Ace of
Clubs) and the collaboration with Jean-Jaques Perry (Moog Acid), have
swung back in the direction of Acid House. Is there any particular reason?
I’ve always been into Acid House actually but I don’t think I had the
bottle, I don’t know if that’s the right word, but it did take me ages
to release the more simple stuff. My first releases on Riding High wanted
to be clever or intellectual, even though the music I enjoyed by other
people was a lot more simple, clubby, banging kind of stuff. But somehow
I didn’t feel I could make that, maybe I thought it was too black and
I was too white, or some awful thing like that, so it’s just taken me
years really to think, fuck it, I’ll just do whatever I want whether
it’s hip hop, acid house or drum’n’bass. In a way my stuff’s become
a lot more clubby, maybe because I DJ so much in clubs that I want to
play it out and over the years I’ve thought I can’t because there’s
not enough kick or snare. So I’ve become a bit more old school in that
way.
The latest Luke Vibert album is titled Chicago,
Detroit, Redruth, which is an interesting title? It was just
a stupid track name, and I always limit myself to calling an album one
of the track titles on it. I think it was some sort of route because
I was born in Redruth in Cornwall and lived there for years, and then
the track has elements of Chicago acid and Detroit techno (laughs),
but I like the title, it kind of sounds silly and funny.
It’s one of my favourite albums of yours because
it’s very melodic and unpretentious, and also much more accessible than
some of your previous work. Absolutely yeah, in a way I’d have
to give Mike Paradinas (Mu-Ziq and Planet Mu label boss) quite a lot
of credit even though they’re all my tracks. He’s a good mate of mine
and hears everything I do. I gave him a great load to choose from and
he spent a few months sequencing it and running it by me, there’s probably
not anyone else I’d trust to sequence an album for me but I trust him
more than myself because we like the same things and he’s as close to
the tracks as I am. Sometimes I like a track better than I should for
one reason or another; not because it’s good but maybe I was in a wicked
mood when I did it, but if I can trust outside people then I tend to
a lot more than myself.
How many tracks did you give him to choose from
and is this how you would typically present an album to a label? Mike’s
got hundreds of my tracks, but generally I would never do that at all
– there’s only him, Grant Wilson-Claridge and Richard D. James who do
Rephlex, and it’s only because they’re my mates so I give them the tracks
anyway. I do so many more than I can release so it’s nice to give them
away for some reason. With Warp and Ninja I’d be really scared of doing
that because I don’t know who is listening to it and who is deciding,
I had some situations with Mo Wax and even Ninja in the past where they
said weird things like, “yeah, we really like this track but it’s not
quite ‘Ninja’ enough,” and I’d get really confused because god knows
what that is? They’re not thinking about what they like so much as will
this be successful or who is going to buy this, but I’m never thinking
that when I make the tracks - I mean you can’t help it sometimes afterwards
but when you’re making it you’re just trying to do the best you can.
The grooves and breaks are very simplistic on
your records, so what would you say the focal point of your music is?
I don’t know really, I suppose I like to try and have my cake
and eat it. So maybe good rhythms, good breaks, melodies, chords and
nice arrangements. I always try to make every track a mini-world if
you like, unless it’s old acidy shit, in which case I don’t even have
my computer on usually, I just get old synths out and jam then edit
it down later to make it sound more compact. But yeah, I do have different
ways of working depending on what mood I’m in. I can’t handle full-on
arrangements on computers sometimes, so it’s nice to just close the
monitor, get out some synths and play live stuff.
Do you usually have a pre-conceived idea of what
you want a record to sound like? I think literally only once
have I thought that, and that was my very first Wagon Christ album on
Rising High, called Phat Lab Nightmare. It’s an ambient one, and they
told me they could only release ambient records at that time because
they were the only ones selling album-wise. I’d done a vaguely techno
12” but they didn’t want that stuff on a full album as it was still
early days for dance music and people weren’t buying techno on albums.
But, yeah, I thought “right, ambient album”, and tried to get in the
right mood, but I think with every other record I’ve just done loads
and loads of tracks and tried to forget about them for a week or two,
then go back and try to work out which sit happily together. Sometimes
the best ones stand out a bit too much for me, so I kick them off the
record, which has bitten me on the arse a few times, because I think
about saving it for something else but it never gets released.
Seeing as you obviously record at quite a prolific
rate how quickly might you finish off a track? In a day? Oh easy,
yeah, it can be a couple of hours if I’m in the right mood, especially
the acidy ones with just a drum machine and a Roland 303, and then I
might add some live bits on to it later. It’s also really different
now; I used an Atari until 2000, so if I started a track I’d have to
finish it before doing another one. Now of course you can just save
an infinite amount of things, it’s quite wicked really. Depending on
what mood I’m in I can just get loads of beats going and save them or
just do tiny little bits on each track if I’m not quite in the mood
to do full-on tracks. You don’t feel like you’re doing much but then
there comes a day when you finish about twenty tracks in one day because
all they need is a little bit of arranging, so the tracks come together
more casually.
I understand you record everything on a laptop?
Yeah, in a way I still prefer hardware, but being a sample-head it’s
so much easier with a computer instead of having hardware samplers.
I’m a sucker for being kind of lazy, so I definitely wouldn’t like to
use computers at all, but you just have to really.
Do you use a custom-built laptop? God no,
I just got myself a slightly too cheap one actually, I was thinking,
shit I should have gone for the model up, but no, I’m quite a tight
bastard (laughs). I haven’t got anything that good really and loads
of my old synths are broken which is really annoying. I should get them
fixed but I never know if they’re going to cost tons of money to get
fixed so I always think maybe one day I’ll make a friend who can fix
analogue synths. I’ve got three which have just gone to white noise
now.
|
What
software are you running on your laptop?
Reason at the amount, and I do have the MOTU Digital Performer because
I had to record in some old 4-track stuff recently. I found this old
pile of 4-track tapes. I can complete a track 100% using Reason but
I don’t use many of their sounds, which is where my synths come in handy
– I like having a hard drive full of synth sounds and drum hits. I have
done a few tracks where it’s all Reason, but it’s taken me so much longer
to make it sound passable to my ears.
Is it a case of if you’re using their sounds then
your record is going to sound like 1000 other peoples’? No I
never worry about that so much really, I’m always using the same sounds
again and again and I know other people have used them, little stabs
or snares off famous beats. It’s the actual textures; if I’ve used more
digital stuff then I have to put loads of crackles or something on it
just to try and make it sound a bit less clean and FM radio-sounding
(laughs).
Are you able to plug outboard gear into the laptop?
No, I’m just being lazy really and sampling. Sometimes I’ll have
an actual tune in my head and I’ll just play it alongside the track
then record it in and maybe cut it up and tweak it a bit if it’s loose.
Usually, I’ve got so many sounds anyway, and what with filter effects
and things I can usually butcher something into a track, so I’ve got
quite a few long notes of synth sounds, moogy or acidy or farty. I had
a few sessions with the Roland 101 years ago on a DAT and then recorded
the whole DAT in, so occasionally I just sort of flick through it quickly
and find something that seems to fit.
So what outboard gear do you currently use?
Well all I’ve used recently really is old Roland stuff - something zero
something. I love the Roland 101 and 303 for synths and the SH100 is
really nice for samples. I often use a Pearl Syncussion box to make
mad bass lines, but again I’ve got so many samples of it already, kicks
and long bass notes, that I tend to be able to use them instead of getting
the synths out again. I’ve got a few older things like Gens - Italian
synths – those are two of the broken ones. I’ve lent out quite a few
as well recently because I felt guilty about not using them. There’s
probably a couple of things I’m forgetting about but, no compressors
or effects really, I’ve never been so into that scene otherwise I’d
fuck around all day. That’s why I use Reason, because I did have Cubase
and used loads of plug-ins for a little bit, but I just got too carried
away fucking around with effects, so I thought right I’m not going to
use plug-ins anymore.
When you see other artists in magazines with huge
racks, desks and gear, do you think they’re being a bit over-indulgent?
Yeah, I mean I feel really lucky in a way because I’ve got a couple
of mates who have got loads of gear, like Aphex – and it is really nice
to fuck around with gear, but for me it doesn’t really work because
that’s all I’d do. If there are a million options then I will try and
go through them all and see which one is the best, which is why I like
Reason because you have to think, oh well, that’s not perfect but it’ll
do, and you actually get things done. But yeah, it’s also lush to nip
down the road and play with my mates’ proper studios (laughs).
You’re not still based in Cornwall? No, not for years, I couldn’t make
a living down there. Half the time I’m in London for gigs and stuff
and then my kids and missus are in Marseille in France, because she’s
French. Since the kids started school a couple of years ago we’ve been
over there. It’s quite good really, I can sort of split my life in half,
I’m dad and then musician, and don’t mix the two up much. I don’t try
making tracks when I’m over in Marseille, I just wait until I come back
here which is quite good because then I’m burning to do it again.
Have you never been outgoing enough to want to
join a band, and do you thing technology affords you the solitary environment
that’s best for you? Yeah, absolutely. In a way, maybe I’m a
bit lazy and I should join a band, but then again I had to start with
quite weird bits of hardware, which does help a lot. If you start with
Pro Tools and a laptop when you’re 12-years-old it’s a pretty powerful
tool that one can tend to take for granted. It’s a weird thought for
me to imagine that technology is leading things; if you’re going through
a million plug-ins and you find a sound which sounds completely mental
then in a way that’s cheating, it’s just someone else’s work. But that’s
not really what stops me from doing it, else I wouldn’t sample never
mind stealing bits off other people (laughs).
Would you say then that your self-education has
given you a certain mastery over technology? I think what I have
to do is feel like I have a mastery of whatever I’m using, and that’s
why I stick with Reason, because I like to feel that I’m using, maybe
not 100%, but at least most of its features, whereas I felt really bad
with Cubase and Logic because I was only using literally 5-10% of what
I could use. I like that feeling of getting the most our of something
but I could never control a more powerful programme, like SuperCollider
– music’s got to be a bit more down to earth for me.
Do you listen to much electronic music in your
spare time? I suppose I don’t really, other than I’m lucky to
have loads of mates on Planet Mu and people who send me their stuff,
so I do listen to a fair amount. Because I hear a lot in clubs when
I’m at home I tend to go completely the other way and listen to stupid
theme tunes or old 50s organ music, anywhere away from electronic stuff.
When I’m in Marseille I want to make music more but I can’t so then
I tend to play a lot more of my mates’ stuff or hip hop and grime, but
yeah, I’m pretty bad really, I don’t care much about keeping up with
things. In a way I think it’s sort of detrimental to me because in the
past listening to new music made me forget what I do well. I’d try and
have a go at Speed Garage or whatever, but in that week when that I’ve
tried to do a crap Speed Garage track I could have done three good tracks.
Most artistic people don’t want to be affected by outside influences.
I want to talk about your mates. You’ve known
Richard D. James since the birth of modern dance music, how do you think
electronic music has evolved since then and how influential has he been?
Really massively influential I think, even stupid things like you get
loads of drum machine sounds these days with his sounds on them. Obviously
production has changed quite a lot, in a way I prefer that old stuff,
even his. I’d happily tell him that I prefer his nineties tracks to
stuff now; maybe there’s some sort of energy that you can’t really quantify
that comes across in those tracks and when you get older you just can’t
keep that energy up any more. But, yeah, definitely a massive influence
on me, not so much through tracks but just from doing stuff in his bedroom.
I think 1988/89 was the first time I’d heard Richard’s stuff before
I met him in 1990, but his tapes were passed around because he only
lived a few miles down the road and people would say, “this is that
guy from Lanner” – really alien, evil music that came out of nowhere.
When we found out he was doing it just up the road in his bedroom we
thought, fuck the bands, let’s go in the bedroom and just make simple,
wicked electronic stuff – but it didn’t really work for a few years.
But I think he was really impressive on that level, he had it sussed
for years. Even though we’re roughly the same age, he’s a hell of a
lot more experienced. It was nice; he’d help us out when we did meet
him, even driving me around, because I never learned to drive, checking
out people with samplers.
Privately, you’ve recorded a lot of music with
Richard and also Mike Paradinas (Mu-Ziq) and Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher);
will any of this see the light of day? Not really because they’re
never more than jams. I’ll simply go and see them and they’ll say, “Ooh
look, I’ve got a lush new synth”, and we’ll have a jam and maybe record
that, but they’d usually be quite simple, bizarre acidy tracks or something.
We’ve never sort of tried to make a normal track, a proper track – they’re
always like 45 minutes long. Tom would always play bass for a couple
of hours - I’ve got DATs full of him playing bass so I could sample
it and use it – he’d always say yeah, yeah, just take whatever you want.
Mike Paradinas and I only ever did one track together, I don’t know
why – he finds it harder to make music because he’s so busy running
that bloody label.
You used to tour a lot with these guys in the
past, is this something you’re doing as often now? I’d really
like to, but they’re no so into it anymore. I don’t know if it’s a money
thing or they’re a bit shyer than me. I like playing to people, always
have, but they’ve always had a weird, double-edged thing. I think Richard
does two or three gigs a year and Tom does a few more, but they’re not
really up for the big tours anymore, which is shame because we’d do
a month in America and a month in Australia, I fucking loved it. It
does sort of take it out of you, all the drugs.
For some who see them as rather an enigma, perhaps
Tom more than Richard even, how would you evaluate their characteristics?
I mean they’re both definitely artist-y, which sorts of means they’re
cunts and wankers in a way, because I totally feel like that myself,
although when you have kids they really kick you up the arse and you
just have to forget about yourself for quite a while and concentrate
on them. But yeah, they’re really good mates, and I get on with them
well and know what to say and how to be, but I see so many times that
people come up to them and get a bad impression and think they’re being
horrible or whatever. I know it’s just sort of shyness and the fact
that maybe they don’t quite know where to put themselves when people
are saying, “oh, you’re a genius!!” They’re really sort of sweet, down-to-earth
blokes, which always surprises people when they meet them and they’re
in the right kind of mood, or maybe when people say the right kind of
things. But yeah, I’ve seen them quite a few times at gigs, maybe when
they’ve not done such a good performance and got really pissed off,
so they can be a bit arty farty. As an artist, you have to keep some
little kernel of being a complete self-centred cunt about you, otherwise
you can’t really create. There’s some part of you that has to think
you’re the best in the world and you deserve to be treated like a god
(laughs).
Surely the music’s the only thing that counts
at the end of the day? Yeah, too right, especially for the listener.
I think they have a harder time than me because they haven’t got so
many aliases. It might sound stupid, but I think they think a lot more
about what ‘Aphex Twin’ or ‘Squarepusher’ should do instead of what
Richard D. James or Tom Jenkinson thinks they should do. I’ve heard
them both saying it, so I’d say, “well what do you mean, that’s just
you, what do YOU want to do?” I sure there’s loads of artists who feel
like that, but I’ve never really felt like that, maybe because I’ve
got loads of names – god knows. But that’s a really weird thing for
me to get my head round, thinking what should I do next? I just do loads
of tracks all the time and the ones I like I release, so it’s really
simple for me.
If you did something a lot more experimental would
you be less likely to attach it to a release under the name Luke Vibert?
No, in a way that would probably be the stuff I’d be most happy to release
as Luke Vibert, and maybe the more simple, slightly sillier stuff I’ll
call Amen Andrews or some other silly name to imply that maybe it’s
not very well thought about (laughs).
You must have been on drugs when you thought that
name up. Are we going to get any more? Maybe a Terry Wogan pseudonym?
(Laughs) No, I don’t think I was on drugs amazingly – I genuinely
thought it was a good name at the time. The pun was only because of
the Amen break. It was really made for when I am at the end of a night
and want to play some stupid, fast, rinsing tracks.
Are
you DJing much at the moment? Yep,
loads – just about every weekend including a few festivals. There’s
a wicked gig on the 7th December in Manchester @ Warehouse Project with
Aphex Twin – the first gig he’s done this year. The others are mainly
just small club things where I’m the headline name, usually abroad in
Sweden or Amsterdam, last weekend was Belgium.
It’s been a busy year for you, but do you have
any more releases in the pipeline? I’ve had quite a while off
actually, a couple of months with the kids for the summer holidays.
I’m just getting my head down again. I don’t know really, I never work
on one album at time, in fact I’ll do a disco track and then the next
track’s got to be something different because I’ve got a short attention
span. 90% of my tracks are slow, hip hop tracks that rarely get released
because no fucker wants them, the more up-tempo ones are what the labels
want to release. |
