“I don’t like country & western, I don’t like rock music… I don’t like rockabilly! I don’t like much really do I? But what I do like, I love passionately!!”: CHRIS LOWE
GUSGUS started within cinematography but gained international acclaim for their electronic productions.
As an eclectic troupe, with various members weaving in and out of the collective over the years, the Icelandic duo of Daniel Ágúst Haraldsson and Birgir Þórarinsson have been the only constants.
Taking their name from a mispronunciation of “cuscus” in a German film ‘Ali: Fear Eats The Soul’, the Reykjavik sound manipulators have always marvelled at being able to play with various styles and genres, mainly producing dance pieces spanning from Euro-disco, through ambient to house.
Whatever the description, the quality of GUSGUS’ fruit has shone brightly over the last nine studio releases and number ten, ‘Lies Are More Flexible’ is no different.
A collection of four vocal and four instrumental tracks is as eclectic as any previous work from the talented bunch, seeing the two founding members hard at work to showcase their ever changing, yet familiar sound.
Starting with stunning synth arpeggios on ‘Featherlight’, bringing back the good old memories of classic ambient dance tracks, the atmosphere is set on cold and icy with occasional specks of warming hope. If they ‘Don’t Know How To Love’ in its progressive house alignments, maybe John Grant, who Þórarinsson once produced, could help on backing vocals? The track is a desperate plea to be taught “how to love”, over a stencil of found sounds and haunting synth.
But now comes the ‘Fireworks’, enveloping the club feel of a perfect dance track, followed by ‘Lifetime’, which is equally bouncy and grabs with its sweet synth punches and exquisite melody. From the word full to word none, ‘No Manual’ offers life affirming capabilities with an equivocal undercoat, while the title track reminisces the familiarity of vintage video games.
‘Towards Storm’ ebbs and flows endlessly, with the album closing on ‘Fuel’, continuing to carry the light and warmth of hope, peace and weightlessness, so consistent in GUSGUS’ offerings.
It is refreshing to listen to a shorter product, where the length of the opus means no lesser amount of work and no compromise in the quality of the recordings.
Those who marvel at Haraldsson’s voice will enjoy their treat, while the others lose themselves in the appreciation of the instrumental only pieces. Both match the high quality that GUSGUS have been known and loved for many years now. Maybe ‘Lies Are More Flexible’, but the truth is the duo are hitting new levels of brilliance with their latest offering.
Often described in the electronica circles as “Bristol’s Finest”, MESH have been creating their very own kind of synthpop since 1991.
With the strong core of passionate lyricist Mark Hockings on vocals and Richard Silverthorn in charge of programming, keyboards and guitar, the duo have gone from strength to strength, to achieve cult status in Germany.
Despite being a comparative secret in the UK, Robbie Williams is a noted fan while MESH continue to gain new followers with every release, charting high in mainland Europe thanks to their gripping sound and Hockings’ vocal wizardry.
Having been producing their magnificent material for over 25 years, the twosome who can “mend hearts” embark on a journey down memory lane in 2018, with MESH’s second album ‘The Point At Which It Falls Apart’ being re-released on Dependent Records, as well as a string of live performances.
‘Involved – The MESH Retrospective Tour’, named after the opening track of their first album ‘In This Place Forever’, will take place in chosen venues in Germany and promises “singles, B-sides, rarities and more”. Richard Silverthorn talked about the past, present and future of MESH.
1991… a long time ago… although your early fans had to wait till 1996 for the first long player, the five years in between were spent on making sweet creations, which were later released under the name ‘Original 91-93’. Why such a set up? Maybe you just didn’t think there was “time enough to”? 🙂
When we first started, we were just trying to find our way. Just writing songs and doing our best to establish some kind of sound for ourselves. In those very early days, we wrote lots of demos and ideas which probably never ended up as full songs or productions. When we eventually decided to make our first CD and release it ourselves, we started by writing new material. The ‘Original 91-93’ is pretty much a collection of all those lost recordings and demos.
Around that time, you produced ‘My Perfection’…
Yes, there are a few little gems on there 🙂
To be fair some of the songs were ok, but maybe our production skills were still in their infancy.
Did you have high expectations for ‘In This Place Forever’?
I think with every release, the expectations are high. It was our first full album on a record label, Momento Materia from Sweden – I think that album got us quite a lot of press coverage at the time and made a few ripples in the scene. Tracks like Confined’ are still huge favourites with fans across the world so from that point of view, it done its job.
‘The Point At Which It Falls Apart’ brought a plethora of magnificent tracks with even more electronics. Clearly nothing “fell apart” at that point?
For me personally, I think this is the album that had some kind of sound uniformity. We started to sound like us. We knew at this point how we wanted to sound (although limited by technology) and started to understand our audiences. We had already started touring Europe and had an idea of what was going on outside the mainstream UK charts, which was all we knew at the time.
How did you decide which direction to take with your musical creations after the success of the first album?
I’m not sure we ever really had a plan. It was just 3 guys with synthesizers and different musical backgrounds and tastes trying to write songs. Our only middle ground was the fact we like electronic music.
Neil was very much into THE KLF and dance music, Mark and I was listening to similar music like YAZOO, OMD, DEPECHE MODE and the less mainstream stuff like DAF and FRONT 242 etc. It was pretty much a combination of influences with Mark reluctantly taking on the role as lead singer.
How did the collaboration with MARK ‘OH come about? A handful of Brits know the man and his notable successes in German dance charts, whether on his own or in tandems with the likes of John Davies?
‘Scares Me’ was picked up by a dance producer Christian Cambas and he done a club / dance track with a huge sample taken from that track. I think MARK ‘OH had heard of us and had heard that track. He somehow talked his record company into tracking us down and asked if Mark would like to provide vocals on one of his projects. When we were asked, we had no idea who he was or his popularity in Germany at the time.
Who chose BLANCMANGE’s ‘Waves’ as the song to cover?
It was a track that MARK ‘OH wanted to do and had recorded a version of it with The London Session Orchestra. He was looking for the right person to provide the vocals. Mark was asked and it went from there.
And it came with a video too…
Yes! Haha… We were flown out to Fuerteventura where the locals had made us this makeshift raft. We were towed out to sea and filmed by a speed boat circling us. It was one of the funniest and bizarre experiences ever. I had a broken arm at the time and had the cast removed for the video. Neil couldn’t actually swim so the look of terror in his eyes is real. At one point the boat broke down and we were left drifting out to sea. I’m surprised we survived 🙂
Then came ‘Who Watches Over Me’ with the massive ‘Friends Like These’, which is still a firm live favourite…
Yes, this felt like a huge turning point for us. We had just signed a major record deal with Sony Music and gave up our day jobs to embark on a full-time music career. We found ourselves in Home Studios Hamburg (formally Chateau De Pape where DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’ was mixed and produced) with Peter Schmidt, a former Hansa Studio engineer.
It all of a sudden felt very real and expensive. We spent 3 weeks mixing at £1500 per day. It was a very expensive album with big budgets. ‘Friends Like These’ and ‘Leave You Nothing’ came from that album and became very well played tracks across Germany. ‘Leave You Nothing’ ended up on many radio stations and was even played regularly on a Germany soap opera.
‘We Collide’ brought more crowd pleasers such as ‘Open Up The Ground’. It’s as if you write songs that you know will be huge live?
Who knows…? We just write at the best of our ability at the time and hope for the best.
On ‘We Collide’ you went the whole hog, inviting Gareth Jones, known for having worked such legends as ERASURE, and DEPECHE MODE to name a few. And it was big…
Yes, that was a strange experience.
Our record company really pushed for Gareth to be involved in the production, but us as a band were a little hesitant and reluctant because of the whole DEPECHE MODE thing. We had spent years trying to shrug off the DM comparisons, so the last thing we wanted was the guy who shaped their sound working with us. As it happened, he was a really nice guy.
He actually rocked up at our studio in Bristol armed with a MacBook and a few other outboard boxes and we spent about 10 days locked in eating Chinese food, laughing and mixing ‘We Collide’. He was a very focussed engineer and brought out a lot of what we thought were quite incidental bits of music to the foreground and made them the hooks. We learnt quite a lot.
Any favourites from that opus?
‘Petrified’, ‘What Are You Scared Of?’ and ‘This Is What You Wanted’ all left their mark I think. It was quite a dark album from its lyrical content, but maybe doesn’t come across like that on first listen.
Around that point Neil Taylor decided to part ways with MESH. Were you very impacted by his departure?
Yes definitely. Mark and I thought it was the end. I think we both thought “where do we go from here?” We had had the major record deal and done all the big studios etc, what was left? We found ourselves with no deal at the time and a band member missing.
It took a few weeks of pondering before we both realised that we just enjoy writing and producing music at any level. So we dusted ourselves down and started writing again.
Olaf Wollschläger took the production reigns on ‘A Perfect Solution’ and the perfect working relationship was established…
I knew of Olaf from other bands and his work with them. Our new label Dependent suggested him, so we thought “yeah why not?”
We hit it off straight away. I think Olaf was really in tune with what we were trying to achieve with each album. His mixing and production skills are second to none.
How did it feel to be placed around other “legends of synthpop” for a string of US gigs, accompanying DE/VISION and IRIS?
Oh I cringe at that title… legends? It was a great experience. We travelled right across America doing a show every night. It was like starting again for us. No real roadies or tech crew, just 3 bands, a few crew members and a cowboy driving the bus. We played some really big shows and some downright awful small shows, but the whole thing was so good. It really does take experiences like that to establish you as a band. We came back with a new lease of life and a whole lot of respect of what we actually had in Europe.
‘Automation Baby’ came out with a bang and to many, it’s the most definitive MESH album to date… ‘Looking Skyward’ raced up the German charts, reaching No 12 which is your highest to date. That must have felt good?
Yes indeed. We are both very proud of what we achieved with these albums.
We never in our wildest dreams expected things to take off like they did with both of these albums.
To enter into the mainstream album charts was quite an experience. To see yourselves up there in the charts with people like Adele or whoever was completely mad.
In the meantime, you enjoyed playing with a full orchestra for ‘Goth Meets Klassik’…
It was an evening of a lifetime. To hear a full orchestra play something you had written was breathtaking. I remember Mark and I looking at each other in disbelief. It was a very emotional night and one I will never forget. 2000 people giving you a standing ovation was something very special.
Currently you are preparing to embark onto a retrospective tour, and some B-sides and rarities are promised. Does it mean that ‘My Perfection’ could find its way to the set?
Who knows… watch this space 😉
Yes, the plan is to play a load of songs that we don’t usually play or something that hasn’t even been played before live. In the beginning, we were a little reluctant to do a tour like this when it was first suggested.
We didn’t want to dwell on the past but always saw ourselves as a band that keeps pushing forward. After a bit of time to contemplate this, we thought “hey this could be ok”
We are doing new versions of the old material. Trying our best to keep the original feeling but bringing it up to date. It’s a lot of work and I’m sure there will be a lot of thought going into the visuals too, so it should be fun. I know that tickets sales are going exceptionally well so…
Do you set out to perform the crowd pleasers while preparing set lists, and who makes the final decision?
Yes, it’s a balancing act really. You have to throw in all the old favourites but you have to make it interesting too. There was a Facebook poll on our page recently which was surprising. Songs that we had kind of forgot about were mentioned and voted for, so we will have to see what we can do.
You also have to pace the setlist so you get a balance of different styles and tempos finishing in a big track.
Will UK dates for ‘Involved- The MESH Retrospective Tour’ be added at some point?
We are still at the negotiating stages with some venues here in the UK, but I’m sure there will be something announced soon.
We are headlining the Infest Festival in Bradford on 25th August and playing The Watchet Festival in Somerset the day after. There is also talk of an interesting London show / festival soon, so we will see.
When can we expect to hear brand new MESH material?
We will start writing again very soon. Things are a little busy here with the tour prep, but as soon as that settles down we will be back in the studio.
ELECTRICITY CLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Richard Silverthorn
The remastered edition of ‘The Point At Which It Falls Apart’ with extras tracks will be released by Dependent Records, selected items from the MESH back catalogue are available from http://en.dependent.de/artists/mesh/
‘Involved – The MESH Retrospective Tour’ 2018 live dates include:
Bradford Infest Festival (25th August), Watchet Music Festival (26th August), Hamburg Mojo Club (14th September), Oberhausen Kulttempel (15th September), Erfurt HSD Gewerkschaftshaus (21st September), Berlin Columbia Theater 22nd September), Munich Backstage (25th September), Frankfurt Das Bett (27th September), Braunschweig Lokpark (28th September), Dresden Reithalle Strasse E (29th September)
“Background noise, breakquest, reverb, spending time, large hadron collider, warp drive, the empire”… that’s how New York based shinnichi Danz Johnson aka COMPUTER MAGIC describes her interests.
Johnson actually released her first album ‘Scientific Experience’ as a Japanese only release in 2012, while her first album proper ‘Davos’ emerged in 2015. There have been EPs and singles as well, with enjoyably escapist ‘Obscure But Visible” EP possibly her best body of work yet. But now at last comes another COMPUTER MAGIC simply titled ‘Danz’; however Johnson has declared that it is a far darker and more personal companion to ‘Davos’.
The bubbling spaciness of ‘Amnesia’ is an ideal dream pop opener but appears with a clouded tinge to Johnson’s voice. This is a statement that tunes like ‘Lonely Like We Are’ from her last EP will not be figuring. Seguing into ‘Nebraskaland’, while obviously using synths, Johnson shares Bruce Springsteen’s solemn 1982 musical picture of the region.
The mood lifts with ‘Ordinary Life (Message From an A.I. Girlfriend)’, but despite offering bright synth passages to classic Linn Drum sounds, it’s a twist to Philip K. Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ where Artificial Intelligence has allowed a robot to aspire to more than just being a love companion… meanwhile as a variation to the theme, the amusingly titled ‘Delirium (Don’t Follow The Sheep)’ sees rumbling bass drones over a drum loop with a suitably detached Johnson.
Photo by Randy Smith
The wonderful instrumental ‘Teegra’ adds some loungey vibes to proceedings echoing AIR when they were on their ‘Moon Safari, while borrowing from the same part of Western Europe, the nonchalant overtones of ‘Perfect Game’ come over like a less Gallic-centric STEREOLAB.
The sombre string synths and mechanised outlook of ‘Data’ see a shift eastwards to Deutschland for an album interlude before the very sparse and haunting ‘Space and Time / Pale Blue Dot’. Almost to the point of crying, Johnson’s forlorn demeanour offsets the track’s pretty arpeggios in a cacophony of light and shade.
Adopting a live percussive feel with sombre string synths for the introspective manner of PET SHOP BOYS, ‘Drift Away’ draws the curtains before the departing flight of ‘Clouds’; “Take me with you” she exclaims before cathartically admitting she is “lost again above the clouds”.
Those used to the appealingly kooky and cutesy manner of COMPUTER MAGIC from ‘Been Waiting’ will be surprised by ‘Danz’. But this is a mature and more thoughtful Danz Johnson in action here. Reflecting the mood across the Atlantic, she is among those who are prepared to do some thinking at a time when ignorance appears to be the leading philosophy.
‘Danz’ is released by Channel 9 Records in digital formats worldwide, limited green vinyl LP edition is available from http://www.channel9records.com
THE FRIXION are British-born Berlin based singer / lyricist Gene Serene and producer Lloyd Price, best known as a collaborative partner of SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK’s Martin Degville and a member of MASSIVE EGO.
Coming togther as a duo in 2016, Serene and Price’s combined sound intuitively mined both classic synthpop and Weimar Cabaret for their impressive debut EP ‘If U Ever Wonder’.
Its five songs, including a cover of PRINCE’s ‘Under The Cherry Moon’, saw Serene coming over like a Goth Kylie over Price’s Numan-eqsue backing in a variety of tempo and signature settings; ultimately it’s what LITTLE BOOTS could have sounded like had she not had major label interference.
THE FRIXION’s new single ‘Deceive A Believer’ develops on that debut EP; with a crisp electronic production, it displays an unashamed musicality with a brooding futuristic mood that will satisfy the ears of pop and Synth Britannia connoisseurs alike.
With a short UK tour coming up, Gene Serene and Lloyd Price chatted about the artistic progression of THE FRIXION.
How did THE FRIXION become a thing?
Gene: PRINCE …we were both devastated when he passed over. Both Lloyd and I were posting the songs we could find on social media , I remember looking for a studio version of ‘Anna Stesia’, I think that’s when we started chatting – we are both massive fans, that’s how we connected… sad but true
What is the creative dynamic between the two of you?
Gene: It’s very interesting… Lloyd is much more dance and programmed based whereas I started off as a live musician, in writing I am more about arrangement and songwriting… he’s all about the synths and the noises, the rhythm, the moves and feel – I am about the lyrics, melodies and chord changes… it comes together nicely.
Lloyd: Yeah, I’m very much about the sounds and rhythms. I love to listen to other stuff and try to figure out how a certain sound was achieved. Then I’ll just bury my head in the kit and get inspired. Basically I’m the nerd.
As experienced hands, what do you each bring to the party that the other doesn’t?
Gene: Lloyd definitely is far more ahead of it all than I am… I find it hard to just “do it”, I have to wait for that magic moment when I “feel” it’s the right time – he’s much more in order than I… I make him break the mould, take risks and changes that may not be comfortable. In a lot of ways, we are worlds apart, and even live in different countries but we know 1+1=3 and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts… personally I wish Lloyd would get his axe out more – but it takes a little coaxing… I think his experience in making people move and my way of making people feel brings a “thing”.
Lloyd: Gene definitely brings a musicality to it that I could never achieve and don’t feel I’ve done in the past. As I mentioned, I’ll listen to something and that drives me immediately to jump to the kit and put something together. I’m very structured in how I work. I turn stuff around really quickly; that was a trick I learnt from my time working with Martin Degville. He was always like “have you got that demo finished yet???”, he was crazy to work with but taught me some really valuable lessons about working to tight deadlines. I actually owe Martin a lot.
The darkness with the brooding melodies on songs like ‘We Walk A Line’, that appears to be the Berlin influence taking its hold?
Gene: Actually it was a visit to Devils Den and Avebury that moved me to write that. Being very interested and involved in the more esoteric and magical things moved me to write that track, it’s about the alchemical marriage, though it has a very deep Berlin feel which Lloyd may have taken from his touring in Germany… I love that track – he did some lovely work on that musically – I didn’t want him to change a thing.
Lloyd: That track was originally a pretty ploddy 120 BPM 4/4 beat. It wasn’t working, so I stripped it back and gave it the 3/4 timing. Slowed it down… it was actually a demo for another project, but once the timing and tempo had changed, I just knew Gene would sound amazing on it. If it has a “Berlin influence” then it really is just an accident. I don’t generally go in for light-hearted pop music. I find the music that moves me most are the moodier sounds.
On the other side of the coin, ‘If U Ever Wonder’ is very pop?
Lloyd: Gene sent me over some music she’d done in the past. Immediately ‘If U Ever Wonder’ just stood out. I put a rough demo of it together and presented it to Gene to see if she’d like to work on it further. Although it does have a pop feel it still has that dark under current running through. It’s a gorgeous track.
Gene: That was written a lifetime ago – it fitted really well into our live set so I wrote to Andy Chatterley and asked if he minded me including it… although it was written in my twenties, I am a firm believer in “a good song is timeless”, it really works, and I think Lloyd has brought it to date perfectly. We had some amazing remixes on that single.
What is ‘From Dusk Til Dawn’ about and how did that come together during recording?
Gene: It’s about the elements, magic and taking charge of your world. It was our first track we ever did so one of the things I want to do is mix and remaster it again for the album. I wanted to inspire people to connect to nature and feel the world they live in rather than react to and live on it.
Lloyd: The music came together from that pulsating bassline. I’d just got a new analogue synth and that sound was the first thing I got out of it.
The demo had been sitting around a while and after chatting to Gene it was the first thing I sent to test the water. That track confirmed that we had something worth pursuing further.
You’ve recorded PRINCE and HOWARD JONES covers which is diverse to say the least?
Gene: We love both those artists. PRINCE was a hero… the HOWARD JONES track is both a classic, and an honour to have him give it the thumbs up. I don’t see too many more covers – though you never know we may slip them in every now and again, we are focusing on original material for the new album.
Lloyd: PRINCE had to be done. For me he was the best thing to come out of the 80s. I read he was inspired by GARY NUMAN around the ‘1999’ album period. If you listen to that album it really shows that he had an ear to what was going on in the UK and electronic music in general. PRINCE took elements of what was going on and stuffed it with sex and groove.
‘What is Love?’ is just a brilliant song. I heard it the other day and thought to myself that Gene would sound great on it. She proved me right. And Howard has given us his blessing too which made my day!
The debut EP came with a companion remix variant, what was the thinking behind this?
Gene: Let’s just say I wanted to give my publisher a chance to “exploit my catalogue” before we parted company, it wasn’t originally intentional to put them all on one CD – it just made sense at that time…
What will be your approach to playing live in the future?
Gene: We are still a new act and have only played two live shows, we have quite a lot of shows lined up for the first part of 2018. It’s gonna be good to hone that journey, we are working on video content to go with the tracks and hopefully explain a few of the questions asked here. It’s gonna have a lot of new material – more edge, I guess you’ll have to come to really experience its energy. That’s what it will have… more energy.
Lloyd: I definitely want to take us down an edgier path. As Gene said, we’ve not done too many shows right now so I think we’re in an enviable position that no one really knows what we’re about or what we’ll come up with.
What’s next for THE FRIXION?
Gene: We have been looking at the musical and visual journey as well as our live shows in the first part of the year, the next single should be out around March if not before, the album early June… there’s a lot of enthusiasm and we would love to secure some professional support so we can keep the focus on the music.
Currently we are looking at more dates – we would love to play some festivals this year and are looking at another show in Berlin, places like Tallin, Prague, Barcelona are on the radar… we both said we would love to play America too!
But really it’s early days, the focus right now for us is finishing the album… some tracks are still in the writing and production process and the best sound is where I am at….in these immediate times I think people forget how long these things take. I love the music we make – I think it’s quite unique and I want to give it the energy it deserves – things are really looking quite exciting for us – personally I cannot wait ‘til it’s mixed and mastered, then I can take my head out and project!
Lloyd: Taking it out live is important for me now, trying tracks out live to work out what works best and what we should focus on for a great album. We’ve got a very busy schedule in 2018. We’ve got more in the pipeline too. And in all of that we’re writing and recording. It’s going to be a busy first six months in 2018.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to THE FRIXION
The new single ‘Deceive A Believer’ and the ‘If U Ever Wonder’ EP are available in their various formats from https://thefrixion.bandcamp.com/
What do DEPECHE MODE, SOFT CELL, BLANCMANGE and THE THE have in common?
They all appeared on the ‘Some Bizzare Album’ which acted as a springboard for their fame and fortune.
But the silent success story of the ‘Some Bizzare Album’ has to be Paul Statham; while his band B-MOVIE with Steve Hovington, Rick Holliday and Graham Boffey were unable to achieve a foothold in the mainstream like The Big Four, the guitarist later found considerable success as a songwriter and producer.
Working with personalities as varied as Peter Murphy, Jim Kerr, Billy Mackenzie, Dido, Dot Allison, Sarah Nixey, Kylie Minogue, Lisa Scott-Lee, Tina Arena and Rachel Stevens, Statham’s credits also include groups such as THE SATURDAYS and RIGHT SAID FRED. Statham was also a member of cult electropop trio PEACH with Pascal Gabriel and Lisa Lamb, whose song ‘On My Own’ from their only album ‘Audiopeach’ featured during a key scene in the Gwyneth Paltrow movie ‘Sliding Doors’.
Although B-MOVIE reformed in 2004, Statham has continued his songwriting and production career in parallel. More recently, there has also been his dark country project THE DARK FLOWERS, while he has also been releasing a series of ambient electronic albums, as well as establishing his own label Loki Records.
Paul Statham kindly took time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions about his career outside of B-MOVIE…
What has motivated you to start Loki Records in the current climate?
Well, exactly the words “current climate”! I did approach some leftfield labels, but the response time was tragic! Also as a long standing writer through Warner Chappell, there is always the thought that the song has to be commented on or is specifically ‘aimed’ at something , even going through an experimental label. So setting up my own label means I can go sit in the woods filming the moon all night, then decide that will be the video as it was for the track ‘Who Won’t Wait’! Of course who sees the video is then down to you endlessly trying to put links up!
After years of songwriting, how did this move towards more experimental music come about?
I have been involved in writing or creating pieces of instrumental music since 2002 through an art curator friend Victor De Circasia to run alongside writing more commercial music. My project THE DARK FLOWERS put a small element of experimental into traditional song using backdrops of wind or recorded atmosphere behind tracks, but my favourite album is Brian Eno’s ‘Another Green World’ and also I love reading about his compositional practice.
Your third ambient release is ‘Asylum’, how does this differ in concept from your first two releases of this type ‘Ephemeral’ and ‘Installation Music 1’ which were given away on Bandcamp?
I did plan to do it this way. The first two are unaltered pieces that were actually used in two installations, ‘Installation Music 1’ is very specific to a sculpture ‘Diving Woman’ by Sottish artist David Mach. ‘Asylum’ took some installation music from the Asylum Chapel in Peckham and simply used it as the starting point to create an album that was added to and experimented on over time.
What do you get out of this more experimental direction that you wouldn’t get from writing pop songs?
Total Freedom. A real journey from going out and exploring sounds in the outside world to developing artwork / films and setting out and letting the unfolding music direct where it heads to with no thought of who may like this. That’s why sometimes I’ll give them away for free!
Any thoughts about trying to compose hour long pieces like Brian Eno has done?
I already have a 28 minute piece that was used in an installation. It involved 28 pieces of thirty seconds long, starting with one then adding to it the next piece every 30 seconds to create a collage of found sound, then after 28 minutes it reverses. I will locate it and put it out for free on Bandcamp now you have reminded me! It was accompanied by painter Daisy Cook’s series of 28 small paintings of the Australian landscape but taken from the air. We made a film but I’ve since lost it!
The B-side to B-MOVIE’s ‘Marilyn Dreams’ was ‘Film Music Part 1’, what ever happened to Part 2 and is composing film music a direction you would like to head in?
That was written by Rick and I really like it! I think it was Rick, although Steve wrote most things back then! Film music is something I would love to do and would offer the music for free to any budding or low budget film in need!
After B-MOVIE first ended, you started to work with Peter Murphy in 1988 and continue to do so today, how would describe your creative dynamic?
Slow development! No, it’s completely different than my usual co-writing and has been long distance, with us rarely or actually ever sitting down in the same room and writing anything together. ‘Love Hysteria’ was me sitting in his attic with a four track and a few instruments, then leaving it with him. ‘Deep’ was similar but in a studio room, with Peter adding stuff once I’d put any sort of sketch down. After his move to Turkey, I would visit Ankara but again go into his studio room alone and sketch ideas, whilst he would then go in after me later at night and really shape them up. Since the internet, we simply share files. Some people find this dynamic difficult but after such a long time, I find it easy to send him anything I feel will intrigue.
In 1996, you formed PEACH who you described as “ABBA Meets THE KLF”? What inspired this?
Hahahaha! That was meeting Pascal Gabriel who produced the Murphy album ‘Cascade’. After the ‘Holy Smoke’ album, Peter dropped THE 100 MEN (band) and I went back to co-writing the whole album via sketches and lots of different styles, but with a more electronic feel.
We all went to Spain to record, Peter, Pascal and myself and it was fairly high pressure. On returning to London, I began to hang out with Pascal and he suggested that we form a very up dayglo electronic trio… very different to my Murphy work and at the time, it was something I definitely needed to do.
How did getting signed to Mute come about? It appeared to happen quite quickly…
We signed to Daniel Miller’s Mute label after playing him two demos in his office with no singer and Pascal sorting of humming vocal ideas. I really respect Daniel Miller and how he got what we were trying to do immediately and offered us a deal on the spot! I will always be grateful to Pascal as he gave me studio keys and access to all these incredible synths and recording gear and simply let me learn my way around it, whilst we simply began recording with no agenda, other than kicking electropop tunes!
While your first single ‘On My Own’ wasn’t a UK Top 40 hit, it attracted positive responses…
It was a hit in the States and reached No 11 on the radio charts and also was a pop Top 40 hit. It was No 1 in Canada, Israel and bizarrely Singapore where Lisa Lamb and myself headed out to play the city’s 33rd birthday celebrations…v v odd!
How did you feel when ‘On My Own’ featured in the film ‘Sliding Doors’?
I remember being very excited, especially meeting Gwyneth Paltrow at the aftershow of the London premiere. Also seeing your name come up at the end of the film credits was worth it!
‘From This Moment On’ is a timeless pop tune…
I wrote the majority of that alone, picturing a sort of ABBA / ACE OF BASS crossover with a different rhythmic feel than the rest of the more uptempo songs. I started with the sequencer and then went back and wrote this long intro as I may have discovered a jazz chord or two from some book! Lyrically, I just liked the sound of the words / sentiment without it being particularly about anything! I don’t normally write lyrics, perhaps you can see why!
The eventual ‘Audiopeach’ album was one of the last recordings that the late Billy Mackenzie contributed to. His ad libs on ‘Deep Down Together’ are so unmistakable, how did you know him and what was he like to work with?
Billy Mackenzie was a friend of Pascal’s and I was a HUGE fan of ASSOCIATES. It was shortly before he committed suicide and he arrived very down to earth and humble with a few cans of beer. He simply opened his mouth and that voice exploded. I loved it so much, I owned a DAT tape of him simply singing his vocal line unaccompanied, it was so pure with such a range. He also sang on ’Give Me Tomorrow’, replacing the high sampled opera vocal. I have read ‘The Glamour Chase’ biography twice now and recently have started listening to him a lot.
By the time ‘Audiopeach’ came out in 1998, the momentum appeared to have stalled, what happened?
Basically we didn’t all get on. Lisa proved difficult at the time, while Pascal and her were complete ‘Polar Opposites’ in just about everything. I think Lisa herself will admit she found it difficult and although we had success, our vision of what PEACH should sound like / appear like were pulling in two very different directions. I was sad as I had left a long running collaboration with Murphy, found success with this pop / electronic vibe, signed to Mute and then walked away from it all.
Photo by Pete Walsh
PEACH supported ERASURE in London but did not play live much, could this have been a contributory factor?
I loved playing live, especially after some amazing live shows around the world with Peter Murphy, who was and is a great frontman and thrived on chaos. Pascal wasn’t so much a live musician and Lisa just got more outrageous, so it wasn’t really a live show at all, just playing a few chords over a backing track. We played three shows with ERASURE in London and before that, two in Hamburg. The German shows were a real success and very enjoyable, but somehow we’d lost enthusiasm by the time we played London!
PEACH appeared to help kickstart your next phase as a pop writer with artists like Kylie Minogue, Rachel Stevens and Lisa Scott-Lee?
Yes, that was only due to the fact I signed via PEACH to Warner Chappell and became great friends with my A&R man Mike Sault who began getting us co-writes with other artists and also, the great work that Sandy Dworniak at TMT Management did as Pascal’s and my manager.
Some might say your best known song is ‘Here With Me’ which you did with Dido, how do you look back on it?
It was so good as Dido had no expectations on her and I loved her voice; as a person and collaborator, she was great fun and wrote quickly and strongly in terms of her lyrics / melodies. We wrote quite a lot of songs and I remember vividly writing ‘I’m No Angel’ with her in about two hours!
So how would you approach a song for a singer, as opposed to artists like Dido, Sarah Nixey or Dot Allison who are more involved in the composition side? Is there a brief from the label?
Yep, sort of. It’s always strange as they give you a reference video by another artist, then the artist plays you something different and the management tell you they want something off the wall and different, so I just try and write the most interesting music I can and see where it goes. It’s so hard to get these things right and you end up with literally hundreds of very very good songs, but then so does everyone else who co-writes with them. It’s frustrating going back and seeing a huge iTunes library with lots of songs that you feel could be hits if the artist / A&R / manager had chosen to go with the song you co-wrote!!
You also worked with Jim Kerr on ‘Return Of the King’, a tribute to Billy Mackenzie for his LOST BOY solo project and subsequently, ‘Kill Or Cure’ for SIMPLE MINDS, what was that like?
Fantastic! I saw SIMPLE MINDS four times in one year when I was a teenager and was a HUGE fan of the first four albums. Not so much ‘New Gold Dream’ onwards, but ‘Reel To Real Cacophony’ and ‘Empires & Dance’. So writing with Jim Kerr in my small bedroom sized home studio was one of those moments you think if I could have told my 18 year old self that, he wouldn’t have believed me! Also we share a lot of great music references in Bowie, Bolan, Roxy and certain literary styles / books. Jim is a very optimistic and supportive friend, he encouraged THE DARK FLOWERS and we have written a lot of material that may or may not see the light of day!
So what’s happening with THE DARK FLOWERS, which has featured Jim Kerr, Peter Murphy and Dot Allison amongst others?
I have all the music… it’s like herding cats trying to get a song or two from each person as they are all involved constantly in their own work. However I’m getting excited about the second album as its shaping up well… darker in tone than the first (deliberately) and featuring David J as well. Lloyd Cole was interested and started a track, but as of yet???!!!!
In all, are you quite happy with how your music career has turned out in its various guises?
I’m very happy… more so than ever. I re-signed to Warner Chappell in January and balance my week with running a course at BIMM in London once a week and heading up the songwriting workshops at Solent University (sixth year now) once a week too. This leaves me plenty of time to work on my own stuff and collaborate with long standing friends / artists
What’s next for you in whatever guise?
– THE DARK FLOWERS 2
– The continued release of experimental music via Loki Records
– AFTER THE RAIN (my new sample / DJ Shadow style project)
– New B-MOVIE album
– New Peter Murphy collaborations
– A new KRAFTWERK / vaporwave project with film composer Magnus Fiennes out in LA
– And continued co-writing via Warner Chappell’s, particularly with electro R‘n’B singer Billie Black.
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is pretty much a collection of all those lost recordings and demos.
. He was a very focussed engineer and brought out a lot of what we thought were quite incidental bits of music to the foreground and made them the hooks. We learnt quite a lot.
EP possibly her best body of work yet. But now at last comes another 
; however Johnson has declared that it is a far darker and more personal companion to ‘Davos’.
featured during a key scene in the Gwyneth Paltrow movie ‘Sliding Doors’.
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