Category: Interviews (Page 84 of 113)

SYNTH.NU Interviews ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK

23 March 2016 / electricityclub

synth.nu is a long established Swedish language web publication that covers a broad spectrum of electronic music.

Founded in March 2004, synth.nu follows an ethos that covers both new and established acts. With a team of contributors, their mission statement is “We make reviews, interviews and live reviews in synth / electronic music from all over the world” be it “synth, electronica, EBM, industrial, wave, darkwave and stuff that applies”.

With Sweden being the epicentre of modern electronic music, synth.nu are suitably positioned to report on what is an highly vibrant and creative scene. As kindred spirits following their passion for electronic music, it was only natural that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK and synth.nu would eventually get together and have rather a lot to talk about.

Following a first meeting at the Electronic Summer 2015 Festival in Gothenburg, Martin Brandhill from synth.nu chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK founder Chi Ming Lai for an interview feature that was originally published in the Swedish language at the synth.nu site on 16th March 2016…

When did you start to like electronic music and become fascinated by this music genre?

My very liberal and Bohemian junior school teacher played KRAFTWERK’s ‘Autobahn’ and the soundtrack of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ to us all in class and the sound of both was unusual, yet captivating. It wasn’t until later that I got into synthesizer music properly first through Gary Numan, then Jean-Michel Jarre and OMD before moving onto ULTRAVOX, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, JAPAN, SOFT CELL, DEPECHE MODE, HEAVEN 17, SIMPLE MINDS and John Foxx

As I got older, I caught up with the influential acts of the past like Brian Eno, David Bowie, ROXY MUSIC, TANGERINE DREAM, NEU! and LA DÜSSELDORF.

How and why did you start the electronic music website ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK back in 2010? Were there not any electronic music websites prior to that, who supported the electronic music scene in UK?

The main motivation to do ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK came from my disgust at classic synthpop being lumped in with the so-called 80s revival.

I hated how OMD and DEPECHE MODE were being associated with T’PAU, SWING OUT SISTER and LIVING IN A BOX! Everyone wanted to remember the 80s whereas I didn’t, so there was a definite reaction to the nostalgia industry that was starting to build. “Synthpop NOT 80s!” was my mantra! There are still people who should know better that don’t understand the difference! Incidentally, the writers are banned from using the term “80s” to describe the music in their articles 😉

I’d been writing music reviews since college, progressing from student newspapers to fanzines and then online media. There were a number of websites featuring acts I liked, but many focussed on just the 80s or particular bands. And then there were others that were only about dance music or new artists exclusively…

I wanted to somehow combine coverage of new and classic synth based pop, but away from dance music which to be honest, is something I generally loathe.

When ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK launched in March 2010, LITTLE BOOTS, LA ROUX, LADYHAWKE and LADY GAGA had been hailed as the next big things. And with their synth dressed credentials, I embraced them… but it turned out to be a false dawn. Luckily though, just as The L-Word Foursome started disassociating themselves from the whole synthpop thing, MIRRORS, HURTS, VILLA NAH and VILE ELECTRODES emerged and sat nicely with classic acts such as VISAGE, OMD, HEAVEN 17, ULTRAVOX, THE ART OF NOISE and PROPAGANDA who ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK featured in that first year.

What is the main goal that you want to achieve with the website?

You could nickname it ‘Now That’s What Chi & Friends Call Music’ 😉

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is about electronic pop music with roots to Synth Britannia; that was a great BBC documentary about the post-punk UK synth movement. It featured GARY NUMAN, OMD, DEPECHE MODE, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, JOHN FOXX, NEW ORDER, PET SHOP BOYS, SOFT CELL, ULTRAVOX, YAZOO and CABARET VOLTAIRE.

However, the site was never just going to be about established acts, it was always the intention to feature newer ones. But the site launch didn’t take place until our interview with Paul Humphreys of OMD was completed, because having that was the best way to get people to look at the site. And it worked, because parts of the interview were later quoted in The Guardian newspaper in their article about OMD’s then new album ‘History Of Modern’.

So by attracting people who want to read about the acts they know and love, they might then stick around and have a look at the new artists featured who have been seeded from those same electronic pioneers. The act I have been most proud of featuring in the last five years has been VILE ELECTRODES.

Andy McCluskey read about them on the site and as a result, they ended up supporting OMD on their 2013 German tour and winning awards too. And they recently did a live session for BBC Introducing. It’s a great upward trajectory they are on right now. They’re a fine example as to what can be achieved by an independent synthesizer act in this day and age.

Which philosophy does the website follow with writing new reviews, interviews or articles in general?

The heart of the site is properly written features, not buzz blogging. I don’t like the whole “this is a song, now here’s another…” approach that other websites indulge in. People of a certain adult demographic just haven’t got the time or inclination to go through 10-15 new acts each week; they want to know which band you think is the best and why they should spend money or invest an hour of their time for them.

That is why the articles have easy-to-understand musical references, trivia and critique. It’s my style and always has been since I started writing about music as a student; I think you can tell if I am really into something when you read my text. It’s storytelling, rather than lecturing or trying to be cool. I’ve been told by friends in Europe that my style is easy to understand for people whose first language is not English.

If people connect with your ethos and enjoy what you write, then they will trust your opinion and return for more. But you need to maintain quality control. So ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has to be about what’s good, not what’s going on in The Scene. This is why the site doesn’t have many news bulletins. If people don’t like what the site features or its style of referencing, then that’s ok. They can always do their own blog as some have done. That’s great because then there’s another music platform. We have our choices.

What do I look for in a new act submission? A good song accompanied by a reasonable video with hopefully two or three other numbers of comparable quality. The video is important because it tests the commitment of the artist with regards their visual presentation, as well as their songwriting and production. I come from a generation where videos and sleeve artwork were important; so it’s not just about the music and bands need to be aware that.

I probably give a track about twenty seconds! I’m not after a song that I necessarily love on first hearing, it’s more about it being interesting enough to play on to the end and then, listen to again. People have sent me demos that go on for over eight minutes… that’s not a good idea even if it is your art!

The most clueless submission was a five song live gig video recorded at a kid’s birthday party and nothing happened for the first minute! I literally get hundreds of emails each month. There are complaints that we don’t reply or give feedback. But if we replied to each one, we would never get any articles done.

A fair few get deleted straight away, especially if the accompanying press release mentions “deep house”, “bangin’ techno”, “DJ”, “80s” or “shoegaze”, or the band photo has more than two members with a beard! I remember Neil Tennant once saying he knew THE KILLERS’ second album was never going to be as good as the first, because Brandon Flowers had grown a beard! *laughs*

Just because an act hasn’t been featured on ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK before, it doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future. The best example of that is Glasgow’s ANALOG ANGEL who I passed on in 2011. They were quite industrial back then, but changed direction and became more synthpop. So when they released ‘We Won’t Walk Away’ in 2013, I asked them for a video to feature on the site which they duly presented.

By the same token, just because an act has had coverage before doesn’t mean that their future releases will be featured. One artist demanded we remove a second video that we had on an article about them, so that it could be used for a future review… hang on! There is a strange sense of entitlement from some artists which I find baffling. ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is not a crowdfunded promotional service. *laughs*

Some people do take things rather personally if they’re not featured; one individual shouted abuse at me in a pub before a gig and stormed off, but he then proceeded to lie and tell everyone I was rude to THEM! It wasn’t as if ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK had written a negative review… would they rather have that? Because there have been a few of those when appropriate as well!

But slagging ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK off on social media and to their friends is not the best way to gain favourable attention from us. The thing is, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is not the only platform covering electronic music… other blogs ARE available.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has existed now for over five years. Has it been lots of fun and an exciting journey when you are looking back at the development of the website and meeting lots of famous people in the electronic scene, since you started the website back in 2010?

It’s definitely been fun, it’s the reason why I am still doing it and would like to do it for a few more years yet 😉

Two interviews spring to mind as favourites and good examples of the site’s development. In 2011, I interviewed Stephen Morris from NEW ORDER. I was surprised ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s request was accepted, but we had a brilliant 70 minute chat. He said something about “Never say never” when it came to the future of NEW ORDER. Then a few months later, NEW ORDER announced they were returning, but without Hooky. So the site was inadvertently part of a subtle promotional campaign to rebuild the band’s profile before the news broke!

Our 2013 interview with GARY NUMAN was a significant one. In the past, we would lobby for a major interview, but probably end up NOT getting it, like DURAN DURAN or GRIMES. In 2011, we were only granted a short email Q&A with GARY NUMAN. But in 2013, the site had built up such a good reputation that Numan’s representatives got in touch and literally said “you’re interviewing GARY NUMAN at 6.00pm on Thursday!” – Numan was great and he wouldn’t stop talking, which was great for the eventual article!

Having been invited to meet both Karl Bartos and Wolfganng Flur, I’ve sort of got nowhere else to go now! It’s not every day you get to be photographed together with two KRAFTWERK legends. Is there anyone else I’d like to meet and interview? I guess Jean-Michel Jarre would be one. And I’ve never met or interviewed Vince Clarke either.

Has 2015 been a good or disappointing music year? Will we remember this year when we look back in a couple of years?

I think 2015 has been good, especially for veteran acts proving they can still do excellent music, be it JEAN-MICHEL JARRE, A-HA, JOHN FOXX or NEW ORDER. Age is not a barrier to creativity, although lack of motivation to challenge oneself artistically in later years might be… 2015 was certainly better than 2012, which I felt was a lacklustre year for electronic pop.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK appears to be very critical at times against synthpop legends DEPECHE MODE, why is that?

DEPECHE MODE can still do brilliant stuff, my favourite 21st Century songs are ‘Oh Well’, ‘I Feel Loved’, and the TRENTEMØLLER club mix of ‘Wrong’; I think from those three, you can work out how I prefer DEPECHE MODE to sound today. But personally, I am not keen on DEPECHE MODE’s modern day concert format which is more rock based and dominated by live drums; however, I need to clarify about why I’m so critical of them and in particular, Christian Eigner aka ‘The Drumhead’ 😉

Yes, Alan Wilder was a sticksman on the ‘Devotional’ tour but he wasn’t a drummer in a John Bonham sense, so he only played what was needed. Herr Eigner on the other hand is a traditional rock drummer, a role that has a very egocentric and bombastic mindset. So he fills every nook and cranny with drums, whether they really ought to be there or not, that’s the difference!

Now, did you know that THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘Dare’ has no crash cymbals on it? That’s because the Linn LM1 Drum Computer used did not have enough chip memory to store such a sound. So the restrictions meant they had to be artistically inventive and think out of the box to nurture the dynamics of each song. The most recent example of a no crash cymbal policy has been CHVRCHES ‘The Bones Of What You Believe’.

The first five OMD albums have no crash cymbals either and I think you’ll find the majority of DEPECHE MODE recordings up to 1990 are the same. Do you see a pattern here? What I’m trying to say is, live drums and crash cymbals can be a bit of a rock ‘n’ roll cliché… the point about most good electronic pop music is that it is anti-rock ‘n’ roll *laughs*

The word is that it’s Dave Gahan who wants it everything to be overtly rockist, but I can’t think of anything more boring! He apparently refuses to sing over exclusively programmed rhythm tracks now.

Ironically though, it’s that rigid electronic percussion which helps give those truly great DEPECHE MODE songs that tension and soul.

It’s why the tribute band SPEAK & SPELL have their place on the live circuit as a recreation of that three synths and a tape machine era. The strange thing is that I’ve been accused of featuring and referencing DEPECHE MODE too often.

But on the opposite side of the coin, there are people who think I am very negative about DM… neither are true. But do I really enjoy DM gigs in the 21st Century? They have their moments on stage, but the last show I saw at Birmingham NEC in 2014 was terrible!

Are you not grateful for all the great music and achievements DEPECHE MODE has done for electronic music in the UK and for the genre in general?

To use an F1 analogy, DEPECHE MODE are Michael Schumacher from an achievement point of view. But personally, I find the gifted but flawed drivers like the late Ronnie Peterson who never became World Champion, or lively new talent such as Max Verstappen much more interesting. Well, that’s what I think, for what it’s worth 😉

I’m an armchair DEPECHE MODE fan from ‘Speak & Spell’ up to ‘Ultra’, as opposed to being a Devotee. My favourite album is ‘Violator’, while I have a lot of affection for ‘A Broken Frame’. I was in my early teens at the height of Synth Britannia, so when SOFT CELL, DEPECHE MODE and DURAN DURAN emerged, it was all very exciting.

But what you have to understand is that at the time, SOFT CELL were generally seen by people, including myself, as the better prospect. By the time DEPECHE MODE got darker on ‘Black Celebration’, I was at college and had started DJ-ing so was naturally inclined towards more danceable electronic acts like PET SHOP BOYS, NEW ORDER and ERASURE… in hindsight, you can see PSB are actually a smoothed out SOFT CELL! I was still keeping an eye on DM in 1987-1988, but effectively lost touch as I was doing my final examinations. So like many in the UK, when ‘101’ came out in 1989, I was like “what on earth has happened here?” *laughs*

I’ve been lucky enough to have interviewed Alan Wilder three times now and was honoured that the only interview he granted for the 25th anniversary of ‘101’ was with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK. He’s always been very honest and forthright. I remember at the RECOIL film Q&A in London, one girl took exception to his answer to her question about BECK. “YOU ASKED ME FOR MY OPINION!” he retorted. Brilliant!

Like many, I still feel the missing artistic ingredient in today’s DEPECHE MODE is Mr Wilder. Yet, DM have got bigger in terms of their live audiences! So go figure *laughs*

In Sweden, there was a big discussion in many local synth / electronic music communities about the genre’s status. It started because of my discussion event ‘Är Synthen Död?’ (In English: Is The Synth Dead?) which I held in Gothenburg last December. The panel discussed if the genre was still vital and interesting to the youth of today and to old electronic music lovers here in Sweden; or more plainly dead, has no future and will become like Rockabilly music. What are your personal points of view on this subject, when you look at the UK scene?

There was a period in the UK when the dance scene and Britpop effectively killed off synthpop; this would have been 1994-1999. I never really liked acid house or club oriented music. Acts like LEFTFIELD, UNDERWORLD, THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS and ORBITAL did great singles, but they weren’t very song based and their albums left me underwhelmed, especially as the tracks often went on for far too long! And I wasn’t into the Industrial duff-duff shouting-in-German thing that was going on in Europe either!

But for me, there was a turning point for the synth in an avant pop context, and that came in 2000-2001 with LADYTRON, GOLDFRAPP and CLIENT. Because they had female vocalists, they also gave a fresh slant to the old Synth Britannia template.

KYLIE MINOGUE’s ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ and SUGABABES ‘Freak Like Me’ were also significant; it’s fair to say quite a few people got into GARY NUMAN because of the latter!

So synthpop effectively returned, if in a slightly different but still recognisable form. The period helped to shape the sort of music I enjoy listening to now, like MARSHEAUX, KID MOXIE, Hannah Peel and Gwenno. Unfortunately, although a lot of music is electronically based now, as PAGE’s Eddie Bengtsson said to me, classic synthpop appears to be a dying art.

A friend of mine, who is a video director, received a brief for a “contemporary electropop band”… but they were so contemporary, there was hardly any electropop in their music! The lines are getting too blurred and that’s not a good thing. Like this trio YEARS & YEARS that have been labelled a synthpop act by the mainstream press! Err, no! They are basically BROS with a housey beat!

Luckily, the success of CHVRCHES has confirmed there is still an international market for synthpop. They have a broad appeal which connects with people who don’t necessarily know, or want to know, what a Minimoog Voyager is. Their songs could be covered by Taylor Swift and become massive hits. Acts like CHVRCHES are the key to younger musicians being influenced to make electronic pop music in the future.

Is the genre dead or alive in UK? Has it a bright future or will genre just have a few followers?

Things are quite strange in the UK… synth music is alive but slightly wounded in my opinion. There is also the weird phenomenon of promoters who don’t even really like electronic music, putting on electronic music events.

In my opinion, there’s big fish in a small pond syndrome going on, in that there’s a sub-culture of acts who just prop each other up and think just because they get a few plays on an internet radio station, they’re heading for the big time. But they are not as good as they like to think they are. Ok, everyone has to start somewhere and grow, but they need to show some humility and give themselves time to learn their craft.

It is important to support bands that are good, not just any band because they are electronic. The trouble is, the entry point to electronic music, podcasting and blogging is very low so if everything is of a mediocre standard, it misrepresents the genre and no-one actually has a quality bar they can work towards. Healthy competition is a good motivator.

But when an act appears out of nowhere and has the potential to break into the mainstream like LA ROUX, MIRRORS or CHVRCHES, The Scene doesn’t like it and turns on them. The lack of recognition for MIRRORS still bothers me, I really miss them and it’s a shame that they didn’t stick together having delivered one brilliant album and a bunch of fabulous B-sides. People have caught onto them since retrospectively, but it’s a bit too late and now we’re stuck with average bands that go on and on and on!

As far as the UK is concerned, the most promising beacon of light for electronic pop is EAST INDIA YOUTH; he’s a bit like a one-man MIRRORS and it will be interesting to see how he progresses. There’s also Rodney Cromwell who is a bit more unorthodox and whose music I like very much. As they’re both solo acts, they can’t split up!

Photo by Madeleine Berg

Will we see more unusual electronic music countries or trends that will rise and get more attention, instead of the traditional electronic music countries like the UK and Germany? I was thinking about the rising profile over the past few years for electronic music coming from, for example Canada, Australia, South Africa and even from my native country Sweden?

My favourite new act at the moment is KITE from Sweden. They have a melancholic, majestic sound that I love. To me, Sweden is the modern hub of electronic pop and has been for several years. When I visited Gothenburg for the 2015 Electronic Summer Festival, I was very impressed by the Swedish passion for electronic music; it appeared a lot more honest than in the UK and I really felt at home. It’s not just Sweden though, the Nordic region has been producing electronic acts of a very high standard, particularly Norway and Finland. VILLA NAH came from Helsinki and although they appear to be no more, they have at least morphed into SIN COS TAN who are really good.

North America is proving to be one area of growth for electronic music, with Canada being the most creative with acts like TR/ST, AUSTRA, GRIMES, PURITY RING and ELECTRIC YOUTH; but don’t forget the country has a cult tradition dating back to RATIONAL YOUTH and PSYCHE. The USA has some great acts too like SOFT METALS, NIGHT CLUB, FEATHERS and HYPERBUBBLE.

Germany is making a return, although to my ears, much of the new music coming from there is derivative, although of a good standard. But the emergent nation in electronic music appears to be China with Fifi Rong and QUIETER THAN SPIDERS being two of its most notable acts. I am pleased that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK features acts from all around the world, and does not base itself around a single scene, city or country.

What are your expectations and hopes for electronic music in 2016?

I have learnt over the years to be quietly optimistic and not to have too many expectations… I always think it’s quite funny when bloggers announce that an album is “going to be brilliant” when they haven’t actually heard it yet, and then after its release, go “oh, actually, it’s not very good…” *laughs*

Obviously, I hope there is going to be lots of new high quality synthpop in 2016… if there isn’t, then the site will focus on being more retrospective, like with those career spanning Beginner’s Guides listings which we do and have become quite popular with readers. It’s a way of showcasing how good things have been in the past, so that new acts know what to aspire to.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK will not just feature sub-standard output just because it’s electronic. There’s a lot of new music out there, but it needs to stand the test of repeated listening; only time can tell if you were right or wrong… and we got it wrong with a few acts that were featured in 2012 😉

People say to me the site should cover other forms of electronic music like dubstep and more leftfield sub-genres but frankly, I’m not interested… I know what I like and I’m happy to stand by it. When I was in Gothenburg, Alexander Hofman from S.P.O.C.K complimented me on the fact that ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK focusses on pop. As OMD once sang “It’s my direction, it’s my proposal…”

Speaking of whom, OMD have a new album pencilled in. I remember there was great anticipation about the comeback album ‘History Of Modern’ back in 2010, yet it turned out to be a major disappointment. So when it came to ‘English Electric’ in 2013, I expected nothing, but it was their best album for 30 years! I would like there to be another great OMD album, but I will not be too upset if it doesn’t happen. I got the album I’d been waiting for since 1984 with ‘English Electric’, so as far as I am concerned now, OMD have nothing left to prove.

On the other hand, DEPECHE MODE have plenty to prove again; they really need to take a leaf out of OMD’s book and regain some of that artistic high ground. But the thing is, OMD brought back their Alan Wilder ie Paul Humphreys and let him take control of the production reins; the end result of ‘English Electric’ speaks for itself 😉

This interview was originally published in Swedish at http://synth.nu/

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Interview by Martin Brandhill with thanks to synth.nu
23rd March 2016

DAVE BALL Interview

10 March 2016 / electricityclub

Dave Ball is best known as the musical genius of SOFT CELL.

Together with Marc Almond, they recorded ‘Tainted Love’, a marvellous hybrid of Northern Soul and KRAFTWERK that was possibly Synth Britannia’s first true crossover song. It started a run of hit singles that ensured SOFT CELL would be Top 40 chart fixtures for the next three years. Their self-released ‘Mutant Moments’ EP in 1980 came to the attention of DJ Stevo Pearce, who had been compiling “futurist” charts for the music papers Record Mirror and Sounds.

Stevo gathered a number of fledgling acts like DEPECHE MODE, BLANCMANGE, B-MOVIE and THE THE who appeared alongside SOFT CELL on the independently produced ‘Some Bizzare Album’ compilation in 1981.

This eventually led to SOFT CELL signing to Phonogram Records. After ‘Tainted Love’, a cover of a Northern Soul favourite by Gloria Jones, became a UK No1 in September 1981, Ball and Almond became unlikely pin-ups with poster spreads in ‘Smash Hits’. The follow-up single ‘Bedsitter’ reached No 4 and proved SOFT CELL could have hit singles with their own material.

Meanwhile, a further three Top 3 hits came with ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’, ‘Torch’ and ‘What’ during what could be now considered as SOFT CELL’s imperial phase, a period which undoubtedly broke down barriers and paved the way for many of the acts who followed, like PET SHOP BOYS, ERASURE, BRONSKI BEAT and FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD.

However, as former art students who had met at Leeds Polytechnic, commercial success and pop stardom did not sit well with Ball and Almond; inevitably, the pair began to implode. SOFT CELL disbanded in 1984 but while Almond went solo, Ball eventually found solace in the burgeoning house scene.

With his new musical partner Richard Norris, he found success as THE GRID. Their debut album ‘Electric Head’ proved to be quite influential, with Canadian DJ Tiga probably one of the artists who owe a debt to its timeless musical template. Around this time, Ball began collaborating with Marc Almond again. The results ended up on ‘Tenement Symphony’, possibly the most mainstream recording of Almond’s career. This eventually led to a full SOFT CELL reunion in 2001 and the album ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ in 2002.

Following an impromptu meeting at a recent Wolfgang Flür gig Under The Bridge in Chelsea, Dave Ball kindly agreed to a chat with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about his career with SOFT CELL, THE GRID and more.

What inspired you to adopt synthesizers as your tools of expression, rather than guitars?

I first started out as a guitar player but I wasn’t good enough and after hearing ‘Autobahn’ by KRAFTWERK, I decided I was more interested in the possibilities of synthesizers, so I part-exchanged my Fender Telecaster for a second hand synth.

Which were your first couple of synth and drum machine purchases?

My first synth was a Mini Korg 800DV, followed by a Korg Synthe-Bass SB-100 and I had Rhythm Master drum machine that played presets like Bossa Nova, then I got a Boss Dr Rhythm which was programmable.

One of the key instruments in the SOFT CELL sound was the Korg Synthe-Bass SB-100, a little two octave synth which no-one else appeared to use.

The SB-100 was great because it was specifically a bass instrument, although the twangy topline on ‘Bedsitter’ is made on that instrument using the two pitchbend buttons. The B52s are the only other group I know of that also used that keyboard.

I’ve always been interested in how you connected your love of Northern Soul with your rhythm structures for SOFT CELL, particularly once you’d acquired the Roland TR808?

I would say the only similarity was to do with the tempo of Northern Soul and our faster numbers. On ‘Tainted Love’ I used a Roland Compurhythm CR78 drum machine, I first used a TR808 on ‘Bedsitter’, the follow-up single. I think that was possibly the first record in the UK Top 10 to use an 808.

SOFT CELL self-released ‘Mutant Moments’ which brought you to the attention of Some Bizzare and the inclusion of ‘The Girl With The Patent Leather Face’ on the subsequent era defining compilation. Do you have any key amusing memories of that period and those ‘Some Bizzare Evenings’ playing live alongside DEPECHE MODE, BLANCMANGE, THE THE and B-MOVIE etc?

They weren’t amusing at the time I assure you although I can laugh about them now. When we played with DEPECHE MODE, it was at a club called Crocs in Rayleigh and they were the house band so they were our support act, believe it or not. They were really tight and played really well and I was very nervous about going on after them as various members of ULTRAVOX, VISAGE, SPANDAU BALLET had come down from London to check us out. We played maybe the worst gig of our careers, the crowd were chucking pennies at us and laughing at us. That was when we realised we had to get our shit together or think about getting day jobs.

‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ is still much talked about and certainly was a better debut than say, DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Speak & Spell’. How do you yourself look back on it today in the pantheon of classic synthpop?

I think it was the result of working on loads of songs together for two years solid and we seemed to catch the zeitgeist – it was very of its time and I think the S&M references helped. It was quite dangerous imagery for a pop band. It took DEPECHE MODE a few years before they got into the black leather and druggy stuff that we were into from day one.

By ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’, you had expanded the instrumental palette to include guitar and bass plus early samplers and digital drum machines.

I think we were trying to sound heavier and slightly rockier. In retrospect I actually prefer the TR808 drum machine on the previous album, as opposed to the Oberheim DMX and Linn Drum MkII on ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’. The sampler we used was a Synclavier MkII that belonged to our producer, Mike Thorne. I only used the sampler for the bass guitar on the track ‘Martin’ on the bonus 12” single.

You recorded a solo album ‘In Strict Tempo’ and produced VICIOUS PINK PHENOMENA. What did you find creatively by doing these that perhaps you hadn’t done with SOFT CELL?

My solo album was really just me wanting to work with some different people and experiment with the studio. It was more like a sketchbook than a fully realised album. VICIOUS PINK were good friends and were on the first SOFT CELL album and I desperately wanted to become a producer, as I was never really into the live performance thing.

After SOFT CELL disbanded, you took an interest in acid house and met Richard Norris to form THE GRID. How did that and then the subsequent availability of the Akai samplers and other equipment become a game changer for you?

I first met him a mutual friend, Genesis P. Orridge of THROBBING GRISTLE / PSYCHIC TV fame when we were working on an album called ‘Jack The Tab’. What was really crazy about the tech at that time was the affordability. When I first used a Synclavier, they cost £120,000. Then I used a Fairlight III, they cost £60,000! Suddenly you could buy an Atari computer and an Akai sampler and still have change out of £2,000. It made the whole thing available to many more people and people started sampling records and creating a whole new kind of loop based music. It was a totally new thing and I found it incredibly exciting.

THE GRID’s debut album ‘Electric Head’ stills stand up and a track like ‘One Giant Step’ hasn’t dated at all. Why do you think that might be?

To be quite honest, there’s a lot of electronic music out there that hasn’t dated because a lot of it is timeless; also because we often tried to sound futuristic.

The single versions of ‘A Beat Called Love’ and ‘Floatation’ featured recognisable musical elements that could be linked back to SOFT CELL. Had that been a conscious thing or was it proof that the rave scene was a natural progression from the ecstasy fuelled recording sessions for ‘Non-Stop Cabaret’?

Regarding ‘A Beat Called Love’ and ‘Floatation’ – we were under pressure to have hit singles, so in that respect you could make a link to SOFT CELL, albeit slightly tenuously. There was a link in terms of the ecstasy / dance music progression I guess.

What inspired the move to the now infamous “cow-punk techno” sound of ‘Swamp Thing’ and ‘Texas Cowboys’?

I’ve never heard it called “cow-punk techno” before. “Swamp Thing” was inspired by a guy I saw playing sort of Bluegrass with an Irish band in a pub in Marylebone and it occurred to me that the tempo and feel would work with a 4/4 dance beat. Unfortunately it became a bit of a novelty record. We sold a million copies worldwide and it got synched on a John Waters movie, ‘Pecker’ and on Robert Altman’s film ‘Pret A Porter’ – so it’s not all bad. ‘Texas Cowboys’ was inspired by the Andy Warhol / Paul Morrisey film, ‘Lonesome Cowboys’.

THE GRID became in-demand remixers / producers for people like Billie Ray Martin, SPARKS, ERASURE, PET SHOP BOYS, David Sylvian and Robert Fripp. Do you have a particular favourite remix that you did?

I like our mix of ‘Am I Right’ by ERASURE, I was pleased they included it on their recent anthology that got to number 9 in the UK charts. I like the mixes we did for HAPPY MONDAYS, ‘Bob’s Yer Uncle’ and ‘Loose Fix’.

How did you come to be writing again with Marc again for ‘Tenement Symphony’?

I think it was after we’d done a mix of his track ‘Waifs & Strays’. We hadn’t spoken for some time and that got us working together again on a few tracks.

What was the process in composing and recording ‘Meet Me In My Dream’, a song which many regard as a SOFT CELL song in all but name?

I think anything I’ve ever done with Marc sounds like SOFT CELL really. It’s hard not to. My process is always I’ll work out a few chords and sketch out a topline then pass it to him.

This eventually led to a full SOFT CELL reunion and the ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ album in 2002. Had SOFT CELL been unfinished business for you?

Well, as the saying goes “Never say never again”. We were originally trying to write songs for other people, there was no plan to reform SOFT CELL, but when we did the demos in my studio it just sounded like SOFT CELL… so we just said, “OK, it’s SOFT CELL”.

Did you and Marc achieve all you had hoped for artistically in getting back together?

I’m glad we did one more album, I can’t say I had any hopes or expectations but I like the album.

You were one of the last people to work in the studio with the late Martin Rushent with your NITEWRECKAGE project?

Yes, Martin was a lovely man and a total genius in the studio. I wish I’d worked with him earlier in both our careers. He is sadly missed.

Which five tracks from all aspects of your career have you felt the most satisfaction from?

‘Baby Doll’ – SOFT CELL off ‘The Art of Falling Apart’ – it reminds me of a very special time in New York.

‘Floatation’ – THE GRID – I was pleased when it was recognised as an Ibiza chill out classic.

‘Your Loving Arms’ – Billie Ray Martin – it was our first GRID production to get in the UK Top 10 and in the Billboard 100 in the US.

‘My Hand Over My Heart’ – Marc Almond off ‘Tenement Symphony’- I love Trevor Horn’s epic production and Anne Dudley’s arrangement.

‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ – SOFT CELL – I think it’s become an anthem.

Are there any projects you are working on at the moment?

Yes, I’m producing an album for Gavin Friday and another one for Anni Hogan with my production partner, Riccardo Mulhall.

What floats your boat musically these days?

Messing about with modular synths.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Dave Ball

https://www.facebook.com/David-Ball-393529214088933/

https://twitter.com/dbelectrode

https://www.discogs.com/artist/62914-Dave-Ball

http://www.softcell.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/softcellband/

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr12/articles/classic-tracks-0412.htm

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec02/articles/softcell.asp

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
10th March 2016

BATTLE TAPES Interview

11 February 2016 / electricityclub

Los Angeles band BATTLE TAPES have managed to inject a well-needed energy boost into a scene which was sorely lacking an act that could deliver a hybrid rock / electronic / dance sound.

Their debut long player ‘Polygon’ was one of the most consistently thrilling albums of 2015.

Comprising of Josh Boardman (vocals / guitar / synth), Riley Mackin (synths / programming / vocals), Stephen Bannister (bass) and Beak Wing (drums / percussion), BATTLE TAPES fill a genuine gap in the market for an electronic-based act that isn’t overly self-conscious and isn’t afraid to rock out with their synths…

Taking their cues from several favourite artists, Josh and Riley kindly spoke about the challenge of integrating electronic elements with live ones and how BATTLE TAPES tick.

Who are the band’s main influences?

Josh: We all grew up listening to different things. Everything from KRAFTWERK and T.REX to MASSIVE ATTACK and PANTERA. For the live execution we looked to DEPECHE MODE, NINE INCH NAILS, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, SOULWAX and maybe even a little ARCADE FIRE – those acts have always had the feel of a rock band. It sounds like humans performing to me.

The lyrics to ‘Valkyrie’ are quite cryptic, what is the song about?

Josh: I try not to be too specific when asked about song meanings. I like the audience to have some room to make it their own.

That being said, roughly it’s about how modern technology has revealed some of our more unflattering behaviors and shifted our cultural values in an unexpected way. Celeb-u-lust, out-rage-of-the-week, self-obsession and so on.

How easy or hard do you find integrating electronic instruments into a band context?

Riley: It depends, but usually it’s pretty easy. There are a couple of sounds we use that are harder to work with. Live, we used to just use soft synths but we ran into some stability issues. So now we just try and recreate most of the sounds with sampler instruments as much as possible. It saves on CPU and is a bit more straightforward.

Josh: Yeah, it’s a case by case kind of thing. When writing, it’s more about “Is the instrument doing the job I need it to do? Does it convey what I’m trying to say?” On stage the sonic bandwidth of what you can get across clearly is more narrow, so you have to scale back a bit and try to say the same thing with less.

What are you viewpoints on artists that over rely on computers and sequencing for their live shows?

Riley: Computers on stage seems to be a touchy subject for some people. I mean in a way, you could say we over rely on the computer. We use our computer to run our lights, process vocals, and host all of our software and sampler instruments. Sometimes we’ll use hardware synths on stage, but most of the time it’s sampler instruments and soft synths. However, I do feel that when some artist just play tracks and sing along to them…. well that’s just professional karaoke.

Josh: I’m fairly neutral. Don’t get me wrong, like Riley said, there is a point with some artists where it can feel like you’re watching Synth Karaoke. But at the end of the day, if people are entertained and people are having fun, who gives a s***!

Has the United States’ embracing of EDM helped or hindered the band?

Josh: Bit of both. It’s definitely encouraged your average listener to give electronic music an honest listen, but at the same time we don’t really fall into what I would typically call EDM, so I don’t think we are really reaping the benefits of its current popularity.

How does the songwriting process work in BATTLE TAPES?

Riley: One of us usually comes up with an idea and we throw it back and forth until something comes of it. Or Josh just puts together a banging track. Josh does all the vocal writing, for the most part. With ‘Solid Gold’ things were a bit more collaborative in regards to lyric writing just because we were doing things differently while working with Elana Belle Carol of PARTY NAILS.

The gap between the release of the first EP and ‘Polygon’ was a pretty big one, was there a particular reason for that?

Josh: We set out with a certain idea of what we wanted our first record to be. And up until recently we were all working day jobs or hustling to get studio work to keep the lights on. So between that, steady performing and stealing studio time in the middle of the night to track drums or whatever, that’s just how long it took to make this record. I’d love it if with the next LP we could pull some two week studio blitz and be done with it. The idea of not having time to overthink it is really appealing at the moment. 🙂

The limited edition floppy disk sleeve concept for ‘Polygon’ is a similar one to the original Blue Monday 12” sleeve, can you tell us about it?

Josh: When we first started talking about releasing our original EP ‘Sleepwalker’, I mentioned to a friend about the idea of packaging our CDs in old 5¼ inch floppy disks. Coincidentally her dad happened to have boxes of them in their garage from back in the day. We had custom labels printed, CDs pressed and ran with it. People’s reactions are great. It’s nostalgia for some and an artefact of tech folklore for others.

What are your favourite bits of technology live and in the studio?

Riley: In the studio, I would have to go with Logic Pro music software itself. It does so much and can be a very creative utility. For live, my Roland System 1 has been an awesome work horse. Like I said we do a lot of our instruments as sampler instruments in the computer, but the System 1 gives me a bit more confidence on stage, having a hardware synth there to be utilized if something happens to the computer.

Josh: On stage, we are loving the MOTU AVB line. That protocol is revolutionary. The Eventide H9 is a favourite. Our bass player, Stephen, has a few of them on his pedalboard. I personally have been loving the Kemper Profiler Amp. A friend loaned me one for our last tour and I was sold after our first rehearsal with it.

Do you use any vintage gear?

Riley: Yeah, Initially we did a lot of the writing for the record using soft synths, but then we took time to go back and replace a lot of that stuff with the real deal. I think we actually ended up using a bit of both in the final mixes.

Is the availability of cheap synth apps / technology a blessing or a curse?

Josh: Blessing. The thought that right now there is some kid on his family computer using stock software making us look foolish is terrifying as much as it is exciting. Things are evolving and shifting so fast I can’t wait to hear what people are going to be doing 5 years from now

Riley: I think it’s a blessing. It helps keep things exciting by always having new sounds or a different GUI to mess with. I feel like anyone who disagrees would also think that the guitar ruined stringed instruments… I mean c’mon the piano was already holding it down for years.

How important was the exposure you got when the band’s tracks got featured in the ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ computer game and the ‘Need for Speed’ film / game?

Riley: The GTA exposure has been super big for us. It is such a big game and the way people find new music on there is really very cool.

So we gained a lot of new fans from that. The ‘Need For Speed’ game is more recent, but we are seeing quite a bit of new fans from the game as well. The comments section of YouTube has been a big indicator of where people are finding us.

Do you have any European dates on the horizon?

Josh: Nothing set in stone. But we are definitely working towards it. We’ve had so much love from the EU. I think it would be awesome to go and reciprocate.

What are the future plans in 2016 for BATTLE TAPES?

Josh: Remixing and writing with other artists. Going to do some touring and maybe some Techno / DJ sets. It’s going to be fun to go back to the drawing board with new inspiration and see what happens. I’m excited about having the time and space to write new stuff and explore new ideas.

Riley: Yeah, you know, one leg at a time just like everybody else.

Finally or a more light-hearted note, how do you feel about being described on another blog as “synth sex rockers”?

Riley: I’d probably feel okay about it, if wasn’t so hard to say. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue, does it?

Josh: Sounds kinda like an oxymoron, right? I always felt like our synth love solidified our place in the dorkisphere. But who doesn’t like being called sexy? So, we’ll take it!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincere thanks to BATTLE TAPES

‘Polygon’ is released by Battle Arts via the usual digital outlets

http://battletapesband.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Battletapes/

Text and Interview by Paul Boddy
11th February 2016

Vintage Synth Trumps with RODNEY CROMWELL

30 January 2016 / electricityclub

The name of Rodney Cromwelly6 is comparatively new to electronic pop music.

But the man behind the persona, Adam Cresswell is a seasoned hand, having previously released an album ‘Navigation’ as part of oddball synth duo Arthur & Martha with Alice Hubley in 2009.

But a number of personal circumstances led to Arthur & Martha disbanding. While Hubley went on to form cult indie band COSINES, Cresswell laid low, at least until 2015. He re-emerged as Rodney Cromwell with ‘Age Of Anxiety’, a concept album of sorts chronicling his problems with depression and anxiety that had affected his life and creative muse.

The honesty apparent in Cresswell’s dissonant vocal styling, alongside crisp electronics and acoustic instrumentation, has made ‘Age Of Anxiety’ an unexpected favourite of both critics and online radio outlets. Echoing the spectre of acts such as SECTION 25 and NEW ORDER, songs like ‘Black Dog’ and ‘You Will Struggle’ embody the album’s concept perfectly.

Ever the synth enthusiast, he accepted ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s invitation to a round of Vintage Synth Trumps.

Your first card is the Yamaha CS60, does that mean anything to you?

Absolutely not… I always regarded Yamaha as people who made motorbikes! I’ve never owned a motorbike, I’ve only ever been on one once and it scared the sh*t out of me! I bought a Yamaha 4-track… when I got my student loan, I went out and spent it all on a Yamaha MTX4. And that is where I learnt to be a producer, by recording to tape.

4 tracks, it’s very limiting so you learn to be disciplined. I used to record 3 tracks and then bounce them all down to the fourth, and then start again. You’d be making a record using the same process they made ‘Sgt Pepper’ with, but you’re doing it in your own bedroom! *laughs*

Are you one who relishes equipment restrictions to provide the artistic drive?

Yes! To be honest, whenever I see a photo of people in a roomful of analogue synthesizers and loads of gear, I’m thinking “are you throwing in gear to fill a hole in your creativity!?”.

I have got 4 synths… 5 if you count the MicroKorg, which I don’t! And I’ve used them on the last three albums I’ve made, not because I’m a cheapskate but those 4 synths have become my sound. I like working within the limitations of what they can do. I say limitations, but the possibilities of just one half-decent analogue synth are almost limitless anyway! I love the fact you can plug it in, turn it on and it’s never quite the same as last time! It makes it interesting playing live with them.

Have you ever seen one of these, a Jen SX1000?

I saw one of those in the music shop at the end of my road last summer. I went in to buy a cable and there was a Jen SX1000… I was going to buy it, but my wife said “no, you’ve got enough synths in the house!” *laughs*

Next card, it’s a Moog Prodigy…

It’s a good synth, I always liked the white buttons on it but I don’t have a Prodigy, I have a Moog Rogue. They’re a bit similar in that they’re in the entry level bracket… all my synths are in the entry level bracket!

Were they like the Casiotones of their day?

That’s a bit too demeaning… my synths are a Moog Rogue, a Moog Opus3, a Korg MS-10 which is my stage synth and an ARP Quartet which has the string sound on it. I bought them all within 2 years. They all get the job done and they are my sound.

Why did you get a Rogue instead of a Prodigy?

Oh, this was in the days before the internet, and you would buy whatever you saw in a shop or the small ads. My mum phoned me up one day after looking in catalogue and said “Oh, I know you’re looking for a Moog Prodigy, but this shop in Croydon says it has got a Moog”. I drove over and there on the top shelf above rows of horribly plastic digital synths was this Rogue with a chip on one key, so it looks like it’s got a broken tooth! *laughs*

They got it down and dusted it off… it was like when Gary Numan discovered synths, it made this massive great noise and I thought “I’ve got to have that!” – it took a month’s wages to buy the thing and that’s really where it all started for me.

So was that in your early indie phase?

Yes, I was in a band called SALOON and I took this Moog through to Arthur & Martha as well. In fact I haven’t done a gig without the Rogue since 1998 and I can’t imagine getting onstage without it, it’s part of the family. We’ve been through an awful lot together from leaving it in the road and almost losing it the first day I took it to a recording studio, to climbing down a mountain in Spain in the dead of night with it.

What’s its main characteristic?

It’s got a dirty sub-bass all the way up to glass shattering whistles and pops. But what I most like about it is you can throw it about and bring a bit of drama to the stage performance; you can’t get out of little plastic digital synths… you know, twisting the filters, throwing the switches in an overly dramatic way.

Live though, you are a good mix of analogue and digital sequences via the laptop…

The reason we use a laptop on stage is I won’t ever work with a drummer again! Not because I have anything against drummers personally, but that whole lifting drum kits into the backs of vans… I’m too old for all that! *laughs*

Using sequencers can be a little restricting but equally, life is too short for too much freeform synth jamming, I just want to be playing pop music. I like the live thing to be controlled in terms of sequenced songs, but with the opportunity for some level of improvisation which the analogue synths bring, because they never sound the same… sometimes, I wish they were more the same, but you go with it.

A good example of your analogue / digital live mix is on ‘Black Dog’. How did the track musically come together in the studio?

I was playing with my brother’s Korg Prophecy, I hit a key and it made this pulsing sequencey noise and when I played another key, it sounded like a sequenced pattern. The song was made up by playing those sequences live… it sounded just about in time!

It reminds me of NEW ORDER and SECTION 25…

Funny you should say that! When you hit those notes and they sound a little bit like ‘Temptation’, you’re going to go with it aren’t you? *laughs*

What’s very characteristic about your sound is although you love synths, acoustic textures such as glockenspiel and melodica have always been part of your world, as well as the more traditional guitar and bass… what was your ethos behind this?

That’s a very good question… I think they just suit the mood. It’s nothing more than that, it just sounds right. I love electronics, but I like things that bring something else to it. One of the bands that switched me on back in the day was STEREOLAB, they had electronics but also glockenspiel and horns or whatever. I literally play what’s knocking about in the house. We have a glockenspiel that sounds pretty good so I use that, and I have a decent a bass guitar. I just use whatever, although there’s not much guitar on ‘Age Of Anxiety’ because I’m a terrible guitar player…

You prefer the bass?

Yes, I was a bass player for 6 years; I used to play in a Peter Hooky kind of style because I wanted people to know I was a songwriter too. So much of the time I would add a melodic counterpoint on the bass to go with the vocal lines. When it came to ‘Age Of Anxiety’, I was just enjoying myself playing the bass for the first time in years… I cranked the tone knob up, whacked on a bit of chorus and it sounds like Peter Hook! I thought “Sod it! Why not?”

Considering the album is called ‘Age Of Anxiety’ and about your experiences, fronting Rodney Cromwell must have been a challenge. What were your coping strategies?

To be honest with you, it has been a way of me showing to myself that I am able to cope. I can stand up in front of people and perform, I’ve always been quite good at that. It’s the other things… just don’t ask me to travel to a gig through The Blackwall Tunnel. I don’t like flying either!

But I have to do it, especially if people are listening to the record and coming up to me saying “I love what you’re doing, I suffer from anxiety and it’s really helped me”; I can’t then say “don’t talk to me” and huddle up in the corner, that’s not going to help them!

It’s been a very weird year becoming a front person in a musical act. I’m a middle-aged bald guy, I’m supposed to be at the back where nobody looks at you, not at the front with people throwing their underwear! *laughs*

How would describe the music environment from the time with Arthur & Martha in 2009 to today as Rodney Cromwell?

2009 was a very difficult period in terms of musical promotion because of the financial crash; for one people were very reticent about investing. We had ‘Navigation’ in the can for a least a year before it came out, with labels saying they would put it out and then not committing, and we missed the boat when things like LA ROUX and LITTLE BOOTS were happening.

People didn’t know what the right model was at all, they didn’t know whether to put out vinyl, CD or downloads. They didn’t know how to promote things, whether it should be blogs or newspapers and stuff like that. Distribution companies didn’t know what they were doing… we had two distribution companies, one doing the CD and one doing the digital! It was a very funny period! So that’s why we started our own record label Happy Robots because we got so fed up and thought we could do a better job ourselves.

Now it seems to be a bit different, in that blogs and websites are very much a big part of the model. You’re going to get a lot more traction on a specialist outlet like ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, than a bigger general music platform or the Daily Express.

In terms of distribution, people realise there’s no money in it anymore, so let’s not be deluded about it, you don’t press 1000 copies if you’re a new artist, you press 300 and hope for the best! Do I think it’s better or worse? I don’t know! I think things are more straightforward now in that it’s more clear cut. It’s easier to get a handle on the right thing to be doing and what isn’t. I mean, I never thought I’d play another gig again after ARTHUR & MARTHA ended, but if I want to sell CDs, I’ve got to go out and do some gigs.

Another card? A Roland SH-2… have you ever wanted a Roland?

No, not really! I think I’m a Moog snob *sniggers*

Me and my guitarist do have Boss pedals, which are built by Roland of course… I have five of them and one Moog guitar pedal and of all those, which is the one that plays up and doesn’t work? It’s not the blooming Boss is it! Hahahahaha! So maybe Roland is the way forward for me!

‘Cassiopeia’ is a great title, did you have a Casio? How do you see them in the pantheon of accessible technology and how it changed the landscape?

I think Casios are great, I love the Casiotones. The very first Rodney Cromwell track which I wrote in 2002 for a ‘Lord Of The Rings’ compilation was just the MS-10 and a Casiotone. They’re great for kids as well. My kids have got a Casio, but they just hit the Autosong thing and thump it a bit…

…I think a few bands do that! *laughs*

Casiotones are really cheap in boot fairs!

You have been a strong advocate of the instrumental with tracks like ‘Baby Robot’ and ‘One Two Seven’, there’s not enough of them on albums today… discuss?

I would have loved to have done a whole instrumental album to be honest, because of that whole not putting yourself forward as the singer, but I can’t help but gravitate towards vocals, lyrics and being pop, although there’s nothing better than a really good instrumental. With ARTHUR & MARTHA when that started, I thought we were mostly going to be instrumental, doing that ADD (N) TO X thing, sort of noisy and experimental, throwing synthesizers around all over the place.

Although your vocals are quite sombre, your synth melodies are quite bright and pretty like on ‘Baby Robot’?

Yes, ‘Baby Robot’ is the one track on the album that’s 100% upbeat as it is about the experience of being a father.

Some of the synth sounds even on ‘Black Dog’ are quite bright?

Yeah… the thing is, if you’re making a song about anxiety, if you’re not going to make the melodies hummable and the synths sound bright and happy, you’re just going to make a Goth record! And I don’t want to make a Goth record! *laughs*

Yes, you end up sounding like THE WAKE!

Exactly… although I like THE WAKE! *laughs*

It’s only recently since I’ve remixed other people that I’ve consciously realised that I have a formula, which is major key with an upbeat disco tempo.

The most favourite synth you’ve owned and why?

The Rogue is my favourite, but the ARP Quartet gets used more these days because it does great piano melody lines as well as the big string sound. This album is probably more MS-10 than it is Rogue. The Rogue is great for live or whatever… but this question is a bit like asking “what do you like about your Black & Decker Workmate?”… the MS-10 is a really good tool, to me it’s a workhorse, and it gets the job done.

But with the Rogue, there is more of an emotional connection there… we’re special buddies who is like your best mate who you see every couple of months, you don’t need to talk to each other but you know what each other are thinking.

The synth you’ve most wanted but never had, that use could use musically as opposed to having ornamentally?

I’d love to have one of those British Synthis like the AKS, they look and sound stunning., I remember Barry 7 from ADD (N) TO X throwing one about on stage. The VCS3 is cool too, I remember SONIC BOOM playing a gig with his EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH project with two of those on stage, going up and down the filters, it was just noise! I used to have a T-shirt with ‘Putney’ written on it, nobody got it… apart from me. The EMS Synthi 100, DELIA DERBYSHIRE and the BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP… it’s the daddy of synths, one of the greatest bits of British Engineering. I also like the Wasp and the Gnat in their black and yellow.

How was it to reunite with Alice Hubley again playing live? I understand ‘Autovia’ is now part of the set?

It was brilliant, we’ve realised what good mates we are and she’s a really good synthesist, it’s great because she hasn’t been really using analogues in the COSINES live set. A few weeks ago we thought we’d dig out ‘Autovia’. When we hit the droney groove at the end, I felt like I was in NEU! It was just the best moment, it’s great to be working with somebody who is on the same wavelength, even though she loves Taylor Swift! *laughs*

How do you see the future of synthpop?

I hope it doesn’t become a retro thing… what I was trying to do with this record was to use retro gear, but use it in a forward looking way, in the same way that ‘I Feel Love’ did, it was about making records that sounded like the future. I think with that sort of instrumentation, you can still do that. But nobody has quite cracked it yet. I like the stuff that’s uplifting like CHVRCHES, but it’s about bringing enough new to the party, to bring the sound forward.

My thought is, it’s the people who are getting into CHVRCHES now, who will be inspired to make a synthesized form of music in the future…

I agree, and they’re the only band really who are at the right level to be inspiring a new generation. I really hope that happens. I think there’s a lot of good stuff going on, but we need young blood coming up and showing us old timers how it’s really done.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Adam Cresswell

Rodney Cromwell ‘Age Of Anxiety’ and Arthur & Martha ‘Navigation’ are both available in CD or download formats direct from Happy Robots Records at http://www.happyrobots.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/rodneycromwellartist/

https://www.facebook.com/happyrobotsrecords

https://happyrobotsrecords.bandcamp.com/

Vintage Synth Trumps is a card game by GForce that features 52 classic synthesizers

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
30th January 2016

GARY NUMAN Interview

28 January 2016 / electricityclub

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

Following the success of his last album ‘Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)’, Gary Numan is taking a different approach for his next long playing project.

Using Pledge Music, fans are able to pre-order the album in a variety of formats while also having access to news, recording updates and opportunities to purchase personalised memorabilia. These items range from hand written lyric sheets and signed event wrist bands to instruments that have been used on Numan’s previous recordings; a signed Gibson SG guitar has already been snapped-up.

Pledge Music was launched in 2009 and has been successfully used by a number of notable acts such as IAMX, ERASURE, OMD, CHINA CRISIS and DE/VISION to connect to their fanbase during the realisation of a new project. The campaign acts as both a crowdfunding platform and a guided promotional tool.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK spent an enjoyable hour chatting to Gary Numan about why he has chosen to go the Pledge Music route, what fans can expect if they choose to pledge and how the collaboration process has changed for musicians over the years…

Photo by Steve Gray

Why use Pledge Music?

For me, it’s first of all trying to find an alternative way of releasing albums, at least in the early stages; secondly, it’s trying to involve the fans to connect to it a bit more. While I have been doing these Meet ‘N’ Greet things at the gigs, I’ve been talking to people about what they think and how they feel about records. It struck me was how fans, for all of their interest and knowledge, they’re not really aware of the emotional side and the struggles that you have to make an album. A lot of people think you go into a studio, write some songs and it’s not a big deal, some people do good ones while others are doing not so good ones.

There was a childish thing in me that went “I wish you knew how difficult I find this!”… you’re not sleeping for months because you’re worried about it and these rollercoasters of fighting your own demons and confidence issues! I wanted people to be a little bit more aware of that.

I went through the whole ‘Splinter’ process with distribution, label services and various things that you do as an independent artist and I’m trying to find better ways of doing that. It seemed to me, there are still a number of layers of business, even as an independent, between you and the fans.

Each layer takes a percentage, and before you know it, the record stores or Apple are still making the bulk of the money. I was thinking, with all this social media and new web technology, there must be a better way of doing this. With each layer, there’s always an amount of dilution going on along the route. So Pledge Music gives you a more direct connection with the fan, it’s cutting out all these people in the middle as much as you can. And if fans were more aware of what went on with the album, I am hoping when they stick it on, they will feel more connected to it and part of the process.

On the last album for example, ‘Here In The Black’ had 7 or 8 different choruses we tried, it wouldn’t work and we’d go back and start again until it became what it was… which strangely, was the first chorus we ever did for it! So I thought it would be great if fans could have seen that and the anguish we went through to get that song to work. For me as a fan of other people, I would love to be aware of all that.

Pledge Music has worked really well with your friend Chris Corner aka IAMX for two albums now…

Yes! Chris lived with us until he started the ‘Metanoia’ tour so every night, we’d be out in the garden talking about a thousand and one things, and one of those things was Pledge. It was Chris’ enthusiasm for it that really did swing me with Pledge rather than anybody else and to go that way at all.

IAMX have done it brilliantly and Chris was really helpful in things to avoid or be careful of, because it’s very easy to be caught up in the enthusiasm of it and proffering all kinds of things that in a year’s time, you’re going to wish you’d never done. There’s a bit of a misunderstanding with Pledge Music, it’s seen by some people as crowdfunding, which it is partly, but there’s a lot of us who are using it for different purposes. I’m not crowdfunding as such, I can make an album without that.

I have to say Pledge themselves are amazing, you couldn’t wish to be dealing with a more efficient and professional company who are genuinely enthusiastic about music. And also, they genuinely do care about the people who Pledge. It’s been a fantastic experience, I’ve got to say. It’s working very well for me. I think the fans are loving it, but there’s always going to be a few… one person complained that I added something after it started…

…that’s what it’s all about isn’t it???

EXACTLY! He was moaning about the very thing it’s meant to be there for! But 99% are raving about it. It’s got a long way to go yet but hopefully, we can continue to run it in a way that the fans enjoy and it continues to work for me.

Photo by Steve Gray

I guess Pledge allows you to target those who are interested during the recording, rather than having it hang wholly in that random fashion that traditional promotion dictates when the album is released?

Absolutely! You can spend a great deal of money taking up ads here, there and everywhere, and if 1 in 100 are even interested, you’re doing well. And if 1 in 100 of those actually bother to listen to the record, then you’re doing REALLY well! Your return for the amount of money you spend is very poor to be honest.

Even before Pledge and people like that came along, a lot of people were beginning to abandon conventional promotion and thinking of other ways of trying to go about it.

Social media has been amazing for that. But people like Pledge have seen a real need for targeted promotion, and it really does work. The amount of money I’ve spent on promoting Pledge is a tiny fraction of what I would have spent normally, and yet I’m getting perhaps one hundred times the return in terms of actually reaching the people who are interested, than what I would have done with conventional promotion.

What can those who have not yet Pledged, but are interested in doing so, expect if they come aboard?

I haven’t progressed it anywhere near what I should have done, so if they come into it now for example, they will see pretty much what everyone else will, as I haven’t got that far which is a bummer! *laughs*

The problem is I’ve been managing myself in the last 6-7 months, and it’s a huge amount of work to do. I’ve never done it before, so it’s been a very steep learning curve. I’ve got a number of other things happening as well like a new live album and DVD coming out, a triple boxed set of stuff and some classic album shows, plus 5 or 6 collaboration projects that have happened in the last few months. The studio has been really busy, but only some of it has been with the new album. It’s the way life works out sometimes!

What I do is when I’m working in the studio, I have a Go-Pro camera set up and that runs for a few hours, then I download what I’ve filmed. Work in the studio as a spectator sport, is largely very boring… you sit there for 2 or 3 hours listening to snare drums! For me, it’s interesting but for someone else… so I try to edit those moments when something IS happening, put that together with a little bit of talking to explain what’s going on and release that as a Pledge update. Sometimes they’re short, but sometimes they’re a bit longer. That side of it will get better once I can really get stuck in.

I want to do a decent length update once a week. I want people to see it isn’t easy and see me get upset, having a f***ing tantrum because it’s just not coming together, because it happens all the time! I want them to see me depressed because I haven’t had a good idea for 2 weeks and that I’m scared I might not find something.

This is part of every album I’ve made. I’m sure I behave in a very childish way when I’m in the studio. I hope as this year unfolds, all of these things will be there, the good bits, the bad bits, the childish bits and hopefully, clever bits and flashes of genius when you come up with something really good… because that happens once in a while *laughs*

The truth is, in the few clips that I’ve done, when you have something that you know isn’t good enough but is a building block along the way, when you have that and you’re going to put that out to people, that’s a bit weird and I’m finding that very uncomfortable. I do try to say “it probably won’t be like this” but people have still yet to fully grasp this, I have to say. You get people going “yeah, it’s not good enough”… I KNOW! They’re criticising you for something you’ve just said isn’t the finished thing! *laughs*

Photo by Steve Gray

I’ve found over the years your fans do give you a hard time…

Yes, some of them can do! And then, the others start defending you and this thing which is meant to be an enjoyable process becomes this horrible fight. I’m really disappointed about that side of it. I really did hope, and it’s a childish hope, this would be nicer, but you just can’t get away from it. I swear blind, if you put something out to 5 of your best fans, one of them would kick up and the other 4 would start at them, and before you know it, you’re sitting on the corner listening to these 5 people arguing about you. That’s what this is like a bit!

I hope things flare-up very rarely, but I think it’s just a part of dealing with people. There are fans out there who really do think they know what I should be doing, and really think they could have done it better. And there are others who think the sun shines out of my ar*e and nobody can say anything bad about me! I’d like to lose both ends of that if possible because they’re both wrong.

In the middle are your more rational people that simply enjoy listening to the process and think that I’m alright but not perfect… and I’m absolutely cool with all that, because that’s the truth of it. I hope that the people who are negative will drop out along the way, so those who are overly positive won’t need to say anything and we’ll have this more reasonable enjoyable process left in the middle.

Quite a few of your old synths and guitars have attracted interest from fans…

Oh, I got slagged for that, with people saying I was asking for too much money! No I’m not! These are very rare things for the simple fact that they’ve been used by me! Some of them are just rare because they are! These are very important instruments as far as musical history is concerned. I had some bloke writing in saying “I could have got that much cheaper on eBay”! Really? Something signed by me that was used on ‘Replicas’? You can get that on eBay for £70? Well, go and do it then! *laughs*

People actually forget this is how I earn a living, from selling things to people that like what I do. Some fans seem to see that as the mark of Satan. I sell music, I sell tickets, I only sell things to people that want them and who are interested in them because of who I am. I have become a person of interest to a small number of people and that’s how I earn my living. It’s not mercenary or ruthless in any way at all. I do try to find things that I think fans would love. I do it from a very simple point of view… I am a fan of other people. As a kid, I was a massive fan of T-REX and various people over the years, so if I could have Marc Bolan’s jacket or his guitar strap or his watch, anything, I would have bent over backwards because I would have loved it.

My wife is a massive Marilyn Monroe fan and I was looking at trying to buy her a Marilyn Monroe autograph. You can get them, they’re a couple of grand but they’re out there and they’re verified. Now I don’t think £2000-£3000 for a Marilyn Monroe autograph is that big a deal when it would mean the world to my wife; if you are a fan of someone special like that, these things are worth a lot of money but they make people very happy. People want these things. All I’m doing is that, but at a much, much lower level.

Photo by Richard Price

I saw you had a Roland System 100 which I never knew you had and I remember this story about you buying all these synths, but never getting round to using half them…

Yeah, I have had so many synths over the years! The thing that upsets me a little bit is there are people out there who would have loved to have had them. I got a mate to dump a load in a shop and I got like £500 for the lot. I was silly, because I could have done a load better out of it personally and they then went out to people who didn’t know their history… I had famous people come round my house and play them! How mad is that? All these fans out there who’d have loved to have had these synths and they didn’t get the chance to have them. I gave them away which was stupid of me.

I found the System 100 and a Yamaha CS5 at my dad’s house because he had a clear out. He found all this stuff and I’d forgotten I’d had them, these must have been stuck up in his loft. These were really important synths.

Is there anything else being planned as part of the Pledge campaign?

I’m trying to think of things to make the campaign more exciting and offers things to the true hardcore fan. There’s a Quadrasynth that I might go with. There’s some outboard gear I’ve used as well like reverbs I’ve used on my vocals. I’ve got loads of clothes, I’ve even got some stuff from the very early days. I’ve got a blue jump suit that I wore at Wembley in 1981, and I thought my wife was going to divorce me, she went ballistic and said “YOU CAN’T SELL THAT!”

I’ve still got the little car I drove around in on the ‘Telekon’ tour, it sits in my dad’s drive. I said to my wife “I’m going to sell that”, it’s a serious bit of Numan memorabilia and she punched me! She went “DON’T YOU EVER F***ING SAY THAT AGAIN!” *laughs*

You’ve always had working titles for your albums, is there one you can reveal?

I always have a working title, ‘Splinter’ was a working title but it took me so long to make the album, it seemed crazy to call it anything else. But it’s completely the opposite for this one, I went into it with no working title at all. Because I knew I was going to be doing the Pledge campaign, I really did keep everything as a blank canvas. The result of that, which I hadn’t thought about is the time I would normally start an album, I would normally have done some preparation work. So I’m probably a couple of months behind if that makes any sense. I’m on the backfoot a little bit.

Have you decided a musical direction yet?

I haven’t decided but I think we’re looking ‘Splinter’-ish. I’m not going to be working with Ade Fenton on it, he’s done the last three albums with me but I do feel the need to move it slightly. But having said that, I want it to be heavy, I want it to be electronic, I want it to be dark and aggressive in places… so that’s just described ‘Splinter’! I do want that again but with a different feel to it somehow, either by doing it on my own or with someone else, I don’t know. By doing that, I’ll be able to evolve the sound.

Are these collaborations helping you get things out of your system or making you think out of the box at all?

Yes, I done John Foxx and Jean-Michel Jarre, a Mexican band called TITAN, I did a thing for VOWWS which is now out. There’s been a few and they’ve all sort of come at once. The John Foxx one was really interesting, that definitely challenged me.

You’ve been seen a lot with Jean-Michel Jarre, how is your collaboration coming along?

It’s all done, it sounds like a really cool Jean-Michel Jarre track with me singing; I did a bit more than that, I did a little bit to the music but it’s very much Jean-Michel’s thing. He is lovely, he is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my entire life. He’s really interesting, to just sit down and hear his fascinating and brilliantly funny anecdotes. He’s really charming and obsessed about music still.

He’s very creative and up-to-speed about the latest technology, he knows everything about every band out there, new and old. He’s an amazing man. I’m really proud to be part of his ‘Electronica’ project and so glad he got me involved. He wrote all these songs with people in mind and did a song he thought would be suitable for me. It’s an epic thing.

Is collaboration more straightforward these days than say, when you first did it with Robert Palmer or Bill Sharpe?

More recently, I’ve found I’m doing a lot more. I really enjoy them and they’re a good thing to do but it does get in the way of my own work, I don’t mean to be rude by saying that. I really do need to just concentrate on my own thing for a while. If you do too many, it’s a bit “what album are you going to pop up on this week?”, it’s no longer an event.

I’m not the most confident artist in the world, and my ability to contribute something meaningful to these tracks, I do worry about it and find it a bit stressful. The John Foxx one, I was on that for a while before I could really get my head around what was going to work in my opinion. I was worried about letting him down. So all these other non-musical worries came to mind, although I do find them less stressful than I used to.

Does working remotely help these days bearing in mind how you said you felt awkward being with people when you were younger?

It is a bit better than having to sing in front of somebody or try to come up with something creative while they’re sitting right next to you. As I said before, work in the studio can be many, many hours of not getting it right, until you do get it right. If you’re sitting next to somebody, you don’t want all that failed experimentation to be witnessed. You want to do that in private and present your finished idea to them.

So that side of it is great, to be able to work at home in my own studio and make as many horrendous mistakes as you do, without anybody hearing them until you find something that you’re happy with is much better. But there does come a point where you then have to send the thing that you think is ok and see what they think about it. You’re laying yourself on the line. I did do one for a Dutch artist about 4-5 years ago and I never heard back… which is a sign! So it doesn’t always work! *laughs*

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

The line “Mr Webb, there is no way out” from ‘Listen to The Sirens’ on the ‘Tubeway Army’ album seems to have rung true as far as your early work is concerned. Have the recent three night residencies of ‘Replicas’, ‘The Pleasure Principle’ and ‘Telekon’ finally helped you come to terms with your past?

It’s something I tried to keep buried or at arm’s length… I’ve had a very uneasy relationship with my back catalogue over the years. The thing that’s changed is when ‘Splinter’ came out, it had such a good reaction and most importantly, people started to talk about it as one of the best things I’d ever done. I felt with that, I’d come out of the shadow that my early success had created for me. I don’t think I’d ever felt I’d truly done that before. It was a massive thing for me and I think a lot of my resentment was me trying to find ways of coming out of that shadow.

I didn’t like doing much old stuff live, I would only rarely do anything that was remotely retro and only then because of the tremendous amount of pressure from fans. In a way, I panicked a little bit that I was beginning to lost too many people, because I wouldn’t play old stuff. So in 2006, I begrudgingly did a tour of ‘Telekon’ just in Britain, nowhere else; that was my concession. I did a little bit more with ‘The Pleasure Principle’ in 2009 when it was the 30th anniversary and ended up doing that in America and Australia as well as Britain.

But the reaction to ‘Splinter’ made me feel different about the older stuff and at that point, I felt as if I was able to look back at that early stuff and actually enjoy the credibility that it has. The fact that people think of those albums as being classics and credit them as starting this whole electronic thing; I wrote them so realistically, I should be proud of them. I really should but I never had been, but I learnt to be proud of them and approach them with a different attitude because of ‘Splinter’.

Any thoughts about the sad passing of David Bowie?

It was a real shock, I was reading the BBC news app when it came on. I ran downstairs to my wife and I was out of breath, a proper shock. I think it takes time to sink in. I’ve been watching the outpouring of grief and commentary. It’s very touching to see how he was felt by people, but I think the reason it resonates so deeply is as much because he’s an icon of an era.

Whether you were a fan of him or not, he has been a part of your life… there are a few people like this. But there are certain people when they die, it resonates so deeply because it brings home to you you’re dying, we’re all dying. And there are some people that ram that home more than others and Bowie was certainly one of them.

It’s like a part of your own life dying and I don’t mean that in a sycophantic way, it makes you think “f***!” – I did… I thought “I’m 58 in March”, my own life is getting towards this and now there’s going to be more! Like Lemmy from MOTÖRHEAD shortly before that, these are people that you’ve grown up with. And now they are beginning to die one after the other and your own mortality becomes scarily closer than it was the day before. It’s as much that as anything and you really feel some people more… 🙁

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Gary Numan

Special thanks to Josh Cooper at 9PR

Further information on Gary Numan’s forthcoming album via Pledge Music can be found at http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/garynuman

http://www.numan.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/GaryNumanOfficial

https://twitter.com/numanofficial

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
27th January 2016

Category: Interviews (Page 84 of 113)

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