What was the impetus
behind Everything Ecstatic, what’s different
about it?
Everything! It’s important for me that the music
always moves on and develops from what I’ve done
before, I don’t want to just end up repeating
myself. I tried to embrace as many new ideas as I could
and explore some different kind of territory with this
record. I wanted to make a record that was more confident
and outgoing, sort of shouting out to the world…
a positive message, rather than just [being] kind of
quiet and sort of hidden away; I didn’t feel it
was time for that… I feel like there’s a
lot of paranoia in the world and people deal with problems
by isolating themselves and I was seeing that mirrored
a lot in the electronic music world and especially with
the dance music scene getting a lot of negative press,
promoters [have been] backing off and people have responded
by making more and more intimate, quiet records. I felt,
as someone doing electronic music, I wanted to come
back with a record that was kind of like “bam!”
in your face saying “this music’s amazing,
everyone play it loud, go crazy”.
So what’s your working process, how do
you approach making music?
For this record I had lots of ideas in my head for a
long, long time. I was touring a lot and all the music
I was doing on tour was building up to what might happen
when I started working on a record. I made the whole
album in two months - really, really quickly –
I wanted it to sound like one big burst of energy. The
process was like just work on a million tracks at once
to see which bits worked and which didn’t and
push myself as much as possible.
What do think is special about your chosen
method of using samples? What are the advantages of
that approach as opposed to live instrumentation or
purely digital / synthesised music?
I’m a huge hip-hop fan – that’s
a constant inspiration… That way of making modern
music at the same time as drawing in all the things
I’m interested in from the past without being
just retro and repeating things that people have done
before. I’m not interested in making carbon copies
of the past but I am interested in stealing stuff from
the past (laughs) and trying to do something new with
it.
How did your collaboration with Steve Reid
come about?
Through a guy I met in France… I had an idea that
I wanted to do a duo improvisation with drums and this
guy suggested Steve and got in touch with him…
It came about really easily and naturally. It’s
been like a dream come true, everything I hoped it would
be, it was. We went into the studio and made an album
together and that’ll be the next release from
me. It’s weird, I feel a bit ahead of myself because
the Four Tet album’s not even out and I’m
on to the next thing…
Anyone else you’d like to work with?
I just like to be open minded and see who I bump into,
it’s too easy to pick random names, ‘cause
you could meet those people and have no communication
at all, whereas when you meet people and it’s
unexpected…
You’ve done some remixes for Madlib and
MF Doom’s Madvillain project, how did that come
about?
They just contacted me and asked me, I’ve known
the guys [from the Stones Throw label] for quite a while.
They’ve been really, really supportive of my stuff
over there and have helped push it to a different audience,
it feels good to have a label see the other side of
my music a little bit…
Do you feel a particular affinity with hip-hop
artists? Do you think your music is hip-hop, or is there
a difference?
[I feel an affinity] with the producers, yes, I think
we have a similar outlook on a lot of stuff. I think
my music is [hip-hop] to some point but I think there’s
a side of it that I like that’s deeply rooted
in African-American culture that I just can’t
tap into – I’m a middle class guy from London,
you know, I’m never going to make a beat that
feels the same way as a DJ Premier beat. I know that
I’ve got to do my thing rather than copy what
someone like that is doing. I guess that in lots of
ways, the music that I’m making now is
the conclusion I’ve come to in my attempts to
make hip-hop, that’s how it started [with that
aesthetic:] just sampling records.
You’ve not done much with vocals, are
you interested in doing that?
Not particularly. I can’t sing at all and I’m
not really interested in expressing myself with words,
it’s not something that ever occurs to me.
You’ve done quite a lot of remix work,
do you do everything that comes your way?
No, I’ve turned down loads. It’s usually
another band or artist who I want to show some kind
of mutual respect or something I hear that gives me
a good idea. I wouldn’t mind taking on more but
I don’t really have time.
What’s your attitude towards the finished
product, how much of it is 'yours'?
I think it varies, I think I always put my stamp on
them, I think that’s what I’m being paid
to do. If I delivered a mix and hadn’t put my
stamp on it wouldn’t be what they’d asked
for.
What’s in your DJ box at the moment?
Chi Ali, Raekwon…I like playing hip-hop
and then mixing in a crazy free jazz record and then
going into a grime record or a techno record. I like
to play really, really eclectic but get everybody dancing
to one type of music and then keep them dancing when
I switch it over.
Who are your contemporaries, who are you into
at the moment ?
All these guys: Battles I’m really into and Scott
[Herren – Prefuse 73] - I’ve been a big
fan for ages, obviously Madlib, he’s delivering
too much good music at the moment, it’s kind of
scary. I really like The Sa-Ra Creative Partners guys
too.
So what’s happened to Fridge then?
We’re half way through an album. One of the guys
is at university, he’s got his finals at the moment,
Adem’s got a solo record out, it’s just
finding time…
Andrew Bowman
Interview April 2005
Thank you to Kieran and Serena
FURTHER READINGS
BBC Collective: FOUR
TET Everything Ecstatic
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