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Gorgeous seemed to be a rather commercial
record compared to the rest of the 808 State discography,
with about half of the album featuring guest vocalists.
Did you still have full control of what you wanted to
do with the band then?
Yes we were fully in control. ZTT were pretty cool that
way. They trusted us. We had done everything right more
or less up to then. I can only speak for myself, but
there were a number of factors that threw us at that
time. Martin leaving was one of them. Martin was a man
with an opinion, and even if you didn’t always
agree with him, it was a fence post in our psyche. Him
leaving so suddenly, and it was sudden, on the eve of
our first American tour, rattled me. He was the daddy
of the band (he was older, yet also the most enthusiastic).
It basically wobbled the dynamics of the band. I also
returned from the lengthy American tour to find my beloved
shacked up with someone else, which put me in a very
bad mood for some months while we made the album. I
mean I was really depressed. We should have perhaps
just taken more time. I think we let the engineer take
over a bit. He was a nice guy and all that but I liked
the rawer sound I was getting as an engineer. That was
a bit of internal politics I backed down on. I’m
not sure what you mean by a more commercial record,
because it wasn’t. I mean it didn’t sell
as well as the others. And in some ways one could consider
it more experimental because we were trying all kinds
of angles on it. The track with UB40 is the single that’s
sold the most for us, even though it only got to number
sixteen or something. It’s not my favourite though.
And then we did Madness’s Christmas stadium tour
shortly after that, which was arguably a wrong move,
but we were just moving on momentum and the climate
was changing. We needed guidance. Like we could have
just programmed a few changes into the album and remixed
it a bit more heavily. We did a couple of great American
tour on the back of this album though and Tommy Boy
got well behind it. It’s probably the best known
one in the States. I would say a majority of it is instrumental.
10x10, that’s an odd mutant Gospel rave
curates egg of a record. Then Tommy boy got a load of
weird mixes of stuff; we should have put our foot down.
Don Solaris marked a returned to more experimental
grounds. Was it some kind of reaction to Gorgeous?
Yes it was a reaction. It was about grabbing the wheel
a bit. All the touring got us in a more live mood more
instruments were added, more organic stuff. Plus being
away from the studio for a longer time helped to freshen
things up. We had a lot more confidence and it shows
not only in the music but in the collaborations on that
album. The singer from Soul Coughing, M. Doughty, was
a great choice. Darren had seen them somewhere and put
that forward and he also suggested James Dean Bradfield
for Lopez, which I was not too sure about,
but that worked out great. I thought Lopez
was a great single. Brian Eno did us some mixes, which
was a great honour as he doesn’t do many, and
Radio One were behind it, playing it loads before release.
I went into HMV on the day of release and it was not
in the racks. The manager of HMV explained they had
some sort of dispute with Warners and couldn’t
rack it until it was sorted.
There’s a lot more to a hit single than people
liking it and buying it I discovered. The other vocal
track was a collaboration with another Icelandic singer
called Ragga, I don’t know what they put in the
water out there but she was amazing. Came in, nailed
it in one. We knew her as we had the same management
at the time, Fruit Management. They managed Portishead
and Tricky at the time and also another girl, Alison
Goldfrapp. Alison agreed to do some gigs with us, doing
the songs off Don Solaris which she did really
well. Funnily enough we ended up playing along side
Björk on a lot of those gigs, including some in
Brazil. The live band thing was going really well by
this point as the material really suited a more wigged-out
sound.
You subsequently left ZTT and signed to independent
record label Circus Records, which could seem like a
strange move for a band such as 808 State. Why?
We left ZTT when ZTT left Warners and became independent.
We’d finished the allotted amount of albums in
the contract, and felt it would be easy to make a move.
But it wasn’t easy and we found ourselves treading
water for a long time and loosing focus. We also then
changed management company in a bid to shake things
up. The new management set us on a path with Circus
who were a fairly new company and had a lot of ideas
we liked. We knew it was high risk but it felt like
new energy and we got cracking on Outpost Transmissions.
I stand by it as an album. I’m very pleased with
it. Maybe we have to wait another ten years for people
to get it. Don Solaris too I feel has stood
the test of time but both were out of time if you know
what I mean. I guess it is not for me to say.
Was the idea of re-releasing Newbuild
yours or Richard's?
Richard’s and Grant’s at Rephlex. it was
a timing thing really. It just seemed to be in the air.
A re-evaluation of that era. We were always travelling
outwards from the big bang, but by 1999 the energy was
depleting from the scene. That’s how I felt. ZTT
should have done it whilst we were doing well, but I
doubt they ever listened to it and we didn’t suggest
it due to leaving members stuff probably.
How do you think this album has aged?
Really well. Its purity sees to that. It’s raw
and immediate. There’s a lot to be said for that.
I like the sound we got on it , it’s all analogue
analogue analogue, fat and warm. It’s always been
in my DJ box over the years, its nice to see it appearing
in other people’s.
Prebuild apparently
took you over three years to put together. What did
take so long?
Well, really it took an afternoon to put together, then
two years to sort out a sample clearance with some guy
at Warners, then it had to fit into Rephlex’s
schedule, which is pretty busy. You learn to be patient
these days; putting out stuff at all is under threat,
let alone on vinyl. Soon it will be download only. I
must say I’m old fashioned and we are lucky that
most of the 808 stuff has appeared on vinyl.
How did you select the tracks to be included
on the album?
I initially made a CD of all the Prebuild stuff
for the Autechre guys just as a present, then Rephlex
offered to release it. Richard chose the tracks and
held some stuff back for 12 inches (the New Order stuff
being part of this).
Is there a lot of unreleased 808 State material
from that era left, and if yes, do you think they will
ever be released?
I wouldn’t say a lot but there is some. It may
do some day but there has to be a demand. We’ve
got tons of unreleased stuff from every era. If we ever
did a box set, it would be a bloody big one. We also
put up a lot of free download stuff on our site (808state.com);
things like live recordings, demos, rarities, DJ sets,
etc… there’s some more acid stuff there.
Also we’ve done a couple of CDs called State
To State, which are all album outtakes, lost stuff,
etc…
You seem to have been the main instrument in
this project. Have you had any reactions from Martin
and Gerald?
I know Gerald’s really chuffed with it because
for him this really was lost stuff. He’s had his
studio done over so many times that a lot of his tapes
are out there somewhere. I recently gave him one back
that someone had handed over to my local second hand
record store. It was a 1/2inch multitrack which means
it’s from the early days at Moonraker, possibly
from the Hot Lemonade album. The guy behind
the counter gave it to me and some years later he’s
got it back. I have not really talked to Martin about
it yet.
What did you think of how Newbuild
and Prebuild have been received both by the
press and by the public?
Well, we’ve had some nice reviews in the press
(see Prebuild/Newbuild pages on 808state.com).
I particularly liked what a shop in Manchester had put
on the cover of Prebuild: ‘UK Acid Lesson
One, just buy it’. It has proved hard to get any
press articles on the subject. I guess we are just not
old enough for Mojo and maybe too old for DJ, but a
Guy called Stuart Aitken has done an interview with
all three of us and Richard James. He just has not had
it published yet.
Do you have any plans to re-release Quadrastate
in the future, and could it be on Rephlex again?
I’d really like for Rephlex to do it. We have
had other offers as well. It would probably include
the Let Yourself Go EP from 1989 on that, and
extra stuff. It’s never been on CD as yet. We
just have to see how Prebuild does as regard
to timing.
How would you say the sound of 808 State has
evolved since the early days? Do you approach things
differently with the band now?
I would say that 808 started to sound like 808 by the
90 album. We achieved our own identifiable
sound by then. We’d sort of thrown off our influences
to an extent. When I hear the Newbuild and
Prebuild stuff, it’s very identifiable
as acid and yet it’s almost like another group.
There is next to no melodic stuff in there, which I
guess is the main difference and why some people split
into camps about it. You can hear the technology change
over the various albums, but I feel there is a melodic
style and a layering counterpoint thing that identifies
our style over other techno stuff. We have big sounds
but the drama is in the writing rather than just sound.
I’d like to think the writing’s developed
as well, like it’s improved, but that’s
such a subjective thing. Dumb can be one of my favourite
musical statements and is part of our vocab. So is a
sense of humour or ridiculousness in our music, some
of it is just daft. You’re normally more successful
in modern media if you keep things clear and simple.
We’ve never been very good at that. To me that’s
like going to see a dumbed-down Hollywood film. It does
what it does but leaves you feeling a bit cheated or
empty. I make music like I listen to music and I believe
there’s a whole ton of listeners out there who
are quite complex and good at listening. That’s
also why I hate the ‘dance’ tag. Sure it
works hopefully on a physical level when it’s
loud, but that’s just one aspect. It would be
great if it did your head in at the same time, play
with all the parameters, etc…
What are your plans with 808 State for the
foreseeable future? Can we expect a follow up to Outpost
Transmission soon?
We don’t know what the future is. We’re
not functioning as we use to do. Like we had an office
and a studio and turned up every day like it was a job.
We’ve all had to adapt to a different way of life,
and a changing music business. But I’m very proud
of our fifteen year legacy and it’s not an easy
thing to put down. There are discussions with ZTT to
remaster the whole of their 808 back catalogue sometime
this year. I’m concerned that it should be available
in an official download format as I am aware of how
much it is being downloaded. Plus I feel in large parts
of Europe, it’s never been readily available at
all Currently in America, that’s the case with
most of it. So that’s all the next big job. We
might get out and do some gigs around this… One
regret is that we never recorded a live album, and that’s
something we might have to address at some point. Darren
and Andrew still DJ all the time all over the planet.
Email interview November 2004
Thank you to Graham. |
