Jackson, what have
you been up to today?
Went out on the train, walked, had lunch… I am
just checking my emails now, which is going to take
me the whole afternoon probably. Like every week…
With Smash just released, you must
be quite in demand. How do you deal with the media attention,
and have you been trying to find out what the press
is saying about the album or are you ignoring it all?
I don’t want to be in this position like “oh
it’s a nightmare” as I’ve mainly been
chatting with people passionate about music and interested
in what I do. There are worse jobs. I did quickly go
through what’s been written on the album on the
Internet. It’s fun, especially the bad stuff.
I’m pretty laidback about it as I’ve had
good response from people that are important to me.
I’m also pretty sure that the most important thing
with a record is how it works in the long run. It took
me a while to like some awesome records. So, if my record’s
crap, everybody will forget about it.
Can you tell me about your background? Where
do you come from, how did you start playing music…
I started playing drums as a teenage in a band. I was
very into rock, funk and gradually got swallowed by
the rave gabba thing when I was 15. My mom had an Atari
computer, so I started doing some tracks with it and
met this friend of my older sister who was just starting
a new label called Pumpking. I did two EPs with them.
They showed me how to produce and around the same time,
I starting using a Roland 909 drum machine, and a 303,
a Moog synthesizer and a sampler…
There are loads of different styles and ambiences
on your album, ranging from funk to techno to electro...
Who/what are your main influences?
Herbie Hancock, Funkadelic, Hendrix, and everything
that I hear, from the background noises in a gas station
to a Mario Bava vampire movie soundtrack.
The press release mentioned that it took you
about four years to complete the album, and that you
spent a lot of time re-recording tracks. How did you
work on it?
With no proper method, trying to reach the most dramatic
tension or psychedelic elasticity. Starting from synth
lines or chaotic MP3 collages. I lost complete notion
of time doing this, I didn’t really care. My entourage
was freaking out.
You originally released music on French imprint Sound
Of Barclay. How did you come to work with Warp for the
album?
Piers Martin (Vice magazine) sent me an email mentioning
the possibility to work with them. I was overjoyed.
The French Touch has helped putting the focus
on a new breed of French musicians at the end of the
nineties, with people like Daft Punk, Air, Etienne De
Crecy and Alex Gopher leading the way. Since, the scene
over there has become a lot wider, with a strong underground
current, with labels such as Active Suspension or Monopsone
for instance releasing some very interesting music.
How do you think French electronic music has evolved
in the last few years?
I don’t pay attention to music this way, and I
really shut down while working on the record. I was
just watching MTV and listening to the radio.
You’ve enrolled part of your family
on Smash, including your mother, folk singer
Paula Moore, and your four-year-old niece. How did you
get the idea of getting them to participate, and how
did they react?
My mom was a little bit nervous, but she ended up liking
it. I think she likes some of my music. It was very
easy for me this way, very natural, and it seemed pretty
cool. It was trickier with my niece. I had to barter
with her, promising her soda so she would say what I
wanted her to say. I had to record three or four words
at a time.
You’ve also worked with Mike Ladd on
one track. How did you meet, and how did the idea of
working together come up?
I sent him some music after I’d heard his Welcome
To The Afterfuture album. I just love his epic
vibe and his open approach of music.
How do you approach collaborations as opposed
to your tracks? Is the process very different?
Working with Mike was very easy as we understood and
respected each other a lot. He’s very fast, and
it was very easy adapting to what he was doing.
Are you intending to work with other people
in the future, and if yes, is there anyone in particular
you would want to work with?
I’m not in a hurry to work with vocal artists,
I feel like there’s a lot to do with instrumental
music. It’s a very challenging form. I’m
using production as a writing tool; it gives a lot of
options.
You’ve produced remixes for an incredible
variety of people, ranging from Femi Kuti to Air and
Vanessa Paradis to Jean Jacques Perrey and Luke Vibert.
How do you choose to remix a particular track or artist?
It depends on my need of the moment. Artistic, financial…
I’m not so exited about doing remixes. You have
to deal with expectations and you’re supposed
to do something precise, it doesn’t really fit
with what I want to do. I started doing remixes because
I wanted to understand how a track was made, which meant
listening to the different tracks separately.
No-one seems to have given a go at remixing
your music yet. Why do you think this is?
Because I want things to be definitive. I’m not
for this “global material”
I have seen your music compared to that of
Prefuse 73, with some articles saying you apply a similar
process to electronic music as Scott Herren does with
hip-hop. Do you think this is a fair assessment of your
work?
I don’t expect articles to be fair. I like Prefuse
73. I see the link in a technical way. It’s more
unfair for Todd Edwards, as everyone seems to have forgotten
the role he played in this chopped up sampling thing.
We’re just talking technique in these cases…
There’s more to records than that I think.
You are about to play a few live dates. What
can people expect to see, and will it be very different
to the album?
New music, work in progress… I’m growing
as I tour. There are little bits of the album in the
live show. It’s a pretty low profile laptop experience.
It’s super new for me, very different from the
studio rat work I did with Smash.
In addition to making your own music, you
also regularly DJ. What are your sets like? What do
you tend to play?
I kind of gave up with that as it’s something
I don’t control. The sets I’ve done were
super messy. A few of them went OK, but I never managed
to repeat them. Going from the Ronettes to Gabba to
DJ Assault to Cameo… Hard to handle and to keep
the energy of the crowd going. Some people are very
talented with this…
You are said to already be working on the follow
up to Smash. Do you have a clear idea of what
you want it to sound like yet?
It’s growing… I have lots of ideas but I
still don’t know where I’m going in general,
witch is fine for me. I want to keep it out of any particular
direction.
How did you see your music evolve in the next
few years? You are quoted on the press release for Smash
saying that you want to make four totally amazing albums.
Then what?
I said that because I had no idea what to say. I hope
I‘ll still be obsessed with giving meaning to
the contradictions of individuals when I’m 80.
If not, than I’d love to make music for people
that live in peaceful sunny areas.
Once you’ve finished this interview,
what is next in your diary?
Finish deleting spam emails and finish going through
the rest, and then do some music tonight hopefully.
Email interview October 2005
Thank you to Jackson and Steve |
