A bit of a scoop for this blog entry. I recently interviewed Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall, the duo behind the Chemical Brothers’ live visual sets which blew away Glastonbury and the Big Chill this summer.
When speaking to long-term Chems visuals collaborator, Adam, (who is also known as Flat Nose George and also directs Doctor Who), told me about a fantastic-sounding film project he’s currently working on with the ‘Brothers, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons.
“Something we’ve been talking for years, long before they did Hanna, is I’ve got a film called Dope Girls which is all set in the twenties and I’ve got in development with Film 4,” he said. “I’m going to get them to do the soundtrack and record it in the way they record it but then we’re going to get a jazz band in and transpose it all to that. So you’ll have like a ‘Chemical Beats’-type tune done in a 1920s jazz style, so it’ll feel contemporary yet it’ll feel right for the time. It won’t stick out like when people do Marie Antoinette. When people put modern music on period stuff it’s sometimes a bit funny. It’ll be right yet it’ll be like, ‘Whoa,’ because it’s a very hedonistic scene. This film is all about the nightclub scene in the twenties. So they’ll be putting some music together to my pictures for that.”
So, if you find yourself flapping to the Chemical Brothers in the near future, remember you heard it here first!
In other Chemical Brothers-related news, Adam and Marcus revealed the idea they had when working on the 'Further' album of getting Tom and Ed to create music to their visuals; the complete inverse of the usual process.
Adam: “The first idea that Tom had for ‘Further’ was to give him visuals and he was going to make music to that but that didn’t happen in the end. It was something we talked about when they were making that album. It was like, ‘Why don’t you go and make some stuff and I’ll make some music.’ But it didn’t happen. It was a nice idea.”
Marcus: “I think it’s going to start happening, maybe with them, maybe with someone else; that whole idea that it’s not just an accompaniment [to the music] but the two things are absolutely interlinked.”
NOTE: I own the copyright to all of the above quotations, which were related to me directly during interviews. You must therefore request permission if you wish to use any of the above text or quotations. Contact: ian[at]ianroullier[dot]com
Originally posted on http://blog.ianroullier.com on 19 August 2011.
Showing posts with label Chemical Brothers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chemical Brothers. Show all posts
Friday, 19 August 2011
Saturday, 4 June 2011
The work experience boy - day one: learning the ropes and getting lost
I have to admit, I felt like I was a 16-year-old boy again, which was about the age I last did work experience. Having spent the past nine months studying an MA in Audio Production at the University of Westminster my first year of the two year part-time course had come to an end so I felt I should get some industry experience somehow. Steve Dub, who was one of the guest speakers that came in to speak to us and has worked with the Chemical Brothers almost since day one, said that there were work placements available at the Miloco group of studios so I felt I should make the most of the opportunity. I got in touch and ended up having a three-week work experience placement confirmed, starting the week after my course finished in May.
I was placed in Assault & Battery in Willesden, London which houses two world-class producers in Alan Moulder and Flood. As I travelled in on my first day, I went through the usual mix of neuroses, paranoia and nerves that you get when starting any job (or is that just me?!). This was amplified by the fact that I was going to be sharing an environment with producers who have album credits including U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Arctic Monkeys etc. and that they could potentially offer an opening into their world – if I could make the tea and coffee to a sufficient standard of course.
Today’s award-winning producers had to be prepared to make tea and empty the bins as well. Indeed, Flood reportedly earned his nickname from being a particularly good teaboy/runner. I imagine his fellow runner at the time – nicknamed Drought due to his ineptitude and can't-do attitude – probably didn’t get to mix any million selling albums! So I knew I couldn’t afford to be too proud. Most potential producers also start out not being able to afford to live, or indeed be able to conduct a relationship for large chunks of the week. But that's the way most producers start their careers, at the bottom, making tea for the people sitting in the chair they one day want to inhabit behind the truck-sized mixing desk.
I imagined that meeting bands and artists wouldn’t be a problem as I’m used to doing it when I interview them for features so I felt fairly comfortable on that front. Offering drinks to bands and artists you may or may not recognise/admire would surely be easy? If you can handle that then it’s at least a start I thought.
So how did I get on?
Day one: I arrive outside the huge metal gates of Assault & Battery and ring nearly every button to get in (aside from the one marked ‘Flood’ – I don’t want to upset him on day one by interrupting a session now do I?). Eventually I send a text to the person who had arranged the placement and she assures me there is somebody there and will call and get them to let me in.
Flood’s assistant, Drew, opens the gate and tells me he didn’t hear the buzzer as he was having a shower – he’d slept in the studio that night. This is apparently par for the course and his record of not going home stood at a month. I admire his commitment but it also scares me a bit – does he ever get to go out or form meaningful relationships? He says he has a very understanding girlfriend.
Drew gives me a quick tour and shows me the ropes and tells me it’s down to me to show initiative and commitment and to make myself busy. So tea making is done for anyone coming in the door, the TV is put on a music channel (MTV Classic as I hoped it would show vaguely rock related videos) and I monitor the kitchen area to make sure anything left in the sink is transferred to the dishwasher.
So, I end up making drinks for quiet but friendly duo Big Pink, who are in Assault & Battery 1 (A&B1) with Alan Moulder working on their latest album, and a female solo artist (unknown to me) and fellow musicians upstairs in A&B2 (Flood’s studio but he’s not in). I also meet other studio residents, the enigmatic French producer Dimitri Tikovoi (credits Placebo, The Horrors, Sophie Ellis-Bextor) and Steve Rhodes, who’s says he’s a writer when I ask him what he’s working on at the moment. When reception is really crowded and Alan is there, Ricky Martin starts blaring out of the TV – I wait for the area to clear (which unsurprisingly happens quite quickly) and switch the TV off. Damn you MTV Classic.
I go out to get lunches for Alan, his two assistants and Big Pink – jacket spuds and Chinese soups all round if you're really interested - and get myself an exciting Sainsburys sandwich. I chat with one of Alan’s assistants and he tells me he has just been taken on having done two work experience stints and won Alan over by cooking for him (being a former sous chef). I wonder what hidden talent I can offer to get myself noticed but draw a blank – unless Alan wants his biography written by me which I doubt.
After lunch I get sent to pick up an iLok (a USB license key) so that a certain software plug-in will work for the female solo singer and her musicians upstairs. I look up the address of where I have to go to buy the iLok on Google Maps and it says it’s in 'Hammersmith'. I do wonder why they don’t have a supplier based somewhere closer to the studio but think no more of it.
I head to Hammersmith on the tube having got my wife (who has an internal tube map hardwired into her brain) to check which route is best. When I get there, I realise that Drew told me to get the bus TOWARDS Hammersmith, not TO Hammersmith and that Google Maps has sold me short (or are both Willesden and Hammersmith in erm Hammersmith which must surely make it the biggest borough in London?). By this point I am convinced I've ruined the band's session in A&B2 and decide I shouldn't come back in tomorrow as even if I stick around for the full three weeks I will need to stick around a damn sight longer (with no pay) to get any meaningful studio experience. I knew this at the start to an extent – but studying an MA and getting into thousands of pounds of debt means I need to get money as soon as I can when I complete the course.
Anyway, I return to the studio having taken two-and-a-half hours to do a half-hour job but while Drew is miffed at how I could get so lost he says they continued working on ideas while I was AWOL and that it didn’t cause a major issue.
I leave the studio at 6.30pm vowing to make tomorrow a better day and to be less of a klutz. Commitment and long-hours are the catchphrases of the day and the mantra that you won't get anywhere unless you prove through personal sacrifice that you desperately want this. Do I? Perhaps I’ll have a better idea by the end of tomorrow.
Originally posted on http://blog.ianroullier.com on 4 June 2011.
I was placed in Assault & Battery in Willesden, London which houses two world-class producers in Alan Moulder and Flood. As I travelled in on my first day, I went through the usual mix of neuroses, paranoia and nerves that you get when starting any job (or is that just me?!). This was amplified by the fact that I was going to be sharing an environment with producers who have album credits including U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Arctic Monkeys etc. and that they could potentially offer an opening into their world – if I could make the tea and coffee to a sufficient standard of course.
Today’s award-winning producers had to be prepared to make tea and empty the bins as well. Indeed, Flood reportedly earned his nickname from being a particularly good teaboy/runner. I imagine his fellow runner at the time – nicknamed Drought due to his ineptitude and can't-do attitude – probably didn’t get to mix any million selling albums! So I knew I couldn’t afford to be too proud. Most potential producers also start out not being able to afford to live, or indeed be able to conduct a relationship for large chunks of the week. But that's the way most producers start their careers, at the bottom, making tea for the people sitting in the chair they one day want to inhabit behind the truck-sized mixing desk.
I imagined that meeting bands and artists wouldn’t be a problem as I’m used to doing it when I interview them for features so I felt fairly comfortable on that front. Offering drinks to bands and artists you may or may not recognise/admire would surely be easy? If you can handle that then it’s at least a start I thought.
So how did I get on?
Day one: I arrive outside the huge metal gates of Assault & Battery and ring nearly every button to get in (aside from the one marked ‘Flood’ – I don’t want to upset him on day one by interrupting a session now do I?). Eventually I send a text to the person who had arranged the placement and she assures me there is somebody there and will call and get them to let me in.
Flood’s assistant, Drew, opens the gate and tells me he didn’t hear the buzzer as he was having a shower – he’d slept in the studio that night. This is apparently par for the course and his record of not going home stood at a month. I admire his commitment but it also scares me a bit – does he ever get to go out or form meaningful relationships? He says he has a very understanding girlfriend.
Drew gives me a quick tour and shows me the ropes and tells me it’s down to me to show initiative and commitment and to make myself busy. So tea making is done for anyone coming in the door, the TV is put on a music channel (MTV Classic as I hoped it would show vaguely rock related videos) and I monitor the kitchen area to make sure anything left in the sink is transferred to the dishwasher.
So, I end up making drinks for quiet but friendly duo Big Pink, who are in Assault & Battery 1 (A&B1) with Alan Moulder working on their latest album, and a female solo artist (unknown to me) and fellow musicians upstairs in A&B2 (Flood’s studio but he’s not in). I also meet other studio residents, the enigmatic French producer Dimitri Tikovoi (credits Placebo, The Horrors, Sophie Ellis-Bextor) and Steve Rhodes, who’s says he’s a writer when I ask him what he’s working on at the moment. When reception is really crowded and Alan is there, Ricky Martin starts blaring out of the TV – I wait for the area to clear (which unsurprisingly happens quite quickly) and switch the TV off. Damn you MTV Classic.
I go out to get lunches for Alan, his two assistants and Big Pink – jacket spuds and Chinese soups all round if you're really interested - and get myself an exciting Sainsburys sandwich. I chat with one of Alan’s assistants and he tells me he has just been taken on having done two work experience stints and won Alan over by cooking for him (being a former sous chef). I wonder what hidden talent I can offer to get myself noticed but draw a blank – unless Alan wants his biography written by me which I doubt.
After lunch I get sent to pick up an iLok (a USB license key) so that a certain software plug-in will work for the female solo singer and her musicians upstairs. I look up the address of where I have to go to buy the iLok on Google Maps and it says it’s in 'Hammersmith'. I do wonder why they don’t have a supplier based somewhere closer to the studio but think no more of it.
I head to Hammersmith on the tube having got my wife (who has an internal tube map hardwired into her brain) to check which route is best. When I get there, I realise that Drew told me to get the bus TOWARDS Hammersmith, not TO Hammersmith and that Google Maps has sold me short (or are both Willesden and Hammersmith in erm Hammersmith which must surely make it the biggest borough in London?). By this point I am convinced I've ruined the band's session in A&B2 and decide I shouldn't come back in tomorrow as even if I stick around for the full three weeks I will need to stick around a damn sight longer (with no pay) to get any meaningful studio experience. I knew this at the start to an extent – but studying an MA and getting into thousands of pounds of debt means I need to get money as soon as I can when I complete the course.
Anyway, I return to the studio having taken two-and-a-half hours to do a half-hour job but while Drew is miffed at how I could get so lost he says they continued working on ideas while I was AWOL and that it didn’t cause a major issue.
I leave the studio at 6.30pm vowing to make tomorrow a better day and to be less of a klutz. Commitment and long-hours are the catchphrases of the day and the mantra that you won't get anywhere unless you prove through personal sacrifice that you desperately want this. Do I? Perhaps I’ll have a better idea by the end of tomorrow.
Originally posted on http://blog.ianroullier.com on 4 June 2011.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
End of year dance/electronic charts for 2010
Well, it's been a quiet year for this blog due to many reasons such as becoming a student again and going freelance but thankfully the world of electronic music has been as lively and creative as ever. So, without further ado, here are my charts for 2010 as compiled recently for Mixmag and musicOMH.
TOP 10 DANCE/ELECTRONIC ALBUMS OF 2010:
TOP 10 DANCE/ELECTRONIC ALBUMS OF 2010:
- Chemical Brothers – Further [Virgin]
- Posthuman – Syn Emergence [Balkan Vinyl]
- Jaga Jazzist – One Armed Bandit [Ninja Tune]
- Applescal – A Mishmash Of Changing Moods [Traum Schallplatten]
- Teebs – Ardour [Brainfeeder]
- Diskjokke – En Fin Tid [Smalltown Supersound]
- Ost & Kjex – Cajun Lunch [Diynamic Music]
- Funki Porcini – On [Ninja Tune]
- Pacific! – Narcissus [Vulture]
- The Orb feat. Dave Gilmour – Metallic Spheres [Columbia]
- DJ Food – The Shape Of Things That Hum [Ninja Tune]
- Chemical Brothers – Swoon [Freestyle Dust]
- Jaga Jazzist – Bananfluer Overalt [Ninja Tune]
- Fatboy Slim vs Hervé – Machines Can Do The Work (Action Man aka Hervé Acid Flash Mix) [Skint]
- Flying Lotus – MmmHmm [Warp]
- Doctor P – Sweet Shop [Circus]
- Moby – Study War (Savage Skulls Remix) [Little Idiot]
- Jon Hopkins – Vessel (Four Tet Remix) [Double Six]
- Nero – Electron [More Than Alot]
- Burns & Fred Falke – YSLM [Deconstruction]
- Duck Sauce – Barbara Streisand [3 Beat/AATW]
- Mr Blink – Gecko (Burns’ Stop Start Remix) [Fly Eye]
- Four Tet – Angel Echoes [Domino]
- Tinie Tempah – Pass Out [Parlophone]
- Cee Lo Green – Fuck You [Warner Bros]
- Pryda – Emos [Pryda]
- Sidney Samson – Riverside [Data]
- Japanese Popstars feat. Green Velvet – Let Go [Virgin/EMI]
- Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP – We No Speak Americano [AATW/Sweat It Out]
- Robyn – Dancing On My Own [Konichiwa]
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Starting out - interviews
It's been a while. My day job as an editor has been taking over far too much lately meaning that any music related writing has had to be put on the back burner.
Looking back at the most recent set of posts on here, I realise there's been a lot of negativity flying around. Have I finally lapsed into being a jaded hack? Tales of problematic interviewees and scathing album reviews may point towards this. I do however remain relatively chipper thank you very much so feel it's time to put some more positive tales out there.
Which brings me on to good interviewees. As I said before, I take musicians as I do everyone else, as human beings. And you are bound to encounter human beings you get on with and those that you don't. I am happy to report that I have had far more of the former as interviewees than the latter (the latter being almost wholly covered in previous posts).
My first few phone interviews since I started writing about music again about six years ago were with million unit album sellers, Röyksopp, an unknown act called Dear Eskiimo, who have now gone on to become the Ting Tings, and Dave Stewart of the hugely successful Eurythmics. Each was massively different but taught me valuable lessons.
The interview with Torbjörn Brundtland of Röyksopp was a strange start. Every time I asked a question he gave me a witty, surreal answer but because in my head I felt I had to get serious answers, I kept pressing him, asking him the same questions till he gave in and gave a serious answer. Which not only must have been quite frustrating for him but meant the interview went on for the best part of 90 minutes! He even asked at one point, "Is this interview for radio?"
So not a great start but I learned that it's best to take interviewees as they are rather than trying to force the desired answers out of them. More importantly I learned that it's invariably better to put across any humour and personality that comes across.
Dear Eskiimo was different altogether as they were in the same boat as me - nervous because it was one of their first interviews. That common ground allowed everyone to relax a bit and the interview flowed well. The Eurythmics interview was by far the most daunting though. More of which on my my next blog post...
Useless music fact #12: The Chemical Brothers were one of the few people not to be grounded by the Icelandic volcano as they had a private jet chartered. Brothers gonna work it out!
Originally posted on http://blog.ianroullier.com on 20 April 2010.
Looking back at the most recent set of posts on here, I realise there's been a lot of negativity flying around. Have I finally lapsed into being a jaded hack? Tales of problematic interviewees and scathing album reviews may point towards this. I do however remain relatively chipper thank you very much so feel it's time to put some more positive tales out there.
Which brings me on to good interviewees. As I said before, I take musicians as I do everyone else, as human beings. And you are bound to encounter human beings you get on with and those that you don't. I am happy to report that I have had far more of the former as interviewees than the latter (the latter being almost wholly covered in previous posts).
My first few phone interviews since I started writing about music again about six years ago were with million unit album sellers, Röyksopp, an unknown act called Dear Eskiimo, who have now gone on to become the Ting Tings, and Dave Stewart of the hugely successful Eurythmics. Each was massively different but taught me valuable lessons.
The interview with Torbjörn Brundtland of Röyksopp was a strange start. Every time I asked a question he gave me a witty, surreal answer but because in my head I felt I had to get serious answers, I kept pressing him, asking him the same questions till he gave in and gave a serious answer. Which not only must have been quite frustrating for him but meant the interview went on for the best part of 90 minutes! He even asked at one point, "Is this interview for radio?"
So not a great start but I learned that it's best to take interviewees as they are rather than trying to force the desired answers out of them. More importantly I learned that it's invariably better to put across any humour and personality that comes across.
Dear Eskiimo was different altogether as they were in the same boat as me - nervous because it was one of their first interviews. That common ground allowed everyone to relax a bit and the interview flowed well. The Eurythmics interview was by far the most daunting though. More of which on my my next blog post...
Useless music fact #12: The Chemical Brothers were one of the few people not to be grounded by the Icelandic volcano as they had a private jet chartered. Brothers gonna work it out!
Originally posted on http://blog.ianroullier.com on 20 April 2010.
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