Jump to content
IGNORED

Old interview


ZoeB

Recommended Posts

From analogue-owner@hyperreal.com Tue Oct 15 15:47:32 1996
Received: by taz.hyperreal.com (8.7.6/V2.0) id PAA29683; Tue, 15 Oct 1996 15:47:32 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from mhub1.tc.umn.edu by taz.hyperreal.com (8.7.6/V2.0) with SMTP id PAA29677; Tue, 15 Oct 1996 15:47:29 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from maroon.tc.umn.edu by mhub1.tc.umn.edu; Tue, 15 Oct 96 17:47:27 -0500
Received: from dialup-27-a-186.gw.umn.edu by maroon.tc.umn.edu; Tue, 15 Oct 96 17:47:19 -0500
X-Sender: satti002@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Unverified)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 16:44:42 -0600
To: analogue@hyperreal.com
From: Chris Sattinger <satti002@maroon.tc.umn.edu> (Chris Sattinger)
Subject: Re: Aphex Twin gear : long, includes interview.
Message-Id: <3264147f5b78846@mhub1.tc.umn.edu>
Sender: analogue-owner@hyperreal.com
Precedence: bulk
>> Date sent: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 23:13:17 -0600 (CST)
>> From: TIMOTHY GUEGUEN <ad058@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca>
>> To: "J.D. McEachin" <jdm@synthcom.com>
>> Copies to: analogue@hyperreal.com
>> Subject: Aphex Twin gear, was Re: 808 for hip hop???
>
>> J.D.s mention of Aphex Twit (sic :-) ) using an '808 reminded me of a
>> comment by I believe one of the Grid guys. He said Mr. Twin's supposed
>> homemade electronics were just a drum machine thru a fuzzbox. Has anyone
>> actually ever gotten a good look at what he makes sounds with?
I had the pleasure to conduct a lengthy interview with R.James around about
the time that On came out. He was extremely nice, very open and friendly.
He also talked quite extensively about gear. I had very interesting
questions for him and was obviously not a professional interviewer, so he
enjoyed it and told me lots of stuff that he hadn't said elsewhere. I
should transcribe it sometime.
Much of the gear has been figured out over the years. Much of it doesn't
matter so much as the attitude towards the gear. I wouldn't bother to
mention what I do know about his gear because wankers always go out and buy
the same crap and do the same thing with it that James already did. Same
goes for Jeff Mills and any other creative groundbreaker.
Try out Matrix 1000 presets for a start. ;)
He did say that the equipment he built were small and fragile. He sampled
them and left them at his parents. He compiled quite a bit of samples
(microphones etc.) and has been using them for years. Still plenty to
explore there.
He said he'd used about 40 different hardware or software sequencers. He
changes his gear constantly, the setup. Uses small mixers or records
direct to dat. He also said that he had plans to record a full symphony
orchestra through his little bits of gear and 8 channel mixer. Doesn't
seem to have done that yet.
Also, those of us that saw him spin at Furthur can attest that he does have
actual turntable skills. I was quite stunned that he knows how to cut ,
flange, and tweak very nicely. Advanced dj skills.
Well apologies to all you squabblers and flamers, but I'm going to junk up
the bandwith with some actual interesting information. Hate me if you
must. :
this is from Frontpage's interviews :
the complete interview is at :
it contains more stuff about rephlex, his dead brother, his tank,
warehouses etc.
Also, read the Mike Ink interview, its very interesting.
Aphex Twin
FP: What was the most interesting musical thing that happend to you
last year?
RJ: I recon probably people on the internet, like i`ve been linking up
with software bots,
getting customised programs and stuff, to do certain
things.
FP: What kind of?
RJ: Like sort of sound processing, software, loads of really
complicated signal
processors. I`m really getting into those things and doing a lot of
research myself. Like
getting back into programming as well. Like trying to make my own
programs and
coming up with mad things. I`ve got another four months of research to
do i reckon,
before I'm ready.
FP: What do you use? Computerwise?
RJ: I use like Macs, a couple of
macs.
FP: And software?
RJ: The main thing i use is like stuff that i`ve got written for me.
Basically i got in
contact with loads of people, told them who i was, hoping that some of
them would be
like fans of my work, and one guy, who got back to me, was like
my favorite
programmer, who was really up for doing anything basically. and did loads
of software,
customized stuff for me. I got my own sequencer like totally
sorted out, and
harddiscrecording totally customized the way i want it to be basically.
I am luky, like
what i`ve used all over the years, customised equipment, i cant stand
using equipment
thats designed by someone else. Makes you working in their way sort
of thing.
Something like Cubase is a really good tool, but then its got loads of
edges that you just
have to go along with. and It forces you to go along with it in ways
you wouldnt
normally go with. So youre lucky if you got someone who can basically
rewrite it so that
it works more smoothly the way you want
it to.
FP: What would you say are the main edges of Cubase. The
problems.
RJ: I dont know, i think its the whole way it looks. I haven`t got a
problem with it at all,
the structure. But the way it looks makes me wanna do very logical
things, cause its a
very logical program. And if you use it that way its very good, but if
you want to do
more live stuff, it`s not geared towards it at all. Makes you
work rigidly.
FP: You mind if i smoke?
RJ: Not if i can have a
cigarette.
FP: Are you going to some things on Rephlex
soon?
RJ: Yeah, i did an Analogue Bubblebath 5 and a Caustic Window album,
thats been on
white label for about 2 years, but i`m not going to release it, cause i
dont like it, no, i
do, but not all the tracks, i want better ones on that, quite often, if
you make records
very soon after you did the tracks, you change your mind
about them.
FP: You`re doing more live gigs now as
well.
RJ: Yeah i played last week. But we want to get a ship, and play there,
letting it dock at
different harbors. Play a gig, and then sail to the next port. I got to
get it sponsored,
cause its very expensive. I reckon its the thing you could get on national
news if you did
it right. Some scam. Would be quite a mad thing to do
basically.
FP: We had quite a lot of that stuff in the german techno scene. Like
Ravecrusades and
stuff.
RJ: Did they sail around.
FP: Yeah, in the mediterranean sea.
RJ: They had a rave on the sea? I did not want to do that, though it
might be quite a
good laugh, there is no laws on the sea, so it could go on forever, but i
dont want to go
on forever, i only want to play an hour and a half. I like to DJ, then it
gets quite rough.
FP: What do you DJ. ?
RJ: Music i like.
FP: What do you like?
RJ: Everything i reckon. All styles of music. Basically anything thats
original. Like its
been made for the right reasons.
FP: Who would you rate as some of the most original
people?
RJ: I only really like a few people at the moment, and that is
Luke Vibert and
Squarepusher. I like Drexciya as well but i havent heard their new record
though. Those
two are my favorites really, they are doing their own things, not copying
anyone else.
FP: How come its that short?
RJ: Just the atention span these days has gone real downhill. I think a
record should be
that length. Just with Techno it got longer cause people started putting
albums out on
12"s, to make them louder, and everyone got into that idea, that all
technoalbum has
got to be two records. I think its more of a normal
thing to do.
FP: Just not from the CD
perspective.
RJ: Well i never listen to CDs more than half an hour, even if i like them.
I would listen to
them in two parts. Never from start to finish. You just get
distracted.
FP: Why is that so.
RJ: Youd just get distracted. Half an hour in my home and then someone
phones me up,
or knocks on my door. That kind of thing. Even if not i`d get bored
after half an hour
cause i want to do something else. And if its really good it makes me
wanna do my own
stuff.
FP: If you do tracks yourself they might at least take you longer then
half an hour.
RJ: I reckon so yeah.
FP: And it will make you listen to it
longer.
RJ: Yeah, but i`m really into the idea of making tracks shorter, and
more complicated.
Putting more into it. I lie really minimal things as well, but for me
personally, for my
own music, thats not what i want to to for the next forseeable future.
So i`m quite
happy with that.
FP: It sounds like a very fractured
album too.
RJ: You get bored of listening to the same sound. If i listen to, lets
say a jungle track,
after about three minutes, i want to hear another break, even if
its doing those
different things. I get bored of the sound. Want to do something else
that keeps you
interested.
FP: Is it basically the sound that
interests you.
RJ: No,. everything interests me, melody as well, its all important,
but even if you
change the music all the way through, using the same sound gets boring.
So i keep the
track as long as i can, and change the sound when i dont like
it anymore.
FP: You still produce at home. Where are you going
to move.
RJ: I`m looking for a warehouse in London, somthing i can drive my tank
in, whithout
collapsing. But they are all like sold, like its getting really trendy
to buy warehouses.
There is not a lot left. I found one the other day, but i had to buy it,
the next day and it
was a quarter of a million pounds, and i cant really deal with spending
that many pounds
in 12 hours.
(background music: 99 red balloons by nena, makes him
laugh)
RJ: I forgot that.
FP: Thats better. Do you like like music from
the 80s?
RJ: Yeah, its starting to sound better. 5 years ago i wouldnt have said
that, but i noticed
all these shit records are starting to sound a bit better. They are
just so stupid, and
everything is so cheap. I`m sure in another 10 years time they will
start to be really
cool.
FP: When we heard you record at the office, somebody said it sounds
like the Cure.
RJ: Wich track?
FP: The first or second.
RJ: I reckon i really dont like the Cure, but i they can write good
tunes. If you would
take the sound away, the voice, they would be really good. Like Smiths
Songs, i really
hate him, but if you did a verion of them they would probably very
good. Dislike the
people singing it, the way its
done.
FP: What are your plans?
RJ: Just making as much music as possible. As usual. Get on with
stuff. Not being as
sociable as i have been.
FP: Do you spend a lot of time on
the net?
RJ: Yeah, loads actually. You start doing the same things all the time.
You find all the
things you can do with it, then you do them all of the time. Sometimes i`m
on it and get
bored with that, turn of the computer and just think about it. The whole
concept of the
net.
FP: Are there other things then the musical things that
interest you.
RJ: I dont really read about music on
there.
FP: But you get software.
RJ: Yeah, and a lot of graphic software as well, cause i like painting
and stuff. Some
death pages are quite smart. Quite hardcore. Saw one the other day of a
couple killing
the girls boyfriend. This guy with the moustache, and the girl holding
the guys cock
going to castrate him. Thats wicked. Someone send the adress to me. And i
did not know
weather it was real.
FP: Have you seen this japanese Laboratory thing, where all the internal
processes of
their computersystem are transformed into mididata and then made to
music and
retransferred as a live audiostream.
RJ: Na, but that sounds wicked too. What does it
sound like?
=46P: Well basically really ambient. And its Real Audio, you know what that
sounds like, but
its very nice and strangely structured. There is those people playing
live with mididata
as well.
RJ: I dont understand, explain
youself.
FP: It is sort of like a chat channel but you are not chatting with
words but with
mididata.
RJ: Thas wicked too, but i couldnt get into it. Cause basically i havent
done it. And i cant
get into things i havent done. I `Ve written programs that do Random
music, and they
were quite a good laugh, but it doesnt go anywhere. Seen any good
picture to music
things? I havent found any jet.
FP: Me either.
RJ: Cant believe that noone has written really good ones. There should
be a program
wich gets out sound to what your painting. Its too computerized at the
moment, the
interfaces should be really sorted out. Its like with keyboards, they
have been around
for too long. I will come quite soon i think. The more people get into
music that dont
want to learn all these stupid boring ways
to do it.
FP: Most of them probably want to do stupid boring
music.
RJ: But i reckon its going to be more. Girls hate it. They dont want to
look through pages
and pages of stuff just to get music out. And it would be more of a
laugh if you would
get pictures to play with. More graphical things rather
then data.
FP: The biggest problem is probably the picture
recognition thing.
RJ: Yeah. They got programs that can read files and play them as music
files, Sound
Hack, what comes out is pretty unpredictable, but its good if you work on
a picture with
photoshop, and save it, play it, change a bit more and
play it again.
FP: To find out the
relations.
RJ: Yeah work out what it sounds like what you do, its easy and you need
to press just
one button, but just to save and reopen it takes too long to do. A
lot of things just
sound like noise, but some packets of data sound interesting, the
patterns in it.
FP: They should do that in real
time.
RJ: Someone needs to make one. People who paint good pictures should be
able to make
good music, it would be a really intersting new way of looking at
music. Change it
around. New rules. The ones we got are a bit boring now. New ones need to
be invented.
I always got loads of ideas, but i dont want to get too deep into
programming them.
Thats a hasstle. So i linked up with those
people.
FP: There is a good program from the people of OVAL wich functions sort
of a CD Player
on the Mac, but you got a record button, wich lets you collect samples
from the CD and
rearrange them to do a track that sounds like an OVAL track, and then
add it to the
menu of your CD so that everytime you reopen the CD, you have more
tracks, your own
OVAL remixes of the CD, on your
player.
RJ: They did that to my album actually. Selected
Ambient Works.
FP: They didnt.
RJ: I am good at recognizing sounds, i swear they did it. I was really
getting into the
album, and thinking, yeah, that sounds really familiar, and found my whole
album beeing
torn apart, it`s quite good though, and i didnt know wich way to take it.
Did they like my
album or did they just think, well this CD is rubbish lets tear it
apart. That was what i
liked most about their record.
=A9bleed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Sattinger
NEW RELEASES - DISCOGRAPHY - INFO
US Techno House Business Resource :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cheers for sharing Zoe! Good stuff. Interesting he already told why AB5 and CAT023 weren't going to be released (same explanation he gave JR recently), nobody ever picked up on that back then I guess.

 

Yeah exactly. Also, it explains why he's waited so long to release new music, maybe. He releases his music long after he's finished it, to make sure it stands the test of time. Everything for the next 10 years is ready to be released. Nowadays, he's working on the music that will be released between 2025 and 2035.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice. Interesting to see his thoughts about the Caustic Window LP only two short years after the test pressings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RJ: I am good at recognizing sounds, i swear they did it. I was really

getting into the

album, and thinking, yeah, that sounds really familiar, and found my whole

album beeing

torn apart, it`s quite good though, and i didnt know wich way to take it.

Did they like my

album or did they just think, well this CD is rubbish lets tear it

apart. That was what i

liked most about their record.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

He releases his music long after he's finished it, to make sure it stands the test of time.

 

An interesting strategy, but probably a bad one. If you're constantly improving your skillset (and you should be), you'll always look at something you did a year ago or two years ago as being less polished than what you're capable of now. You'd never release anything.

 

Oh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

He releases his music long after he's finished it, to make sure it stands the test of time.

 

An interesting strategy, but probably a bad one. If you're constantly improving your skillset (and you should be), you'll always look at something you did a year ago or two years ago as being less polished than what you're capable of now. You'd never release anything.

 

Oh.

 

 

Well personally I've known a couple of artists who do it that way. I don't think it's a bad strategy when you produce 100 tracks per month, to let your music sit for a while, you know? You can't release everything you make, obviously. What I was told is, when you let your music sit for a couple of years and come back to it once in a while, it EVOLVES. It becomes more intricate, more elaborate, deeper, truer to your intention, etc. You also develop a kind of distance to it that is necessary to hear it more objectively. As you said, your skillset improves so that means your old music improves along the way. It grows organically together with you. You know the saying, "great art is never finished, only abandoned".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can kind of see that, but at the end of the day, real artists ship. I'd rather hear some imperfect tracks than not hear any of them at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Harmac2

Nice interview. Interesting to read something where both people are interested in the subject rather than RDJ sounding bored or disinterested.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember an old interview with Brian Dougans where he debunked the whole 90s notion that Rich was playing instruments of his own design. That was self fed PR, and Brian confirmed as well he was just fucking around with fuzz boxes. I think RDJ even had fake gear on his live setup to cover up the farce.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.