Recently dug this Plaid interview out of an old draw.. haven't seen/read it anywhere on the net so i transcribed it for the board. enjoy!
Plaid - Magic Feet Interview, mf022 (06/1999)
Ed Maclean looks back at the past, present and the future of PLAID, and talks to Andy about their new album.
> Plaid produce some of the most colourful and melodic electronic music available today. Whether it's your cup of tea or not, it can't be denied that they are one of the few electronic music acts with their own truly distinctive and individual style. Their new album, released this month once again demonstrates their unique mastery of melody and emotion, and perhaps set to elevate their status even further. But to judge an act like Plaid on their latest production is to take them out of context, as anyone who has followed their career over the past decade will know, they have pedigree most producers would kill for.
Everyone's familiar with the name The Black Dog, Ed & Andy's first project along with Ken Downey, started around the turn of this decade. Like Plaid, the cornerstone of their music was innovation and, for it's time, The Black Dog's music was seriously innovative. Housemaster General, a producer and occasional DJ of the late '80s/early '90s told of first coming across Black Dog material and making a decision to play it out to a garage and house crowd. It was met with complete puzzlement, and not surprisingly so: the arrangement was completely alien to a club crowd, the sounds were a medley of soft and sharp, smooth and rough, and the vibe was utterly new. Wayne Archbold, head of GPR label who first signed the band, told of their unconventional ways of working. Having invested money in the band he was keen to see them at work, but when he arrived at the studio Ed, Andy & Ken were not happy with Wayne, a classically trained pianist watching over them. It was only after some time that he discovered that their beautiful sound was at the time, and for that one track at least, being constructed from one finger jabs and hand presses on the keyboard. The genius was not in any kind of classical training and laborious musical theory, but exactly the opposite - The Black Dog, were completely free spirits, driven by spontaneity and imagination. The album they were making at the time, 'Temple Of Transparent Balls', was an enormous success and is still considered by electronic producers worldwide as a milestone in the genre. As the band continued, cracks began to show and soon after the bands departure to Warp, midway through recording, the band decided to split. Ken took with him The Black Dog name and allegedly, most of the equipment, while Ed & Andy became Plaid, Ed and Andy's first 'Not For Three's' album, a melodic beauty, showed, thankfully, that they still had plenty of musical mileage in them. "After the split we felt liberated, really. There was a certain level of freedom, or a perceived level of musical freedom, which we hadn't felt before. I think on 'Not For Threes' we probably went in too many directions at once, kind of a reaction to the situation we were in, the new freedom."
Part of this new freedom saw Ed & Andy working with collaborators, most notably Bjork. Were Plaid on the edge of more mainstream success? Surely, with Orbital's Insides flying the flag for melodic electronic music, now was the time? But although they can boast a sizeable following Plaid have never broken into the mainstream, however, as Andy points out, it was never something they were trying to do: "We've never made music to entertain or educate other people. I suppose our motives for making music are entirely selfish. We enjoy making the music we do, and if anyone else finds it enjoyable or entertaining as well, then that's great!"
As you might have guessed, following 'the scene' is not really Plaid's game, and as far as modern day influences are concerned, Andy has few. "I don't know very much about the music that's around at the moment. I haven't really bought any records for two or three years now. There was a time when i'd be in the record shop every other day and i was really on top of what was coming out, but now i tend not to listen to music. After a day in the studio my ears get tired. I prefer to listen to Talk Radio or watch the news. We're not really attached to any scene at all. There was a kind of network of clubs that grew up in London around the time of The Black Dog, which everyone used to go to, but we're not part of it now. We've got to know some of the Warp artists, but it's not like we all hang out around each other's houses or anything."
Andy's down-to-earth attitude seems refreshing compared to those banded about in many musical circles, where the social scene has become more important than the music and the feeding off of each other's ideas has led to a stagnant cycle of substandard releases. Perhaps the one single element that separates Plaid from the other is the use of melody. "It's true we're mostly melodically driven, it's how we start off a track. We put down a melodic line, and some sounds and build it up around that. Sometimes we'll get a new bank of sounds for the sampler and it will start that way, but melody is the basis of our work. As far as equipment is concerned, we keep things relatively simple. When The Black Dog split, Ed and i had very little equipment so we learned how to make music without a huge arsenal of synths. What we try to convey in the music is emotion, not messages as such. There are some things, some feelings, that you can only convey with music."
Anyone who closely followed The Black Dog may have heard of or seen some of the animations they were involved in. So why haven't we seen this for Plaid? "Unfortunately it's simply a matter of money at the moment. Plaid really just doesn't have the money, although animation and visual aspect is definitely a good thing and something that we would like to get into more."
So does Andy believe there will come a time when music is simply one element of an encapsulating multi-media experience, an ingredient of an entertainment virtual reality? "No. There will always be a demand for pure music. There are times when need you other senses."
One visual aspect Plaid have been involved in was supporting Orbital on their recent UK tour. "It was incredible," (enthuses Andy). "The sound system was really excellent, it was just great to hear the music over such a loud and clear system. We were playing very early on in the night, but it seemed to go down very well."
Touring has also taken them further afield, to the states, where, with enthusiasm for electronic music still fresh, the last album is rumoured to have done particularly well. "We've played San Francisco and New York a couple of times, both of which were really excellent. We're both really hoping that when 'Rest Proof Clockwork' is released over there it does well, so we can get to see more of the states".
As the release of the new album looms nearer i ask Andy what he see as Plaid's finest moment so far? "I don't really see any particular moment, because moments don't last, they come and go, and memories are short. I think you always remember the latest good thing. We are really pleased with 'Rest Proof Clockwork'. On 'Not For Threes' we went in so many different directions, and i think with 'Rest Proof Clockwork' we're going more where we want to. I listened to it just a couple of months ago, and i'm still very pleased with it. I think 'Rest Proof Clockwork' is our finest moment".
For now at least, EM 'Rest Proof Clockwork' is out in June on Warp.
*CLOCKWATCHING
