AAA - Ask Autechre Anything - Sean and Rob on WATMM!

[Dale]

 

do you guys still feel highly respected by warp? it isn't like they've forgotten about you guys, afx, boc and other big players who have made them into what they are today?

do you get concerned about change of management at warp in the future and how this could impact your relations with them? i heard that plaid are unhappy with warp (read that in an interview) because as a label, they take such a big cut of the sales of records, that it is kind of grating on them now. i guess it might be different for your guys as you probably have a larger fan base than ed and andy?

 

i got no idea what kind of deal they got, ours is p good

 

u got a source for that quote?

Sean - here you go:

 

http://www.relevantbcn.com/index.php/egg-box-radio/djs-bands-producers/item/3899-plaid-interview

 

Have you thought of releasing material

on your own?

Yes, more so of late since Warp now distribute mostly through Bleep, which is an autonomous company. At present we are exclusively signed to Warp but there isn't really any point in this exclusivity now. Our advances aren't big enough to justify it and we could deal direct with Bleep and therefore not lose 50% of our income. It's a shame it has worked out this way though and I hope we can continue to have a relationship with Warp in some form in the future as we have a long and generally happy history working with them. We will shortly deliver a new album to them and come to a decision about our future output after that has run its course.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Bread

[Guest 21B]

once my r8 caught on fire, and my hands were covered in vodka so they also caught on fire, and to put them out i starting clapping my hands together, and all the audience started clapping as well, and some of them started setting their hands on fire as well, as a kind of tribute

 

 

lelz

[nizzleone]

Proportionally how much or your time in the studio is spent mixing? How much do you worry on stuff like EQing to reduce clashing frequencies or compression?

[Friendly Foil]

 

 

 

 

 

- fear of failure

 

 

- wouldn't turn up if so - hahah

 

 

What's the worst thing that ever happened while playing live?

 

once my r8 caught on fire, and my hands were covered in vodka so they also caught on fire, and to put them out i starting clapping my hands together, and all the audience started clapping as well, and some of them started setting their hands on fire as well, as a kind of tribute

 

i literally can't tell if you are serious or not

 

that is amazing if it is real

 

What a beautiful story.

[Sean Ae]

 

do you guys still feel highly respected by warp? it isn't like they've forgotten about you guys, afx, boc and other big players who have made them into what they are today?

do you get concerned about change of management at warp in the future and how this could impact your relations with them? i heard that plaid are unhappy with warp (read that in an interview) because as a label, they take such a big cut of the sales of records, that it is kind of grating on them now. i guess it might be different for your guys as you probably have a larger fan base than ed and andy?

on this tip I'll just quietly put this here

 

 

 

ah i see where you're going but tbh they always had weird things like coco steel and lovebomb or whatever

there's always been some things on warp we weren't hugely into, that's what labels are like

 

we approached them cos they seemed to be up for taking chances with artists, and we really liked lfo's and nightmares on wax's first albums

[gmanyo]

Have you ever tried "sega save bending" to make music, where you take one save state from one sega genesis game in an emulator and load it into another game to make crazy generated music? There was one comp done already here, and we're trying to do another one where we can actually manipulate the tracks afterwards a bit (though it is currently on hiatus, but we'll get to it soon). If you haven't, might you try it? What do you think of save state bending?

Edited November 5, 2013 by gmanyo

[zleep]

Hi, Sean, can you please name my home made sequencer? thx!

 

[Rob Ae]

Rob & Sean,

 

I know nothing of your personal lives, but, like, you guys sitting in your respective homes, answering a bunch of questions from fanboys & girls for most of the day, the past several days.

 

Aren't your wives/girlfriends like "awwright, can you like fix the damn running toilet, get the kids to school, go pick up some milk & cream, take out the trash, for christ sake, do something besides tappity, tap, tapping on your laptops!!!"???

 

or

 

"Oh, you're on watmm dear, let me top off your tea & fluff that pillow...carry on love."?

 

Don't get me wrong, you guys are f'ing champs for doing what your doing, but aren't you like bored yet?

lol

 

"...carry on love"

 

i fluff my own pillows thnx

There aren't too many examples of people remixing your music, is there a reason for this?

 

Would you consider releasing stems of tracks (new or old) so that fans could take a crack, or is that mostly tied up in the whole Warp thing?

more like we don't really 'do' stems

 

 

 

- fear of failure

 

 

- wouldn't turn up if so - hahah

 

 

What's the worst thing that ever happened while playing live?

 

god, loads.

[Sean Ae]

Do you think women are under-represented in the world of the idmz?

early on they weren't at all, in the uk you'd see tons of women at club nights we'd play at all the way thru the 90s, all across europe actually

 

but it changed a bit when the art scene started getting in on it, that's when it became less sexy

 

that and americans thinking idm is a thing, labels there selling it as brain music for white males

[lamourfou]

What about BEST gig?

[khov]

if you guys need some intern to classify your archives, pm me

(& i cook pretty well)

[xox]

 

 

 

 

 

for me oversteps is about memory

but i'm not gonna say much more than that

 

 

nostalgia ?

 

 

nah, memory

 

 

 

Actually ''memory'' has much more sense.

 

Regarding memory do u think that everything we know and everything we could know/discover/imagine/cognize (of course, including music) is just something we rediscover.

[Sam]

One story i heard involved you guys getting all your gear fleeced on the way to play a gig in the Red Box here in Dublin during the 90s, you ended up having to play a DJ set instead....

 

True?

[Guest 21B]

if you guys need some intern to classify your archives, pm me

 

 

perhaps you can help this guy do tod dockstaders?

 

[Guest]

Hi Sean, Rob.

 

I've only started reading this thread, and am really amused

 

I was wondering what book you are currently reading?

[casual helipad]

Greetings! Long time fan from Norway here. Big thanks to you guys for doing this, and of course thanks to watmm and Joyrex for making this happen! So some questions from the top of my mind (haven’t read through the whole thread so sorry if some have been asked earlier) So let’s jump straight in, shall we:

- Which book(s) are you currently reading (if any)? Are you mostly into fiction or do you read non-fiction as well, such as philosophy/science/documentary stuff etc?

- Any philosophers from any time period you are specifically into?

- Salvador Dali or M.C. Escher?

- Do any of you speak a foreign language? Do you know any phrases or longer sentences in Japanese?

- Are the chopped up robot sounding voices in Lentic Catachresis (sounds like a bunch of droids/machines/robots having some kind party, then it goes mental) sampled from any album or is it like field recorded samples? Have you ever used your own voices in any tracks (if yes, do you mind revealing which ones)? And who are the female voice used in Second Scepe?

- Did you sample any actual bell-like instrument for Parhelic Triangle? This track have so much substance, but yet a sense of creepy paranoia that I always get lost into it.. like I’m wandering around in a long dark corridor on some alien world with abandoned laboratories around me, where horrible experiments took place along time ago… and there’s some kind of lethal sentient entity (possible a result from one of those experiments) somewhere watching my steps…

I see films have been discussed in the thread so here are some film-related questions:

- Are you into Christopher Nolan’s films, like what do you think of Inception? And his revival of the Batman franchise? Opinions on Bane’s voice/accent?

- What do you think of Blomkamp’s last film, Elysium?

- What do you feel about R. Scott’s return to the Alien universe with Prometheus?

- Do you like Monty Python, and if yes, would you like to mention any favourite sketches?

- Who would win a match of pool (eight-ball, etc) between Sean and Rob? What about chess? Or othello (reversi)?

- Will you ever come back to Norway for a gig? I really enjoyed your set in Oslo during the Oversteps tour. If I’m not mistaken that was the first time you ever performed in Norway? How did you like the visit?

- Speaking of which… did you know that Pule actually means ”to f*ck” in Norwegian? (I really like the track btw, it has a feeling of rusty dryness to it, in a meditative calming way kind of)

Ok that was that! I really hope you’ll take your time to reply, but I see you have a hell of a job digging through all these posts!

(Oh and btw, I really appreciate your good sense of wit and irony you are expressing throughout this discussion! there seems to be a great vibe of light-heartedness going on between you guys and your fans!)

Cheers! :)

regards, Jan from Norway

[Sean Ae]

 

 

do you guys still feel highly respected by warp? it isn't like they've forgotten about you guys, afx, boc and other big players who have made them into what they are today?

do you get concerned about change of management at warp in the future and how this could impact your relations with them? i heard that plaid are unhappy with warp (read that in an interview) because as a label, they take such a big cut of the sales of records, that it is kind of grating on them now. i guess it might be different for your guys as you probably have a larger fan base than ed and andy?

 

i got no idea what kind of deal they got, ours is p good

 

u got a source for that quote?

Sean - here you go:

 

http://www.relevantbcn.com/index.php/egg-box-radio/djs-bands-producers/item/3899-plaid-interview

 

Have you thought of releasing material

on your own?

Yes, more so of late since Warp now distribute mostly through Bleep, which is an autonomous company. At present we are exclusively signed to Warp but there isn't really any point in this exclusivity now. Our advances aren't big enough to justify it and we could deal direct with Bleep and therefore not lose 50% of our income. It's a shame it has worked out this way though and I hope we can continue to have a relationship with Warp in some form in the future as we have a long and generally happy history working with them. We will shortly deliver a new album to them and come to a decision about our future output after that has run its course.

 

 

oh of course, they were one of rob's bands

 

yeah - the real reason's prob a bit more complex than this

[Rob Ae]

One story i heard involved you guys getting all your gear fleeced on the way to play a gig in the Red Box here in Dublin during the 90s, you ended up having to play a DJ set instead....

 

True?

that was hired gear that didn't turn up in time, but yeah Dj set borrowing tunes. TRUE ish

Edited November 5, 2013 by Rob Ae

[Sean Ae]

There aren't too many examples of people remixing your music, is there a reason for this?

 

Would you consider releasing stems of tracks (new or old) so that fans could take a crack, or is that mostly tied up in the whole Warp thing?

 

we never have stems for things, not how we work at all

but anyway nah not really interested in remixes that much tbh

[Guest InSpectr]

How need to do,in order for you to come to Russia?

whether you want to Russia?

If you have already scheduled visit , when?

[triachus]

 

 

The strangest thing I have ever encountered during one of your pitch-dark shows was that I bumped into a guy wearing a hotdog costume.

 

 

 

Are there any strange/weird/interesting/fun events/encounters that happened during one of your shows that you are willing to share, or was my encounter as crazy as it ever got?

 

Yesterdays unanswered question that I'm trying to push again. Shamelessly.

 

 

edit: ok, with a little shame.

 

sean pls

 

 

I'm shamelessly at it again

 

 

Doesn't have to be the most crazy thing ever, just some things from the top of your head. Do all stories involve with the audience setting their hands on fire as tribute?

[Sean Ae]

Proportionally how much or your time in the studio is spent mixing? How much do you worry on stuff like EQing to reduce clashing frequencies or compression?

 

not a huge amount, we mix as we go along

there's no 'mixing stage' as such

[Sean Ae]

how was it like doing the squarepusher remix? did he like it?

think so

i mean tbh i reckon it could have been better

i'd do it really differently now

fucking love the original

[patternoverlap]

Your process seems to be very organic and of-the-moment. Will you guys continue putting out Autechre material until you can't anymore or do you foresee an end to this at some point? (not implying that you should, I was merely curious. the thought of another 10-20 Autechre albums is a welcome one)

[Sean Ae]

Hi, Sean, can you please name my home made sequencer? thx!

 

 

your homemade sequencer is now called kiki