Jump to content
IGNORED

Syro period interviews

Boris de Vries

By Boris de Vries
in Aphex Twin

Recommended Posts

Boris de Vries Collaborator

Boris de Vries

Posted
Posted

The current list of interviews for Syro:

 

Fader (Preview)
Fader (Full interview)

 

Pitchfork (Preview)
Pitchfork (Full interview)
Pitchfork (note: links to mp3 - podcast about the interview)

 

​Groove (Preview #1)
Groove (Preview #2, other producers ask Richard)
Groove (Full list of other producers questions)

 

OOR (Bonus Beats #1 translation by Herr Jan here )
OOR (Bonus Beats #2 translation by Toastmann here )
OOR (Full interview translated by Herr Jan in .doc)

 

Rolling Stone (Full interview)

 

Spex (Full interview, translated by rd1994 from these scans)

Tsugi (Full interview, translated by Perezvon)

Obsessions (Full interview, no translation yet)

 

Q-Magazine (Scan of the first page of the interview)
Q-Magazine (Printscreens of the full interview by korona15)

Noyzelab (Part One) (offline unfortunately, PM Herr Jan)
Noyzelab (Part Two) (offline unfortunately, PM Herr Jan)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 710
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Guest transmisiones ferox

Guest transmisiones ferox

Posted
Posted

Good idea, I think that were the only three interviews known so far.

 

has anyone done a translation of that OOR interview?

I'll give it a go when the full thing is released, which is september 11th.

that's great, looking forward!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Allize Proficient

Allize

Posted
Posted

 

Good idea, I think that were the only three interviews known so far.

 

has anyone done a translation of that OOR interview?

I'll give it a go when the full thing is released, which is september 11th.

 

Never forget.

 

 

It will be just as explosive

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MassfreeKid Experienced

MassfreeKid

Posted
Posted

"Then he also put these two other records up for sale Analogue Bubblebath 5 and Melodies from Mars and I asked him to stop it because I want to release them properly through Warp. Its part of my back catalogue that I want them to put out. Then this Notch guy, this Minecraft guy who also bought the Caustic Window test pressing on Ebay bought these from him. And I said fine as long as he doesnt release them. I just dont want anyone to bootleg them."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Herr Jan Grand Master

Herr Jan

Posted
Posted

I wanted to keep track of it all in the original post but now I've noticed that i can't edit it anymore. Got something to do with my subscription eh? :cerious:

I'll try and keep it up! Forgot about that Groove interview immediately, let's add that :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Boris de Vries Collaborator

Boris de Vries

Posted
  • Author
Posted

 

I wanted to keep track of it all in the original post but now I've noticed that i can't edit it anymore. Got something to do with my subscription eh? :cerious:

I'll try and keep it up! Forgot about that Groove interview immediately, let's add that :)

 

Ah cool, thanks :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Herr Jan Grand Master

Herr Jan

Posted
Posted

Can somebody translate the translation?

Here it is!

 

Aphex Bonus Beats (1): Syro’s marketing

August 27th 2014

 

He’s back and he speaks. Three days after his 43th birthday Richard D. James (august 18th 1971) secretly welcomed a handful of journalists in London. Oor’s Koen Poolman was the first in line. The first Aphex Twin interview in ten years. It turned out to be an hour and a half worth of fireworks. In OOR 9 you’ll get the full report (out on September 11th), but these are some bonus beats:

 

No, we won’t describe the music just yet. That was a deal we made between Warp and their Dutch distributer V2, and a deal’s a deal. Although the American website The Fader, that was allowed a 20-minute conversation with James, had a different plan. They were the first to publicize a part of their interview ,which marked the beginning of the end of Warp’s detailed prepared promotion campaign ( trying to keep the release and interview info a secret for as long as possible). With permission of Warp we now publicize some outtakes of our interview.

 

So Syro it is. The new Aphex Twin album was announced through a tweet on James his 43th birthday. In the tweet a deep link to a site only accessible with a Tor browser, nice and shady. Apart from the tracklist the artwork was also presented. A list containing costs. It turned out to be the actual marketing- and promotion costs for Syro, confirms Nicolas Fritz (from Warp).

This way we learn what the costs for the watermarked CD promo’s are, the amount of money spent on sending out radiopromo’s to Germany, even what has been spent on posters, specifically in Kopenhagen and Aarhus, what the budget for pay to click digital advertising and social media digital advertising in the US is and also that the highest costs on the list are the average distribution charge and customs duty. Still there remains some mystery on how to interpret these numbers. In any case, the list of Syro is a long and tiring one. ‘Those are the real costs’, tells James when we sit next to him in a Hotel restaurant in London.

 

So you really paid for the downloads of Warp employees of your own old, before unreleased Caustic Window album, witnessing the pricetag on the artwork ‘Purchase Caustic Window LP download codes for Warp Staff and Contacts’?!

 

‘They paid for it, that is correct. Is that on the list though? It shouldn’t be included in this list. Hmm… Was that already a part of the promotion then? When I proposed this idea to Warp, to include all the promotion costs on the sleeve, it was just a random thought. It wasn’t a brilliant idea. But I find it interesting because of a couple of reasons. First I was curious to see it for myself. What are they exactly doing with all that cash? The costs are never specified on royalty checks that I receive. I have a 50-50 deal with Warp (turn outs are being equally distributed to both parties áfter taking care of all the production and promotion costs). It’s really not that I’m obsessed with money, I’m just curious. I want to know everything. So when I saw the artwork with all the prices, it started living for me. Honestly, I would’ve expected a much longer list, about twice as long. But it’s long enough as it is, and the artwork is different for each format (vinyl, CD, etc.) as well.’

 

‘The second reason is: I want to really delve into the process. When I’m looking through a magazine I’m not necessarily interested in the artists and the interviews and the reviews. I’m more interested in the mechanics behind those stories: what does an interview cost? How much would it cost for that advert? What amount of money is needed to get my album reviewed in a magazine? Where is the money coming from, where does it go? Basically, Iwant a financial disclosure with the magazine I buy. I asked Warp to ask all the journalists today how much they get paid to interview me. Did they ask you already?’

 

I haven’t found myself yet on the sleeve of Syro’s artwork – unfortunately. My French colleague is –witnessing the ‘travel expenses from France London’ – worth about ‘0.00133 pounds (per unit)’. I’m hoping I’m worth as much. If you want I could send you the year budget of Oor magazine?

‘That would be cool!’ Continued: ‘I find that stuff more interesting that the endresult. I haven’t read your magazine yet (the one with Alt-J on the cover lies on the table, untouched), but if you would open a normal magazine then the process behind it is more interesting than the actual content. The stuff in the background. It’s the same with my music. If you don’t like my record, you could still be interested in the budget behind it [laughs]. Besides that, now I know for sure if Warp is cheating on me or not. If they would have something to hide, they ‘d never agreed to the idea. But they did, so… that’s a comforting thought. And now that everyone knows how much Warp pays for all this promotion, maybe some other parties will show up that will do the job for less. Just let the market do its thing’.

 

‘The fans also don’t have a clue what it takes to release a record, and maybe for the better. But it can be annoying as well. My last records (the Analord series, the Chosen Lords compilation, two EP’s as The Tuss, all between 2005 and 2007) were all released by myself on Rephlex Records. The luxurious leather binder for those Analord records was about 80 pounds (Herr Jan’s editorial note: this was said by Richard but it was actually 40 pounds including postage and packaging ánd Analord 10 – see here: http://web.archive.org/web/20050110224908/http://www.rephlex.com/analord10.php). A lot of fans thought that was way too expensive. Oh, he’s milking us! But the fact is that we lost money on that thing! The production of the binder alone was between 85 and 90 pounds. That thing cost me thousands of pounds! So it’s good if fans know what they are paying for.’

 

Was that the reason behind Rephlex now being defunct (since October of last year)?

‘It didn’t help in any case, no, but there was more going on as well. I felt bad about it. Everything that isn’t a standard release is a fucking headache. If I ask something like that to Warp there’s a whole team behind it and everything is calculated and accounted for. With Rephlex I would just ask (longtime friend and companion) Grant (Wilson-Claridge). Grant, shall we release those 12-inches in a binder? And yes, we just did it. Fuck it. Don’t doubt, do it! Every time I opened my mouth it was two weeks of work for Grant. I have to watch out with that. With Warp it’s different. During our last meeting they told me: you can do anything you want, make it as crazy as you want, we’ll just add it in the retail price. I believe they recently did a special release with Brian Eno that was about 200 pounds. I wouldn’t go that far, but I do want to do something special that’s really worth it. As long as it would state on the sleeve how much everything would cost, so people know you’re not paying 200 pounds for a piece of plastic but for a high quality product.’ KOEN POOLMAN

 

http://oor.nl/#!/articles/aphex_bonus_beats_1_de_marketing_van_syro/news

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ivan Ooze Grand Master

Ivan Ooze

Posted
Posted

didn't see that groove interview yet, looks like warp is gonna take control of the mfm and ab5 albums, that's pretty awesome

clears a lot up of the confuses from the e-bay sales asswell

nice mention of watmm 2 :beer:

 

i'm derphlexed of this spontanious return of our anal lord, there are so many great things to come i'm sure

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

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

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • 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.