“IT ISN’T EASY TO KEEP PEOPLE’S ATTENTION FOR 15 MINUTES”
adding a live console, which has added even more of a performance element when putting the mixes down.
“It’s taken me 30 years to get to this point. Honestly, I’ve only really liked the last few records I’ve done. It’s taken me that long to hone my skills and have confidence in my work. I think not being a straight-up musician throws a spanner in the works.”
Are you mostly a ‘sequencer’-type producer, then?
“Definitely, because I can kind of take my time with it. Most things start with a sequencer. As I’ve said, I’ve had this equipment since the Contino Sessions but it’s only been since being here in Metal Box that I’ve had everything running live.”
And you purposefully set it up so that you have access to everything?
“I spent some time thinking about how I was going to do it. I ended up going down this route of using the ACME-4. That’s the sync box for everything. At first it was hard getting things to lock in, but the ACME really helped.
“It’s made by SND who also made my SSM-16 sequencer. They’re both made by the same guy, Sebastian. I think Florian Schneider was involved with that company too. He built a lot of stuff for Kraftwerk.
“I can get a sequence for any synth – for example, the Juno is currently linked to the SAM-16 – change the timing of it, put individual swing onto each thing. It’s a really organic way of working and it’s a really great system.”
Tell us about your two recent albums – Deep Rave Memory and Future Rave Memory. What’s the relationship between those two?
“After years of Death in Vegas, what with that having such a history and so many collaborations, I felt it was important to do something that was more reflective of me as a DJ and artist. But while I was doing it I was putting down some ambient mixes and ended up thinking
‘man this works really well’, I could carry this over onto other sounds and thought ‘OK, there’s another record in here’.
“Then with the shit we’ve all gone through, I wasn’t able to go into the studio as much because I was needed at home. It was actually kind of nice to come in less. I valued it more. It’s become kind of a healing place to be. I was lucky that I could channel everything with this record. It became this cathartic thing, my own way of dealing with how I feel currently.” How much of the album existed pre-lockdown? “Some tracks are reworkings of tracks on Deep Rave Memory.I wanted to be another version of it – a Future Rave Memory of the
Deep Rave Memory. I didn’t want to do that just by taking the drums out. I wanted to keep pushing the songs until I was in a happy place with them.
“The last track on that album
Our Acid House was actually written on the day that I found out Andrew Weatherall had died. Dan [Daniel Avery – who works in the next door studio] and I were both working that day and Dan did a piece unbeknownst to me. We both used to have studios around where Andrew was and we were close to him. It floored us.” Do you find it harder to work on ambient, beatless tracks? “There’s a lot of dialogue about ambient music and artists where people say it’s super easy to do. On some level it definitely is, but what isn’t easy to do is keep someone’s attention for 15 minutes. That, to me, means there needs to be narration in the song; every sound and effect part needs to work around what’s already been put down.
“That level of depth isn’t easy to do. My biggest fear is that people say ‘it’s good but fuck me, it goes on a bit’. There has to be a journey in each song, and definitely throughout the album.”