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TOM: Since
we have the engineer here, I wanted to ask about sampling. It
must be critical to engineer the samples differently, in order
to make them sound different and aged, like true, vintage
jazz-funk break beats?
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GEOFF,
ADRIAN, AND DAVE: Definitely,
absolutely.
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ADRIAN:
There are a lot of
processes that go into our own way of
doing it. |
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DAVE:
Making samples old means
everything from using old tape, to pressing stuff to vinyl, to
Geoff wearing it in on vinyl. It's endless. That's part of what
was taking time to make the album in the first place-- you've
got the whole problem of writing the stuff, selecting the
samples, and then aging the stuff. |
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ADRIAN:
We also use a lot of old
equipment. We have got a massive collection of old stuff.
Nothing sounds like it. If you want something in the Solina
strings, like Herbie Hancock, then you've got to have Solina
strings and that's it. |
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TOM:
I read somewhere that you guys had some classic, old
keyboards.
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ADRIAN:
Shitloads of 'em.
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TOM:
I'd heard that somebody had given out your address and your
biggest worry was not that people were going to show up, but
that they were going to take your stuff.
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GEOFF,
ADRIAN, AND DAVE: [Laugh] |
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TOM:
So what kind of stuff do you have that's really vintage?
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ADRIAN:
I've got millions of old
synthesizers-- MiniMoog, Arp 2600-- organs, Fender Rhodes,
vintage peddles, vintage valve equipment-- you know, tube
equipment. It's worth a lot of money, but more than that it's
difficult to find. When I was a kid, that was the kind of gear
that was being used and I always liked it. I always wanted an
Arp 2600, but it took me 'til now to get one. I always knew that
it was a Neutron Phaser or Solina strings, and not a Mellotron. |
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GEOFF:
When we go into writing
the beats, the production is an important part of it . We don't
use any more than the facts. We use a valve to play reverb; we
use space echo or tape echo. It's those things that actually
make a break sound like a break. The overall vibe there is on
it. |
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ADRIAN:
And the room we record it
in is pretty important, as well. |
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GEOFF:
So it's really come back
to that 'every little detail? thing. Why does that snare drum
sound like it does? It's because it's in this room, it's played
like that, it's miked like that, it's going through that reverb
and then being burnt on something. |
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ADRIAN:
If you predominantly
listen to that kind of music-- either soundtracks or hip-hop, or
music from that time-frame-- your ears are completely and
utterly tuned. Not in a deliberate way; that's just how it is.
Blue Note production has a sound, and if you only listen to Blue
Note and then you listen to a Phil Collins record, the Phil
Collins will sound like it has too much treble in it. Not that
there's anything wrong with a Phil Collins record. |
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TOM: Has
it been exciting for you guys to be able to engage your
passion for vintage vinyl breaks not by simply sampling them
but by actively playing them live?
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GEOFF,
ADRIAN. AND DAVE: Absolutely |
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DAVE:
That's what makes us go in
every day, isn't it?
ADRIAN: It's like a big
toy shop.
GEOFF: It's everything. It
is totally everything.
ADRIAN: It's the pain we
went through doing it that's the nasty bit. The actual playing
it is...
GEOFF: Exactly. To round
it off with someone like Beth as well with her songs and her
lyrics, and the atmosphere that she creates for us, is exactly
what we want to do. There are no false pretenses. She doesn't
write songs just to write songs. There has to be a real meaning
for her about things-- because then you get that realness,
rather than a girl just singing "Dee-dee dee-dee dee."
It makes the whole thing absolutely work for us-- though we can
only speak for ourselves. What works for other people is up to
them. But making music like that is exciting, because Beth will
come back with a song and you think, "Christ, that is
exactly it!" |
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TOM:
Can you explain to me your ability to craft these remarkable
songs? How does the process work? Does Beth do her tapes
herself?
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GEOFF:
Sometimes, what happens is
that she says, "I'm gonna write a tune" before we've
laid down a track, and then she sends it back, so we can write
some beats around it. She'll send us back a tape and-- it's
really weird-- she'll have created a backing track that has,
like, no musical relevance to what she's singing over the top.
Sometimes it will be absolutely right on, but other times it
will have nothing to do with....
ADRIAN: Or some crazy
thing. She's got her own studio, set up with a sampler and a DAT
machine and stuff.
GEOFF: So she ends up
making these kind of beats and stuff. And the other thing that
can happen is that we'll send her down a backing track and
she'll re-sample it-- slow it down, or speed it up and re-loop
it, and send it back with a song on it-- and you're thinking
"Where's one? Where does it drop?" And it's because
she's got it looped in-between the first bass drum and the first
hi-hat.
ADRIAN: It creates that
incredible vibe. |
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TOM:
But it's not intentional, is what you are saying.
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GEOFF:
No, no. It sounds really
naive.
ADRIAN: Spiritual.
GEOFF: It's naive to the
rules of sampling.
ADRIAN: Turn the dial
until it feels right.
GEOFF: It's fascinating to
go through.
ADRIAN: But then she can
come back with something that's totally complete-- well, nearly
complete. |
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TOM:
OK, so it goes, back and forth. Is the backing track usually
written afterwards? Does Beth write the music first?
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ADRIAN:
The backing track is
usually written first. But sometimes she'll write a song on a
backing track and we'll change the backing track. |
