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Highlights of Aphex Twin Interview by Heiko Hoffman
 

Vordhosbn311 from Miami, Florida. USA on 2001-11-18 23:10 [#00053330]



[I typed up what I thought were the best parts of the
interview]

Place: Nettuno, a cheap Italian restaurant on the first
floor of the Elephant&Castle shopping center, South London.

Date: September 1, 1-4pm.

Do you play different sets for different occasions?

...I do lots of stuff with my laptop and that can really
mean anything. It's usually a mish mash of live and djiing.
But no one knows i'm playing live because I never actually
say it. I've been doing this now for about a year and a half
maybe. The reason I'm doing this is because if you're saying
you play live then its more like a gig and people just go
and stand and stare at you. But if you say your djing then
everyone dances and gets into it...

I remember that at the Sonar Festival in Barcelona this year
you were playing more of a hardcore gabba set.

...In dance places like massive raves I am more into
brutally fast music. There are lots of people on drugs and
they try to dance to it. I find that amusing. Lots of people
just stare at me now in clubs. They just come up and stare,
they don't even smile. And you get the impression that
your're only playing towards five people because u can't see
anyone behind them. Sometimes I can't be bothered and I end
up just playing total noise just to fuck them off...

Ok, you want to sell as many records as possible but you
won't release a single, there will be no video, you won't
have photos of you taken, you are only giving three
interviews worldwide and you are not going in tour is that
what you mean by promotion?

(laughing)...Also if it was upto me, I wouldn't do any
interviews at all, I wouldn't do any promotional gigs. To me
doing a little bit is as much effort as I'm going to
make...

Why is the album coming out now, five years after your last
album, "Richard D. James"?

(laughing) The reason I release this actually is that one of
those mp3 players and I had 282 unreleased tracks of mine on
it and 80 Squarepusher tracks I left on the plane... I was
with Grant(Wilson-Claridge, Rephlex Owner) on a flight to
Scotland to do a gig about 4 months ago. I've had the mp3s
for 6 months and he was laughing at me saying "Are you going
to lose that?" and I was like "I'm never going to lose
this!". And then 5 minutes later I left it on the plane...

Didn't you have a copy of the music on your hard disc?

Oh I didn't lose anything. I have the copies. I think I
would've commited suicide if I've lost the masters. Since
then I've been keeping my eyes peeled on the internet...But
probably an airstewardness nicked it off the plane and they
looked about 35 and they were probably into Bryan Adams or
something like that... If a fan would have got it I wouldn't
mind at all. It'd be a very nice present for someone to get
it. I'd like that as long as they wouldn't put it on the
internet and destroy my earning for like the next ten
years... So thats why I wanted to put out as many tracks as
soon as possible.

How old are the tracks on the album?

They range from seven or eight years until a few months ago.
But most of them are new

Some of the tracks sound very simple on others it seems as
if you have prepared the piano.

Yeah alot of the tracks are modified. I've prepared the
strings. I use scres and nails and bits of rubber, I've made
lots of little things so that you can change the harmonics
of the strings. When I bought this piano, because it was
really expensive. I thought I am going to break it staight
away if I'd started to take it apart. I've also done some
really complicated ones, sort of electronic versions, which
are really programmed. But I didn't put any of these on the
album because I wanted to put out the really simple ones
first. My favourite piano tracks are really simple ones. I
don't like it when they are flamboyant. Satie for example is
my favourite piano composer. His tracks are deceptively
simple, he's not wasting any notes anywhere.

Your music has been hugely influential. One of the more
prominent musicians who've said that they've been inspired
by your records are Radiohead? Did you listen to any of
their last two albums "Kid A" and Amenesiac"?

I don't like them. I heard maybe five or six tracks and I
thought they sounded really really cheesy.

Cheesy?
Yeah, really obvious and cheesy. I mean I'm just comparing
it to my favourite music and I think it's terribel compared
to that. But compared to all the shit boring R&B tracks it's
probably alright. Compared to those teen punk sort of bands
or whatever they are supposed to be called, who think that
they are really anarchic and stuff like that, they are
probably amazing. If you're only exposed to that kind of
stuff and then Radiohead comes along you will probably think
that they are geniuses.

You choose not to put put your face on the cover of your
records this time.

Yeah, and its totally on purpose. And I haven't done any
more videos and it's not my fault that they keep playing the
same videos over and over again on MTV or where ever. I
don't like to be forced down people's throats the way other
famous people are. I don't want to walk in a shop and people
go "Oh no, not that fucking twat!".

Speaking of more commercial artists - both Madonna and Bjork
have asked to work with you, haven't they?

(laughing) Yeah, off course! They all want it!

But Madonna was the first of them, for example, to work with
Chris Cunningham.

...I was actually really into doing tracks with her. But I
just didn't want to do it then. She was too famous. If I did
it everybody would just be like "Oh Yeah, you're the person
she did a track with". You're whole career would just
dissappear. Everything that you'd work for before would
dissapear.

Why did you turn down Bjork?

Bjork was also on Tom's (Jenkinson) case. She's been on
everyone's case. She also did some stuff with Bogdon
(Racyznski). He was going to do a track on her album and
they didn't use it. They were quite sort of crafty and
business. They just wanted to give him ten percent but I
think if you work with someone you should always get fifty
percent. It doesn't seem very respectful. But she doesn't
get involved with that stuff she has people doing it for her
in case it goes wrong. It's a bid sad in some ways. I mean
she wants to work with the people she likes but at the same
time she's really obsessed with "This is the newest thing",
you know "goldfish memory". For some reason people always
think the best things are the most recent things.

Wouldn't you be interested in doing something with Bjork the
musician rather then with only Bjork the vocalist.

...When you deal with Bjork she's like: "Ok, I'm going to
fax you the details and you are going to send me that..." If
I'm going to do a track with someone I'd have to be their
friend. I'd have to spend some time with them and you'd have
to come around my house and drink fifty cups of tea and
smoke some spliffs and get pissed. You can't just send me
the track. That's really cold and I think she didn't really
understand because she has donie it that way all her life. I
think she has forgotten how to relate to people.



 

Ophecks from Nova Scotia on 2001-11-19 01:45 [#00053354]



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