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Old 06-30-2020, 11:41 AM
TheBang
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Sunny Hawaii
Posts: 4,840
Re: Underworld feature at Bandcamp
Great interview, thanks.

-- pt2 below

I had actually been bingeing on The Necks’s music when I got this assignment. You did a full collaboration with them for this series. Where did you first encounter their music, and how did you meet them?

Hyde: I met them years ago. Brian Eno put together an ensemble called Pure Scenius for a run of shows of improvised music at the Sydney Opera House, and that’s where I met them. They were intimidating at first, because they were so accomplished; but within seconds, they were no longer intimidating, because they were so open and generous and welcoming. We stayed in touch ever since. I think I bored Rick to death about them. [Smith laughs] But no, he obviously understood that there was something there and when we met up, it became apparent that it was a really good idea to explore a session improvising with them.

Smith: Karl didn’t bore me, but he did go on about them a lot over the years. But it all always seemed to me [that] he was genuinely thrilled and excited about being with them—not just making music, but about them as people. And fundamental for me if I’m going to work with people, and it’s going to be effective, is that they’re enthusiastic, and that there is some fighting chance that they’re decent—because, you know, I know great music can be made by bankers. But, no surprises, these are beautiful people who just make exploration and existing in a room together as easy as it’s morally right to expect. It was a fantastic couple of days spent with them in a very lovely studio very different from the rest of the making of Drift—making raw material and just exploring one jam, one song. I would do it again tomorrow—you know, as long as we could afford it. [laughs]

I’m also curious about [producer] Ø (Phase). How did the division of labor go with him?

Smith: Ashley [Burchett, aka Ø (Phase)] came over to my studio. I think the first thing we did together was start on “Border Country.” It started in the room together and evolved largely across the internet—we live about 60 miles apart. It was bloody great. This guy’s got no fear, and a beautiful kind of balance of respect and lack of respect. He’s just fucking talented. He operates from the heart. There’s something about his music—I came to it really late on. I couldn’t honestly, to this day, describe what it is about what he does, but I just love his spirit and how he brings that into his music. We’re still working with Ashley, Mr. Phase.

Hyde: A very easy man to work with. And as Rick said, it’s quite fundamental that when you work with people, that there is a balance of respect and lack of respect—that they have a sense of themselves that doesn’t get lost in some kind of idea of who you are. It can be quite rare. And he has it.

“Threat of Rain” is classic Underworld—long, with a lot of force. Who determines the length of a track? Does Karl hear it and go, “I need to stretch this out so I can extemporize”? Does Rick decide that it needs to go on for a while?

Smith: We do, sometimes, but we don’t often stretch things out, right? What is more likely with us is to cut things down—because we don’t feel it’s interesting enough. So, more often than not, we shorten things. We’re very interested in capturing the moment and in improvisation. And often the songs are built out of little [improvised] pieces like that, rather than kind of classic, sit-down songwriting type things. [The song] “Molehill” was different; we sat down like a couple of Elton Johns [Hyde laughs] and did it kind of old school, but most often it’s not like that. I have a stubborn streak, which leaves mistakes in—like, really bad and obvious ones—for as long as possible, because the disruption is relentlessly stimulating. So leaving a track imperfect is just part of the process.

Another song, “Tree in Two Chairs”—I really liked the drums on that one. It’s very jazzy; it feels like funk fusion, parts of it remind me of Stevie Wonder.

Smith: You’re saying all the right things, man.

Hyde: Can I say something? I don’t even know what song you’re talking about. Like, you would have to sing them to me and then I go, “Of course! I know every detail of that track.” But “Threat of Rain” now? Don’t know what it is. [Smith plays the track from his phone -ed.]. Oh, I was listening to that last night! I love that one. The way you did that hi-hat thing is amazing. Those reverbs they’re just…it’s so incredible. [back to interviewer] This is a constant problem. I have no idea what anyone’s talking about.

Smith: I started this one as as an experiment in fusing repetitive, almost ‘70s-style electronic sequences, which are very easy to do on a modular, with something that felt more like what happens if there’s a real drummer and a real bass player involved. It actually came together quite quickly, but it sat there for a long time feeling really long and intriguing to us—“There’s something really great about this, but it doesn’t seem enough.” So we did spend a fair amount of time experimenting with this particular piece. And the drums, that’s me, with software. I can’t play drums like that. And that was an enjoyable bit of Lego-building—trying to build a drum track that felt more alive, but didn’t lose the original intent.

Hyde: One day we’ll be able to encourage [session drummer extraordinaire] Steve Gadd to join the band.

Last edited by stimpee; 07-09-2020 at 12:56 PM. Reason: added interview text