2014-10-07 KH interview: "We're already making a new album"

nelfun5 · #1 10-07-2014, 12:18 PM

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/in...new-album.html

Highlights:

What was it like going back in time to this old material?

"Painful! I hate looking back. I'm not a person that lives looking backwards. I'm always someone that looks in the day and forwards. It's not a process that I enjoy. I'm fortunate that this is a record I like a lot... I've been forced to do something that I wouldn't ever choose to do, but it's been rewarding."

Whose idea actually was it, then?

"The team around us really. Our crew, our team, the people that we've built up around us over the years. A lot of people that have been supporters of the band for a really long time, saying 'Hey, isn't it 20 years since dubnobass came out - it's a really great album - aren't you going to do something?'.

"Our attitude went from 'No', to 'Well, umm, let's have a look at this before we close down on that'. Rick has put in a huge amount of work, going back to the archives. He's someone who's a very dedicated archivist.

"He's enabled us to have access to all of the things that we've ever done... It was always for something and you go, 'Oh, maybe that's what it was for'. Maybe it was so one day we could tell a story."

The Royal Festival Hall isn't really a dance venue - will people be getting up on out of their seats?

"I think everyone's going to be standing. We went to Jon Hopkins the other day at the Royal Festival Hall and it was curious watching people very tentatively stand up and start moving about a bit. Eventually, they just all got up. I've been to the Royal Festival Hall quite a bit to see classical concerts and other things there.

"It is a beautiful venue, an iconic venue. To see people standing up in the posh seats and in their heads they're in another space - they're on a flat floor, and it's dark and there are lights and smoke machines - it's curious, it's quite surreal to be honest. I think it's going to be a little bit odd when we perform there to see that happen.

"It feels like the right thing to be doing at this time, to be trying a different kind of Underworld. The exciting thing about a band like Underworld, being in it, it's more than one kind of band. It always was, it's just that we pursued a live persona that was about very hi-energy dance-driven music.

"Our albums, and dubnobass is typical of it, were always about music that wasn't hi-energy pumping techno, it was about a different state of mind. There was very rarely an opportunity to play that music. Now we have the chance to explore Underworld being two types of bands."

Was there ever a thought of getting in touch with Darren Emerson?

"No, Darren's still a friend - a very good friend - and we stay in touch quite a lot. Darren chose to cut his own path, and it's been a long time since we performed together. One of the last shows we did was Glastonbury in '98.

"It's been a pretty long time since Darren's been in Underworld. It would be kind of weird for him because there wouldn't be anything for him to do on stage. It'd be uncomfortable for him to come on and hang about a bit. I'm sure he wouldn't want to do that kind of thing."

Are you already planning a new Underworld record?

"We're already back in the studio. If anything the Royal Festival Hall has held that process up because we have to really focus on that... we've started but it went on hold so that we could make sure that the show was exactly as we wanted it. Then two days after the Festival Hall we go back into the studio and continue writing."

How are you piecing the album together?

"It's really interesting. It could be somewhere in the region of five years since Rick and I worked together on an Underworld album. Obviously we worked together on the Olympics, and Frankenstein and Sunshine and film scores that we did, but it's been a long time since we wrote for Barking.

"We've both gone off and done other things, I've spent a lot of time writing with other people. So getting back in the studio that first day was, 'Wow, I wonder how this is going to work?' The extraordinary thing was we both really enjoyed it a lot and the results were really good, and we were looking at each other in slight amazement."

The press release promises further reissues - will they be equally full-on?

"I don't know - dubnobass is not alone in having quite a collection of work around it, both in terms of 12" remixes and archive material. We've recorded improvisations around albums since dubnobass, and we've done the web radio broadcasts.

"There's a big archive of unreleased tracks or versions or elements which didn't make it. My only hope that if it does turn out to be a project as intense as this one, that Rick isn't the one that has to do it! I need him back. He's a great partner, a great musician and a great innovator, and I don't know anyone like him."

khouri · #2 10-07-2014, 01:00 PM

"For me right now, I want to focus on working with Rick and working with Rick on new Underworld music and taking the band out next year... our priority is Underworld."

Well, that's the best news we could have hoped for. They're carrying on.

holden · #3 10-07-2014, 05:35 PM

Agreed, great news, and a pretty informative interview. I personally like the bit about the archival improvisations around the other albums. The dubno jams and outtakes are awesome, but it'll be just as enlightening to hear what the other LP's could have been in another universe!

TheBang · #4 10-07-2014, 07:02 PM

There's an interview of Karl in this week's Time Out London. The one with this cover:

Lx_Nen · #5 10-07-2014, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nelfun5

"There's a big archive of unreleased tracks or versions or elements which didn't make it. My only hope that if it does turn out to be a project as intense as this one, that Rick isn't the one that has to do it! I need him back."

I daresay one or more of us could do a fine job of curating the archive?

nelfun5 · #6 10-08-2014, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lx_Nen

I daresay one or more of us could do a fine job of curating the archive?

That would be an excellent initiative! That way the archive section could find its way back on the site.

Dunwho · #7 10-08-2014, 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nelfun5

That would be an excellent initiative! That way the archive section could find its way back on the site.

I know some people linked with these sites that would do an excellent and professional job with the archive.

That said, it is not so much just about archiving, as seen and heard with this release, it is actually about what doesn't get heard and what gets edited in and out. Tons of stuff has been collected together and released this time round, but for every version we hear on this cd there are probably 100 more versions that they still would not want anyone to hear, especially not their most enthusiastic fans.... because that would ruin the craft that we all subscribe to.

So i still believe it would have to be Rick and a hired producer putting together a collection of tunes for STITI or BF from their own archives...

Dunwho · #8 10-08-2014, 02:40 AM

Aside from all of that.

The news that they are working on something new... that is great news.

bornEpic · #9 10-08-2014, 01:56 PM

More Underworld music = more tours and opportunities to experience them live. Incredible news.

Dirty0900 · #10 10-09-2014, 09:43 AM

Uploads to UWLive would be interesting.