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Interview conducted
in November 2002
LATEST RELEASE:
"Outpost Transmission" |
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| |  | |   | | By Christophe Labussière | | Photos all rights reserved |
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Survivor of the Factory era, essential actor of the Mancunian scene, 808 State went through decades with their synths and their electronic. Successfully managing to link pop music and dance floors, 808 State accumulated distinguished collaborations like, among others, Bernard Sumner (New Order), Björk or James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers) on some outstanding tracks. With their recently released album "Outpost Transmission", they end their "hibernation" and clearly prove that Graham Massey and his mates are just as good as the young generation.
You have started to work with singers on "Ex:el", with artists like Björk or Bernard Sumner. Have you ever try to sing yourselves?
Yes we have tried to sing, well me and Darren have. But generally it's the lyrics that are a problem we tend to get not just singers but writers in... so many songs we have left off albums because the mood of the lyrics didn't fit the music around them.
How do you choose the singers? How did it happen with those on "Outpost Transmission"?
Well on "Outpost Transmission" we resisted using vocalists till the end of making the album. There were many suggestions from people around us and strangly they all tend to be 80s figures, I think the choices in the end were people we felt closer to, Simian was our live band drummer, also I play in other groups with him, and feel we have an similar view on music making. We knew Guy Garvey from Elbow just from hanging around the Night and Day Cafe in Manchester, which was the hub of the newer Manchester music scene for a while. Guy is so enthusiastic and experimental, he will just get up and sing in a jam session, he has no fear.The Alabama 3 were people Darren and Andy got to know whilst DJ ing at a place called the Dog Star In Brixton London, they have a bit of a reputation for living the rock and roll life style, so when they came to Manchester to record , it took us 3 days to locate each other, followed by some aborted sessions, In the end they recorded in their own studio. Which is so much easier these days with compatible systems like Pro Tools!
Is there a singer with who you would like to work in the future, a sort of improbable collaboration?
We've talked for years with Ian Brown (Stone Roses -editor note) about doing a song, and it's nearly happened a few times
What are your favourite collaborations?
Any thing with Bjork, Doughty from Soul Coughing on Bond, also the track we did with James Dean Bradfield from Manic street Preachers. I was sceptical about this idea, it's called Lopez, and I think it's a special record, not very us and not very him. A successful collaboration then.
We did an interview with Crispy (...) He produced their latest album... Could you tell me about your debut in music, before 808 State?
Yes I played the electric violin for the Crispys when they first started, I also thought of the name and did their first record sleeve. I was in a group before that with Alan, and used to make music in other groups with him. We had one that modeled itself on Throbbing Gristle called Blind Elaine. We also used to try and be Fripp and Eno in restaurants and shopping centres as a duo. We also had a punk group called Danny and The Dressmakers. Me and Alan were un unemployed for about 8 years and used to hang out most of that time. We live pretty close to each other now and so, it's natural they would ask me to produce them , I know what they should sound like. At the same time as Crispy Ambulance was going, I had a band called Biting Tongues. We rehearsed in the same house as them, shared equipment etc. and were also on Factory Records for a while. We were more like Can, more improvising/jazzy often we did gigs with 23 Skidoo and Rip Rig and Panic. We were going from 1978 to 1988. We did our last album whilst I was doing early 808 stuff and it also was very electronic by that point.
808 State was a part of the story of Manchester, but you don't appear in the "24 Hour Party People" movie...
We were in the original Script, but I guess we were cut out along with a lot of stuff. It certainly isn't an acurate documentary, it's a comedy. I was a bit annoyed that Pacific wasn't in the film as it used to get played as the last track of the night at the Hacienda for ages, it was the anthem of that time when it came to that club. I was there 3 or 4 nights a week because I worked as a sound engineer around the corner at the Boardwalk Club and I had a Hacienda get in free card because Biting Tongues were on Factory.
What is your favourite Factory/Manchester band?
Happy Mondays were fantastic live, Joy Division were spine tingling live. There was a period of A Certain Ratio that was great, Crispy Ambulance did some heavy gigs, Section 25 too. The Fall could be awesome. A lot of groups back then were Random, they had bad nights they had great nights, they took more risks.
You were so close to the sound of Crispy Ambulance and the Manchester's scene at that time... How could you, so easily, use so much electronic in your first album?
Electronics was something we always wanted to use but couldn't afford. The Crispys bought an "ARP Oddysea" synth which cost a fortune but was a thing of great wonder. They had a "Roland CR78" drum machine and I remember Alan buying a sequencer kit off Bernard Sumner but nobody knew how to work it. When Midi gear started coming out and the price of analogue dropped, that's when we could get busy. This gave me access to synths and computers and the sampler which really was a revolution. We were coming from a tradition of songs with electronic backing like New Order or Depeche Mode. A lot of the club music we were listening to in the late 80s had vocals, it's just that it was also cool to do instrumentals for the first time in a while. I like bands with a sonic Identity, with there own personality. If they can achieve that with a kazoo and a piece of string that's ok, it's becoming harder when every one uses the same equipment, you have to transend the equipment.
Was it as easy to make electronic music as it is now or was it harder?
It was the connectability of the Roland equipment that made it possible for us to do live gigs. The midi gear came later and we did some disaster gigs trying to use midi early on. It's so easy today, but perhaps less of a chalenge, back in the day it was all about how big you could get a kick drum how fat you bass is, but evrything is big and fat now be it britany or u2.
On stage, you use keyboards and guitars, won't you try to be a laptop-only band, each of you only using his own computer?
In the early days we were the equivalent of a laptop band, but as the rave era dawned the gigs were bigger we were headlining and we had to be more of a show. If you're doing an hour and a half you've got to give it a shape and make some songs stand out. Especially when we toured america for the 1st time. We have grown into something quite different to our records as a live band, we have to get something new out of it whilst touring, so it mutates. I still do the occasional laptop gig, it's a different discipline and I love Autechre and Plaid who do that thing really organically.
Your previous album was released in 1996, this one was announced early this year, was it difficult to find a label?
Yes, we are not the most fashionable of band at various points in music bizness time, we work to our own agenda, have a lot of experience and are not as malleable as a young band. We have our own identity, this can be a problem. Plus there are internal currents in a band that are going for so long as to what to make next, we did a whole album before "Output Transmission", that eventually became "State 2 State2" available as a free cd with Optibuk DVD on ZTT.
Technology has changed since your debuts, your music has also really changed, but there's always a recognizable 808 State sound? How could you explain that?
It's a musical Intent (Kraftwerk have it because it's not just the technology but the music) you could take the music and have it played by a rock band or an orchestra and it would still be solid. We do a lot of other music but when gathering tracks for an album the more melodic ones are more timeless, it's quite different if we are doing a remix for instance. Also I think every musician has a set of devices they like, or cetain musical feelings they go for over others, a lot of it is what you choose not to do as much as what you put in, call it taste... Go through our albums and there is a pattern. The Epics, The rockers, the Gay Disco number, the exotic deep in the jungle number, euphoria etc.
You were into acid/house music at your debuts, but now your sound is more precise, more subtle. Are you familiar with the "electronica" scene? Is there some bands you especially like in this scene?
There is a mood in a lot of current electronica that can only be described as neutral (suspended, pale, watery, all that Berlin stuff) and ocasionally I may enjoy this mood, I find it hard to love. There are the ocasional cute little 7 inch thing that goes in my dj box, I guess I'm looking for some humanity, and electronica is the wrong place to look. I just like what I like, some of the stuff Matt Wand puts out (Stockhusen and Walkman), the leaf label I trust, My friend Liela Arab does some incredible stuff that never seems to reach release. I often go out with Scam records posse and they've got some great Djs. There's a label in Manchester called City Centre Offices who run Pelican Neck records they keep me clued into that scene.
I have listened several times to "Outpost Transmission", and I think there's less relief that in your precedent albums, less energy, it's more serene. It's voluntary or you are more calm now?
It's strange but I don't have that perspective, I think the technology has imparted something different on this album it has a different preasure/atmosfear but these changes are often something that defines a record in its time. I wanted it to be like an aquarium, fluid, colourful, another world, that was the blue print then other things creep in. If we made another next week it would be about something else. So much weight on it if it's every 6 years. In my musical world it's one of many things, I hope it takes people to a nice place in their heads. They might be on an airplane, or driving down a mountain or on a boat or just in a shit pit bedroom with headphones on, it was certainly recorded in a shit pit area of Manchester that can only be decribed as the Hood, but I hope it can conjure up a better place. | | | | | | | |
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