It’s been
almost ten years since your last album proper, and almost
five years since the Re:volution single. What have you
been up to?
Generally, I’ve been away on the beach researching
my new film Beaches And Massages Of The World.
A guy called David Rockerfeller gave me $50m to produce
it with, but, um, we got through that and now we’re
seeking further funds. If any readers fancy contributing
just get in contact with us via Ninja Tune... In between
times we have managed to produce some art installations,
software developments, websites, some pirate radio stations,
remixes, productions, and, er, a child.
How did you get together, and what made you
decide to form Coldcut?
Jon and I met in classic DJ style in a second-hand record
shop where he was working. Reckless Records. He sold
me a bootleg copy of Cross The Tracks.
We were both fascinated by records coming from New York,
go-go, funk, and in particular the records of Double
Dee and Steinski. I had already done a record like the
Lessons trilogy. It was called Say Kids
What Time Is It? Jon liked it and we decided to
form Coldcut and put it out.
There was a real energy on the music scene in
the late eighties, with so many bands emerging and trying
new things around the rave scene. Is it something you
miss in today’s music scene?
There’s always a real energy around, but things
do go in cycles. The thing I miss in today’s music
scene is that it’s harder to be original because
there are a lot more people doing it and a lot more
things have been tried. Especially for mixers like ourselves,
a lot of the combinations have been tried, but there
are always more remixes and re-combinations. A lot of
journalists would say that today’s scene is really
vibrant with lots of new bands, many of which wield
guitars.
You were amongst the first artists of the
dance scene of the late eighties to form your own record
label. What prompted you to do this, and did you expect
it to become such a major label?
Ninja Tune was formed as a Technicolor escape pod to
get out of the music industry contractual swamp we found
ourselves in when we signed to a major label. We saw
that a lot of house producers used to release things
under different names, so we started DJ Food and that
was Ninja Tune. Ninja Tune is about small, sustainable,
organic growth and we always thought if we built it
well people would come. And there we are.
You’ve helped a wide range of artists
to establish themselves and their work through Ninja,
from DJ Vadim, Mr Scruff or Amon Tobin to Skalpel, The
Herbaliser or The Cinematic Orchestra. Is there any
particular artist you are proud of?
We’re proud of them all, but in many ways Strictly
Kev of DJ Food is my favourite student. He’s taken
what we do, and taken it further and further. He’s
also an amazing graphic designer and has done most of
the artwork on Ninja Tune.
Ninja released an impressive set of albums
and a DVD for the label’s tenth anniversary. Was
selecting tracks a difficult process?
It’s difficult to select the best tracks, ‘cos
we don’t do no shit, but we have an excellent
group mind in the form of the Ninja tribe, so when we
have difficult decisions to make a consensus is taken.
When I interviewed Luke Vibert a couple of
years ago, he said that Ninja was a very democratic
structure, with every artist encouraged to give their
opinion on releases and on the label in general. Is
this really the label works, and, if yes, what do you
think it brings to the label?
Everyone who’s around is encouraged to give their
opinion on releases including the people who work in
the office. Most of the decisions are taken through
consensus amongst the Ninja tribe. I think it brings
strength to the label because people feel we are different
from a monolithic corporation.
How difficult is it to remain independent
as a label when there are so many around and the majors
are more interested in quick return on investment than
on developing artists?
The majors’ problems are the majors’ problems,
although they do affect us. It is difficult at the moment,
with MP3s and CD copying. But we’ll remain independent
or die trying.
The mix album you did for Journey By DJ is
regarded as one of the best mix album ever. How did
you get involved with them, and what did you set out
to create with this album?
It was a time when our profile wasn’t as high
as it had been when we first started out, and I thought
‘Let’s show what can actually be done with
a mix album’. So there was a certain element of
competition. Let’s piss off everyone else who’s
made one, we thought.
You are also often involved in multi-media
projects. Do you see these as extension of the music
or is it something totally independent?
It’s all connected. I sometimes describe Coldcut
as a multimedia pop group. The path of music is fairly
well worn and established, but with multimedia and visuals
it’s a chance to work in a new area. It’s
fresh.
In 2001, you released the Re:volution
single to coincide with that year’s general election
in the UK. What was your intention with this record?
The intention with Re:volution was to have
a PARTY-political broadcast. We were satirising the
way politicians promote themselves like pop stars these
days. We were the Guilty party and we teamed up with
the Free party and the Church of the Sub-Genius. Our
intention was to dance before the police come.
Sound Mirrors is
a very eclectic record, with loads of collaborations
on it. How did you work on it? Do you have a preconceived
idea of what you want to achieve when you start on a
new track/album?
Each track is different. With the album the idea was
to make something coherent – to balance diversity
and coherence. We didn’t quite end up where we
thought we would when we started, but we’ve ended
up with something that’s a better album than we’ve
made before.
The album features collaborations with Jon
Spencer, Roots Manuva, Robert Owens, Saul Williams,
Annette Peacock and many more. How did these collaborations
come up?
With Roots Manuva, we knew we wanted to get Rodney on
a track if at all possible. Ross Allen and a night’s
boozing helped hook that up. There was one beat in particular
that I hoped he would chose and he did. We wrote him
a few lines outlining the direction we wanted his venom
to take. Annette Peacock came up because Mixmaster Morris
played me a track called Survival. So we found
her and phoned her up. That was that.
Did you get involved with the lyrics on the
songs of Sound Mirrors in any way or is it
something you leave to the vocalists?
Every track is different. I wrote the chorus of Everything’s
Under Control and wrote ideas for every verse which
Mike Ladd turned into a rap. Saul Williams was completely
freeform and the same with Roots Manuva. This Island
Earth was a track Jon put together with M’pho
Skeef.
When working with vocalist, do you work on
the music first or do you wait for lyrics and work the
music around them?
The music is always first. All the songs have come from
music we wrote first. Either we’ve got a vocalist
in and worked with them, or we’ve sent the track
to a vocalist.
These collaborations aren’t something
new in your work. Why do you like working with other
people so much, and is there anyone you would particularly
like to work with in the future?
The human voice is the primary instrument, but Jon and
I are not vocalists, but we are good at getting the
best out of other people and their specialties. Jon
describes what we do as being like a jeweller –
taking a stone and polishing it, not too much, and putting
it in a fine setting.
I’d quite like to do a track with M.I.A. She’s
wicked. I’d like to do a track with George Clinton
whilst he’s still around.
How do you regard your early work and how
do you think it has all aged?
I think our inspirations are consistent. Jon’s
still the collector and vinyl junkie, I’ve gone
off more in the scientific, research and development
line. In a way we have swapped roles of the years, it’s
quite weird. We’re just revisiting People
Hold On for our live show with Mpho Skeef and Robert
Owens. I think that has aged well. But that’s
aged well because it was a proper song which was written
with Lisa Stansfield. Novelty doesn’t age so well.
Email interview January 2006
Thank you to Matt and Laura
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