Interview with Aphex Twin - I like to have control

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Krakow, which we see behind the window, is far away from being an industrial metropole,
in which the techno sound develops.
why did you come back here?

they invited me

Not just here!

But here they seem to like me. Besides that, I liked it the last time I was here.
In 2009 I played two concerts at the Sacrum Profanum festival.
I toured a lot recently as a DJ and I'm planing to take a rest, but it depends on how well
my project goes for you [European Culture Congress]..dedicated to Penderecki.
Because I think about preparations for future sound installations or some projects with classical
music.

You got bored?

Kind of, repetition is boring.

Many years passed since your last record.
Are you recording now?

All the time, I continuously work in the studio, actually in the studios.
I have 4 of them for different purposes.
On the other hand, I stopped working on a laptop, on planes, on the run in general.

But you seemed fascinated with laptops as working tools.

True. Using a portable machine for music purposes seemed to be like a dream.
When I started using portable computers in 1994-95, there wasn't much choice
for software - that kind of situation was challenging.
Sure a laptop frees you from work in one certain place, but in the end you realize,
that you lack good monitoring, that you lack a studio.


How does the fact change music, that you need tools - laptop and simple applications -
being available for nearly everybody ?

This is an irritating phenomenon, because everything became easy.
The easier something is, the shittier the end result.
The more pains a musician is taking the better the result will be.
I know I'm generalizing but, I've been struggling in the past with gear problems.
If this hadn't been the case I would have recorded much more music, but for the price of
quality loss.

But wasn't this all about being in the secret, obligatory to create electronic music back then,
and today this all disappeared ?

Why ? It has good sides. Today's programmers create tools inspired by what
I used to do. It happened that I used some of them, say back coupling. thats strange but nice.

Your new studios ensures quality?

For me its essential, the acoustics of the room, because until now, I used to work
in regardless circumstances. Now I have a big console, a piano studio which is
connected to another one which contains a large set of percussion instruments, controlled by
a robot, which was build by Godfried Willem-Raes from Logos Foundation,
a well known engineer for such devices.
Due to this I can prise sounds out with genuine methods by hitting
objects as its been programmed beforehand. The hole thing is coupled with a piano [prob. keyboard]


Sounds like the continuation of the ideas on drukqs.

Back then I had a computer controlled piano. Now I have two instruments that function
in a similar way. My latest pieces where done this way - there are no
electronic sound sources. No synthesized sound.

I was just about asking you if you replaced electronic instruments with acoustic.

Don't know if anyone believes me, but in the beginning, as a boy, recording electronic
music, I was thinking that someone, one day would want to perform it with traditional instruments.
I simply was waiting. This way it becomes better than just played syntheticly.

You were one of the first techno creators which music was played by an orchestra.
London Symphony or Alarm Will Sound. What do you think about those interpretations?

Some of them turned out well. In Poland I will work with an orchestra and I'm convinced
that the result will be satisfying. But on the previous ones often I had no direct influence.
The interesting thing with London Sinphony was, when they tried to prepare the piano
accordingly to sound like on the record. That guy tried to do it in front of my eyes,
in a complicated way, with the help of screws, while sweating, and he succeeded in creating the
proper tone color on the day of the concert.
Back then I did it the easy way: I put a chain on the piano strings.

You didn't tell him ?

Of course I did, I said:  "it was a chain". He wasn't listening and was acting strange.
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Will there be any concerts of that kind in future?

I will come back to poland next year for another project, probably.
For years now I had ideas for sound installations.
I separate them, in those that are just absurd and impossible and in those that are realizable.
Turns out half to half. Some of them are quite simple. but all of them require some kind of
requirements. Maybe I implement them, maybe I just make those ideas public and just wait until someone
prepares them.

What keeps you away from it?

In the world of arts, its not just about good ideas, you have to know and convince ppl.
This is what I can't do. Once I had an idea for setting up the turbine hall in
Tate Modern. I was trying to convince to local curator. He told me, that its a
good idea, but for sponsoring only ICI would qualify. [implying that it would cost a shitload]

Do you protect your indepentance?

Simply spoken, if something becomes too complicated, I give up on it.
I like simple solutions.

So is reworking Pendereckies work from 40 years ago in Wroclaw a simple solution?
Or more "natural" from the point of view of rhythmical techno music,
its Steve Reich you will play at Sacrum Profanum ?

Probably, but more interesting were the reactions of my friends when they heard that I
got my hands on "Polimorfie". "Wow Penderecki!" -  they said. "Great". Had no clue that so many
of my acquaintances love this creations. More because of the fact, that they remember Kubrick's
Shinning. But thats something.

Maybe todays electronic music set their minds for Pendy-Music. You said that ppl started
to get into non harmonic sounds.

True. Ppl listen to more strange pieces and to music, what was considered avanguardism 10-15
years ago, today is a common thing.

Don't you have the impression, that even pop music is undergoing [that] evolution.
With Lady Gaga for example, sounds are contained that would have been considered as
non comforting.

I don't listen too much to pop music. I try to avoid it, because every time I hear it, here
and there, I start recomposing it in my head. So by avoiding it, it doesn't go on my nerves.


Whats your opinion on sound [aesthetics] in this music ?

Its quite extreme. Strongly compressed to maximize the volume.
Recently I've been looking through a pile a sounds from some chart music, and it
seems that its incredibly loud music. Louder than many of "trade-off less" noise
recordings. And I use those same audio processing applications myself and I know how to set them
up, how to makeup to average loudness in the same manner as the audio producers of advertising industry do it,
but the problem with this is: it destroys the transitions of the broadcasted sound character.
And the dynamic drops to zero. Everything is on the same level. Honestly
speaking: it fascinates me that this is popular music and ppl want to listen to it.


Maybe they got used to it, and they won't be able to listen music recorded back than?

If we compare my strongest (in the sense of volume) recording from the 90ies to todays
pop music it will be 10 times quieter, but has so much dynamics in itself that if you turn
the knob on your amplifier it will sound better. Its nothing contemporary producers aim at.
They try to make people not to regulate their amp knobs so they get max volume right away.
Thats the case with radio and television broadcasting.

Do chart producers still call you with up with colab proposals?
Used to be many: madonna, bjoerk.

Yes, I get proposals all the time for remixes or other stuff. But I say no on purpose.
Used to have a good excuse: I was building my studio for 3 years.

Why didn't you try, just once?

Well actually one time I agreed. Worked with a south african group called "Die Antwoord".
They came with a mission in my studio - becoming the worlds biggest band.
Maybe they succeed. They came on the beginning of the year and said: by june we will have
a finished album. I asked: with me ? They: sure, I: well maybe one song. Because sure I could do
a selling hit, but I would need a couple of months for this. But they wanted everything
right now, they tried some motivation methods on me, but in the end I said goodbye.
I don't want to be controlled in any way.

What do you think about the new electronic "wave", that seems to connect to what you did
in the 90ies. Like Flying Lotus, Rustie ?

Theres lots of interesting music at the moment, but I don't like the aesthetics [sound] in the end.
You can tell, that its been done on labtops, and in any case, without moving away from the computer.
I am excited about the ideas but can't stand that sound itself.
If they would pass it through a descent mixer at least,
that would make it up for 30 % [not sure about how to interpret this]

Do you have some favorites among your offspring

My favorites is everything I play in my DJ sets. Besides that I don't remember names, but you can find
certain tracklists on the internet.

What do thing about the dubstep scene? Do their creators, reflect your type of attitude ?

I like what they do, so I'm not complaining. Interesting thing is, that in the beginning of the 90ies,
there weren't many genres within electronic music. No deep cuts.
There was house, hip hop, acid, thats it. No garage, no drum 'n' bass. Now diversification has gone so far,
that even if you go in a certain club, you listen to Djs whose sets are similar so each other and therefor monotonous.
Because they just play one genre. But in the 90ies different ppl [fans of different genres] were mixing in one club.
So ppl must be bored by playing the same music. Dubstep was boring in the beginning. Don't know if today I can call it
by the same word, but it became more interesting.

Do you know some young producers personally ?

I stay in touch with those who are connected to rephlex, my label. Slowly I also develop contacts to ppl, trying to get
some material for my DJ sets. I very much like drum 'n' bass music from Paradox, we got in touch recently.
Ppl sent music to me -  before I never used my name to make ppl share what they do. Problem with this is also, that
I'm trying to get the best quality possible. And in my sets I still a turntable. I have excellent gear. excellent amp, sometimes
I spent many hours recording from the turntable into the computer. Then I need to clean up, using special applications.
Kinda got into it.


Vinyl - yes, mp3 - no?

I collect music in all possible formats - very often in a folder on a computer. But if I like something then I buy the vinyl on
ebay, even if I overpay, and then bounce it to the computer, because running through my gear it will sound better.
In the beginning when ppl used mp3, they where exited about how collections can be organized, but from that moment on
you have 100k pieces you don't listen to, it stop being so comfy. Good thing in relation to this format is that you can exchange your favorite tunes with your friends. Back then a Dj didn't want ppl to spot what he is playing on stage. Today we have the
certainty that one shares good music, he will be rewarded with something equally interesting.


I bet you share your recordings with friends, informally you released your new tunes.

Of course. Besides that I do the same when I play vinyls -  I close up recordings no one heard before.
Ppl notice, then those unnamed pieces spread either way.

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So how many new recordings do you have ?

quite a lot. Since recently I'm holding them back, and do not present them, because by nature I don't like to
blow out fresh stuff, and rather want it to settle a bit. Seriously - if something innovative comes out today, it often gets old
very quickly.

I remember the story, when you lost a harddisk on a plane, with 200 recordings.

Ppl said I was lying. They didn't believe me, but thats what happened.


It sounded so absurd, that I believed you.

My best friend [Sir] Grant Wilson-Clardige, who is running rephlex, was sitting on the car next to me. I had that disk -
actually it was an old mp3 player, one of the very first - with me.
He hadn't seen such device before. I was showing it to him and said: All my recordings fit in here. I thought he would be
impressed, but instead he said to me: You will lose it, probably. A moment later, I lost it. Fortunately those recordings
never made it to the internet. And if this wasn't enough bad luck, the device was clearly labeled: Aphex Twin, unreleased
tracks. Though many weeks I was living with the hope, that the finder would be a rock fan, who would't know who I am.

By the way: Rock. On the European Congress of Culture you have company: The sister project related to the same piece of Penderecki is going to be realized by Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead. You once stated, that you do not like this band too much.

Thats a fact, but recently I contacted Thom York though the internet. I told him: Do not believe everything you read on the newspapers.

So did you bury the hatchet ?

My opinion towards my demotivation with radiohead was exaggerated.

Your few appearances on the media lead to a wide echo with everything you say.

Yeah there's something to it. But I really don't recall what exactly I said. Usually I don't pay attention, so I probably maneuvered
like this: "Hate this fucking Radiohead", or something in that manner.

Long ago you released recordings from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop via Rephlex.
Today there's much rush around releases from experimental studios -  are you follow those efforts ?

I'm a big fan, and I buy everything that comes out. Recently the album from Daphne Oram, who created a whole system
of 'oramics' to establish notation for electronic music. A friend of mine had a original 'oramics' machine, I wanted to buy it
from him, but actually what would I use it for, at the moment ?I would sit in the garage all the time, trying to fix it. And so it was bought and staged at the Science Museum, restored and running, so I 'm glad it ended this way.

In Poland there's also a studio in Warsaw putting out music, you should have a listen.

Absolutely. Write it down on this card. Do you know Ursula Bogner (lives up). Incredible story. Fascinating if true.
A guy I know Djs and has as well a label, reissuing old electronic music. So this guy sits down next to a stranger in the car,
and starts talking about music. That other guy replies: My mom used to fiddle around with electronic music. And it turns out, that, at home, he has the whole archive of his mother, who was a pharmaceutist, but for 20 years was recording experimental music, as a hobby. Turns out, that her music was top notch.

So what about this graphical music notation - didn't you think about using it, when you were going through Pendereckie's
score.

Actually I will use it. Catches my idea for Pendereckie's "Polimorfie" - because for my purposes, I need the hole piece
rewritten from the end .

Ever thought about notation for your own pieces ?

Yes, but it makes no sense, if people either way do it for you, if they want to use the piece. On the other hand, if you work
on a computer or a sequencer or some other device, the notation is created automatically, in the form of figures.
Only if you work with old analog gear, modular synthesizers, notation begins to become obligatory.

Musician like you and educated composers are treated differently.

Sure there is potential. ppl often do not treat us seriously when the pieces are not performed by an orchestra. But I don't
care, because orchestras what to play my stuff live. And thats what counts for me, and it is a marvelous feeling by the way,
when I went with squarepusher to a concert with London Symphony, we sat around, and boom they play us. Superb thing.
So back then, I was thinking, maybe this is what I should do: writing for orchestra. Then I realized, that I care a lot about
controlling every single element, in this case, it would be impossible. I like the whole process of creating electronic music:
writing, performing, recording, mixing -  and when you finished, you can say, you did it all by yourself.

Source: http://www.polityka.pl/kultura/rozmowy/1519138,2,rozmowa-z-aphexem-twinem.read