The Chemical Brothers: Uncontrolled Substance



Block Rockin' 'Tronica Heroes talk about their new career overview.

by Vh1



You can always remember when you heard your first Chemical Brothers record. For me, it was standing in line at a London movie theatre concession stand in 1995. The radio behind the counter began playing their ?Loops of Fury.? It was like nothing I had ever heard - a fiendish mix of dentist drills and pulpy squelching, drums that sounded like an avalanche, and a bass that sent the popcorn flying.

In the long ecstatic wake that followed 1988?s house music explosion in Britain, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons took dance music and turned it up to 11. The pair met at Manchester University, spending more time sampling the Northern city?s booming club scene than studying. Inspired by druggy raves and Public Enemy?s raw rap sound, they went from being amateur DJs to the Led Zeppelin of electronica.



Beginning with 1993?s eerie ?Song for the Siren,? they chased after the perfect nuclear beat and roped in plenty of mates to help them find it. Oasis? Noel Gallagher bleated on ?Setting Sun? - the bros? tribute to the Beatles ?Tomorrow Never Knows? - and ?Let Forever Be.? The pair also worked with New Order, Beth Orton and Mercury Rev, while remixing for Spiritualized and Primal Scream.

With rhythms pounding everything but the melody into smithereens, it wasn?t long before the Chemical Brothers were spearheading the electronica invasion of America. Armed with the soon-to-be-classic album Dig Your Own Hole, Rowlands and Simons became the most unassuming pair of history students to ever fry your mind and feet simultaneously.Now a decade of memorable Chem doses are collected on Singles 93-03, stretching from ?Siren? to the slamming ?Block Rockin? Beats? to two new tracks. On ?Get Yourself High,? Rowlands and Simons go hip-hop with Canadian MC K-Os, while the Flaming Lips? Wayne Coyne trips out on ?The Golden Path.? A surprisingly mellow Simon and Rowlands looked back with VH1 on discovering dance, DJ nostalgia, bootleg culture, and playing the game of mix and match.



VH1: Was there a single record that made you realize dance music was the future?

Tom Rowlands: Rather than a record, it was going to clubs for the first time and seeing it actually happen. I was going to clubs near where I lived. It was like walking into this completely alien world and seeing everyone shutting up and trancing out. On a Sunday night, when other people were sitting watching Eastenders, there was this happening. That was inspirational to me.



VH1: It?s been 15 years since the so-called ?Second Summer of Love? of 1988. Do DJs complain that the music was better back in the ?80s?

Ed Simons: For something so tied up with pushing things forward, dance music is the most nostalgic form of music there is. That summer in 1988 began in May and by July [everyone was saying] ?Oh I wish it was May again. The scene is not as good now.? It?s like that every year. In 1989 it was like, ?It?s a good summer, this,? but people were like, ?Oh, you should have been here in 1988. It was much better.? I find it strange that you now go to a club and hear a song that is 14 or 15 years old - like Orbital?s ?Chime? - and consider it a classic. It?s like someone in 1970 putting on a record from 1955.



VH1: Is the eclectic approach to DJ-ing, where the Strokes might appear next to a Chemical Brothers track, replacing the notion of just playing cutting-edge dance music?



Tom: Our DJ-ing has revolved around making a connection between contemporary records and older records. When we were starting out, we?d play something like Emmanuel Top?s ?Lobotomie,? which is a full-on heavy acid tune, and then ?Tomorrow Never Knows? next to it. We?d play ?Under the Influence of Love? by Barry White and then we would put that next to some hip-hop tune that uses a similar sample or feel, and make a connection that way. You?d realize that these two records belonged together, even though before people wouldn?t think of them as being connected. At the time there was this ?anything goes? type of DJ-ing that used to really annoy us. People would be playing something like The Cure with Lee ?Scratch? Perry because they were poles apart. They sounded rubbish in the club, but because it was so different they felt that that was enough. There is a fine line to being an eclectic DJ!



VH1: Have you guys ever remixed a song for your own amusement?

Ed: We used to make cut-ups or DJ mixes for ourselves to play. ?Bootleg? culture isn?t a new thing. It?s something people do - take snatches from other people?s records and make a DJ mix. The last track we did that on was this old spacey funky thing called ?Strange Galaxy.? It was like one minute and 50 seconds long, and we turned it into this 12-minute cosmic funk workout.



Tom: That was from a special effects record. We?d rather take records that people don?t know and make them into something that works on the dance-floor than take Christina Aguilera and put it with the Hives. We are not into that. We take a record that has something good about it that perhaps won?t work on the dance floor, and make it so it has a really interesting sound, and people could still relate to it.



VH1: What?s the strangest record in your collection?

Tom: I have this album of electronic music made through a fish, where people stuck these electrodes to a fish and passed electricity through them. It?s like a French research piece from the late sixties when everything was possible. It?s not very good, just like a low-level crackle type of thing.



Ed: I can?t top that!



VH1: Both the new tracks feature vocalists. Is that where the next Chemical Brothers record is headed?



Ed: We really enjoy working with vocalists. We would have done more with our last album Come with Us if things had worked out. Quite a lot of the tracks on the compilation are things we have done with vocalists. That seemed the most purposeful way of writing a record. These great vocal samples that you can base a whole track around - like with ?Hey Boy, Hey Girl? or ?Block Rockin? Beats? - don?t just come that often. So for us to start with an original vocal seemed the best way to go.



VH1: Wayne Coyne has a distinctive voice but some might say that he isn?t the most technically gifted singer.



Tom: Yeah, but then again we aren?t the most technically gifted musicians, either. He has a way of saying something that?s his, and we have this way of making music that is identifiable as us. That?s the important thing with him.



VH1: Any collaborator you?ve worked with who has changed the way you make records?



Tom: No one gets too far saying ?Maybe you should do it this way.? [Laughs.]



Ed: We explore all the time; we don?t need anyone to come in. Being in the studio with Bernard Sumner of New Order was inspiring. He?s committed to making the record as good as possible and getting every sound right, questioning every little thing that is going on in the studio. We spent four hours trying to find the right lead to plug his guitar in. I love New Order?s records, and it?s good to see that after making so much money, he?s still so keen to make the best thing he can do in the studio.



VH1: Who have you really chased after to work with but never managed to pin down?

Tom: We always wanted to make like a hip-hop record, but our way. We worked with Justin Warfield and did a mix with Method Man and really enjoyed doing that, but it was difficult to find an artist that open-minded. People are very concerned about ?keeping it hip-hop.? K-Os is an excellent rapper and amazing singer who wanted to do something that he didn?t normally do. That was something we?d long been aiming for, and we felt on ?Get Yourself High? we have done that.



VH1: Do you have a lot of input into the lyrics or do you leave it to the artists?

Tom: It depends. The people we work with are generally people whose music and lyrics we really love, so we would never work with someone who writes something that has no real connection to us. When we worked with Bernard we were going through his words quite a lot. With Beth Orton we wrote the words for her to sing, so we have a different relationship with her. We?ve never really said, ?That?s not working? - although our engineer did say it to Noel Gallagher once.



Ed: He questioned the grammar of ?How does it feel like? on ?Let Forever Be? and wondered whether that made any sense.



VH1: Have you joined the iPod generation yet?



Ed: Somehow the iPod revolution has passed us by. They?re a beautiful looking piece of kit, but I think because we are in the studio so much, we hear a lot of music there and we don?t need to take it with us in a box. We both have them, but somehow we can?t form this emotional attachment people have. We?re curious as to why people love them.



Tom: The idea of sitting down in front of your computer all day and downloading thousands of CD?s doesn?t really seem like that nice a way to spend your time!

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Was that on Vh1!?! and if so when and what show??

I'd love to be a fly on the wall while they are in the studio...

VH1: What’s the strangest record in your collection?



Tom: I have this album of electronic music made through a fish, where people stuck these electrodes to a fish and passed electricity through them. It’s like a French research piece from the late sixties when everything was possible. It’s not very good, just like a low-level crackle type of thing.

Absolutely hilarious :-D. Where do they find these things?

Heh. And I thought Matmos had it odd because they record music banging on wire cages and the skeletons of small animals!



Anyone here got any oddities in their record collections? I've got a couple. Well, had a couple. A old friend of mine made me a recording of some NASA cd's, basically like soundwaves from satellites passing through the universe. Interesting stuff at times eery and beautiful - too bad I can't find my copy to save my life and I don't think you can get those cd's anywhere. The other one is this old Air Force basic training record my dad got when he did a short stint in the service. Not really odd but the narration is funny as hell.

When i first made my own music it was strange as hell. Just bunch of samples and beeps mixed together. It's OtterCrap ;-) No tune, no beats no bass just pure bullshit. LOL i love it though

Nights like tonight are the reason we at the 'Werks do

what we do. For the first time in far too long, The

Chemical Brothers lay down a DJ set in Gotham that is

sure to blow the roof off Centro-Fly. This wraps up a

short but so-very-sweet tour that kicked off last week

and has crossed the country leaving awestruck fans in

its path. If you're coming down to join us for the

gig, be sure to show up early as just a few tickets

are left. Doors are at 10pm and Tom & Ed are so amped

to play, they might just come on a little earlier than

expected. Get your disco-nap in; it's going to be

memorable night.



In other news, we still have yet to find our Charlie

Bucket -- aka the winner of The Golden Path Ticket.

Somewhere out there in a copy of the limited-edition

'Singles 93 - 03' double disc, a single golden ticket

is nestled in the CD booklet. We can at last announce

the mystery destination --the finder of this ticket is

headed to London to ring in the New Year with The

Chemical Brothers. As if 24 tracks of thunderous

Chemical beats wasn't enough, there's yet another

reason to pick up the disc post haste.



Stay tuned for reviews from triumphant return to the

Big Apple and more Chems news to come.

The Chemical Brothers completed a hugely successful

run of US tourdates last week. Tom & Ed thrilled

crowds with their return to America at sold-out shows

in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York.

The Chems drew throngs of cheering fans who were

treated to amazing DJ sets, all of which featured a

generous amount of Chemical Brothers material both new

and old.



Be sure to check the website very soon for a brand new

video for the single "Get Yourself High" as well as a

slew of new contests. And don't forget, there are

limited days left to enter for the trip to London for

an exclusive DJ set by The Chemical Brothers on New

Years Eve!



The Chemical Brothers first-ever retrospective

"Singles 93-03" is available now as a limited edition

2CD set, DVD collection and 4xLP box set.

Hope you tuned in yesterday as Chemical history was

made. The Chemical Brothers were joined on stage by

The Flaming Lips for their very first televised

performance at the "MTV In The Garden" show in

Edinburgh, Scotland. With Tom strapping on a guitar,

Ed manning the controls and The Flaming Lips on vocals

the guys delivered a stunning performance of "The

Golden Path." Thousands of fans were seen losing their

collective minds on the worldwide broadcast of this

unprecedented event.



In the meantime, you just might soon hear some brand

new mixes of "Get Yourself High," the Chems' wicked

collaboration with k-os. Felix Da' Housecat and Switch

provide the re-rubs, both of which are destined to

blow up dancefloors from sea to shining sea. Keep your

ears peeled and stay tuned for more Chems news to

come.

Nice one. I really enjoyed the performance.