Here's part one of a lengthy and rather meaty interview with The Chemical Brothers conducted in November. The new year brings a new album from the guys, called 'Push The Button' and set for release in late January. You'll already have heard (and been floored by) first single 'Galvanize'. Keep coming back for more answers from the dance duo ...
Having released Singles 93-03, does this album feel like a clean slate for you now?
Ed: No, we still feel pretty connected to the music we made before the singles collection; all those things are just random dividers ? last year was ten years of our band but it didn?t mean a great deal, it?s a long time to be together. The main thing during the period when we had the singles collection was that a lot of people thought that it was the end of the Chemical Brothers ? often it?s seen as a final point, but at the time it was coming out we were working on this record and we were really excited about the music we had under wraps that no one had heard, and we knew that there was something else in the future for us.
How long has this record been in the making?
Tom: ?Come With Us? came out in 2002 and we toured that for about a year, then we started in about 2003? so about a year and a half to nearly two years.
What is different about this album?
Tom: When we make a record we don?t want to destroy everything that our band stands for? we?ve done that thing where we?ve got a band with a real sound and feel to all the music that we?ve made, and we want to continue that. We want to make our record and in doing that we want to try new things, and we want to innovate, and we want new sounds and new feelings ? that?s part of the thing that?s about being in our band. So every time we make a record there?s that pressure to make something fresh, and I really felt it with this album, we wanted to feel that the record felt invigorating? new and fresh? different. That was the pressure on us to make this record. I think it did help putting out the singles compilation because it made us think about the music we?ve made, we?re intensely proud of the music we?ve made, and we love it? and it really was a spur to make this record? the defining Chemical Brothers record.
So it?s almost a bit of a curse that you?ve been so inventive of new music?
Tom: It?s not really a curse? we just had the feeling that we wanted to be as excited about the music now as when we started making music? And to have that sort of ambition on the fifth album and still feel it as keenly is a good thing. It is a good reason to make music, and it?s what makes us go into the studio every day ? to try and do that.
Take us through the tracks off the forthcoming album Galvanize: Is this to be taken as ?to excite? or as ?to coat steel with zinc??!
(Tom and Ed Laugh)? Ed: Both! Well, it?s a call to arms and a definite starting point for an album. We went to New York and hooked up with Q-Tip, and I think ?Galvanize? was just something he said in passing when he was in the booth, and we liked the word? we were excited by the word and he said it a lot. So he wrote a rap around it, about a call to arms at a party.
What was it like working with Q-Tip?
It was good, he?s a really nice fella. It was quite hard ? we went to New York but we?ve never really left Elephant & Castle when we?ve done any collaboration? and he came in and he liked the track but we were unsure of how it was all going to pan out as we?d never met him and he?s someone we really respected. He came in at first and seemed like it wasn?t going to be easy to do, but after a couple of hours he really warmed up and got into the track and that made it easy.
Do you feel quite comfortable in those situations having worked with guest vocalists before?
Tom: It?s different ? when it?s us working with someone like Tim (Burgess, The Charlatans) it?s very easy. He comes in and we just play around. But often, and especially on this record, we?ve worked with people that we weren?t necessarily friends with, and that we?ve met in a social environment which we?ve done a few times before. And like Ed said, we broke out of this thing where collaborators come to us, and we went out to New York and did it? which is totally different for us to be in this kind of hit factory studio in New York. And it?s quite overwhelming? you?ve got five or six hours to really make this thing happen. It?s good though? it?s what being in the studio is about; it?s getting that performance and giving the record something that will make it special. And when he started saying ?Galvanize? ? it was a really exciting word and we couldn?t believe that there wasn?t a song called ?Galvanize?, it?s such a good strong word to have not been used before. It?s a hot word!
Ed: It sounds good saying it too. He had a special way of saying ?Galvanize?!
Part two isn't officially up yet, but I found it... :-D
More talk from Tom 'n Ed aka The Chemical Brothers, this time talking about new album 'Push The Button'
The video has just been shot in Spain, and it has something to do with ?Krumping? ? what is that?
Ed: It?s from a documentary a few years ago about a gang in Compton, and rather than fight they have dance-offs where they?re dressed as clowns and they do this very specific kind of balletic type moves? like West Side Story type fighting, with no actual fighting, just dance moves. But the main thing we liked was the clown thing ? and we always seemed to have something to do with clowns in our visuals and we used to come on to the march of the clown music. I?m not sure how it?s become such a part of the Chemical Brothers, but it seems to fit! And during the summer we had this big moment with a clown in the visuals mouthing the words to one of the records, so it just seemed quite cool to do that for one of the videos.
Tom: Plus that it?s a guy called Adam Smith who?s one half of Vegetable Vision who we?ve always worked with for all the visuals in all our live gigs, and he?s directed this video for us ? so maybe it?s his obsession with clowns! (Smiling) He?s obviously had some deep traumatic thing with clowns.
Yeah, because they are quite scary aren?t they?
Tom: Especially when they?re thirty foot high on a big screen and mouthing ?You?re all my children now!!!?
Was that the first video Adam Smith has done?
Ed: It?s his first video for us ? he recently did The Streets? video which was very successful. He gave us the best treatment and we?ve always wanted to work with him because he?s a very old friend and the visuals are amazing. He was on the verge of doing something for us when we put out ?The Private Psychedelic Reel? about 8 years ago, which never quite? but 8 years later we?re making a video! And we?re about to see it.
Tell us about The Boxer
Ed: ?The Boxer? was probably one of the earliest tracks that we got going when we started writing again after ?Come With Us?, and we just got those things to fit with each other, and we were really excited. I remember being in the studio and got working with those drums, and Tom was singing on it for most of the time? with levels? you know, it?s good? (Ed?s mumbling causes them both to laugh)? Tim, of all the people we?ve collaborated, with is the person that?s remained a close friend ? if he?s in London then we?ll probably have a drink together, or if we?re in LA he?ll come to our gigs. So we?ve always been friends and I suppose for this song we just had a chorus that was set in stone and then we thought that he could just write some words around that. We worked together, very collaboratively, and it was great when he came down ? it?s always good. He sings pretty differently to how he sings in The Charlatans and the last album, we?re just happy to work with him again.
Tell us about Believe, with Kelle Okereke from Bloc Party
Tom: It?s a track that we?ve been working on for a long time, and it had always been in our minds that it was going to be a vocal track but we?d been through different ideas of people to work with and we just couldn?t get something that seemed to work naturally. He came down to the studio, and we?d really liked this EP of theirs that we?d heard, and he seemed to have a really strong identity and really good voice and good spirit, and we got together in the studio just to see what we could make happen. It was a track that once we got into the studio it totally changed and he got in front of the mic and had worked out some words at home and was singing them and adding some different bits. It?s a process we like ? collaborating with people, different people coming in and bringing what they do in the studio to what we do in the studio and hopefully something exciting happens from that. And he had this fire in his voice that really came across in the track. We ended up changing the track and it was a lot tougher than it had been originally ? it was just the track that came out of the studio session really.
If you do something such as going to New York and working with Q-Tip, what happens if it?s not very good?
Tom: Well that?s the pressure? someone might be having a bad afternoon, or you might not be arsed. There?s a lot of variables ? it?s that thing of being in a studio, and having ideas and making them work. You can have an idea, but to make the idea real, it?s a difficult process. Yeah, it?s a challenge ? he could have come in that afternoon and been, ?oh, I?m not really up for this?, but it?s about generating that excitement and then you know you?ll make it work.
Would you say that generally with the guest vocalists they are able to come in and do it in an afternoon, then it?s done and dusted?
(Together) Tom: yes, Ed: no (They laugh)
Ed: Usually people come down again. They get an idea then they?ll come back a few days later and do something else ? but it?s different every time.
For a heart-stopping second there I thought they were talking about a video for TPPR coming out soon... then I realised Galvanize was still being referred to. So a TPPR vid was on the cards when it was released as a single. Hmmm.
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