MTV NEWS: Tell me how you guys kind of hooked up and how you're Chemical Brothers sound was conceived?



ED SIMONS: Well, we met at college. We were both studying history at Manchester University, and we started DJing together at kind of small little student parties and event kind of things. And Tom was already in a band and that fell apart so we kind of wanted to make music that reflected what we played out when we were DJing and stuff and stuff that was slightly different than the majority of stuff that was around. So we kind of conceived a sound, hard breaks and weird sort of techno noises, and that's kind of how it happened, I would say.



MTV NEWS: Tell me what was going on there in the clubs in Manchester at that time and what you saw as a way to kind of change things up and shake it up a bit.



ED SIMONS: Well, it was a pretty exciting time in Manchester when we were there. It was a time when you had indie bands who the people in those bands spent their life in house clubs so you know, New Order's club, Hacienda and stuff so it was an exciting time, but maybe some of the DJs didn't reflect that, they were still playing, you know, just house music all the time and we kind of mixed it up. We played old rock records and funk records and hip hop and some techno stuff and mixed it all together so it was a new thing really at the time. Maybe in America it's more common but, you know, it was a kind of free for all when we used to DJ.



MTV NEWS: I've read some articles that say that The Chemical Brothers picked up where maybe New Order and Jesus and Mary Chain left off and have taken it, you know, moved it forward. Do you believe that statement? I know that you're fans of these acts as well?



TOM ROWLANDS: Yeah, I wouldn't say we're the natural successors to those two bands at all. I mean, you want to make club records, but, like, we make records that we see specifically for us to DJ with that are club records, and we're more... I see it's more like kind of fusing together what was acid house and hip hop was a massive influence on what we do like that era kind of mid-80s, late 80s hip hop with kind of big breaks and party music and stuff. It's totally central. It's what we're about and it was just combining those things of like so that the noise of Public Enemy and kind of the trip kind of head thing of like, you know, acid house music.



ED SIMONS: Jerry Belchum or something like that. But saying New Order, you know, they're a fantastic band for us and we kind of look up to the way that they're rock fans or whatever and yet they take craft work of, you know, hip hop and Elektra and Alfred Baker stuff and fused it all together and made something really interesting and sort of it's still rock music but it's, you know, incredible on the dance floor as well so they're a fantastic band, you know, for us.



MTV NEWS: I've also heard some of the descriptions as well that you have an alternative rock kind of vibe, too, and your fans they think of alternative music as well. Do you try to infuse that in as well?



ED SIMONS: Yeah, maybe the energy and stuff and the energy we've got from following rock bands so like Jesus and Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine, bands that made a lot of noise and stuff and still keep in the dance arena, dance music is practically smooth and generic sounds kind of thing, we've taken the sort of pursuit of new sounds into the dance arena kind of thing and that's what we try and do when we're making music, yeah

MTV NEWS: I mean, for you guys, what's kind of the most fulfilling for you? Is it being in the studio and producing or is it taken out to the audience and the live experience or remixing other people's music?



TOM ROWLANDS: For me, it's making records. I mean, I like playing live and stuff but it's kind of, it's you do it and then it's gone kind of thing. You're just left with a feeling of what it was like. When you make records they stand, you know, and you have this record and you can go back and put it on. But you have the opposite view, don't you?



ED SIMONS: Well no, I think both. I mean, certainly when we play live and when we make music, they serve each other and we've been, you know, that's kind of how we made a lot of the last album was by going out and playing live and the way it fuses together is definitely an extension of playing live. They all help each other and DJing, as well, we do quite a lot especially this year we've DJed a lot more than before. They all sort of serve to help you appreciate what you do and how people react to it and kind of stuff like that, yeah.



MTV NEWS: And maybe even to the extent, maybe it helps the fans really understand what's going on there because the sound system that you use-



ED SIMONS: Oh definitely. I mean, I suppose if we're on tour in England we can take our own sound system and all the lights and the visions and it just gives it a whole an edge to it.



TOM ROWLANDS: An experience. When it's all centered, it's how it should be listened to kind of thing which is cool and you have control over that. It's good.



MTV NEWS: Tell me about that visual experience and when people go to your shows visually what's going on in your shows?



ED SIMONS: Well we have this huge screen behind us and we have projections that are done by some friends of ours. Vision projections and there's these weird, trippy images and bombard the audience with sort of this big light show and everything. It's just to sort of enhance our whole experience and, you know, just from traditional thinking. Because people still have a problem watching people just manipulate sequences and samplers so we just give it something else kind of thing. It gives the show a flow kind of thing, you know.



MTV NEWS: How involved are you in selecting these visuals and making them a part of the actual tracks that you're playing?



TOM ROWLANDS: We have people who, the people who do our visual sort of thing, they we they're kind of friends of ours and we they make films and stuff and we trust them, kind of implicitly with how the show kind of looks from that angle so they do that and it's good.



MTV NEWS: I think you said recently that, you know, you're not the type of band that's gonna stand up there and go, "Yeah, I want to see everyone's hands!" You know, this kind really helps the audience get involved in dance and what's going on in the music.



ED SIMONS: Yeah, hopefully, yeah. I mean, we're not showmen. We're not sort of gonna be standing on a set of speaker stacks and banging the audience . We just kind of like to....



TOM ROWLANDS: We're gonna get one of those Garth Brooks harnesses, aren't we?



ED SIMONS: Fly up.



TOM ROWLANDS m: Fly up, yeah.



ED SIMONS: We just take it kind of easy on the stage and we're gonna concentrate on doing what we do and, you know, perhaps the guitar lends itself a bit more to a better show and shit than a keyboard or something. I don't know, we'll see.



MTV NEWS: You also said recently that your music kind of replicates a drug type of experience. Can you explain that? I mean, what you mean by that. Just because it's trippiness or...?



ED SIMONS: Um yeah, I mean, I think we both like music that confuses you and makes you feel like you're somewhere else, and you're being given new sounds and a good funky beat. It's all quite a psychedelic experience, you know. Something that just twists up your normal life and, you know, that's the kind of music we both like. It's something that... it's just something that affects your head sort of thing especially at a loud volume and that's kind of like how we judge a good record, if it takes you somewhere else when you listen to it. You know, pop, you know, blands, I don't know. Bland music doesn't take you anywhere.



MTV NEWS: Do you think that there's kind of a misconception going on now that shows like your show a rave so to speak whatever. Just like drug-induced shows, like it doesn't necessarily need to be that.



ED SIMONS: Oh no, definitely. I mean, I don't think, I think there's the same sense of euphoria that people get from watching a good rock show and the feeling of togetherness and community is not brought on by drugs. It's just being out of your house and being with your friends and stuff. I know it's the same in rave and it's the same when you see one of our shows, it's just about being together with other people. It's not necessarily about being on drugs or whatever.



MTV NEWS: I mean, for you, I mean, do you think that your fans get more out of your music sitting at home with headphones on blasting it or coming to the show and actually experiencing that communal kind of thing?



TOM ROWLANDS: I don't know. It's quite up to the, you know, it's the kind of thing about making anything. You don't have any control over what people do with it and quite happy for it to be used anywhere they want really, you know. It's like not laying down any rules of usage with our product.



MTV NEWS: In terms of going back to visuals, how do you also try to take your visual and translate it into music videos? What do you try to do with those?



TOM ROWLANDS: Not to be in them, basically. Like the last one.



ED SIMONS: Yeah, just give it to some twisted people who will make it decent but weird. I mean, I don't know, not so maybe not that the videos have been pretty cool but we haven't really put that much input into them. We just meet the people and see whether they've got some funny ideas and then they got on with it. We do the music.



TOM ROWLANDS: That's because we make music. We're not the kind of people who have these things. We haven't got a Mac at home with a vision. We make music, and that's what we do and we either get someone who specializes in films to make the films, you know. I wouldn't get a painter to do my plumbing. I think.



MTV NEWS: Tell me about, if you can, the "Setting Sun" video. Is that, did you have any input in the concept or was that another one where you kind of entrusted it to someone?



TOM ROWLANDS: We kind of had a meeting in a pub, didn't we? And said, "We want kind of this strange kind of thing going on." Kind of vague thing like that and they just came up with that so we thought, yeah, I could go for that.



MTV NEWS: Now is it, I mean, people have said that it's this girl's kind of tripping. Is that what's going on in there or is that not the case?



ED SIMONS: Um, boy, you'll have to ask the people who made it. We just asked for something pretty psychedelic.



TOM ROWLANDS: I listen to the record, I mean, it doesn't, you know, the record is quite disorientating and so we wanted to get that sense of disorientation into the video, which I think it does.



MTV NEWS: Yeah, I mean, you must have been happy with the way it came out, right?



BOTH: Yeah, definitely, etc.



MTV NEWS: In terms of "Setting Sun" and hooking up with Noel, it seems like from what I've heard and read, it kind of happened rather casually. Can you kind of tell the story?



ED SIMONS: Well Noel is someone we've known for quite a while just through when we DJ he comes down and watch us do it and sees what's going on, and we supported Oasis in England a few times, and he was just up for doing it. He was kind of jealous of Tim Burgess doing it and said, "Oh, I can do that." I mean, he just wanted to do something interesting. I mean, it goes, he's always playing with bands, and he'll get up with Neil Young one day or Burt Bacharach and then us the next week. So he's just up for making music with people, so it wasn't a big deal for him. He came down and did it pretty quickly so, you know, everyone makes it into a big deal but really, he's just up for having a laugh really. So it was cool.



MTV NEWS: Now I know that they're obviously big fans of The Beatles. Did he kind of bring that to the table, the "Tomorrow Never Know"? Was that something you were already doing and brought that to the song?



TOM ROWLANDS: We've been working on that kind of track, a rhythm track and stuff, for quite a while before, a few months before and getting this idea, we wanted a kind of similar psychedelic kind of vibe to the record to drop in a nightclub and sort of heighten that kind of sense so we've been working a rough thing like that, and we had a rough take together and so when it kind of came about, we sent it to him and he said yeah, you know.



ED SIMONS: Probably appealed, you know, he probably saw the some sort of sound alike that everyone knows and went with that, yeah. So I think it was good. We used to play the record "Tomorrow Never Knows" out when we DJed so I think he heard us do that a few times so he kind of liked that, I suppose.



MTV NEWS: Now were you surprised by the way it exploded in the U.K. and everything?



TOM ROWLANDS: It's still a quite weird record to hear like on the radio. I mean, it's got like a section in the middle of it for about a minute where it's just this kind of noise spinning your head inside out kind of thing which is still, if you're driving into work or something and this record comes on the radio, you're gonna think it's pretty cool. Like when it was in the chart rundown in England and it was number one, like before it had Celine Dion and "Breakfast At Tiffany's" or something and then this record came and just like where the hell did this record come from. And, you know, I like that. You know, it's cool. If I was a young, you know, if I was eleven, and I was watching this my mom and dad would be going, "Turn that record off."



ED SIMONS: Cool records being at number one are very sort of divisive, you know. People either like it or they're just what is that rubbish so, you know, it's good to have those sort of records at number one other than Celine Dion. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah, I agree. Are you weary at all of the fact that this record, you know, this song blew up and Noel sang on it and he's like the superstar and people might not recognize all the other music you're doing. Is there any kind of nervousness about that?



TOM ROWLANDS: We just make our, you know, it was just an interesting kind of creative thing to do and that was the main thing and that's what that's what excited him about it. You know, it's a really exciting thing. It's like, I mean, of course it's cool that someone in like a bigger rock band as that can go and do this kind of project that is, you know, kind of underground kind of thing like that and he can do it and it's like it's cool, you know. It's not a problem for us because we still make our records. We've made an album, we've made records, we've made records for clubs and we DJ and stuff and it's not gonna hold us back in any way, you know, it's like just a good experience, good thing to do. I think it made a really good record out of it.



ED SIMONS: You know, we could cut, we did that record, but we could equally do something that we'd just do a thousand of DJ's in and around England, so it's just we do, we can do both, whatever we want to do, we're pretty free.



MTV NEWS: Have you done that track live yet?



ED SIMONS: Yeah, we play it live, and we had it for about six months just on acetate that we played when we were DJ'ing and stuff, it sounds pretty cool in a club environment, I mean it definitely, I don't know it makes a lot more sense when you hear it really loud and booming and stuff, you know.....



TOM ROWLANDS: There's a lot of subtext going on actually, then you get on a huge PA.



MTV NEWS: Is it true he wanted you to do some work on "Wonderwall"?



ED SIMONS: Yeah, that, he came in and, he came in with that song about six months before it came out and said, oh,



TOM ROWLANDS: UNINTEL.



ED SIMONS: We had a meeting about it, to do a remix, but then, I don't know, he saw.....



TOM ROWLANDS: I guess it was good we didn't do it really, it's a bit of a classic.



ED SIMONS: Would of been a bit of a wait around with that one....to remix that. But, uh, I don't know, yeah, it didn't happen.



MTV NEWS: Were you surprised by how well "Exit Planet Dust" did state side?



TOM ROWLANDS: I mean, we thought it was a good record, you know, we put a lot of love and kind of work into making that record, and a lot of the tunes we worked on really hard and stuff. But, still when we were doing it we saw it just in terms of kind of, uh, friends and people who would appreciate it. And that's the, I still hold that as the best way to make records. If you yourself are into it, and you think like certain set of people that you know or something would appreciate this record than that's the way you do it. You know, I never thought I'd be sitting here saying, yeah, that record. (laughs) You know, it wasn't really in our horizon, kind of thing.



ED SIMONS: I mean, as far as America goes we came out here pretty early on, when we were in Florida from, that was the third ever time we played live was in Florida, so we always knew that there was sort of some respect for what we did over in America, so, it was cool. It's kind of an American sound, a lot of what we do.



MTV NEWS: Because you were saying you were influenced by Public Enemy and stuff like that?



ED SIMONS: Yeah, in that way.



MTV NEWS: Do you enjoy coming to the states and performing?



TOM ROWLANDS: It's great for buying trousers that are the right length for your leg.



ED SIMONS: No, it a good audience, we've been on tour, we've just done two weeks and they've all been good. Canada as well, it was pretty cool.



MTV NEWS: New Record?



ED SIMONS: Uh, the new record is about two weeks away from completion, we've just..



TOM ROWLANDS: We hope.



ED SIMONS: Yeah, various things have stopped us from doing it before we came here to tour, but we have uh, one more record to do, which is a collaboration with a guy called Justin Warfield, who's um, from LA. And then we've got to edit some stuff and then we'll have it finished by Christmas day hopefully, and it'll come out next year. So, it's all go really.



TOM ROWLANDS: The count down to Christmas.



ED SIMONS: Christmas day.



TOM ROWLANDS: Has begun.



MTV NEWS: What can fans expect, the same as "Exit Planet Dust" or are you going to take it somewhere else?



Tom: It's quite, I think it's sounding quite different but it's still within like kind of the sound that we kind of have. I mean it's within kind of those parameters, I mean it's not you know, it's in those parameters of what we do, kind of good breaks and strange noises but it, but I thinks it's sounding quite different, you know.



ED SIMONS: Yeah, I can say.



TOM ROWLANDS: yeah, we just what is...you know, I don't know, we wait until it comes out and then we can all decide what we think of it. Together.



MTV NEWS: Do you feel that people are ready for a change and that people are, at least in America, starting to embrace this music?



ED SIMONS: Yeah, it feels quite exciting, but, we, just, we have a problem with people talking about change and things replacing other things, you know, as far as, it's good that people get into our music and stuff, but we're not here, we're not on any crusade or mission to sort of kill alternative rock, or whatever, you know. It's all fine, whatever anyone wants to listen to is fine. You know, I think it's cool. I mean I think it's good to hear....



TOM ROWLANDS: I think it's a sign that like stations that you know, normally, don't take many chances at playing this kind of music like all listen to Underworld and us and I think it's good. It's just health that there's different music going around, but it's not, we don't' see it as replacing any type of music or being intrinsically better than any type of music, it's just, I mean, it's health to have all of these different types of music floating around.



ED SIMONS: It seems a lot of the radio has changed, and different types of music, cause you know, on our, in England the radios pretty up front, you just have the records on the chart and bang bang, but here you know, if you've done a classic rock track it'll be on the radio for the rest of your life. If you're the Smashing Pumpkins or whatever. But, yeah, it's nice to hear a change.



MTV NEWS: Is there a healthy competition between you and other bands of the same genre, and also, are there a lot of copycat bands watering down the genre?



TOM ROWLANDS: I think it's good at the moment, you know, there's like about five bands in England who all kind of play live and all put out good records and stuff and I think it's just cool that you know that these people have been around for a while and just kind of coming to fruition now. I think it's good.



ED SIMONS: Yeah, I think it's good as well.



TOM ROWLANDS: And they're nice people generally, aren't they.



ED SIMONS: Yeah, we get on well, I mean they're all friends of ours so it's hard to say we're in competition. We used to share a studio with Orbitol, um, Underworld we know, yeah, so we're all friends really.



MTV NEWS: Do you think that in the future kids will be reaching for turntables instead of guitars?



ED SIMONS: I mean, I think that why there is, that's why there are these bands in England, it's because for the last ten years or whatever that's the most exciting place to be, you know, at the dance floor. And people don't want to be in small beer stained pubs playing their guitar, they want to be in glamorous dance halls and that's probably why the turntable is more popular than guitars now, and that's cool by us.



TOM ROWLANDS: Everybody wants to be a DJ.



ED SIMONS: That's right. I think it's just more exciting now. Definitely, and it's where exciting music's coming from. Samplers, and, yeah, definitely.



MTV NEWS: Do you have a direction or are you just making the music and putting it out?



TOM ROWLANDS: I mean, I don't really think about it long term enough to think about directions and movements and that sort of stuff. I mean, you know, we just do it really. I mean, a lot of thought goes into doing it, but I don't see where it's gonna get me, or where it's, where the Chemical Brothers are going with this. It's very much just doing it and you find out where you're going when you get there kind of thing.



ED SIMONS: And we see some pretty funny things.



TOM ROWLANDS: Yeah?



ED SIMONS: Well, I don't know, we've played some strange gigs, we've played with Oasis, and we played in front of you know, 120,000 people, and then we come here and play in front of 200 people in Detroit, dead people.



TOM ROWLANDS: About 800 people in Detroit, but they all just had rigor mortis. On a Monday night, in sub-zero temperatures. That was quite funny, I quite enjoyed that.



ED SIMONS: Yeah, so every month brings some weird gig, or some remix offer, something, so it's all strange and new. Yeah.



MTV NEWS: Tell me about that performing infront of 120,00 people.



ED SIMONS: It was outdoor, and it was about two in the afternoon



TOM ROWLANDS: Most people were parking their car and buying their hot dogs while we were on, so....



ED SIMONS: That was pretty strange.



TOM ROWLANDS: You had a wasp on your keyboard, didn't you?



ED SIMONS: Yeah. Nasty wasp..........It was pretty good, it was outdoors, it was a pretty hot day so it was fun for us.



TOM ROWLANDS: It was good for us, we got to see Oasis you know, it was quite a good laugh.



MTV NEWS: Do you think you'll be doing any more collaborations with those guys?



TOM ROWLANDS: Done that now, I suppose. I mean, we just want to get this record done and then go on holiday, and then think about the next record in a bit.



MTV NEWS: Do you think that the scene and music here is different that in the UK?



ED SIMONS: Yeah. it's a very strong scene here, it's quite fresh and it's colorful like it used to be in England a few years ago and people dress up and people still believe in rave and a spirit kind of thing that we lost a few years ago to cynicism and money. I don't know, it seems, you know, we go to a certain place in America and it does seem really, you know, like it was a long time ago in England, so that's pretty cool for us. And we get really enthusiastic response, so yeah, it's been very good. But, I mean, I think there's a you know, there's a danger that it might be lost if this music is sold as the new alternative rock kind of thing, cause there's still a belief in rave, and all that kind of thing.



MTV NEWS: How do you prevent that?



ED SIMONS: Yeah, it's hard, you know, it would be a shame for us if we were playing concerts that weren't full of people who were totally into what we were doing. You know, just full of people who came out of curiosity rather than being...



TOM ROWLANDS: When we play live you know we play live a lot in clubs and we expect our gigs to be like a party. And it's weird when people are turning up thinking it's gonna be like a gig. Where they just have to watch. But when we play it's like, you know, it's more audience participation. You know, like, it should be to get into it and dance to it and have a good time when they're there. And that's what we see when we play live, that's what we're providing, it's like a situation with a good system and a good visual thing for people to have a good party at. As opposed to come and (looks up) at us.



ED SIMONS: I was gonna say, it's one long groove of all the things we've done and if it ever got to the point where people were waiting for setting sun or something, it would be a shame, you know, cause it's just one long musical thing, rather than the big radio records or whatever. It seems a bit bizarre to us to even think in those terms, you know.



MTV NEWS: Could you talk about changing your name from the Dust Brothers.



TOM ROWLANDS: I'd never heard of them, personally.



ED SIMONS: We knew the name, we were just DJing in and around Manchester, which is a northern, a place up north in England, just at little parties for 100 people, so we never kind of thought it was a problem to have someone else's name, it was only when the record came and we were sort of successful over here then we just immediately changed our name. We've got the utmost sort of respect for those two guys and it was just, I mean, it was a bit of a fuss over nothing.

8) 8) 8)



nice find!!

good interview especially the bit that they shared a studio with orbital.

Hahahaa it's funny

Sometimes it's hard for me to read tom's answers cuase it's all like " you know , kind of thing , like , i dont know , sort of thing " hahahaa it's funny though but it confuses me haha

Wow, great interview! I love reading the way-back stuff. I like reading the wide eyed perspective of these now seasoned globe trotters - likes the bit about trousers and America! X-D Of course it's also nice to read their thoughts on the videos and how they pretty much leave it in the hands of the director to help visualize their point - nice one about Dig Your Own Hole being disorienting and how the Setting Sun video represents that feeling. I wonder if there's video footage of this interview floating around somewhere?



I get what you mean Jeanie, about reading this interview with Tom. I've read a couple of other interviews where the journalists mention that he's very thoughtful but often leaves sentences hanging in mid air. X-D And Ed usually finishes the sentence or expands on the thought or idea. Those two... it's symbiosis!



I can't imagine what an interview with me would look like in print. It's one thing to form coherant sentences like in here, verbalizing is a whole n'other ballgame for me.

oo back in the day stuff





danke!

nice one irish fan!



i wonder what their reactions would be to read that interview and be asked the same questions (but not just bout pre-DYOH but from the start to today) would their answers be the same, or might theay have changed their views on a few things

Well, I did hear they are Celine Dion fans now.



Kidding. I kid, I kid... ;)

whirlygirl Escribi�:

I get what you mean Jeanie, about reading this interview with Tom. I've read a couple of other interviews where the journalists mention that he's very thoughtful but often leaves sentences hanging in mid air. X-D And Ed usually finishes the sentence or expands on the thought or idea. Those two... it's symbiosis!

yeah he does that on the DVD aswell , it's funny haha. I had to watch it a couple of times to understand the whole thing X-D

cool interview 8O