Forces' Alex Akers just finished production on White Hex's new EP "Gold Nights". We like both bands so decided to ask them to interview each other about the process of working together and whatever else came up. Here is their unedited chat.To catch the guys in action check out their PBS Drive Live set on 3 February.Alex Akers: We recently finished making your EP "Gold Nights" together. What were you thinking going into it?
Jimi Kritzler: We wanted to write another mini LP which continued the theme of our first release "Heat". "Heat" was a document of White Hex in Egypt and throughout a Berlin winter, it is a very cold and emotionally distant record, very mechanical. "Gold Nights" was written during our first summer back in Australia in a few years and I wanted to express the kind of detachment of White Hex's sound in a different way. I wanted to use electronics more prominently and to express something colourful yet still detached. Working with you as producer was the only way "Gold Nights" could have happened, you premeditated what I was thinking in sonic terms on numerous occasions and were patient with me and my rather esoteric demands. Ultimately we made the record exactly how I envisioned it.For me the record is quite romantic. Tara (vocals) delivers some very heartfelt lyrics in a very cold way and there is an exotic, dreamy quality running through it. Do you have a conceptual approach to writing a record?
We don't really like to intellectualise what we do anymore, it is as simple as having some thematic considerations, some stylistic and then simply writing the song. The only difference in the preparation between "Heat" and "Gold Nights," was that I was far more interested in writing songs on synthetic instruments this time around and I got really interested in three very key but very different artists and records: Bernard Parmegiani's "De Natura Sonorum", Craig Leon's opus "Nommos", and Heldon's "Interface". How do you approach writing an entirely new record in Forces?I'm trying to find some magic formula so songs don't take me two years to finish but I haven't had any great luck. At the moment I am trying to separate the song writing from the production to some extent but its so slippery. It always changes. I do need to have some overarching idea to get me excited about writing a release, even if i know it's going to shift around. In terms of pursuing new things we are changing how we approach things live, but it's too soon to talk about that. So whats the plan for White Hex in 2014?
It is really hard that moment where you accept a song or a record is finished, it is so much easier to keep working on it than to release it into the world—although too many people find the opposite true which is a problem. 2014, we are just finalising a deal with an American label we are quite fond of, so our new record will be released in America and Europe, so we might have to go there which as always will be interesting. Did you watch The Grammy's?I didn't. What happened?
Not much. Kendrick lost to a sensitive version of Riff Raff.I saw Riff Raff when he was here. It was probably the most low-end audience I have ever seen. I still have no idea where he is coming from, which is an achievement in itself I guess. I think MTV tried to sue him for calling himself "MTV Riff Raff" right? But they used the fact he had the MTV logo tattooed on his neck as some loophole. Like it meant it was legitimately/legally a part of his persona.
I love how you describe Riff Raff's audience as "Low end," I imagine every time Riff Raff plays a show there is a spike in business for STD clinics in that particular town. I think people will end up doing PHDs on him, examining his vampiric appropriation of a different culture for his own fame. He has collaborated with rappers I do like (Chief Keef) yet I never remember whether Riff Raff was talented, it is like his aesthetic sucks you into a vortex and you don't remember anything except his face and fucked up tattoos. Riff Raff embodies the American dream in so many ways. Australia on the other hand has this unfair standard that you have to be good at what you do in order to receive ongoing praise/wealth. Do you listen to much rap?I'm a casual observer. Things have got more interesting in recent years. It seemed completely redundant there for a while. The nets has been real good for it, like everything right? I guess I enjoy it most when it bleeds into other things, when it's maybe not clearly rap or hip hop anymore. I do use it to try and get a sense of what's going on in the collective consumer mind. It scares the shit out of me. I envy how it feeds off itself. They way the artists collaborate, sample each other, the mixtape format. Lil B is interesting in the fame vs talent thing. I loved the shitstorm online when Brooke Candy was booked for Melbourne. I love it when the rich kids get angry about cultural appropriation.
Who is Brooke Candy?Forces and White Hex join Miles Brown, School of Radiant Living, The Harpoons, Harry Howard and the NDE, Cherrywood, Wonderboy and Sugar Fed Leopards on the bill for PBS' Drive Live events happening this week. Drive Live is putting on a series of three act shows over three studios during one drivetime slot.
Jimi Kritzler: We wanted to write another mini LP which continued the theme of our first release "Heat". "Heat" was a document of White Hex in Egypt and throughout a Berlin winter, it is a very cold and emotionally distant record, very mechanical. "Gold Nights" was written during our first summer back in Australia in a few years and I wanted to express the kind of detachment of White Hex's sound in a different way. I wanted to use electronics more prominently and to express something colourful yet still detached. Working with you as producer was the only way "Gold Nights" could have happened, you premeditated what I was thinking in sonic terms on numerous occasions and were patient with me and my rather esoteric demands. Ultimately we made the record exactly how I envisioned it.
Advertisement
We don't really like to intellectualise what we do anymore, it is as simple as having some thematic considerations, some stylistic and then simply writing the song. The only difference in the preparation between "Heat" and "Gold Nights," was that I was far more interested in writing songs on synthetic instruments this time around and I got really interested in three very key but very different artists and records: Bernard Parmegiani's "De Natura Sonorum", Craig Leon's opus "Nommos", and Heldon's "Interface". How do you approach writing an entirely new record in Forces?I'm trying to find some magic formula so songs don't take me two years to finish but I haven't had any great luck. At the moment I am trying to separate the song writing from the production to some extent but its so slippery. It always changes. I do need to have some overarching idea to get me excited about writing a release, even if i know it's going to shift around. In terms of pursuing new things we are changing how we approach things live, but it's too soon to talk about that. So whats the plan for White Hex in 2014?
It is really hard that moment where you accept a song or a record is finished, it is so much easier to keep working on it than to release it into the world—although too many people find the opposite true which is a problem. 2014, we are just finalising a deal with an American label we are quite fond of, so our new record will be released in America and Europe, so we might have to go there which as always will be interesting. Did you watch The Grammy's?I didn't. What happened?
Not much. Kendrick lost to a sensitive version of Riff Raff.I saw Riff Raff when he was here. It was probably the most low-end audience I have ever seen. I still have no idea where he is coming from, which is an achievement in itself I guess. I think MTV tried to sue him for calling himself "MTV Riff Raff" right? But they used the fact he had the MTV logo tattooed on his neck as some loophole. Like it meant it was legitimately/legally a part of his persona.
I love how you describe Riff Raff's audience as "Low end," I imagine every time Riff Raff plays a show there is a spike in business for STD clinics in that particular town. I think people will end up doing PHDs on him, examining his vampiric appropriation of a different culture for his own fame. He has collaborated with rappers I do like (Chief Keef) yet I never remember whether Riff Raff was talented, it is like his aesthetic sucks you into a vortex and you don't remember anything except his face and fucked up tattoos. Riff Raff embodies the American dream in so many ways. Australia on the other hand has this unfair standard that you have to be good at what you do in order to receive ongoing praise/wealth. Do you listen to much rap?I'm a casual observer. Things have got more interesting in recent years. It seemed completely redundant there for a while. The nets has been real good for it, like everything right? I guess I enjoy it most when it bleeds into other things, when it's maybe not clearly rap or hip hop anymore. I do use it to try and get a sense of what's going on in the collective consumer mind. It scares the shit out of me. I envy how it feeds off itself. They way the artists collaborate, sample each other, the mixtape format. Lil B is interesting in the fame vs talent thing. I loved the shitstorm online when Brooke Candy was booked for Melbourne. I love it when the rich kids get angry about cultural appropriation.
Who is Brooke Candy?Forces and White Hex join Miles Brown, School of Radiant Living, The Harpoons, Harry Howard and the NDE, Cherrywood, Wonderboy and Sugar Fed Leopards on the bill for PBS' Drive Live events happening this week. Drive Live is putting on a series of three act shows over three studios during one drivetime slot.