INTERVIEW – SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO

After producing the latest Arctic Monkeys and Klaxons albums, James Ford has been dubbed the Phil Spector of 2007. But he’s a million miles away from being a paranoid-schizophrenic alcoholic who fires gun shots at musicians in the studio, enslaves his ex-wife, and murders someone from Xena: Warrior Princess (ALLEGEDLY)…

We went to James’ studio to speak to him and fellow Simian Mobile Disco member James “Jas” Shaw about hipsters, spoons and analogue gear…

Vice: Is Paul Epworth jealous that you’ve taken his production crown, James?
James Ford: No, I’m sure someone will fucking take my trendy crown in about three months, you know that’s just the way it goes, but fuck it. Paul’s cool, he’s a nice guy, he’s doing his thing.

Do you think he’s doing worse since you started getting popular as a producer?
James: Well, it was his choice to be fair, he took time out and disappeared for six months, and you know, it was good for me. I dunno, I’m sure he’s got a secret plan up his sleeve and he’s going to come back with something good.

Brian Eno remixed one of the Simian singles, didn’t he? How did that come about?
James: Brian Eno was coming into our studio and he expressed an interest in us when we were doing the second album. He just used to come in now and again and he wasn’t really producing in an official capacity, but he just used to come in, play guitar, make some comments, wash up. He’s, like, quite a legend. Being a producer, he’s like the producer’s idol. It was pretty amazing to meet him, and, yeah he did a remix, which basically involved him spending like ten minutes running the track through some delay pedals, but that’s what he does, you know. The main inspiring thing is how he was. He didn’t do a massive amount, it’s just the way he comes in from a random angle with things, which is inspiring.
Jas Shaw: Have you seen those oblique strategy cards? They’re those cards that say things like, “look sideways at this.” Having him in the room was like having one of those all the time. If you were doing something, he’d be like, “why don’t we make it fruit?” And you’d be like “yeah, yeah, brilliant.”
James: Yeah, I can see why bands have him as a producer. I don’t think he does all the technical side of it. I think he’s just like a good guy to have around as an amazing opinion. We went out to his place. He’s got this amazing open plan apartment with four sexy girls running around. He’s got loads of ghetto blasters down one wall all playing the same piece of music out at different times.
Jas: Oh yeah, and he had that weird synth grotto. This weird thing make out of breezeblocks in the middle with one keyboard in there. He just plays. He’s made a whole life out of just playing around.

You’ve got loads of weird old equipment. Where did you get it all?
Jas: eBay. We like weird analogue gear. Everyone’s selling it at the moment – selling their outboards so they can buy spangly plug-ins and laptops and all that, so it’s all going dirt-cheap and you just can’t say no. Like, some freaky broken old analogue delay comes up and it’s going for £20 – I cannot let that go.
James: You try and do something with something like that and if you plug something into something else and you fuck around with it for a bit, you get something you don’t expect, which is good. That’s why we like things like that.

Sounds complicated.
Jas: It’s not really.
James: It’s not at all.

Have you ever seen any money from the Justice remix?
James: No, we should get some publishing because we still own most of the publishing on it, although we gave Justice a little bit. But obviously because we left the label and we got a stupid deal when we were on the label we still owe them loads of money, so I think the money goes back to them first. We’re not rich off it.

What was the first album you bought?
James: I can’t remember. I should really write this stuff down. Shall I just make something up?

Yeah, just lie. Say something cool.
Jas: OK, I bought Tago Mago by Can when I was ten.
James: Just make something up for my answer. I can’t think of anything cool.

What do you think of hipsters? Music tastes are pretty transient these days.
James: To be honest, I don’t think our record will go down very well with hipsters. It won’t go down with techno snobs. We’re not that bothered. Somebody’s going to like it, so we’re not worried.

A lot of people say you’re the nicest guy in rock, James. How do you feel about that?
James: Erm… pretty proud.
Jas: It’s definitely not true.
James: Yeah, I dunno, nice guys always finish last.

Are you happy with how the Arctic Monkeys album turned out, James?
James: Yeah, I think it’s really good. It’s the record that they wanted to make and I don’t think you can do anything else in that situation. I think if you try and over think it then it won’t work. It’s just the record they liked. They’re really cool and really open and we tried some shit out. They’re all a lot better players than they were.

Were you involved with the Dizzee Rascal collaboration?
James: Yeah. Me and Alex went down to Dizzee’s studio in south London, got horribly stoned on the chronic nasty stuff and did it. Dizzee’s amazing, he’s actually really, really good, and really talented and quick and funny. I think they’d been trying to hook up for ages and then it transpired that this song had a midlay in it that they didn’t know what to do with and thought maybe he would be good on it. The track’s about having a naughty mate and he plays the naughty mate.

Finally, why did you call the album Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release?
James: We like oblique strategies – they show a way of approaching a situation and we thought if you took the words individually they could do that too. We want to do spoons with those words on. You could sneak them surreptitiously into people’s lives, into people’s drawers and they could take them and one would say “attack” and then suddenly they’ll be influenced by the spoon.
Jas: We’re totally serious about it. We’re going to make spoon sets, but it’s a secret. We can’t talk about it.