The We Love Sounds festival is happening around the country in early June and we have a double pass to give away in each state (Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide). The line up includes The Utah Saints (who we interviewed last week), Mr Oizo (who appears on the newly released Ed Banger, Ed Rec Vol III compilation - listen to a mix of snippets of the album mixed by Feadz), Bonde Do Role, !!!, Mix Master Mike and a host of other beat masters. Go to We Love Sounds to see the full line up and venue details. Keep reading for the Utah Saints interview. Win We Love Sounds tickets here.SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
Utah Saints Feel The LoveWhen Tim and Jez formed Utah Saints in Leeds in 1991, Tim was making house records and Jez was making industrial music. They were both DJs and promoters and when they made their first track together, ‘What Can You Do For Me’, sampling Annie Lennox, it sent sufficient ripples through the burgeoning rave scene that they became almost instantly known around the world. And keep in mind that this was almost a lifetime before MySpace. Seventeen years later, they still make music, run a couple of clubs and still get so excited about it all that they usually end up giving away, rather than selling, their CDs and t-shirts at the end of their shows.Vice: It must be crazy for you guys right now. This being the History issue of Vice though, can you tell us a bit about what it was like when you first started? Who were the other bands around at the time?
Jez: Well, the KLF were doing great things and they were about a year ahead of us in terms of putting out records – obviously they’re light years ahead of everybody really, but in terms of releases, they just preceded us. At the same time, you had Moby, the Prodigy and Atari Teenage Riot. I remember we all played a show in Germany for an industry event and even though it was an open gig, we only managed to pull about 70 people between us. We were all starting out together. Actually, I should really mention Orbital and Aphex Twin as they were breaking ground then as well.Broad question, but how have things changed since?
Basically, when it all started, the term ‘rave’ encompassed everything. You’d hear absolutely everything in the same night at the same club — from techno to house to drum and bass and everything in between. Then at one stage, rave became a dirty word, and everyone began to jostle for gaps in the market so the genres started getting very narrow. At the time, we were playing as a five piece live band because we wanted to play festivals but promoters wouldn’t entertain the idea of DJs playing festivals. It was seen as a ridiculous notion back then. So, we worked around it and formed the band and ended up supporting U2. After that we just went back to what we were good at, which is making tracks to be DJ’d and promoted, and we’ve deliberately flown below the radar since because we don’t really know where we fit and we don’t want to be limited to only operating within one genre. Now it’s an incredibly exciting time again because we’re at a stage in our career where we can more or less play what we like, as long as it’s good.It seems strange now that festivals wouldn’t hire DJs. When did that change?
I guess the first person to really push it was Fat Boy Slim. Oh and Orbital I guess. They were two guys on stage without guitars and without a drummer and that was seen as totally unique at the time.And so now you’re making music again and reviving some of your hits. The Van She remix of ‘Something Good’ is like the biggest dance record of 2008 or something. How did that happen?
It’s funny because Van She are obviously all the way around the other side of the world in Australia, but their timing was just perfect. At the time, we were just starting again on our own mixes, because we had heard that bands like The Klaxons and Shit Disco were starting to name-check us, and it really felt like a good time to start making music again. What sealed the deal was when we went to this warehouse party where the Klaxons were DJing and they played ‘Something Good’ like four times over the night. About the same time, Van She did their mix, which appeared on a blog. We heard it and dropped them a line to let them know we thought it was great but asked that they could just keep a lid on it till we knew what we’re doing with it. Then the whole thing took on a life of its own, and everything happened really quickly — which is good for Utah Saints because we are notoriously slow.
It’s funny too because when we first put the song together and included the Kate Bush sample, the equipment we were using was quite basic and we were just starting to find our feet in terms of what you could do with samplers and things. To make that track originally, we spent about two weeks figuring out mathematical logorhythms so we could simply make that one part fit. According to Van She, they knocked their mix up in a few hours, which just shows you how technology has improved and how everything has changed forever.DANNY WILLIAMS
Annons
Utah Saints Feel The LoveWhen Tim and Jez formed Utah Saints in Leeds in 1991, Tim was making house records and Jez was making industrial music. They were both DJs and promoters and when they made their first track together, ‘What Can You Do For Me’, sampling Annie Lennox, it sent sufficient ripples through the burgeoning rave scene that they became almost instantly known around the world. And keep in mind that this was almost a lifetime before MySpace. Seventeen years later, they still make music, run a couple of clubs and still get so excited about it all that they usually end up giving away, rather than selling, their CDs and t-shirts at the end of their shows.Vice: It must be crazy for you guys right now. This being the History issue of Vice though, can you tell us a bit about what it was like when you first started? Who were the other bands around at the time?
Jez: Well, the KLF were doing great things and they were about a year ahead of us in terms of putting out records – obviously they’re light years ahead of everybody really, but in terms of releases, they just preceded us. At the same time, you had Moby, the Prodigy and Atari Teenage Riot. I remember we all played a show in Germany for an industry event and even though it was an open gig, we only managed to pull about 70 people between us. We were all starting out together. Actually, I should really mention Orbital and Aphex Twin as they were breaking ground then as well.Broad question, but how have things changed since?
Basically, when it all started, the term ‘rave’ encompassed everything. You’d hear absolutely everything in the same night at the same club — from techno to house to drum and bass and everything in between. Then at one stage, rave became a dirty word, and everyone began to jostle for gaps in the market so the genres started getting very narrow. At the time, we were playing as a five piece live band because we wanted to play festivals but promoters wouldn’t entertain the idea of DJs playing festivals. It was seen as a ridiculous notion back then. So, we worked around it and formed the band and ended up supporting U2. After that we just went back to what we were good at, which is making tracks to be DJ’d and promoted, and we’ve deliberately flown below the radar since because we don’t really know where we fit and we don’t want to be limited to only operating within one genre. Now it’s an incredibly exciting time again because we’re at a stage in our career where we can more or less play what we like, as long as it’s good.It seems strange now that festivals wouldn’t hire DJs. When did that change?
I guess the first person to really push it was Fat Boy Slim. Oh and Orbital I guess. They were two guys on stage without guitars and without a drummer and that was seen as totally unique at the time.And so now you’re making music again and reviving some of your hits. The Van She remix of ‘Something Good’ is like the biggest dance record of 2008 or something. How did that happen?
It’s funny because Van She are obviously all the way around the other side of the world in Australia, but their timing was just perfect. At the time, we were just starting again on our own mixes, because we had heard that bands like The Klaxons and Shit Disco were starting to name-check us, and it really felt like a good time to start making music again. What sealed the deal was when we went to this warehouse party where the Klaxons were DJing and they played ‘Something Good’ like four times over the night. About the same time, Van She did their mix, which appeared on a blog. We heard it and dropped them a line to let them know we thought it was great but asked that they could just keep a lid on it till we knew what we’re doing with it. Then the whole thing took on a life of its own, and everything happened really quickly — which is good for Utah Saints because we are notoriously slow.
It’s funny too because when we first put the song together and included the Kate Bush sample, the equipment we were using was quite basic and we were just starting to find our feet in terms of what you could do with samplers and things. To make that track originally, we spent about two weeks figuring out mathematical logorhythms so we could simply make that one part fit. According to Van She, they knocked their mix up in a few hours, which just shows you how technology has improved and how everything has changed forever.DANNY WILLIAMS