I wonder if coming into electronica with a traditional songwriting background, how much of a bearing that has on the music you make as Flotilla?
“I think we have to unlearn it. I’ll listen to something like ‘Desire’ by Carl Craig which is a classic, or I’ll listen to something Mark Pritchard does as Harmonic 313, or I’ll listen to Attica Blues, music that works as music for a club, and the arrangement for those is a really specific beast. I’m still wanting to put middle eights in! I can’t have eight bar loops, so that’s to my detriment a bit really [laughs]. With Flotilla I’m not a hundred per cent we do it DJ-friendly enough, but then same with Plaid, there are artists like that and I think you’ve got to stick to what you do.”
You can leave it to the remixers…
“Exactly, that’s why certain remixers charge such a great fee because that’s a great skill, that’s why Skream gets the money he does.”
Listening to your productions, there seems to be an underlying intensity and sense of disquiet that runs through your ambient work right up to something like Only You which is quite moody but almost pop-sounding. Where does this come from?
“I think a lot of the intensity comes from living in South East London, I love South East London, it’s a really great place but you’ve got to have your wits about you all the time. ‘Cathedral’, which is on the 10” is a sort of paranoid, twitchy 808 track and that is purely about walking up Gypsy Hill late at night. I’ve never had trouble down there, but friends of mine have, it’s just watching over your shoulder a bit, and I think that comes out in the music.”
“I think a lot of the intensity comes from living in South East London, I love South East London, it’s a really great place but you’ve got to have your wits about you all the time…”
The same mood which is specific to South London colours a lot of dubstep as well, of course…
“I think so. I think it’s really interesting. When I first met Mark Pritchard I saw the places where he made music, especially the Global Communication stuff he did for Tom [Middleton] – that is just fucking classic, beautiful ambient textures, slow and just incredible – and when I saw where he it I was like, oh right I get it. I think, whether you know it or not, your environment matters greatly to your music. I think that’s why Flotilla sounds quite edgy, even when it’s ambient it sounds edgy, even on ‘On a Street’, which is an ambient, chill out tune there’s still babies crying, things going off in the street and drills, it doesn’t let you go. The EP does not let you relax for one minute of it. I think that’s South East London pouring in the veins a little bit.”
Indeed, The Flotilla EP was out this month, how would you describe it?
“Boomkat called it The Godfather meets DJ Shadow for the first track, which is quite something. I think it’s just a really nice collection of quite tense electronica – they put it into the grime section, I don’t think it’s grime, I think it’s difficult to place and I love that, I love creating problems. I think if you’re into your dubstep you’d like it as much as if you’re into your techno, and I think if you’re not into either of those but really loved the whole Ninja Tune sound of the early 2000s you’d like it. If you were into Wall of Sound in the late 90s I think you’d like it. It does tick all those boxes.”
What kind of things inspire you?
“Music really. I love the challenge of making music. I think the challenge gets put out there all the time, every time I think a scene is dying something else comes along. I thought that with dubstep. I was lucky enough to be a part of the dubstep scene in the very early days, when FWD>> was on a Wednesday at Plastic People and there was about 30 people there. Just when you think that’s dying the whole thing takes off and someone else comes along, listening to Ramadanman and stuff like that – great. And just when I think the whole Warp thing is tiring you’ve got Hudson Mohawke coming along, bits of his stuff are absolutely incredible, and Floating Points who I think is amazing. When I think hip hop, well I never think hip hops getting tired, but just when I wonder what the new angle is along comes Flying Lotus. All these people, and all this music, I just get so inspired by it.”
What’s the greatest challenge facing new artists today?
“I think it’s tricky because the industry as a whole is still sorting itself out, we’re on the cusp of a completely different model for music. Things like Spotify and YouTube even, agreements are going through with PRS now determining how people are going to get paid from all of this, it’s in such early stages. So at the moment you’ve got an industry that’s a little bit chaotic, then you’ve got more chances of being heard than you ever have before by thereby leaving you the issue of every man, woman, child and his dog with ways of getting music on Myspace. So how do you do it? Well, the thing that labels are looking for, and the challenge you have to overcome is you have to ask yourself questions like why? Why are you different? Why would a label like this? Why is this story any better and how? We all need stories, we all need reasons, why am I going to buy that? Why is someone going to come to Ho Hum and listen to Flotilla – why? I think the challenge there is to ask yourself that all the time.”
What’s plans have Flotilla got for the rest of the year?
“This 10” is coming out now, we’re doing some really nice DJ spots but they’re all pencilled in for now, we’re doing some festivals and we’re doing some radio stuff on Resonance FM. We’re then doing another 10” towards the end of the year and hopefully doing some nice online visual bits and bobs with some very clever graphic people and then hoping to get that into some museum places as well, so lots of arty farty stuff. Just look out for us, we’ll be out and be around. Also, some remixes are coming in as well, again nothing’s confirmed. Without meaning to sound too corny Flotilla is really setting sail at the minute, it’s great. The reactions to the EP have completely exceeded our expectations and that’s a lovely place to be.”
Louise Brailey
alphavillefestival.co.uk
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