This month, New York’s FaltyDL will release a new album.
Titled You Stand Uncertain, it’s the most wide-ranging record Falty’s made to date; a sandy playpit of everything from obscured visions of rave and jungle, to slower ventures into house and disco, with more than a touch of Arthur Russell to them. He’s also just released the Essential Track-stamped ‘Hip Love’ on Ramp, which ranks up there with his very best work.
When you released Love is a Liability, I remember us speaking over email about the meaning of the title. What’s the story behind this one?
“Yeah, that had a nice ring to it… You Stand Uncertain is pretty weird. This question itself is going to take more than five minutes to even think about. Practical. No, it simply means that I had no clue about a lot of things during the last two years of my life. Music was one, relationships were another.”
You talked to Martin Clark recently about losing your mind making this album, shutting yourself away in the studio for two weeks, not socialising. Is this the first time you’ve had the opportunity to do that? You’re living off music now, which I’m guessing you probably weren’t when making Love is a Liability?
“Yeah I have the opportunity to spend as much time (for the time being) in my studio making music. I don’t take that for granted though, I imagine slow periods will happen and I may need to get a second job. I miss a job to be honest. Slow days are brutally slow. So looing my mind is on the off days. The days where there is no inspiration, where I’m trying too hard maybe.”
Is there a side of you that only comes out when you shut yourself away that way?
“I think a lot of my music comes out of this need to make music, and the journey, whether it be happy or sad making it. I’m sure I make a certain type of tune while in any given mood. If I start a good loop, I can snap myself out of a bad mood. If I am making dark music I am not necessarily unhappy. In fact I’m pretty fucking thrilled I’m making a dark tune successfully!”
Obviously what constitutes a dark tune is quite subjective… do you consider many of the tracks you release dark? And in what way?
“Yeah some are dark, in as basic a way as some chord progressions that have become institutions, or popular dark movements that ring a bell inside your head and let you know this is dark. Like a very famous example would be parts of The Rites Of Spring, where in its debut it sent people mad in Paris. What I am trying to say, is that sometimes there are technical things that make a song dark, and sometimes it is achieved in a more authentic original way. I think i have done both at points. I will probably break my brain if I try and think to hard about this one.”
You also said you spent a lot of time listening to albums rather than singles, trying to get the idea of how albums work back in your head. When you started writing the album material, was there a specific agenda in mind you had for it – a particular way you wanted it to sound, or flow? And was that realised ultimately?
“No it took a while, there were a few early drafts to this album that sounded much different to the final outcome. In fact the first draft was pretty horrible! Well, it wasn’t anything worth saying, lets put it that way. Once tracks like ‘The Pacifist’ and ‘Open Space’ arrived, I knew the direction I needed to go, for both the record, and myself.”
There’s more guest vocalists than there was on your past work. How did those relationships happen, and was it a simple case of you giving them a backing track and they sing, or more back and forth?
“There was a back and forth, but also a great deal of trust with each of them. And from them towards me. Anneka just knows how to harmonize with herself so well. She will send you a bunch of vocal tracks perfectly cut and in tune with herself, a real pro. Lily is very similar in her professionalism. With her vocals I tampered a little bit more then with Anneka. I pitched Lily’s voice up and down a lot on the closing track. Her voice ended up sounding like butter, smooth.”
If you’ve got a love/hate relationship with your music, as you say in that interview, how do you feel about the finished product in the case of an album? Is it a feeling with satisfaction once it’s done, or dissatisfaction, looking forward to the next one?
“It’s more satisfying then say, a single or a three tracker 12″. The dissatisfaction is realizing shortcuts I took and areas in my production where I didn’t give it 100%. Although I know in my heart Ineed to leave some things rough sounding, as music in this case, is organic and I want it to have its imperfections. I love that in music, especially in dance music. Like some old Arthur Russell Disco 12″s where he’s just fucked the percussion up so much and the toms are all over the place. That is some unsequenced shit right there. Beautiful.”
What’s the story with ‘Hip Love’? Is that from the album sessions, or older? It’s fantastic, one of the best things you’ve done.
“It is an older track I just did one afternoon. It’s about two years old, and I got the remix swap with the XX about the time I finished it. I have wanted Ramp to release that track for about a year now. Took forever. My remix for the XX got given away on loads of blogs etc, but it didn’t get included on the 12″. So I wanted physical proof of the relationship I had with young Turks, as we get along really well and are in touch often. So this 12″ helps that out quite a bit. Plus people love Jamie’s production, so it helps the 12″. Oh, yeah, and he has some album out this month too…”
Are you pretty settled in New York? Could you see yourself anywhere else?
“I’m touring Europe this April with my girlfriend, maybe we’ll apartment shop as well?”
