Markus Enochson’s Techno-Soul Permutations

Stockholm’s Markus Enochson is at the cutting edge of a new form of soul music that infuses classic soul with his techno- and electro-musical influences and impeccible production skills. Enochson has been an integral part of the house music culture in Sweden for years and his own productions like “I Am the Road” and “Feeling Fine” and collaborations with soul vocalist James Ingram and the Masters at Work (“Lean on Me”) established Enochson as a leading house music producer. Working within the underground house music scene, he has an impressive pedigree as a producer, remixer and a DJ and has a reputation for genre defying blends in his productions and DJ sets. Not one to rest on his laurels Enochson’s work has evolved and mutated over the years, from the classic, New York-inspired house of his first singles to the freer and more unrestrained elctronic-drenched compositions of today. Enochson is constantly hunting for new ways of introducing his version of soul. Today he lets his early rave and techno influences shine through, coupled with broken beats and R’n’B. This is a big jump and it was an awakening for Enochson when he realized he could escape from the pattern he was partly responsible for putting himself in.

With “Night Games” his full-length debut on sonar kollektiv, Enochson has created his own unique electro-soul sound. It was Louie Vega from Masters at Work who came up with the idea of an album a few years ago. Markus started off the work, but while doing it, he kept getting new ideas that he didn’t know what to do with. The pieces eventually fell into place resulting in an album of heavy electronics blended with deep soul, with strong influences from Detroit and 80s electronic underground dance. “Nite Games” is largely a reflection of what is happening today. It is a sort of soul-minimalism, distilled from his years of musical experience. Nite Games is house, techno, and broken beats woven together in a way that only Enochson can.

“Nite Games” is the first step in a new journey of experimentation and discarding tired music formulas. His recent work which is minimal yet soulful tech-house includes ‘No Only In Sweden/Chord song’ under the Two Guys & A Dog alias and a remix of Demetrius Price “No Holdin’ Back” on Sweden’s Raw Fusion label under his new alias Audiobuff. Enochson is also busy finalizing production of the full length debut of Cornelia. This is in addition to his busy schedule as a globe-trotting DJ and in-demand remixer.

Mundovibes was fortunate enough to catch up with the busy artist for this e-mail interview.

MUNDOVIBES: You were born in 1975, near the peak of the disco and soul eras. How strong an impact did this period have on you? What music do you remember hearing as a child that shaped you?

MARKUS ENOCHSON: At home I was brought up on more or less on a strict diet of soul music, mostly ballads. I remeber specifically at an early age being in awe of Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Thin Lizzy and many more. Since my father was involed in music for several of my early years there was a lot of music around, intruments to play and people playing and singing at home.

MV: Your uncle was very formative in your childhood exposure to music and electronics. Tell us about this.

MARKUS: My uncle had a synth and studio store for many years in Stockholm and I strongly remember my first visit to this store as a 5-year old and experiencing a synthesizer for the first time. I was truly amazed. This is one of my strongest childhood memories and I truly felt that I wanted to be around synthesizers for the rest of my life. Later on my uncle had this amazing home studio with more or less all the goodies you could imagine and I loved spending time in there when we were visiting them.

MV: We all know that Marvin Gaye lived in Sweden. Was soul music popular there?

MARKUS: Traditionally Sweden is a rock country and I imagine Marvin came cause of the women… although in Marvin’s days it could have been different.

MV: You come from a musical family, yet you pursued a different sort of musical career. What made you want to do things diffferentltly

MARKUS: I think any kid wants to form an identity in polarity of sorts towards your parents. In my way I started listing to synth, the early body music and techno as my “revolution” came about.

MV: When were you first introduced to techno and house music what were your impressions?

MARKUS: For me techno and house came to my attention in the early ’90s. I went to raves and had a few live experiences in those early raves. Cari Lekebush was in a way formentative in my musical schooling as he showed me some tricks (we’re form the same suburb) and he lent me his id so I could get in underage to parties.

MV: How did your musical career begin?

MARKUS: I did a maybe ten live gigs during the period 92-96 and organised a few parties. My first paid gig was in ’96 and I started travelling as a DJ the year before. Early on in 98-99 I had my first release (‘Follow Me’), a vocal house track and I ran with that style cause that was my first release.

MV: What was your first DJing experience?

MARKUS: More or less a disaster of sorts. I had to stand in for a friend who was double booked. I didn’t own turntabels and had just done the occasional mix for him while he was chatting some girl up. I remember that I was horrified and nothing went as I wanted it to. It got better after that.

MV: When did you realize that you wanted to produce dance music?

MARKUS: I realised early on that i wanted music to be a part of my life and dance music was not a term in those days. Eventually I was drawn towards it because my interest in music and technology so in a sense it came naturally. Muy soulful upbringing and interest for technology

MV: What were your first experiences producing music. Did it come easy?

MARKUS: I remember the first time I had a synth that could record something — again it was natural.

MV: You are well established as a DJ. What do your DJ sets encompass?

MARKUS: That’s a very tough question to answer right now. I try not to be linear these days, I’m tryin to not be held back by myself and my own ideas of what I think the audience might want and just go with the flow. I recently started DJing with Serato and its a godsend for me. I now find what track I want the moment I know what I want. Before with CDs I was lost by too many pages of CDs in the case. I still prefer vinyl and I bring what I have not recorded for a gig that I think I might play. This leads into the next question and this relefcts what I’m doing as a producer these days as well as a DJ.

MV: You have gone from producing classic-sounding house to a much more varied and more experimental sound with a number of influences. How and why has your music evolved?

MARKUS: I really started out DJing and producing techno. House was also a huge part from the get go and it was within house music I got my break. In a way you can say that I grew tired of house and all of its cliches and pastiches. I more or less did music oriented around the soulful NYC scene for close to ten years and I grew tired of it. When I started doing my album I realised early on that it was time for a change. No more live bass, no more rhodes, at least not for that album. In a way you can say that the album was the start of something that has continued into a series of 12″s and what also can become a new electronic oriented album. I’m more interested these days of exploring the combination of traditional song structures and electronic soundscapes as well as al lintrumental electronic tracks. Also I’m trying to develop other artists and working as a song writer and producer for others. I’d like to mention Cornelia Dahlgren, a Swedish gril I’m working with and we are close to finising her album.

MV: You have worked with Louis Vega and Kenny Dope of Masters at Work. How does it feel to be working with them and how did this happen?

MARKUS: I got to knew one of their bookers, Olli White in London, and we became friends. This led into the collaboration with James Ingram because he’s been wroking with my father alot so I was sort of a facillitator and a suggestor for the collab and also a co-writer for the song “Lean on Me”.

MV: Your full-length album “Night Games” is a mix of styles and of collaborators. Clearly, you wanted to mix things up.

MARKUS: I mentioned earlier that I felt that the traditional soulful scene was in a stand still, and alot of people are still standing. Other people realised this as well, for instance Louie (Vega) took to his roots and incorporated a lot of latin types of music into house and I turned to mine, hence I brought into my soul music a lot of electronica and early techno feel to it. I more or less wanted to do electronic music but with a soul sensibility. I felt that I was searching for something different rather than repeating some tried and tired formula. The collaborations came about in a very easy way. All of the people except James Ingram were living in Stockholm at the time and we are all friends so it was more of a collektive than anything else.

MV: How did the songs and collaborators on “Night Games” come together since you have so many sounds and voices.

MARKUS: Most of the songs are collaborations between me and the vocalist where I do the music and they do the lyrics. Sometimes we do the melody line tothether and at other occasions the vocalist does it all by themself. Musically I had a few tracks for all the different vocalists to choose from and I wrote them having the specific vocalist in mind. I had a clear idea of their vocal range and style from before since I worked with almost all of them earlier.

MV: Many of your songs such as “Endless Dance”, “Hear Me” and “Love is on the Way” and have an uplifting message. Do you want your music to lift people up?

MARKUS: I try to think positive even when the chips are down. So I guess it might shine through. “Hear Me” I wrote the English phrases and “Endless Dance” me and Jocelyn were very close with our minds and speaking alot of these issues at the time.

MV: ” Night Games” has a sound that is both soulful and techy. How do you balance between the machine and the soul?

MARKUS: I’m part machine 😉

MV: What impact do you want your music to have on the listener?

MARKUS: If i could wish for something it would be that the listener would try to immerse themselves in the music

MV: What are the strongest “elements” to your music?

MARKUS: I mean, its really not me who should answer this, but if I have to say one thing that I strive for it’s in how to combine an electronic soundscape with traditional songwriting

MV: Your work with James Ingram is very soulful and solid. Tell us about working with him. Are you a fan of his?

MARKUS: I’m a huge fan and I grew up with his music. My father Lars and him have done a few collaborations. It would be very har d to do somtheing unsoulful with James cause he’s a very inspired and soulful man. In a way I’m blessed to have been part of his musical life and I’ve learned a great deal from him

MV: What is your approach to remixes? Do you totally reconstruct a song? What do you set out to do?

MARKUS: In my opinion a good remix is a remix that truly takes the track in a different direction and makes it into something completely new. Remixes today are more often than not shit, I haven’t heard a good remix on a R&B track in many many years. In a way I feel that the remixer should try to accomplish to make the song/track his/her own and then reproduce the song so it feels like an original.

MV: How would you describe the music you are producing now?

MARKUS: Experimental music. I was shackled by myself for so many years and I never want to be in that situation again. It’s almost like I wanna be changing the script every other production tese days.

MV: You have a strong interest in technology. How does this affect your music?

MARKUS: I’m constantly learning about new technology and old. So, in a way I never want to stand still. Even if it’s a mic techniquie for kick drums or the latest plug-in I want to be on top of things and during the years this has been my motto in studios. I never was afraid to ask in these situations.

MV: What are some of the irreplaceable tools you use to create your music?

MARKUS: Well, I have to list a few things. The didrick de geer micrphone. All of the vocals on the album, indeed all of the vocals I’ve recorded since I got this microphone have been done with this baby. It’s truly amazing, built by a more or less fanatic guy starting out with the capsule of the akg c12. Also, for drum i use the mpc 60 mk II most of the time. I use logic as a daw controling protools hd interface. Nils, my dog, is my constant companion in the studio

MV: What trends do you see on the horizon for dance music? What is inspiring you?

MARKUS: Dance music as well as all music has alot ahead in the terms of reorganizing the business structures to fit today’s community. Musically I think today are really inspiring times. In a way I imagine that house and techno has never been as close in 15 years or more. This is truly inspiring.

MV: You’ve been working with Chicago’s Still Music with “The two guys and a dog ep”. Tell us about this.

MARKUS: “two guys and a dog” are part of five guys and a dog which is a way of naming all of us working in our studio complex. We are doing different combinations and collaborations working under this guise. We also have a myspace site and are doing a few collaborative DJ sets and future releases and co-productions and possibly a label. There is a future two guys and a dog ep on miso music very soon.

Two Guys and a Dog ep (Still Music)

MV: What projects are you involved with now?

MARKUS: Well, finsihin g the album of Cornelia, a remix for tiger stripes, the awa track is a part of tronic jams ep 1 on deeply rooted, soon cpt beard is coming out on raw fusion and a secret bootleg track that i’m sure will make some impact;)

Markus Enochson website

Markus Enochson myspace

Cornelia Dahlgren website

Complete Discography of Markus Enochson

Sonar Kollektiv

It´s been rumored that New York based Artist-Producer-DJ extraordinaire Jaymz Nylon was born with a stack of vinyl in his hands. Whether it´s true or not, his youthful passion for music led his father to compile young Nylon’s favorite tracks on a tape when he was just 3. Even then Nylon exhibited a deep appreciation for funk and soul and the mix included Fela, Santana, Otis Redding, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Al Green and a little Samba thrown in by his mother.

Fast forward a few years to age 14 where Jaymz’ father is stationed in Germany (aha–the techno connection!) and we find him turned on to electronic music which he then started to mix with early funk and hip-hop. Nylon DJ’ed his first party for young American and German teens in the parking garage beneath his apartment complex. Then at the age of 17 and through university, Nylon went underground, throwing Acid/Chicago House Music parties in basements while parents were away. From here the pace quickens.

In 1993 and we find Nylon fulfilling his musical calling with his debut 12″, Ofunwa´s “It all begins here” on the pioneering house label Tribal America. Thus was begun a prolific career that spans many tracks, DJ sets and creative output. His debut album “Afrotech” on Irma in 2000 was widely appreciated for Nylon has recorded under various pseudonyms throught the years recording music for King Street/ Nite Grooves, Loveslap, Out of the Loop, Captivating, Eightball/Empire, State and his own Nylon imprint. After this long journey of acquiring and sharing knowledge of Nylon is now concentrating on his own Nylon Recordings.

To mark the start of a new phase of his career, Nylon has released the full-length “African Audio Research Program Vol. 1” an electronic album of warmth and soul that works on and off the dancefloor. On this album are epic tracks like “Shine”, “People Still Dream”, “Morning Eyes” & “Skullduggery”, along with stunning vocals of Bobbi Sanders, Sokunthary Svay, Joshua Tree and Nylon. “African Audio Research Program Vol. 1” also features the extremely talented Jay Rodriguez (the man behind the world famous Groove Collective) on sax/flute.

Mundovibes was priviliged to hook up with Jaymz Nylon for a chat about his lengthy career.

Mundovibes: Jaymz, you have been spinning, producing and remixing deep, soulful house for a couple decades now. How does it feel to be a veteran of the house music universe?

Jaymz Nylon: To be exact I have only been in the business for 12 years, releasing my first single in 1993. I really do not feel like a veteran because for me every release is a new beginning with the sound always moving forward.

MV: How important is your African heritage to your music and how do you express it?

No matter how far removed I maybe from my African anscestors I feel them in life’s daily rhythm when I talk, walk & breath and this comes through when I create my music.

MV: What would you say is the thread that ties all of your various projects and efforts together?

JN: There is no thread that ties all my various projects together, it’s a seamless bond that will continue as long as I breath.

MV: What are the key elements to a Jaymz Nylon production?

JN: Hope, happiness & tragedy (not necessarily mine).

MV: Brooklyn is your home but you travel the world. What keeps bringing you back to NYC?

JN: I have not yet found a place that can compare with Brooklyn’s environment where art and urban co-exsist. But who knows maybe one day I will do a complete 360 and end up living in the northern beaches of Australia.

MV: Since the late ’90s the club scene in New York has been under pressure. What are your feelings about the present culture in the city?

JN: It’s difficult but I try to stay positive about the NYC club scene & not give up on her. I just started a weekly Wed. party called Nylon Sessions at Gypsy Tea 33 W.24th St. between 5th & 6th Ave. it has a sick Phazon Sound System…Wish me luck!

MV: Please give us the low-down on your latest project, African Audio Research Program?

JN: Well African Audio Research Program Vol.1 is just one many volumes to come. It provides me with a creative outlet that allows me to unleash all this music inside of me, on my own terms. A2RP is also a sharing experience with me, my collaborators and the listener.

MV: How did you go about putting African Audio Research Program together. What was the inspiration?

JN: The name African Audio Research Program came to me from a dream where I was a part of organization that willingly came over from Africa to a new world and had to find a way to communicate with the native inhabitants but only through music. The amazingly talented people around me inspired me to make this dream a reality.

MV: You also have some new 12” releases, please tell us about these?

JN: Black By Birth Feat. Ronyx “Get It Right” Main Squeeze Co-Produced with Andrew Brown

Jaymz Nylon “Virgin Sand” Perfect Toy Records.

MV: You collaborate with a lot of different artists. Who are you working with lately?

JN: Bobbi Sanders (ex-wife of El DeBarge),Mooney, Kmao, Andrew “AEB” Brown and Jay Rodriguez.

MV: Describe the creative process you employ to create your music.

JN: Go to sleep, wake up from dream and go into studio.

MV: The lyrics in your music are spiritual and uplifting and abstract at times. What do you want to communicate with these lyrics?

JN: That life is designed to be lived through the hardest of times to the most tender.

MV: What keeps you grounded in what must be a pretty hectic schedule and life?

JN: Looking into the eyes of my 14 month old daughter Bianca, the smile of 10 year old daughter Coco & the love and laughter of my wife Ria.

MV: Your knowledge of modern dance music stretches back a few decades. How do you put this knowledge to work with what you do?

JN: What strikes me the most in past decades was Black Music of the 70’s and in particular their arrangements and placement of instruments in the final mix. And with this knowledge I happily apply this to the way I record.

MV: What gives you the most satisfaction from a DJing gig?

JN: Smiley sweaty people.

MV: What, in your opinion, was the golden age of house music?

JN: Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

MV: It has to be difficult to be continually inspired. What do you do outside of the music for this?

JN: Spending as much time as I can with my family & friends which are not in music business.

MV: Dance music is about letting go and releasing and these days there’s a lot to release. What are your feelings on this?

JN: This is nothing new, every generation has had some sort of outlet for release and letting it all go. As long as humans exsit we will always need a means to escape sometimes.

MV: What can we expect from Jaymz Nylon in 2005?

JN: Music, music and more music.

Jaymz Nylon Myspace

CHICAGO’S GUIDANCE RECORDINGS

BY J.C. TRIPP

Like many Chicago-based labels, house music was a catalyst for the launch of Guidance Recordings. But unlike the now-defunct house labels that never moved beyond the genre Guidance charted an adventurous course from its inception. Releasing pioneering compilations of dub, down tempo and lounge the label rapidly expanded far beyond its original deep-house offerings. And that continual quest for new sounds and emerging artists has made Guidance one of the most dynamic and respected labels in the world of underground dance and electronic music.

Guidance Recordings was founded in 1996 by Ivan Pavlovich, Rob Kouchoukos, and Sid Stary. All shared a passion for house music and were involved in its nascent recording industry. Pavlovich and Kouchoukos met while running operations at the legendary Cajual, Prescription and Relief labels. At the time a new wave of producers were expanding upon the Chicago house music blueprint—adding state of the art production techniques and a cosmopolitan edge to art form. Guidance embraced the globalization of electronic music, assembling a diverse and talented roster of artists from across Europe, the UK, and North America.

The label released its first two singles, Free Energy “Happiness” and Projekt: PMs vocoded house classic “When the Voices Come” in May 1996. It followed with a string of timeless twelve inches that helped launched the careers of house music legends such as: Austin “Abacus” Bascom, Deep Sensation, Blueboy, Fresh and Low, Kevin Yost, and Chicago’s very own Glenn Underground, prompting Muzik Magazine to proclaim Guidance “the best new house label in the world” in its 1997 year end issue.

Although Guidance initially made its mark in the industry on the strength of its deep house singles, the label’s goal has always been to release a diverse spectrum of soulful urban electronic music encompassing but not limited to house, dub, downtempo, hip hop, lounge, electro and world influenced sounds. All three of the label’s founding partners came of age in club culture during the late 1980’s when DJ’s regularly spun rock, reggae, hip hop, house, freestyle, electro and techno all in the same set. It’s in that spirit of diversity that Guidance carries on.

Inspired by the critical and commercial success of Blueboy’s “Remember Me”, Guidance has successfully launched Mundial Muzique, Midnight Express, and Hi Fidelity House, Dub, and Lounge compilation imprints. This foray into the CD compilation market proved to be a crucial phase in the label’s expansion, exposing the Guidance sound to a wider music buying audience beyond the confines of DJ culture and paving the way for the label’s transition into a full scale record company dedicated to artist development.

Over the years, Guidance has been very fortunate to have a number of the acts on its roster grow with the label and evolve from DJ?s producing the odd one off single into versatile artists capable of releasing engaging full length albums. The year 2000 marked the release of the label’s first proper artist album, A:xus “Soundtrack for Life” produced by Toronto’s Austin Bascom. In early 2001, Guidance followed suit with “Doubts and Convictions” the masterful debut album from Marseille, France based trio the Troublemakers.

Refusing to rest on its laurels, the label has continued to keep the quality level high, delivering the sterling sophomore album “Numero Deux” from Milan based duo, The Dining Rooms; the debut full-length of Nuspirit Helsinki, a multi-talented collective of local DJs producers and musicians that ascended to the forefront of the European nu-jazz scene; Norwegian folk electronica trio, Flunk’s stylish synth pop love affair “For Sleepyheads Only” and Caia’s “The Magic Dragon” a captivating album of far east inspired electronica from Andy Cato of Groove Armada.

In an increasingly challenging industry Guidance has branched out, licensing tracks to television programs like “Six Feet Under” and tapped into the burgeoning video game market, compiling the soundtrack and companion soundtrack album for the popular Play Station 2 game Smuggler’s Run, and placing songs from the Guidance catalog on Midnight Club 2 and Grand Theft Auto III. With last year’s signing of Bent, Nottingham, England’s undisputed champions of leftfield dance music, as well as exciting new artists such as Seattle’s Young Circle and Tennessee’s Skyway 7, the label’s future is looking positive. Add to that a strategic partnerships with companies such as E Music and Apple’s I-Tunes store and Guidance are posed to thrive in the digital era.

Guidance’s cluttered office located in a non-descript building in Chicago’s West Loop might be anti-climatic for an article in, say, Wallpaper magazine. But clearly it’s all about the music and Guidance makes no pretense about it. It’s a cold spring Friday afternoon and things seem pretty guiet at the office, with just two of Guidance’s “family” members in presence, founding principle Ivan Pavlovich and operations manager Tony Mesones. With the Bent LP playing in the background, we sat down to talk about Guidance Recordings, the Chicago scene and the music industry.

JC Tripp: From the start it seems like Guidance has been on a dub and spiritual kind of vibe.

Ivan Pavlovich: Even from the start there was always one song on the e.p. that was different, it wasn’t straight deep house. As we’ve grown older and our tastes have matured, we’ve gone from more club oriented music to more down tempo, a lot of orchestration, just a more mature sound I think. Music we can listen to at home, not having to go out to clubs and bang our heads against the wall. But Tony will still do that but he does that for fun (laughter).

Tony Mesones: Yes, to diversify the catalogue as well, you know, in the long run.

JC: Are you, in terms of genres of music, are into any broken beat or is it primarily down tempo?

Ivan: Down tempo. I think the problem when you deal with broken beat is that you’re talking about 2,000 people in the world who are into broken beat and you’re only dealing with these people. The only people who understand it are the people who are in it.

Tony: To make the scene, you are closing it off. Also, it’s a West London thing. The thing about broken beat shows that I’ve been too, I’ve noticed when I went and saw Dego, everybody stands and dances in the same place. It doesn’t get crazy.

Ivan: But, we’re not downtempo. In the beginning we were just trying to do quality music, whatever appealed to us, you know? So, it wasn’t about classification or anything, it was like “do we like this on its own. Do we just like this on its own.

Tony: And can we do something with it, you know?

JC: What were some of your first projects.

Ivan: Josh Michaels, who’s since moved to San Francisco, did the first release. Some of our big 12” artists at the beginning, we had the Glenn Underground’s, the Kevin Yost’s, Larry Heard. Just really pushing the deep house sound. And at the time things were getting a little harder and we just wanted to bring it back to deep house.

JC: Your roster is very international now.

Ivan: I think it always was. Somebody asked me this the other day, ‘do you only sign Chicago artists?’ And, we only have 2 Chicago artists and they’re not even in Chicago. We had like 3 or 4, but Glenn Underground’s the only one who did an album for us. We really don’t work with that many people from Chicago, not by choice, that’s just the way it worked out.

JC: So, it’s not about Chicago artists, it’s about wherever the material comes from?

Ivan: We just started gettting projects from overseas and they snowballed. It’s a weird thing, you go territory to territory. You get an album or some tracks from a couple of French artists and all of a sudden you get 40 demos in that territory. And then in Scandanavia the same thing happens. You do a couple of things and all of a sudden it’s a flood. I mean, we may as well be a Scandanavia label now. (laughter)

JC: Well, you’re more like a European label in the sense of what you’re representing. Do you get that comparison?

Tony: Yeah, I think it’s an easy comparison to make, a natural association. It doesn’t bother us, if that’s the question.

JC: You have at least two very successful compilation series, High Fidelity Lounge and High Fidelity Dub Sessions. That’s a big part of your operation.

Ivan: Yes. I guess there are three levels of operations: you have the twelve-inches, which we’re now relegating to promote artist albums, with remixes. And sometimes to test out new artists. And then you have the artist albums and the compilations. I think they all are equally important.

Tony: They all help each other out in some way.

JC: And how do your compilations come together conceptually?

Ivan: It’s just a matter of somebody coming up with a concept that can be spaced out over a series. With the new “Star Gazing”, Tony just kind of came up with it and hopefully we can carry that over through a number of volumes. That’s always important.

JC: Do you think there are too many compilations out there now?

Ivan: It’s definitely tough to set yourself apart in the compilations. If we hadn’t started the lounge series years back when there were just a couple of chillout lounge compilations and the market was really open for it. I don’t think we’d be doing it anymore. It wouldn’t be worth it because the sales drop.

JC: But you pioneered that in the States.

Tony: Yeah, luckily we were there at the beginning, you know, especially for the US. Because without that it really wouldn’t be worth doing it.

Ivan: I think “Star Gazing” is a brand new concept unto itself.

Tony: Synth-pop but a little bit edgier.

Ivan: A little bit edgier, a little bit folktronicish. But I don’t see many compilations like that out there.

JC: It’s not in the club realm at all then?

Tony: No, it’s more of an electronic-rock vibe, right? Stuff like Flunk, Telepop, Les Rythmes Digitales, that kind of vibe. I haven’t seen a compilation that kind of devotes itself to that genre yet.

JC: I want to talk about some of your specific artists, firstly with Nu Spirit Helsinki. Do you typically look to develop artists or do you go with one record and see how it goes?

Ivan: The hope is to be able to develop them. Up until know it’s been really tough for us because we’re always doing first time artists. So, we’re really breaking them and then having to wait for the second album to sell.

Tony: As a record label, you really have to look toward developing the artist. There’s all of this time and money and energy into breaking them. If you have nothing to follow up with then it really hurts.

Ivan: You’re just getting your feet wet with the first, and then the second time. The Nu Spirit Helsinki album resonated.

JC: It’s an awesome album. Too bad radio couldn’t pick up on that.

Ivan: Yeah, you know in a lot of instances I think “this would be great for R&B radio” but it’s a very “European” album, I guess.

Tony: They’re doing a lot of shows in London now and they’re really starting to catch up. That’s an album that is going to take a long time to get to the point where it’s understood.

Ivan: I think it’s just harder to understand, it’s not an easy album to get. You’re going to have to really sit with it and that’s why it’s talking so long. Which is great, because that album is going to be around 10 years from now.

JC: It’s definitely got a classic feel.

Ivan: It doesn’t date itself. Those guys are amazing musicians and producers. They are perfectionists.

JC: In terms of breaking an artist, what is your strategy?

Ivan: The strategy is to sign really good artists and hope for the best (laughs). It depends, it varies from artist to artist.

Tony: And there’s the twelve-inch thing and see if we get the response.

Ivan: It depends, from artist to artist. It depends on what kind of artist they are and what their abilities are. Some people can’t DJ or tour live, and you’ve got to figure out some other way to break them. Maybe it’s like the Dining Rooms. Maybe instead of bringing them over for a tour, maybe you just do a lot of film and TV licenses and try and get the word out through that. Another artist we’re looking at signing has an amazing live show, so the focus would be to bring them over and do a tour.

Tony: As a label, we’ve been making a push to try to get a national tour together. The difficulty is that our artists are overseas. Now we’re making the push, we’re gettting the buzz where the audience wants to see and hear them in the states. For example, flunk, which will be touring in the fall. It’s new territory for us here at Guidance.

Ivan: Yes, well it’s a live tour and that’s tough. The problem with Nu Spirit Helsinki is you’re talking about 12 people. That doesn’t include sound guys, technicians, etc. You can’t bring 12 people over from Europe and have a shitty show, so you’ve got to have these other people, you know?

Tony: It’s more hurtful to have a bad show than it is not to do a show. It’s cost prohibitive: you’ve 12 people, we’re a small label here. I’m sure the response would be great if we could get them over here and there would be a demand to see them. But if they keep doing more shows overseas and maybe there will be a buzz and we can do something.

Ivan: We don’t have radio here like they do overseas. You have to use alternate methods of marketing bands, things like video. Very few electronic artists have been able to get on MTV. What’s cool are things like Cornerstone Player, Res magazine has a DVD with a lot of electronic artists. So, you have to look at those options to spread the word.

Tony: There are alternate avenues. We don’t get much radio play but we do with stations like KCRW. There are certain tastemaker stations that have been good to us.

Ivan: It’s this grass-roots kind of fight to find the best means of exposure for your artist and figuring out how to make that work for you.

JC: You have a very strong graphic image with your packaging. It’s part of what attracted me from the start.

Tony: We try to make it a definitive statment like with our lounge series. If you’re talking about marketing that first impression is so important. How do you get somebody to go towards this CD? That’s why the Ultra releases have done so well, or the Naked look. And we’re doing it a little differently but we’ve got some great artists creating work for us.

Ivan: I think we’re getting better with the art work. There were a couple in there that just snuck by (laughs).

JC: Getting back to the music, do you put people together and say ‘hey, I’ve got this concept’.

Ivan: Rarely. Mostly we’re talking about finished product. Where it’s developing an artist, meaning with the 12-inches, the whole farm league thing. You keep putting them out and it’s like ‘wow, this is what’s working’, giving them feedback, working with them on that end. But not really starting from zero, where you’re like ‘OK, I’m going to take this person and this person and put them together and lock them in a hotel room together for a weekend and then we’ll have an album’. We did that once with a relase called “Urban Renewal”, which was spoken word. So, that was the only time where we actually put people together. We took Chicago spoken word artists and sent them to New York to work with Rahzel . Different things like that, we called King Britt and said ‘can you and Ursula Rucker deliver something for this project.’ But beyond that it’s really up to the artists.

M: Do you have certain clubs that you do things with?

Tony: Ivan and I have taken it upon ourselves, and Tobias as well. We started a night, on Mondays, at a place called Spoon on Wells. The night reflects the label, the diversity. We do the house music thing but Tobias willl throw in some ‘80s. Everybody does a house music night here in Chicago and it’s boring. It’s about just keeping it fun and it reflects our tastes.

Ivan: On that whole vibe, people take music soo seriously sometimes.

Tony: Especially in this town. They’re so serious about it.

Tony: Even the musicians on the Bent album, they’re having fun when they make their music. They’re trying different things, it’s quirky. A Captain & Tenille sample for a house track, you know?

Ivan: With Nu Spirit, it’s great to be serious like that. That’s a serious album but other times music can be fun.

M: Do you think Chicago gets too pigeon-holed in the whole house thing? Everybody’s like ‘Chicago, house music!’

Ivan: There are other scenes. The whole thing they’re doing with say, Thrill Jockey. They’ve got their own scene with Tortoise and Cake. That’s a great scene and it’s viable and you’re making it work. But you’re getting crossover into our magazines, the electronic magazines. But you still have the history of, like, this is where it started.

JC: I had a pre-conception of Chicago that everybody was all together in one place, as a family. And then I realized it’s very north-south.

Ivan: Yeah, totally, as split up as neighborhoods.

Tony: I’m relatively new to the town, I moved here two years ago and I had the same pre-conception as you, where it’s kind of a family vibe.

Ivan: I think if you’re actually in Chicago it’s pretty diverse, but for people who come over here they’re always amazed. They expect to see, like, Frankie Knuckles and everybody’s just jackin’.

JC: Now it seems like every trendy bar has a compilation.

Ivan : Every bar, every national retailer, anybody you can think of now has a compilation to make it a lifestyle.

JC: Is that anything you would get into?

Tony: We do it. That’s just another way to reach that market. You don’t have radio, but you have these comps that are everywhere. There’s major retailers that do this. My mom goes into these places, Joe Schmo from whatever college goes to these places. This is how to reach these people. You can’t go through radio, so you go to these major retailers and you get on their compilations.

JC: Do you find that there is any unity amongst member of the scene, in terms of working together on projects or promotion?

Ivan: I don’t know, there’s no sense of unity, everybody’s off on their own running their own race. Which is good and bad. I think if it was there’d be some inteesting collaborations and maybe more music that pushes boundaries if people did put their heads together. Even when we’ve tried to do things with other house labels, downtempo labels and it never really worked out. I am sure there’s some underlying competition or egoism about what everybody’s doing, but it’s very hard to bring people together. That said, we’re on really good terms with a lot of the labels. Everybody shares information, the people who know each other help each other.

JC: In terms of Guidance future growth and direction. Do you see things as getting bigger or what?

Tony: They need to get bigger.

Ivan: The market right now is awful. Anybody in the U.S. will tell you. Any label, save something like Ultra, who still is spending the marketing money, Eighteenth Street Lounge Music based on Thievery Corporation sales, not their other artists. Their other artists are hurting just like anybody else. Definitely, everybody is feeling it. You talk to people in France, and they’re doing all of the Buddha Bar compilations like Vagram, who’s the main distributor of these compilations—they’re hurting. Even though the French market just went up like the only market in the world to increase their sales. Our genre of music has gone down like 30%. So, everybody is hurting, a lot of labels that were distributed by majors have been dropped. So, now is not the time for somebody to start their own label. The labels that are still in the U.S. doing it, it’s getting harder and harder you know?

JC: What do you attribute that to?

Ivan: The economy, for one. The economy is hurting everybody. People aren’t spending the money on music. So, you’ve got somebody who’s going to the store and spending $20, instead of the $60 you’d allot yourself a couple years ago. That’s why the artwork is important, that’s why all of the marketing is important. You’re vying for one person’s 20 bucks with everything else that’s in the marketplace. Like I said, if we hadn’t done the lounge years and years ago it wouldn’t be feasible for us to do it now.

Guidance Recordings website

An audio interview with Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra leader and vocalist Ray Lugo

By John C. Tripp

A DJ doesn’t have nearly the setup of a full live band, but there are certain technical requirements that are of utmost import, one being the mixing board. DJs live and breath by their mixers. Things get a wee tense when it’s learned that the contract-specified mixer never showed. No mixer, no music, so a last minute shuffle ensues to get the board, which is somewhere midtown. It’s the sort of thing that gives a DJ nightmares but cool prevails and with a board in place some 30 minutes later Nicola Conte opens the night with a seductive bossa nova-esque groove. Ursula 1000 settles down in the sleazily bedecked backroom, joined by his wife and a case of Rolling Rock. Not exactly Hotel Costes but, hey, this is the real world.

Ursula 1000 (AKA Alex Gimeno) displays a genuinely affable personality: mild mannered, eager to discuss, devoid of attitude, and loaded to the hilt with musical references. In a music scene that’s smothered by attitude Ursula 1000 is definitely in it for the right reasons, namely a love for music and underground pop culture. With three records behind him for Thievery Corporation’s ESL label—The Now Sound, All Systems Are Go Go and the latest Kinda’ Kinky—he has a firm standing in the international club-pop/loungecore scene. His sampledelic pastiche of cha-cha-cha, mambo, ’60s go-go and modern beat programming has been embraced by underground hipsters, ultrapop aficionados and fashionistas alike.

Though ESL music is recognized for its ultra-suave downtempo vibe, Ursula 1000 feels right at home with the label. “I think I initially fit in in a more of a stylistic and design sense even though my music was a lot more hyperactive than anything on the label,” he explains. “But I think the label was looking for something like that cause they don’t just want to be a downtempo label. And when they heard my stuff they thought ‘this could expand our roster and give it a different sound.’ It’s funny, I think people dig it. You know, when you want to chill out you put on your Thievery Corporation but if you want to pick it up a notch then you listen to Ursula 1000. I think they realize it’s good for the label to have me,” he says.

Ursula 1000’s populuxe musical tates may be partially attributable to his Miami upbringing. After all, a world of pastels, palm trees, guayaberas, and ’60s vernacular architecture is bound to seep into anyone’s psyche. For Ursula 1000 that influence came in a roundabout way. “The only thing that may have contributed is probably the really awesome thrift shopping. It was great stuff. How could you not buy a Martin Denny record for a quarter with this amazing cover? I could just stick it on my wall cause it’s so cool looking, you know? Even if the record sucks. But then you start listening to it and at first it’s like, whoaa check out this cheesy thing but the more you play it you’re like ‘wow, I really like this.’ And that’s what was happening,” he says. “I was also into some jazz and some soundtrack stuff but not in an ironic sense. I think the more loungey stuff like the Martin Denny and the Esquivel was kind of comic at first; I grew in appreciation for it and I think that mixed with the flipside of the thing—drum’n’bass, house, breakbeat, techno. Those things eventually fused.”

Today’s thrift shopper might not revel in the supreme coolness of old Martin Denny records, since they’ve all been picked over. But, with the recycling of all things retro, it’s natural that artists like Ursula 1000 would become popular reworking those fabulous sounds. But while others have dabbled in its built-in irony and moved on, Ursula 1000 has stuck to his kitschy-guns. “When my first record came out, there were a lot of people like D’Mitri from Paris, Fantastic Plastic Machine and the Bungalow label from Germany. A lot of people were doing similar kind of stuff, where we were dabbling in late ’60s—kind of campy but with groovey elements. But then it seemed like everybody shifted gears immediately and I just thought when I started working on the second album that there were areas of ‘loungecore’ that still needed to be explored.”

On ‘Kinda Kinky’ Ursula 1000 has been able to stretch out, without betraying his loungecore roots. With its Shag illustrated cover and collaborations with Saturday Night Live band guitarist Dr. Luke and Brother Cleve of Combustible Edison, Kinda Kinky is a step up in quality and variety. “There’s definitely a twist on this record,” says Ursula 1000. There’s more electro elements, there’s a samba kind of house element that I’ve never explored.”

Still, for its all of its new explorations, Ursula 1000 won’t be pulling a Madonna on us anytime soon. “I felt like it more like sticking to my guns. Some people reinvent themselves and sometimes it works for some people like Blur for instance. But some bands, when they do it, it’s just a little too much like ‘who are you now?’. Or it sounds exactly like the first record and that could just be a bore too. I was kind of prepared for that with this record. I knew there might be some people that might think ‘oh, god this guy’s still stuck in the ’60s, but I love that period.”

In both his DJ sets and his produced music, the idea is to get down to a fun(ky) beat. “I still get such a kick when I hear a cha cha mambo rhumba kind of beat mixed with a hip hop, modern kind of break. It just sounds so cool and I still like it. And it’s fun: it goes straight to the hips,” he says.

Ursula 1000 also enjoys mixing today’s sleazy electro-disco, ala DJ Hell’s International Gigolo label with the real old-school deal. “It’s fun to spin that kind of stuff and back it with a Divine or a Bobby Orlando track. So you’re like, ‘this is where it came from but here it is again.’ It’s fun to do that.”

“I DJ for a fun groovy vibe but it gives people a good laugh too. I might be playing something that’s got a funky house groove but there might be some kind of quirky little sound in it. But then I might back it up with a Prince song or something. It’s fun when you can throw in classics: out of context you throw them in and people are like ‘wow, that is a great song.’ For instance, if you playing Human League back to back with Soft Cell and Culture Club you’re like ‘OK, this guy’s on some kind of ’80s twist’. But if you’re playing something else and you throw that in there and suddenly it mixes in you’re like ‘Wow, here’s a Human League song. We didn’t expect that.’ That’s what I like to do,” he says.

Ursula 1000 cut his teeth spinning in Miami and South Beach’s Lincoln Road with its ultrafab Morris Lapidus designs. For several years you could find him spinning his hyper-pop at the now defunct 821. For Ursula 1000 there’s not much left to miss about Miami. “I mean I hate to slag it. It’s what it is, you know. To me it’s a vacation town and it’s great for that. And I’ve done it from like ’91, from the early stages of techno, before drum’n’bass. I would just listen to what was happening in England or whatever and try to bring it here. I’d play it Miami and there’d be like four people who’d like it. They just don’t get it. It’s a weird thing and I don’t know what that is. Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s just too hot to think.”

Since landing back in New York City Ursula 1000 has wasted no time landing prime DJing gigs at some of the city’s hippest joints like Apt and Soho Grand, where he spins weekly. He’s also a regular on the fashion show circuit. And what does Ursula 1000 think of this often attitude-dominated scene? “I’ve never done any gig where I’ve come home afterwards like ‘Oh my God, what did I just DJ?’. It’s always kind of fun. This is funny; things like fashion shows and hotel lobby gigs and things like that can be really super pretentious, you know? And it’s good to give it a little something different.” And that’s said with a big cheekey wink.

Ursula 1000’s latest release, “Undressed” is a seductively cheeky remix album collecting exclusive reinterpretations of tracks from Ursula 1000 last studio album “Here Comes Tomorrow” and recent 12″ vinyl singles. Included are both the DJ Deekline and JStar remixes of underground dancehall fire-starter “Step Back” (championed by DJ Tayo), a funked up version of “Electrik Boogie” by Fort Knox Five, a percussive jazz redo of “Boop” by Skeewiff, and a pounding semi-industrial rework of “Urgent/Anxious” by the critically celebrated robo-rockers Ladytron. All tracks previously available on vinyl only! A seductively cheeky remix album collecting exclusive reinterpretations of tracks from Ursula 1000 last studio album “Here Comes Tomorrow” and recent 12″ vinyl singles. Included here are both the DJ Deekline and JStar remixes of underground dancehall fire-starter “Step Back” (championed by DJ Tayo), a funked up version of “Electrik Boogie” by Fort Knox Five, a percussive jazz redo of “Boop” by Skeewiff, and a pounding semi-industrial rework of “Urgent/Anxious” by the critically celebrated robo-rockers Ladytron.

Ursula 1000 website

Yam, Who, Who?, Jon, Freer

“You can get a groove going at any BPM”.

Now that they’ve been commissioned for a deluge of legitimate revisions, will they still be rubbing artists up the right way without their permission? Will there be future offerings from their notorious ‘Yam Who’ imprint? Why haven’t they been sued yet? I decided it was time to find out the answers to these burning questions and discover a little more, by chatting with Yam (not Who), over a plate of oriental cuisine…

An unassuming and quiet guy, Yam is clearly driven by music. Any thoughts of trepidation regarding interviewing such an enigmatic figure vanished, once I started the conversation with him. The mysteriousness and the relative anonymity born out of illegitimacy of their initial re-rubs seems to suit Yam well.

The Yam Who approach to remixing has shown that there is still an art to the reinterpretation of records. Yam agrees that many people commissioned for remixes seem to be motivated by the money waved at them. However, as the ‘Yam Who Reworks’ on their own imprint were not commissioned, Yam feels they were able to do what they wanted with the tracks. The fact that producers and DJs alike have been blown away by these mixes, means they may come to question how they themselves approach remixes. There is no doubt that this is a good thing, and it could help improve remixes in general. The reason they titled their revisions as reworks as apposed to remixes, was to make people sit up and take notice of what they were doing. This conscious change in terminology was part of the self-generated intrigue they created, which bred the hype that has surrounded the mysterious duo. Yam says the difference between the words is “4 letters”. The artists that they’ve revisited cover broad musical angles, and the reason behind this was to give them more flexibility. It is a testament to their production skills that they’ve manage to re-touch them all with stunning results. It is the complementary flavours of soul-drenched vocals and exquisite understanding instrumentation, which is why their versions of the tracks have succeeded. Spirituality and soulfulness have always been happy bedfellows, so it’s not really a surprise that their revisions work.

Asked whether he expected the frenzy that their remixes invoked, Yam said “not really”. He feels the remix of Raphael Saadiq, his favourite of the material released so far, was “the one that made people start to notice”. However, a shrewd salesman and someone who prefers to live in the present, Yam counters that their “new stuff is much better”, and is a truer reflection of their musical identity. He believes the diversity of the material that they’ve put out has led to a situation where “people don’t know what to expect” from them. Regarding the potential audience for their bootlegs, I asked Yam if he agrees that people are more receptive to rejigs of tracks by artists they are familiar with, as opposed to those of unknowns. Yam says yes, likening their musical approach to that of Hip Hop producers “looping up fragments from different sources” and the fact that bootlegs often succeed because they work with tracks that people already know.

Yam believes the success they achieved last year was “all about the timing”. As well as making records for a long time, the reason he got into the process of making music was down to DJing, since 1988. The Balearic approach to selecting music has certainly influenced Yam’s own mixing style, and his production ethos, bringing different musical vibes together. With the success of open-minded club nights like Manchester’s Electric Chair and Sheffield’s Lights Down Low amongst others, we thankfully seem to be returning a less musically intolerant period of time. This could also be reaction against superclubs championing one trendy bastardised sub-genre and cold-hearted DJs who see spinning records merely as a money making venture. This ruthless and cynical approach is opposite to the philosophy of Yam Who and countless other true musical soldiers who “live music”. Unsurprisingly, Yam’s favourite DJs are those with a similar outlook to him, who “know their music and don’t just play large records”. The ‘Who’s production (or should that be rework) style sets them apart from the majority of other artists. Yam stated that his favourite are mostly people from West London. He feels that as producers, people like the Bugz and IG Culture are “as good as you can get”. From Yam’s DJing, it is apparent that he admires many other producers, too!

Yam finds it difficult to pin point steps in their creative process. He feels that because they spend so long in the studio, sometimes they “don’t know what was there when they started” when they arrive at the penultimate stage of remixing tracks. He also feels it can be “hard to detach yourself from what you are doing”. Most of the Yam Who remixes operate within relatively narrow tempo boundaries. Whilst Yam believes “you can get a groove going at any BPM”, there was a decision to speed up the tracks “to at least dancing tempo”. The fact that they like to keep their audience guessing and broaden their appeal means that their recent Joe Claussell-esque epically fluted version of a Lizz Fields track was not a change in direction. It was merely the duo expressing their respect for the more spiritually aware side of the music.

It was inevitable that the issue of legality would come up in conversation. It seems that the labels that have had their music misappropriated have taken a sensible approach with regards to Yam Who. Their ‘bootlegs’ are creative works of art, which would have been unlikely to have seen the light of day, was it not for the pair’s cottage industry approach to releasing music. They are not recordings of tracks yet to see the light of day that sounds like it was recorded in a studio with the acoustics of a toilet or unreleased material, which record companies would surely object to. Yam says he feels that label bosses “understand about what we are doing”, and can therefore appreciate the benefits of a non-commissioned and therefore free re-rub from the ‘Who.

Reaching places that conventional PR tools could never penetrate, Yam Who are promoting the label’s artists to musical ears who may not have otherwise come across them or heard them in those musical surroundings previously. When picking tracks to revisit from the copious remix offers they are now receiving, Yam admits it’s “usually the vocal” that makes them pick one from the glut of tracks “people are throwing at us”. If the right track pricks their ears, you can be sure they’ll give it the Yam Who treatment, whether invited to, or not! Excitingly, Yam Who do not want to just be known for their astounding remixes.

Their plan for this year is to put out an album of their own compositions and “build the concept”. However, they are conscious not to “aim to far”. Asked about potential vocalists for this LP and future projects, Yam admits he “wants to get his own singer”, as this is the “right way to do things”! This may be a surprising admission from someone who’s worked with a variety of top-class vocals, often without the singer’s knowledge, but Yam feels this approach is vital for them to establish their own identity as a production duo. If they choose to work with established artists, names like Raphael Saadiq and Amp Fiddler crop up as definite possibilities. It is likely that other vocalists who they aspire to working with will go the way of Pharrell, Little Brother, N’Dambi et al. I asked Yam if there were any special tracks from the past that he’d like to revisit. His answer was that “all your favourite tunes are perfect”, and so would find it difficult to meddle with them. When pushed to identify an artist from history who he would like to give the Yam Who medicine to, Grace Jones was named.

I decided the final question to be asked, was ‘how did you decide on the name ‘Yam Who?’’. Yam says it was in part down to the name of Chinese Dentist in the Jerky Boys cartoons, whose name was Nam Who. This was combined with the fact that ‘Yam’ was his nickname, due to his surname. They decided Yam Who would also fit in with the mysterious vibe they were creating, and so the moniker was born.

Yam Who? Myspace

Future, World, Funk, Cliffy, Russ, Jones, Soundsystem

BY JOHN C. TRIPP

Six years ago music industry veterans Russell Jones and DJ Cliffy formed Future World Funk, channeling their enthusian for global rhythms into their own DJ soundsystem: an amalgamation of Asian beats, Brazilian d’n’ b, Gypsy bangers, latin licks, socca, bashment, reggaeton, afrofunk and beyond. It’s been a long and winding journey for the two, a journey of continued musical diversity and discovery on all five continents, and of one big global party.

Racing around the planet to locations as far-flung as New York, Taipei, Moscow and Sydney Future World Funk have encountered all manner of cross-pollination that was completely unimaginable a decade ago. From the Desi beats of the UK, represented by G. Samra’s current and ultra-hot track Sharabbia, to Brazilian folk-electronica as defined by award-winning producer DJ Dolores, to merengue house, Balkan hot-step, Japanese dub and, for good measure, Romanian calypso-waltz Future World Funk leave no genre unheard.

“On The Run”, the seventh installation of their popular Future World Funk CD series on London’s Ether Music, is a reflection of that musical voyage showing just how much the FWF sound has blossomed and its audience has matured. This double album features 22 insatiable world-beat tracks that traverse the globe on a quest for the most danceable grooves. Tracks like Jah Screechie’s classic ‘Walk & Skank, ‘Dia del Sol’ by Marky & XRS and Shantel’s ‘Bucovina’ all find common ground within the Future World Funk sound. It’s like a fruit salad of global funkyness.

Of course, the best part of Future World Funk is to dance to it. Their Future World Funk club nights are what gave birth to their compilations and have been putting “la mezcla” in dance-floors at places like London’s Notting Hill Arts Club where they host the “Future World Funk” event, Cafe Lazeez, New York’s S.O.B.s and events like WOMAD, Montreux Jazz Festival and Carnival in Recife, Brazil. Their wide-open, ecletic mix appeals to like-minded individuals, who show their appreciation and dedication by sweating up dancefloors worldwide.Aside from their roles in Future World Funk both Cliffy and Russ are actively involved in club promotion, writing about music, remixing and producing their own tracks. Russ is behind some of London’s most successful club nights like “London Calling” at the Blue Note where he became artistic director and “No Room For Squares” which has featured guest deejays like Gilles Peterson and James Lavelle. Cliffy is a regular contributor to “Straight No Chaser” and “Songlines” and took his love for Brazilian music to heart by living in Brazil for several years. Upon returning to London in 1997 he started “Batmacumba” at the Institute of Contemporary Art. Both are actively involved in programming and promoting world music, both in clubs and on the radio.

Mundovibes caught up with Future World Funk, fresh back from Las Palmas where they rocked a crowd of 20,000 and as they prepared for the holiday party seaon…

Mundovibes: Firstly, congratulations on your latest compilation, “On the Run”. The title is apt since it seems you have been doing some globe-trotting.

Future World Funk: Well thanks for the congrats, we really enjoyed putting this compilation together and we definitely think it is our best yet, we had too work hard to squeeze so much good music onto two cds. When we sat down and counted all the countries we had palyed since the first volume we realised it was totalling over thirty. We were kind of blown away by this but have now set a target of 50 countries.What started out as a humble club night in Notting Hill over six years ago has led to CD sales in access of 100, 000 copies and a globe-trotting musical deejay worldwide party experience. Highlights have included China, Brazil, Russia, El Salvador, Taiwan and Singapore. Earlier in the year we played the Sydney Opera House, one of those things you dream about doing once in your life and most recently the Womad festival in Gran Canary to 20, 000 crazy Spanish people – I don’t think we have ever seen a crowd so up for it. This album is a collection of the music we have discovered along the way and also a reflection of London which is still our home and we love. The wealth of muticultural diversity in this city is a constant inspiration.

Mundovibes: You recently toured in the States. What was this experience like? Are audiences receptive here to your sound?

FWF: One thing you can always guarantee in the States is that someone will come up to you for a good chat, with a genuine interest in what you are doing. Ameicans like to talk and are friendly with it. They also seem pretty open to the music, we played Ron Trent’s night as apart of the Chicago World Music which was wicked, top venue, great soundsystem and a very mixed crowd. Although he is known for house music the people were up for anything we had to throw at them. We also played Thievery Corporation’s spot, Eighteenth Street Lounge, in Washington, this place has a really similar vibe to the Notting Hill Arts Club so we immediatley felt at home. The down side of it is that touring the States in very hard work, lots of connecting flights across such a large territory and the government doesn’t make it easy with expensive visas.

Mundovibes: For those uninitiated what is “Future World Funk”?

FWF: Two deejays, 4 turntables (CD, record players), a box of global grooves, think Brazilian drum & bass, Asian beats, Gypsy bangers, Japanese dub, retro highlife, Latin and Jamaican dancehall and a hot and sweaty party crowd.

Mundovibes: “On the Run” contains music from all corners of the world, including Colombia, Cuba, England, Brazil and India amongst others. What is it that ties all of this music together?

FWF: Recently we have been starting to add new gypsy beats into our set (check DJ Shantel on the album), this music has been going down a treat but what you realise is that this music is a real hybrid with references to Indian wedding music, Argentinean waltz and tango, ska and of course the brass sounds of countries like Germany and Turkey. I think this really reflects what FWF is all about finding the common ground which exists between so many musical forms and the programming this music in such a way that it all makes sense.

Mundovibes: How do you go about finding and selecting your music? Do you frequent dark alleys and musty warehouses in search of vaults of forgotten vinyl?

FWF: My (Russ) favourite trick is to gate crash weddings of our different ethnic brothers and sisters in London, check out the DJ, his hot biscuits and then threaten to high-jack the bride unless the he hands over all his best tracks. I (Cliffy) have raided my mother-in-laws collection (she’s from Rio de Janeiro), nicked my brothers old records (an odd mix of dub and the Pogues) and am always tapping anyone I know for a free hit. Otherwise we have to resort to scouring the net, camping out in record shops, listening to the radio day & night and begging record companies to supply two of the hottest deejays on the global circuit with their latest pre-releases.

Mundovibes: What was the initial inspirtion for starting ‘Future World Funk” and how has it evolved over the years?

FWF: We both met whilst working for a record label specializing in Brazilian music – Far Out Recordings. At that time the label was remixing some of their more established artist including Marcos Valle, Azymuth and Joyce. Producers like Roni Size and Kenny Dope turned their hand to these projects and there were some interesting results – Prior to that I (Cliffy) had been living in Recife, Brazil and had been right at the epicentre of the Mangue Beat movement pioneered by Chico Science, one of the aims of Mangue Beat was to reinteprete tradition rhythms in a contemporary context, that opened my mind to a world of possibilities. These diverse infuences from what was happening on the streets of Brazil to the clubs of London turned us on to the whole global remix phenomenon and led us off in new directions.

Three of the seven “Future World Funk” compilations released thus far Mundovibes: Did you both grow up in favelas in Rio de Janeiro or was that in another life?

FWF: Sometimes I (Cliffy) think I might have been born in Brazil in another life, my friends in back in Recife say that I deserve honourary citizenship because I act much more Brazilian than British, in fact my girlfriend is from Rio de Janeiro and sometimes she is far more British than me. In reality we both grew up in the urban ghettos of South London not very exciting at that time but evntually the peace and quiet of surburbia was rocked by the culture-shock of the Pogues, the Specials, Acid house and then Acid Jazz.

.

Mundovibes: What influenced you to do what you are doing?

FWF: Once I finished my Masters in Philosophy I knew there was no going back to the regular routine of life, I had to find my own path through life and music would be the guide.

Mundovibes: Apart from “Future World Funk” you are both heavily involved in music as writers, promoters and producing. How do you do all this and have time to shower, sleep and eat (amongst other activities)?

It’s a tough life but somebody has to do it. We can actually go days without sleep, get chased by dogs, abuse our ears with loud music, our stomachs with too much alcohol but still we ride bicycles around London rushing between meetings with record labels, magazines, hitting the studio and of course deejaying in the smokey clubs each and every week. Luckily we are in a position to dedicate ourselves full time to the pursuit of global funkiness, that makes things much easier not having to divide ur time with other preocupations just to pay the bills.

Mundovibes: With the global-digital-culture we live in now there are seemingly endless possibilities for cross-pollinization of music. Is there a limit to how far this can go?

FWF: In some sense it does seem like the only limitations are the ones which we each harbor inside oursleves but it is easy to miss that fact that there are real limits out there, the more we live in a digitized world the more we crerate barriers for those who do not have access to the technology. It is so easy and trite to say that we live in a ‘global village’ but when you stop to think about it a working-class British person and a working-class African person our probably much further apart economically today than they were fifty or one hundred years ago. Although we might both be drinking Coca-cola it is fairly obvious one of us will be able to afford an Ipod. If the technology becomes to one-sided it will be counter-productive for cross-pollinization

Mundovibes: Do you find that more people are receptive to your musical selections today? Are people more open-eared or is it just a small “globally-attuned” audience?

FWF: In the UK things have moved on a great deal in the last ten years, we have moved from the small island mentality to a country with a broader world vision, even more so in London where nowadays 1 in 4 people were not born in the country. Nowadays the Capital is a truly cosmopolitan city where you are as likely to hear someone drive by playing reggaeton or bhangra than rap or pop music. Club culture has also changed a lot in the last decade, the super-clubs have faded and the more niche venues have thrived creating more opportunities for diverse club music. Of course there is still a lot of hard work to do spreading the word but you feel like real progress can now be made.

Future World Funk night at London’s Notting Hill Arts Club

Mundovibes: Some genres of music, like Brazilian, have a way of almost miraculously absorbing other music into theirs. What is it about these cultures that make this possible?

FWF: I was saving the answer to this question for when I study my Phd. Ultimately the answer is pretty simple: people, opportunities and sometimes necessity to adapt to a shifting environment make cultures absorb other influences . Centuries ago as Gpysies moved up through Indian and Persia into Europe it probably made ideal sense to soak up local influences on the way, both artistically and economically. When the Portuguese brought African slaves to Brazil they tried to stamp out the music & culture but the resilience of these people allowed them to forge a new afro-Brazilian identity. The Brazilian samba is a fantastic example of how cultures absorb. At the turn of the 20th Century poor black musicians earnt a living playing in French-style salons in Rio, waltzs and polkas were the height of fashion for rich Rio residents. At night the black musicians would go back to their bohemian suburbs to play the music of their forefathers and participate in candomble rituals (the African religion they had imported into Brazil). Slowly with exposure to such diverse sounds led the black musicians, who only a couple of decades earlier were slaves, to create a new fusion which came to be known as samba.

Mundovibes: You are both involved in remixing annd producing tracks. Tell us about your currrent projects?

FWF: We have just finished working on a remix for Amadou and Mariam, can you imagine our excitement to work with really fantastic material like this it was a superb opportunity? We could see that the track we were working on was mixed like a pop song so we felt very comfortable about producing a club mix for deejays, we could add something without detracting from the original which is always a worry when you are remixing a great track. Once we found a good groove and a tough bassline it was quite simple. The label are very happy with the mix and we had some excellent feedback from other people close to us. We are currently looking at a couple of other remix projects, possibly working with Ska Cubano and a Brazilian singer. We are also working on a couple of our own tracks a twisted acid samba and a drum & bass tune. I (Cliffy) also have a project going with London-based Spiritual South where we work under the nom de plume of Sugar Loaf Gangsters, we have just finished are latest track which is a funky percussion mash-up. More news of these projects in the New Year.

DJ Cliffy Myspace

Russ Jones Myspace

James, Koehnline, surrealism, collage, Axiom, Laswell, Calendar, Jubilee, Saints

James Koehnline (pronounced KEN-line) is a collage artist whose work has graced many anarchist periodicals & books as well as music CDs; has co-edited a number of books and had his work collected in Magpie Reveries. Designs and edits the yearly Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints which is also is the thematic core for the Daily Bleed Calendar (now online for some 7+ years); currently resides in Seattle, Washington, worked for some years at Recollection Used Books.

Koehnline has been creating works of art, in various media all his life, largely influenced by his father’s passion for surrealism. He pursued a formal education at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design before attending Columbia College in Chicago. Decades later, he studied digital media at the Art Institute of Seattle. Meeting at Columbia College, Koehnline gained further direction under the mentoring of collagist, sculpter and host of the weekly radio broadcast “Art and Artists” (WFMT), Harry Bouras. Koehnline has also been involved in a number of grass roots political groups and in 1985, joined several other artists in establishing the collective gallery/studio, Axe Street Arena. Housed in an abandoned Golblatt’s department store in Logan Square (Chicago), Axe Street members strove, according to Koehnline, to “explore the place where art and politics meet”. Koehnline utilized the seemingly unlimited space at Axe Street for delving into a long run of monotype print making (the press being a gift from Bouras) and crafting his “Chaos Papers.” The later being marbled paper he created with brilliant printing inks in a fashion similar to the Japanese Suminagashi, the volitile inks allowed to drift reactively across vats of water, stirred into swirls and patterns by chemical tensions and earthly vibrations and the subway below. While living and working at Axe Street Arena, Koehnline met Ron Sakolsky, music critic, anarchist and professor at Sangamon University (Illinois) at the Conference of the Alliance for Cultural Democracy. Years later, in Seattle, the pair edited the book, ”Gone to Croatan: the Origins of North America Drop Out Culture, ” published by Autonomedia (New York) in 1993, the same year the two set anarchists politics aside, in order that Koehnline could marry, with Sakolsky presiding over, or rather, pronouncing the vows complete. When questioned about why an anarchist would embrace legal matrimony, Koehnline, paraphrasing Wendell Barry, claimed,”I decided to be happy, though I had considered all the facts.” Back at Axe Street Arena, Koehnline currated two mail art shows. The first show, “The Haymarket Centennial International Mail Art Exhibition,” explored the Haymarket Massacre, labor issues and the history of May Day, with entries from nearly 50 countries. The result was a catalog called, “Panic,” which evolved into several issues. Through this event Koehnline became acquainted with Hakim Bey for whom he has created several book covers and came to befriend members of the New York based publishing collective, Autonomedia. Having become involved with mail art projects initiated outside of the collective and falling into zine culture.

Still living and working at Axe Street, emeshed in zine culture, Koehnline took a position as a librarian. The bounty of visual material at his fingertips and the zine world ready for output, Koehnline became a prolific cut and paste collagist.

MUNDOVIBES: You site surrealism as a principle influence. Can you elaborate on how it impacted your work?

JAMES KOEHNLINE: The primary influence on my early life was my father, William Koehnline. An educator (from English Lit professor to college president, now retired), his twin passions are modern literature and art, especially surrealism. I grew up surrounded by the work of Max Ernst, Magritte, Matta, Escher, Breton, Artaud, Borges, Ionesco, etc. The house was filled with art and books. Whenever he told me I was too young to read something, I took it as a challenge. Early on, my love of surrealism just seemed natural extension of love of fantasy and nonsense literature. By the time I reached adolescence in the mid-to-late sixties, I was trying my hand at creating my own far-out drawings, writings and sound collage. The sound collages were inspired by hearing a few John Cage compositions, and by The Beatles’ “Revolution #9”. I also recorded my “poetry”, much of which was created by the Tristan Tzara method of cutting up miscellaneous articles, throwing them in a box and pulling them out at random. While I had always enjoyed Max Ernst’s collages, I didn’t really get turned-on by collage until I discovered the posters and art books of San Francisco artist, Satty, around 1970. I’d have to say he was the main inspiration for my own collage-making, which began about ten years later. In the interim I did a lot of painting, drawing and printmaking, as well as experimental animated films and elaborate low-fidelity sound collages. At the most extreme I was running three trashed cassette recorders and two reel-to-reel machines with one long loop of tape running through both of them, one recording and one playing back. In 1976 I made the acquaintance of members of the Chicago Surrealist Group, just in time to hang out with them for the duration of their fabulous World Surrealist Exhibition. By that time I was also a huge fan of those masters of comedy, sound collage and pop surrealism, the Firesign Theater. So these are themes that have been running through my life from the beginning.

MV: Your work reflects the fragmentation of culture and ageneral breaking down of “reality”. Is this a proper interpretation?

JK: I think that’s on target. While many elements of traditional religion and culture continue to exert great influence on large segments of humanity, I think it is fair to say that the developed world has strayed a long way from the context in which these traditions were rooted. We force an uneasy fit by constantly rewriting the definitions of the relevant terms we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. The narratives of our lives tend to be awkward assemblages of poorly understood cliches that fall apart under close scrutiny. And so we have America’s love of polls to help us know who we are. We are told that we believe, without a shred of evidence, that Saddam was behind the 9/11 attacks, that UFOs are extraterrestrial visitors and that the Rapture is just around the corner. As Orwell said in 1984, our historical consciousness barely extends beyond last week’s lottery numbers. Collage is a way of taking these shards and fragments, the throwaways of our culture of consumption, and attempting to build new realities and to resanctify our devalued world. I try to build marvelous and mysterious shrines out of trash and worn-out treasures, a kind of do-it-yourself religion.

MV: Did you have any magical or psychedelic visions or experiences as a youth or later that influenced your work?

JK: From childhood I was fascinated with dreams and fantasy (which is not necessarily escapist, as it can be a means for confronting the things that are too painful to face in reality ), and loved playing with thought experiments (like imagining I had just been planted in this body, with all of its memories, so who am I really?). As a teenager and young adult I did more than my share of psychedelics. Now that I’m older I find that I can access other worlds and perspectives through the exercise of active imagination, and that life throws me into plenty of altered states — high, low and otherwise — without need for regular recourse to chemical means.

MV: Collage seems to be your most resonant medium. What is it about collage that you find appealing?

JK: After years of drawing, painting, printmaking, etc., I turned to collage in the mid-eighties, partly because I found it very satisfying for reasons I’ve mentioned, and partly because I got involved in zine culture. I found that with only a scalpel and access to a copy machine, I could get my work published in countless periodicals all over the world.

Suddenly I had an audience for my work. I figured I’d move on to other things when I was ready. I did black and white collages for five or six years, then tried to go pro and did color work for book covers, CD covers and magazines for about five years. Then I got a computer and a scanner and explored digital collage for a few years. In the last three years I’ve been moving my work into Time (animation & motion graphics) and space (3D, XYZ space).

MV: Collage is very similar to the musical production technique of sampling, in that it repeats found pieces to create something anew. Is this something you have ever thought of?

JK: Absolutely! As I already described, I was doing sound collage long before I started attacking images with a scalpel. As a kid I spent countless hours with an old reel-to-reel recorder and tape loops of all lengths, some stretching all the way across my room.

Any kind of found sound was fair game – TV, radio, a microphone hanging out my window. My collection of loops was a kind of vocabulary. The number of things I could say with that vocabulary was infinite. It’s code, language and a kind of alchemy. In the late 70s and early 80s I did some radio work (WZRD, Chicago) and was in a band (The Burden of Friendship). While we sometimes attempted to make music, in the conventional sense, sound collage was really our thing. We also held a series of recording sessions in an old steel pipe factory that was in the process of being shut down. We’d invite all of our friends to meet us there in the middle of the night and we’d turn the whole place into a “musical” instrument, creating tons of source material for later collages.

In the beginning I didn’t give much thought as to why I found collage so satisfying, but after I’d been at it a couple of years, I read The Third Mind, by William Burroughs and Brian Gysin. In that book they document their cut-up experiments in literature and the visual arts. The third mind is a kind of mysterious intelligence that emerges when you cut-up others people’s works (the first mind) and rearrange them by some combination of accident and intuition (the second mind). It seemed a perfect explanation to me. Ever since then I have felt that part of what I’m doing is seeking access to that sort of alien intelligence. Sounds a little crazy, but it is fun to look at it that way.

MV: Your use of symbolism in your work is very dense. What is the significance of these symbols?

JK: That’s a big question, so I’ll just answer it in a general way. Every image is capable of arousing diverse and often conflicting associations in the mind of the beholder. Even when the artist attempts to create realistic, representational art, the result is rife with signs and symbols and associations. There is no escape from it. Image is symbol. The density of my imagery, which some would say I take too far, is a representation of my quest to make meaning and beauty, order and harmony, out of the infinite chaos within. The process is a combination of the conscious, intentional and rational, and the unconscious, intuitive and accidental. The overall significance of the result is up to the viewer.

MV: Does your work question our idea of “reality” or reveal another one which lies beneath the surface?

JK: Yes. We all inhabit multiple realities, however hard we try to believe that there is a single narrative to tell the story of ourselves. “Consensus Reality” is merely the lowest common denominator, and as such is dumber and more banal than any one of us.

MV: You studied and apprenticed with the artist Harry Bouras. Tell us about your relationship with him.

JK: Harry was a star of the Chicago art scene in the 50s, He was at the center of a group of rising stars (known as the “Harry Who”), one of founders of Chicago’s Columbia College, a major art and culture critic, and a teacher. Every few years he’d gather a new crop of promising young artists around him and try to help them on their way. I met Harry at Columbia in the late 70s and continued to benefit from his expansive mind, off and on, until he died in 1990. He had an amazing talent for coaxing a world of meaning out of even the simplest thing he turned his attention to. He did his best to set us all on our way to success in the art world.

MV: Would you say your vision is apocalyptic or prophetic?

JK: I wouldn’t say my vision is apocalyptic, in spite of the horror of the Bush years. As for prophetic, that’s not for me to say. In spite of all the hellish developments of our time, I remain hopeful. In spite of the chaos and confusion that abounds in my work, I see it as spiritual, at times even worshipful (in the make-your-own religion sense).

MV: Is your work a reflection of an inner state and if so what is it?

JK: Infinite Chaos, sublime bliss, fear and loathing and all the rest. A reflection of our “interesting” times and my own middle age, marriage, thoughts of having a child before it is too late, etc. I used to think poverty and marginality were romantic, but there are too many things I want to do in this life to let that thought become a cage.

MV: Do you have any particular philosophy that you express with your work?

JK: Ontological Anarchism and do-it-yourself religion.

MV: Can you tell us about your fanzine work and why this culture is so important?

JK: I confess I’ve pretty much lost touch with the zine Scene in recent years, but it was extremely important to me, especially in the 80s, as an entry into non-local communities based on common interests. I especially enjoyed being a part of zines like Beyond the Fringe, Dharma Combat and The Moorish Science Monitor, where the readers were all contributors. These days I get the same sort of community from emailing lists and homegrown Web sites, but zines still serve the same purpose. Everyone can be a publisher. Anyone can get published. Both are vitally important in this age of hyper-consolidation and monopolistic control of the mainstream media.

MV: Apart from fanzine culture, you’ve also been involved in the marijuana liberation front.

What are your feelings about it now?

While I’ve always felt that prohibition is a cruel absurdity that supports organized crime and government corruption, and ruins hundreds of lives for every one it saves, I didn’t really get involved in the activist end of things until I got to know Vivian McPeak a few years ago. Vivian is the powerhouse behind Seattle Hempfest, the largest and one of the oldest events of its kind in the country. He is also one of the most tireless and effective activists around here in any number of very worthy causes, and an all-around inspiring person. When I saw the kind of energy he puts into his projects, I couldn’t help but lend a hand. Somebody should give the guy a lifetime achievement award (though he’s younger than I am). When I started doing promo material for Hempfest, I did a tremendous amount of research on the subject of prohibition, and everything I learned just further convinced me that the whole thing is an evil sham.

MV: You’ve worked extensively with the publishing collective Autonomedia, creating cover art for Hakim Bey’s “Temporary Autonomous Zone” and developing their Caldendar of Jubilee Saints. Why this particular group and how does your work fit in with their vision?

JK: In 1985 some friends and I opened a collectively-run gallery and performance space (The Axe Street Arena, with studios and living space for nine people) in an old department store building in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. The first exhibition I curated there (along with my friend, Ron Sakolsky) was an international mail art show to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Haymarket Affair. Of all the entries we received from around the world, my personal favorite was from Hakim Bey. I wrote him to tell him so, and thus began our collaboration. We found that his writings and my collages were a good match and worked on a lot of projects together, such as the Astral Convention in Antarctica and the 5A Project (Autarchic Asteroids of Aten, Apollo and Amor – Homeland for Marginals in Outer Space). He introduced me to the Moorish Orthodox Church (one of the great DIY religions), and I’ve been a member ever since. In those days I was working as a librarian and I did a lot of serious historical research for Hakim (some of which ended up as Ron’s and my book, Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Drop-Out Culture, which may have a sequel soon).

We’d been collaborating for several years when Hakim collected his shorter writings in the book, T.A.Z., so I was the obvious choice for the cover art. That was my first work for Autonomedia. Jim Fleming and Hakim next proposed that I put together a book of some of my best black and white collages – Magpie Reveries. Soon after my wife, Andi, and I moved to Seattle in 1991, I came up with the idea for the Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints (Radical Heroes for the New Millennium! Every day a Holiday! No popes, no heads of state), a wall calendar with a book’s worth of text, that serves as a kind of spiritual family tree for iconoclasts and radicals. The collective loved the idea and the first one came out in 1992. Originally envisioned as a ten year project, it now doubles as the Autonomedia catalog and continues to be published each year. Autonomedia is simply the most interesting small publisher in the country, and it has been my great pleasure to play a part in their brave and decidedly non-commercial pursuit of Truth, Justice and Un-American activities.

MV: You’ve awork extensively with Bill Laswell’s Axiom records. How did your association with Axiom Records begin?

JK: Shortly after I moved to Seattle, Bill tracked me down. I wasn’t familiar with his work at the time, but he was very excited by Hakim Bey’s writings, and loved the work I was doing for Autonomedia. Once I started listening to what he was doing, I never stopped, although I did stop trying to keep up with all of it a long time ago. The man is just too prolific He commissioned me to do a cover for Bahia Black: Ritual Beating System, and so began another long and rewarding relationship. I have done 18 CD covers for him at last count.

MV: Did you collaborate with Bill Laswell on the concept?

JK: Generally, I would get working tapes of projects in their early stages, and create covers based on the music and suggestions from musicians and crew. I was quite gratified when told that in a few cases my art had shaped the final form of the music. Along the way, a few track titles were mine as well.

MV: What is the role of art in representing music? Should it be considered an interpretation of the music or a separate element?

JK: I tend to think of the two elements as part of a unified whole, but quite a few of my covers were created before the project existed, and chosen by Bill as a good match. Of course, with CD covers, the main thing is to get people to listen to the music, so you want to evoke the feel of the best elements of the music in the artwork.

MV: How has your work evolved and what has influenced it more recently?

JK: I feel a little reluctant to admit it, but the biggest influence on my work in the last three years has been my evolving digital toolbox and my abilities in using the tools. In 2000 I went back to school to study the new multimedia tools now available. I stayed for two years and I’ve been out for half a year, still trying to master all of these tools. I studied film, animation and optical printing twenty-some years ago, and nearly everything I learned then is obsolete. When I was a little kid I had a recurring dream about a magical black box with infinite possibilities for creative fun, combining all of the tools of all of the arts in one compact little toolbox. Now it is sitting on my desk, chock-full of so many tools that I’ll never know what some of them are. It can be a little intimidating, but I’m having fun.

MV: Your work has become much more seamless and computer-generated. Would you describe this transition?

JK: I avoided computers like the plague for years, but I always had friends who kept me up to date on the state of the digital arts. In 1995, I decided that the technology had reached the point where the new possibilities outweighed my objections, and I took the plunge. Thus began a torturous two years of transition, during which time I often felt that the machine was sucking the life out of me. I had spent ten years using basically one tool, a scalpel, to create my art. Suddenly I had way more tools than I knew what to do with, and the ridiculous notion that I wouldn’t be able to really make my own art with them until I had learned them all. Luckily I got over that, and although I sometimes feel like smashing the machine and going back to canvas and brushes, for the most part I find that the machine serves me, now, instead of the other way around.

MV: What are your current projects?

JK: Creatively my main focus is animation and motion graphics. I’ve made hundreds of short experimental movies, still growing into these new dimensions of time and space. Strangely the main thing lacking in these explorations is audio. I learned a lot about new audio tools in school, and I have done some sound collage and voice work, but I find I’m much more interested in the visuals, so I’m anxious to find new collaborators, maybe do some music videos and animated shorts.

Autonomedia

James Koehnline website

James Koehnline Facebook