Page 37 - Zone Magazine Issue 008

You have also got to perform live as The Emperor Machine at festivals and shows all around the world. Are there any particular high points or countries where the crowds are better or worse to perform to?
Best - The Trades Club - Hebden Bridge, France (Emperor Machine goes down really well in France for some reason), Russia was excellent and surreal - so many beautiful people.
Worst - A gig in a art gallery in Belgium. I don’t know who thought that would work.
As a veteran of what is now a truly global dance scene you must have witnessed so many changes over the years. From your perspective would you say that it easier or harder now compared to when you started to get a break in the dance music industry?
It’s a lot easier to get your music out there. It’s a lot harder to make a living. To get a break and get noticed, to achieve what people may view to be a success - i.e. getting commercial success, is nigh on impossible, given the sheer volume of people putting music out there. You have to be really good AND really lucky.
You are in the enviable position of being to say that you have had a long and varied musical career in the Dance Music industry as a producer. What is your opinion on the way that the global DJ scene has gone. Some DJ’s are earning astronomical fees and using ghost producers to write their music, do you feel that they deserve the success that they have when in essence all they do is play others music?
It’s funny I was reading up on Ghost producers the other day. From my cave it was something I was only dimly aware of. I hope it goes without saying a ghost producer would not work for me but I
was thinking, could I be one? The answer I came to was probably not. could however be ideal for someone in my position, and so I can see why it is attractive to the ghost producers themselves. Money without the pain and trappings of having to do the gigs and constant promotion. Just getting to do the music without all the hassle - sounds great to me!
On the flip side of that should DJs have success whilst using a ghost writer? Yes - I think so. Perhaps there should be
a bit more honesty, but other celebrities do a darn sight less to achieve popularity and get big fees. I can’t believe that the named DJs have no musical input at all - am I being naive? I think of them more as actors and not as Milli Vanillis.
You are working on a new album at present, what should we expect to hear. is it similar to earlier Emperor Machine releases or has your sound evolved greatly?
The thing about Emperor Machine is that it will always change. It’s gone from one synth tracks to full vocal tracks. It will evolve into something else. I honestly won’t know where the album ends up until it gets there.
There is an Emperor Machine EP coming out on Prins Thomas’ label at some point in the spring/summer- that Ep was recorded with Akai samplers and then fed back to the Mac to mix. The next album isn’t signed yet, and I think that I am so unpredictable it’s best for me to produce the album, and then see if I can find a home for it or decide to release it myself on my own label.
Is there anything else that you have in the pipeline that you are really looking forward to that you can tell us about or do you just take everything in your stride these days?
I am finally starting my own label which is really exciting. Vertical Tones.
It will be more of a cinematic / experimental sound to the label. The website isn’t live as yet but it will be soon verticaltones.co.uk.
Remixes - can’t mention any names at yet - there is a mix on Ed Banger records that should be out around April that was good to do. There are a few other mixes that I don’t think I can mention at all - but I had a really fun time with them, and can’t wait to get my vinyl copies.
I am starting to promote and open up the Llama Farm studio doors this summer, it will be an invite only to come ans record with the Llamas. Raf Rundell (Two Bears) came in to the studio and opened my eyes to how much fun it could be, to have other people in the studio. It helped that he is a brilliant guy and an excellent cook, as well as being a stunning musician with clear ideas and direction of course.
I am gigging again this year, which I am really looking forward to. I’m just programming the MPC’s for that as we speak. The Emperor Machine live is a better experience for me rather than DJing these days.
I’ve been asked recently, more than once, to go out as Bizarre Inc again and now, after all these years, I am seriously considering it. It now feels like it would be fun to revisit where it all started, rather than feeling like I am desperately trying to cling on to what has been.
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Words By Danny Slade
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ESSENTIALDANCEMUSIC 37