RadioValve Interview: Luke Vibert

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Cover art courtesy Nothing Records

Luke Vibert

A RadioValve Brain Drain

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Introduction
Early on a September evening, after gagging down an ounce of repulsively salty GHB, my lover, some friends of ours, and my production partner, devslashnull, all traipsed from Boulder to a popular live music venue in downtown Denver. All of us teetered like Weebles from the influences of various substances--except our driver, Emily, who bounced giddily, unimpaired, sharing our unified excitement at hearing the Aphex Twin perform live, paired with excellent drum'n'bass dj and recording artist Luke Vibert.
dev and I ingested the idea that one of us might potentially interface with either the legendary Richard ("Uh, should we call him Dick?") James or his not-so-legendary, talented commensurate counterpart, Mr. Vibert. I'd contacted the record label, agency and venue in repeatedly thwarted attempts ("You're affiliated with who?! ") to arrange said interviews, and so we found ourselves humiliated by the lack of big production titles, business cards or enough insider know-how to even get a foot in the door. Nevertheless, we came prepared for kill performances, an abundance of cocktails, wacky visuals and a pleasurable modicum of illicit substances (or vice versa).
After a brief, loud, My Bloody Valentine-meets-Helmet set from Linoleum, dev hovered near Luke Vibert's decks, grooving on the thick bass bottom and opting for a noiseless moment to capture the dj's attention. Meanwhile, I befriended the head of security and tried to work an in-road for some geek speak and techno chatter.
"Well," I posed, "what if I just walked right through that door leading to the basement, there?"
"You'd be carried out by security within the first five minutes."
"Yeah, but how'bout if I was crazed on drugs and became dangerously violent?" An obvious bluff.
"Then we'd be within reason to mace you, or maybe pepper-gas you, and then you might die like that kid a few weeks ago at that nightmarish rave in Boulder."
After a moment's contemplation, I reasoned "Fair enough. I'd like to chat with these blokes, but I'm not gonna die for it!"
Regrouping ourselves over some cocktails and an opportunity to socialize with some of the dear electrophiles from our (presently) home turf, a promoter passed a one-sided flexi 7" single our way, imprinted with promo flyer info for an upcoming massif. Gracious, and impressed by the cleverness of the concept, I was immediately bombarded with the lack of cleverness inherent in the music of the Sneaker Pimps. Good visuals, though--in fact, the best of the concert, however much that might have represented an effort to overshadow the monotony of the music. I did appreciate the slinky vocalist's latex mini-skirt body-suit, however. ;-)
Again, we devoured a delicious feast of experimental junglism from the man who would be called Wagon Christ, finally satiated by the most sophisticated live electronic set I've ever heard. As Aphex Twin prostrated himself before his gear, legs crossed in the air above him, three enormous fluorescent dancing teddy bears emerged from the wings, the self-portrait image of Dickie-boy from the Richard D. James Album cover firmly grafted over what otherwise might have been cutesy teddy button noses and the like.
After a HUGE set (and I do mean that in the most expansive sense) which included such Aphex/AFX classics as "Digeridoo" and a maddened remix to the flawless "Laughable Butane Bob," as well as some Woodenspoon material and innumerable re-workings to the RDJAlbum trax, we, like pop music groupies the world over, sneakily edged our way down the alleyway to the rear of the building where long, battered white tour busses awaited their occupants.
It was here that I was amazed by the ease with which I was able to secure the unadulterated interview with Luke Vibert, following. While he rolled his own smokes, constantly re-lighting them, and sprayed beer (good lord--Budweiser, even!) across our table, I attempted to keep my head focused through the elated haze of a drug and alcohol delineated evening. Outside the bus, dev milled around, having had his position usurped by my enthusiastic lover, who, inside the bus, guzzled beer, smoked and partnered up with Mr. Twin for rounds of Simon ("This isn't really a partners game, luv") until the colorful saucer died an unfortunate electronic death, circuits bewildered by an invading flood of spilt Bud.
And though I must admit I feel he would have given me some time to nick a bit of chat on tape, after I'd completed my session with Luke Vibert and headed to the back of the bus to schmooze with one of techno's superheroes, Mr. James seemed more interested in some regular-guy conversation than having to puppet himself up to be imprinted on magnetic medium. And so inevitably that's what we did, talking pleasantly, me sipping beers and him slugging down driven-looking murky screwdrivers, smoking--well, you know--and enjoying each other's company as much as two strangers--one who's a world-famous celebrity and one who hardly qualifies as a local anomaly--might ever enjoy each other's company.

The Interview

E23: Primarily I'd like to talk to you about your background with drum'n'bass and your involvement as Wagon Christ, the kind of stuff that you've done as a remix artist and um... Why don't you give us a little bit about your background to start with.

LUKE VIBERT: It's quite a live background, really, cos some people say when did you start making trax and I never really know cos I was in bands from when I was really really young. Like, sort of 12 or something like that.

E: What kind of bands? Were they rock bands?

LV: Uh, yeah, the first band was punky. The second band was an indie/alternative type band, and the last one I was in, which ended in '89, was sort of funky... ish. [laughter ] Me and Jeremy, [I'm making an assumption he's talking about Jeremy Simmonds here, but since I failed to follow-up, it's unclear--E23 ] anyway, my mate.

E: Electrofunk?

LV: No, guitar based. It was about '89 I started doing 4-track things. And that was the start of the end.

E: What do you mean it was the start of the end--you mean of the rock-oriented stuff?

LV: Yeah, from live kinda things really. I just started working on my bedroom computer music, that kinda thing, getting into that side. It was early '90-'91 when I got into techno and acid and that kinda thing. I'd been into hip-hop for years, but blissed out on acid first time round. [The conversation is momentarily diffused by hollers from the back of the bus; presumably the wailing laments of Richard James and the Linoleum boys as the Simon game is destroyed when a random beer ends up pouring into it--this I discovered later. ]

E: So, did you start getting into techno with kinda the Detroit techno evolution, er--

LV: No, no, cos I think it hit in '88, and I was obviously in Cornwall then which is just so tiny.

E: Right. Yeah, a lot of the acid house stuff was really happening in the United States during '87-'88, really starting to build.

LV: Chicago probably.

E: Yeah, definitely. And I was growing up in Dallas where there was also a lot of that stuff going on.

LV: Oh, cool.

E: What kind of stuff did you initially start experimenting with?

LV: Funky, really. Funk with drum machines and things. I didn't know that, say, uh, to do a funky beat you'd need a nice sounding drum kit and have to be a good drummer. I thought with a drum machine you could get the best funky beat out, so I just sort of started off--the first 4-track stuff we did was sort of still bass and guitar and drum machine, and then a couple of keyboards as well. So it just started off being funky, really, and then getting a bit more spaced out slowly. We bought a couple more keyboards, one analog one, and started making sort of spacey noises. And it just slowly got a bit more robotic, and a bit less sort of live. I think that was kind of '90-'91.

E: When did you start seeing the relevance between doing electronic stuff and using it to perform live with?

LV: Um, well, I haven't played live. Ever.

E: Oh, you haven't?

LV: No, not since I've been in bands. Cos I don't see the kind of music I make as like live music. I mean, I play DATs and stuff. I played a few DATs tonight, that's the newest I kind of get.

E: I saw that you had a hard disk recorder between the decks and that you were mixing in stuff between the decks and the hard disk. But I didn't recognize any of the stuff--

LV: No, it's all new stuff. Or all like recent stuff at least. One of them was a KRS-One mix that a friend of mine did, not my track at all, but he just finished it off a couple weeks ago. So I've got the DAT of that.

E: That's great.

LV: But I do, I do--next time I come to America I definitely want to play live. Somehow work some live set out, even if it's just because it's better attention, you know, one person live on stage rather than DJing--

E: Sure.

LV: --between acts.

E: What kind of equipment do you think you would require to supplement what you do now?

LV: Well I'd really like to not do the trax I'm doing now and do something really different, like uh, it'd be really hard, but kind of get a--maybe make live music out of something that's happening that night, like take a few microphones and get a few loops going out of some noises that you sort of make on stage and things. And make it a bit more live rather than the stuff I do now which is just me working for a couple of weeks at home on an arrangement--you know, really anal. Kind of cutting things up, and I couldn't translate that to live at all. I'd need about 30 of me to do the trax any justice.

E: [laughter ] Sure.

[Luke twists off the cap to another Bud, swigs, and sets it on the table. It immediately responds to the combination of unleashed carbonation and the steady grumbling of the tour bus. ]

LV: Ooh! Fuck me! I'm spilling.

E: Yeah, uh, definitely a bus full of vibrations.

LV: Yeah.

[While Luke sponges up the beer spillage I chat about my roommate who'd just left the night prior on tour with his own band. Some banal commentary on how his tour bus was nicer than the nicest hotel suite I've ever been in, and Luke retorts that in fact the tour bus we're presently chatting on "is the lowest of the low, really". ]

E: How did you get involved on this tour? Was that somehow connected to the stuff you did on Lo Recordings with the remixes of the Mike Flowers Pops stuff...?

LV: Nah, it's just Aphex and me... I've known Aphex for years so he just asked me. I went on tour with him last year around Britain doing a similar kind of thing, but it wasn't 3 live acts, it was just me and him, and sometimes another DJ playing. It seems to be different over here, it seems to be more like live-based kind of thing. Whereas in England DJs are just as much, just as sort of relevant, you know, as people on stage.

E: Um hmm. Well [DJing] seems to be the performance technique for the music--

LV: Yeah.

E: --and you know, it seems that the DJ is sort of the seminal performance artist with a lot of the music.

LV: Can be.

E: And really, even in America still the live performers just kind of appear in little pockets, they're here and there. And somehow they all seem to be inextricably linked together, and it seems to be kind of enclosed within each of the cities, you know. Or a few specific cities. What's the scene like in England as far as like the ratio of DJs to live performers? Is it mostly DJs?

LV: It's maybe quite similar. On some nights it's sort of alternate DJ, then a live person. But I think the least set I've ever had in England is an hour, which is sort of minimal, whereas here it's been sort of quarter of an hour, twenty-five minutes, half an hour. It depends.

E: But you played between every set tonight, didn't you?

LV: Yeah, I have done every night so far. And I like it cos it's sort of half an hour roughly, and I can do 3 sort of different half hours. Like the first one I do quite slow shit, then the second one, ravey sort of breakbeat mid-tempo stuff. And then at the end a drum and bass set, so I really like that, it's good fun.

E: Personally I found it kind of peculiar that there was the inclusion of rock performers with this tour. What was the decision for that? Do you have any idea?

LV: I'm not sure at all, really.

E: Does it have something to do with the label? Is everyone connected to the same label?

LV: No, not at all. It's maybe something to do the promoter, the tour promoter, y'know, cos he's done stuff for all of us individually before. Sort of whacking us together, you know, or whatever. But it's kind of worked okay really. We were all more dubious about it before we came out. Then when we've been here every gig's been fine, you know. There's been sort of a few--not a few, but people to see the Sneaker Pimps, then they fuck off. And when they're finished, then they leave. Then they're the Aphex people, so it's kinda... It works quite well.

E: Yeah, well I'll tell ya what: When I saw Aphex Twin here almost 5 years ago there was about 12 of us hanging out.

LV: No way.

E: By the time--It was VapourSpace DJing, Moby, which most the people were here for--

LV: Yeah.

E: --Then Orbital, and at that point probably half the crowd had split. And then Aphex came on and there was no more than 12 or 15 of us left. It was insane. I was amazed, y'know, cos I had already seen Orbital several times across the country, y'know, and it was just kinda weird. I was very surprised, cos I had just moved here and I was surprised that there weren't, that--

LV: More people--

E: --just didn't acknowledge Aphex Twin as a major player in the scene, y'know, it was just very strange to me... So, what would you like to see happen with specifically what you're doing with music? Do you want to go in a more experimental direction?

LV: No, more the other way I think really, more--I'd like to become more of a producer, not so much an artist myself. Maybe just do one album a year. And then produce other people. That's my dream, really, so I just stay in the background and no one knows or gives a shit what I'm doing and I just produce a rapper or a singer or, y'know, guitar player or whatever and just try and have hits or whatever. Just try to sell loads of records, that'd be nice.

E: Well you did a helluva job on that Lo e.p. with Mike Flowers Pops. It was just insane.

LV: Yeah, that was fun.

E: I love those trax. Every one of them is so radically different, and there's 3 that stand out: Of course the Aphex Twin track, yours, and Funky Porcini.

LV: Yeah, that's nice.

E: The 3 of those I think are really the most solid apart from the original track. How did you get involved with those guys?

LV: That was through Lo, the label, cos I'm good friends with John who runs the label. So, uh, he said "Look, I've met Mike Flowers and he's up for giving us one of his trax, y'know, not some cheesy cover that he's done, but one of his own compositions. And if he likes the mixes you all do, he'll give you publishing on it as well," cos it was just this sort of 500 quid thing, y'know, cos it's a tiny label.

E: Sure.

LV: But, uh, Mike Flowers really liked them all so we got sort of a point on the publishing, you know, as well, which is nice.

E: Now I have never been familiar with Mike Flowers apart from that recording. I have never seen his name on anything.

LV: Oh yeah, he had a number one hit in England--I mean, he won't ever do it again. It was just a sort of freak. He covered an Oasis song and actually managed to get it out like the same week, or the week after, and it beat them to the number one.

E: You're kidding! [big laughter ]

LV: It's just a really cheesy version of "Wonder World" [??? Luke snaps his fingers in smoky-lounge-atmosphere-time and puts on his best Perry Como voice. ] "You're my wonder world..." Sort of finger-clicking version.

E: Was that also on Lo?

LV: No, no, Virgin, or, you know, big label. But it was after that that we did the Lo thing, that was afterwards. So it was quite funny.

E: What have you learned on this tour so far, being around people like Aphex Twin, and just the touring that you've done with him in the UK?

LV: Ummm... I don't know if I've learned anything from that really at all. Maybe just for myself to be more casual. Take it when I first went on tour with him last year I was really kind of tense and nervous every night. There's no fucking need to be at all, you know, cos it's all like quite casual. As soon as the DJ comes on it's sort of a pretty casual kind of thing. So, uh, just things like that really. Things within myself, but I haven't learned anything about music at all. I just sort of miss making it a lot when I'm away and sort of want to get back to making and sort of hearing stuff every night. I wish I was making some at home, you know.

E: What kind of gear do you use?

LV: Really minimal. Still my ancient Atari computer, which I want to change soon.

E: An ST1600?

LV: No, a 1040.

E: Wow.

LV: A sampler: Roland SC760, which is really nice. Got loads of memory on it.

E: Wow, I don't even know what that is.

LV: It's really nice. Got loads of nice filters on it and things. It's sort of a 3000 pound sampler, initially, and then you can put more and more stuff in it and build it up. So I mainly use that. And then a couple of keyboards and drum machines. But that's it, really. I just mainly buy loads of records and sample different noises here and there from them.

E: What have you found about the American scene so far? Had you been here before?

LV: No. Not on tour or anything.

E: Right. What cities have you been to on the tour so far?

LV: Loads. Uh, yeah, fucking loads. I'll try and find my itinerary later, but I don't remember. I could maybe remember 10 or something. We've been at it for 3 weeks so far.

E: Have you had any opportunity to do any record shopping in those towns?

LV: A tiny amount, yeah. Not any new stuff really though. I bought from a couple weird old second-hand shops, which is what I'm more into anyway. Y'know, thrift stores, obscure old exotic records.

E: Really? That's cool. That's definitely the kind of mixes that I like to do as well.

LV: It's just more fun, really. And also I'm bit worried about going back through customs with loads of new records. If they're old shit ones I can pretend like I just brought them out with me.

E: That's great. Well, um. Is there anything specific you can think of that you'd like to say in terms of the music scene, not really the rave scene in terms of fashion or politics or anything like that, but what do you think is happening with the music and why do you feel like it's relevant? What inspires you about it?

LV: What, my music.

E: Uh, well, yeah.

LV: God knows. I don't know about my music at all, really. It's definitely relevant to me, but other than that I don't really think about it at all.

E: Cos I can throw on a track like "The Life Of The Mind" and just blast that and feel--

[Peking Pussy of the Sugar Twist Kids spills onto the bus, full of crazy pink and orange hair and outrageous giggles, and crashes into Luke for a hug. ]

PEKING PUSSY: Hey, how you doing?

LV: Good, yeah. Good.

E: Hi, Judy... Uh... I feel... Sorry. That's Judy.

LV: Judy, you know Judy?

E: A good friend of mine, yeah. I went on tour with them out to Vegas. Yeah, the Sugar Twist Kids.

LV: What's she do?

E: She's a dancer, um, with an outfit called the Sugar Twist Kids. Her boyfriend's a fire-breather, and they're just outrageous people. They show up and do outrageous things all the time. ....Um, what I was gonna say is, I can listen to a track like--

LV: "Life Of The Mind".

E: --"Life Of The Mind," and just crank that, and feel so inspired by what's going on with it because there're some intricacies and subtitles to it that are very uniquely yours--

[Suddenly, bouncing back our direction comes Peking Pussy, this time crashing into me allowing me a turn for a hug. ]

Peking Pussy: Hi Brian!

E: Hi, Judy.

PP: Are you going with us?

E: Uh, going where?

PP: Las Vegas!

E: Uh, what, on the next trip? I'm not sure.

LV: I don't think she's talking--she's talking about our tour.

E: Um... What kind of thing leads you to create a track like that? Is it just noodling around with some sampled bits and figuring out some cool parts and then just fuck around?

LV: Yeah. I mean, usually very similar things. I usually just go out and buy a big load of records and listen to all of them. And as I'm listening to them for the first time I put any interesting bits on DAT. And then, um, have days when I just sample shitloads of stuff. And on that track, with "Life Of The Mind," I also had my video in. So I was playing through Barton Fink, that old film which is just so cool.

E: Yeah, sure. I recognized the sample from that.

LV: I had that sample actually before anything else. Cos I kind of realized that it would go in time roughly with the sort of b.p.m. I was working on--this drum'n'bass track. But yeah, just playing around with samples for a couple of days. And, uh, I always sample way too much stuff. So there's always loads of stuff getting on, and however much you hear, there's always loads of stuff getting chucked away and not used. And then I just sort of arrange it, the kind of really boring bit, just arrange it from nothing to the whole track. You know, just sort of build it up slowly. Which is the bit I kind of like. I get into that, just huge 10 hour shifts arranging it all slowly.

E: Well, I have to say that from a listener-appreciation standpoint that it's very evident. As someone who works on electronic music myself, it's evident that there's a lot that's put into it and distilled from it and, um, your music has been a tremendous inspiration to me.

LV: Oh, wow.

E: All the stuff you've done as Wagon Christ, along with Cristian Vogel, has been some of my very favorite experimental stuff.

[At this point the tour manager arrives and mentions that there's still one more interview awaiting, so we cut it short. ]

E: Thank you very much for your time, it's really meant a lot to me.

LV: Cool.

A Luke Vibert Limited Discography:
[I say it's limited because god knows with this guy's output,
there may be much more that I'm unaware of!E23 ]

LPs:

Plug: Drum'n'Bass For Papa (Blue Angel) This recording is currently being reissued by Nothing Records, and the new package includes all 3 original Plug e.p.s!
Luke Vibert: Big Soup (Mo' Wax)
Vibert/Simmonds: Weirs (Rephlex)
Wagon Christ: Phat Lab Nightmare (Rising High)
Wagon Christ: Throbbing Pouch (Rising High)

EPs:

Plug: 1 (Blue Angel)
Plug: 2 (Blue Angel)
Plug: 3 (Blue Angel)
Wagon Christ: Redone (Rising High)

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