Monster Bobby Interview (Part 2 of 2)

Today, I present the second installment of BBBD's interview Monster Bobby. It's continued after the jump! You can read the first half here.

Q: You did a wonderful remix for the wonderful London act, Strange Idols. Who exactly are they and what's the story behind your collaboration with them?

I first met The Strange Idols through NIck Levine who i mentioned earlier and i went on to play several shows with them in London cos we got on really well and both liked each other's stuff. They're a really great band from London with a deep love for the Glasgow post-punk bands from the 80's -- Orange Juice, Josef K and that whole Postcard Records scene. Their guitarist, Julian, also runs a great label called Shady Lane with Neil Halstead (formerly of Slowdive).

Q: You've also done a remix for the Pipettes. How do you approach remixing (as I'm assuming it's a bit different for you than say, a straight-up DJ) and are there any more in the works?

I don't tend to want to just take the lead vocal and put a house beat under it, which is perhaps a rather vulgar idea of what some DJs might do. I like to take the materials I get and work from there. If possible I like to use out takes and tracks with mistakes and things on -- gaps and glitches again, I suppose -- but I don't always have access to that. Actually most of the Pipettes remix was made with samples from the actual record and I only got access to the individual parts after I'd almost finished it, which is why you get quite a lot of huge chunks of sound, pitch bent up and down, on that remix. But I prefer not to add anything to the parts I'm given, if possible I'll construct the whole thing from heavily manipulated samples from the track itself and I'd say my approach form there on is just as influenced by French musique concrete pioneer, Pierre Henry, as by anyone making electronic music today. I'm currently working on some remixes of music by various friends of mine, like Stuart James, Mrs Reed, and the Noughts and Crosses Band (and i heartily recommend checking out the music of all three of these on MySpace). Some of these may appear on a record I'm planning for next year called Bits and Bobs, which will compile tracks from my various singles, EPs and compilation appearances.


Monster Bobby - I Heard You Moved Away
Q: And more generally, what else is in the works for you?

I'm writing (and this time recording myself) an album of forty one-minute songs, mostly about sleeping or being in bed in some way, called Forty Winks, which will almost certainly be the next "proper" Monster Bobby album. I'm starting a record label called Little Other (as I already briefly mentioned). I'm working on a collaboration with a noise music artist called Eaten By Children. And I'm thinking about writing a musical with my friend Darren Moon from The Tenderfoot.

Q: What's the deal with Totally Bored, your club night/fanzine/radio program (correct me if that's wrong)? You've been involved with some pretty significant groups through that vehicle ...


A: Totally Bored started as a co-operative venture between various bands in Brighton in the summer of 2000 out of a general dissatisfaction with what was going on in the local music scene at the time. We put on some of the first gigs by British Sea Power, the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and the Brakes. At that time all these bands (along with a few others like the Electric Soft Parade, the Tenderfoot, the Dirty Cakes, Restless List....) were all rehearsing, recording, and generally hanging around at a studio in Kemptown (an area in the south-east of Brighton) called Mockinbird Studios, which was run by Marc Beatty of Brakes and the Tenderfoot. After that initial summer of activity, with Totally Bored still doing stuff in Brighton, I moved up to South-East London to start my degree at Goldsmiths College, where I met a bunch of like-minded people who were interested in this Totally Bored thing and we started putting on gigs in London and started a 'zine (which by issue 5 had been re-christened TB), with articles on everything from Abba to post-colonial theory, and a radio show on the college radio station. Unfortunately, I have very little to time to be promoting gigs and things these days but I do miss walking for hours around London and Brighton in the middle of the night, flyposting gig posters, and hiding from passing police cars....

Q: I think that just about wraps it up for us. Any parting words? Shout outs? It's been a pleasure ...

A: shout outs? I could go on all night, but apart from the people I've already mentioned, I'd also urge people to check out Dear Britch, Bela Emerson, Same Actor, everything connected with the Wrong Music label, Les Domestico, Ben's Pens, Mary Hampton, Komon, Billie the Vision and the Dancers, anything connected to the Osaka vs. Tokyo club night in Stockholm, Drift Records and everyone associated with it, Actress Hands, the Blind Cowboys, Hot Cops, The Young Playthings, the Endz Unite organisation, the Lovekevins, Canarie Records, Metronomy, the Measures Taken blog and all the blogs it links to (especially K-Punk, Infinite Thought and Beyond the Implode), Los Lamados Perdidos, Vile Imbeciles, Vit P äls, Marit Bergman, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, the Strained Assembly, Lianne Hall, The Legend!, Arthur and Martha, Richard Sanderson, Richard Thomas, Dylan Bates, the Besties, Mint Records, Total Gaylord Records, Thee Moths, Little Terrors, Anthronica....

Thank you, the pleasure is all mine.