| Interview | Aphex Twinou could say that Future Muses attempts to track down RichareD. Jams (aka Apnex Tin, APS, Gok, Power Pill and countess ctnrs) ‘over the years have been comparable to George Bush's artis over Bin Ladan, but mayoo that's stretching the ruth just a it. We haven't waded anywhere to fatto him, Yet although wo thought about Ceraval $2 target when James lived ther). But i you were toeskany ct his press people, they’ testify thet the ‘monthly prone call they cresced most was the ona frm cu offices in Bath requesting achat with this mot enigmatic of peopl Wie actually talked face to fae wit him in issue 36 (October 1995) of the magazine, but forthe last ecade els gone to ground, rarely talking to anyone, anywhere. And with that silence as with Kftnerk~ comes the rmours. They say he makes hisonn hardware, that he plays sencpape records Atles and that he programs his own softare. After a decade of pices evey naw and then). But everytime something comes out urder whatover alias, you can guarantee that, enjoy itor not and the former is usualy the cas), it’ always and | mean always ~ ‘ery cleer, wel produced, witty act powerful ‘And Soto the intaniew eters. he last time he appeared inthe mag twos nearly a decade ego alongside Philp Glass. I was a phone interview, | ‘made the call, and I ad fo shout "Richard!" down trying, Andy Jones finally tracks down Richard D. James for his most insightful interview yet. It turns out he hasn’t been avoiding us afterall; he’s just been too busy entering our remix competitions... “han there's the wel-known fact that he dives ‘zound London ina tank, that he has 1,000 | uroloced tracks and writes music in his sionp. You | ramet everthing has been said about nim, which ‘ear it’s inevitable that an Aphex Twin inteview is. the one we're asked for more than any other. But the gossip and narcurs aren’ the only resson you ys keep bugging us for an inteviow theres the nal mater af his music to. My fist experience of James was, lke so any thers, Istning to Selected Ambient Works, 2 ecard so fine, so naive and so glorious that it tl ‘cozupis top ton alt in my ‘albums of al time’ ‘Since then haves baa true amblence, tue ack, tue innovation, the hardest techno and (i'm totallyhonest, some uly unlistenable bits and ‘2n answerphone fr about five minutes before ho picked up It did't get much betier ater that Young (OK, younge:) and wet behind the ears, | was ‘armed with some o the lamest questions yeu could sk ad they received the ensiers they deserved (We: "Philip Glace deserves yeu a quite arice young man’ Fow would you describe hi?” James: “Philp Glass is quite ance olé mar.) Soneary a decade on and its around the time f te release of his Ghosen Lords album, a best of his Anzlora vinyl rloasac which have sold lke hot ‘cakes in thelr flash limited extn cases the word ‘over. As with every other release ovr the last decade, | ing up te press peoole and ask, “dows he fancy an interview?" Noxraly the nerds, “ckay, just thought dak” tumble ut of my mouth Aphex Twin | Interview before | even get reply, bu this time things are different! “You could try emailing some questions ‘ove, Is the rather hushed response. Now I think back to tat aul ‘Glass episode’ Can | put togetnr a sot of questions slightly beter than those this time round? | fre some of ret knowing what the outcome will bea swift “Fuck of” prbaiy. “Time passes, and then an email pops through my Ino. ima bit shocked to say the least. Do you remember the bloke you met who was dressed in 2 nappy holding a copy of Future ‘Music and had his picture taken with you in ‘order to win one of cur competitions? Heal Yeah [do that was ssc, ‘What were you thinking when he showed up? ‘And, more to the point, what was he thinking? He was prety nervous.a nice blcke | Heed it out of the onlinary and good fun. We were slightly proud. @ readers would never have done it. Can you believe the only thing he won was a bit of Labelt very good - thanks, Focusrite ~ Ed] Focusrite outboard? ‘Awynotbad I think fora quick bit of apy wearing. You could hve stipnated he was tobe pashe ina pram aswell So, on to the Chosen Loris set of vil. The original collection is changing hands for a fortune on eBay now. What do you think about that, and do you have any lft that I can have? planned that and tis latering. Lheveall the white label diferent ex catsakeratve version tes and allthat. Many, many boxes and maybe two finished sets eft with Binders. I gave the es away tomy Giiends Iwas very tric about the quality and almost ‘caused Rephlec Master Control nervous breakown. We had different pressing plans lun it sounded near perc. was shit loads of work Vinyl has the capability 0 scund better than CD sith good equipment, and ithe pressing s Aone properly but because most musicthese cay is so oud, people dont tice the poor vinyl quality as FauciInterview | Aphex Twin Cit Te ‘much. think people should start demanding re-cuts iftheir pressings ar too nolsy/scratchy uatil they get itxight! Tomy ears vinyl or tpeisbettr than digital — ven ifthe quality int as good —for the simple factt always sounds different, and no two copies ate the same. The emphasis on recording perfection is Idiotic, When we hear natural sounds like people speaking, they're never the same. So why should our ‘music be? This ist to say the quest for perfect recordings isa wast of time iti. It hasitsplace and suits lot of music. As they say, varity is the spice oflife but the emphasis shoulk ben character not specifications, ‘One day there won't be uch place for recording ‘mediums as wel beable download another _musii'sextiences and perceptions dzeetly into ourbrins aid experience iin as many different What pisses me off most about the current music scene, is that there are too man’ sheep and not enough shepherd: ‘ways as welike. Digital isjust easier than finding the right tape or record We're jus: lazy bastards, The web Unsigned musicians uploading music to get feedback is huge but, frankly, a lot of what we hear seems to be influenced by either you or Boards Of Canada. Have you ever been tempted to upload your own tunes anorymousiy to, sy, MySpace, and say ‘influenced by Aphex Twin’? Noton MSpace that just for networking. dont do nerworking bur that tis probably very good for some people to get ashag! The put ay musi around anorymousy though! Actually Tentred the Lk Vibert Furr Muse competion undes the name “Tahnaya Rusl! [thinkl gotrunner up or something [he actually won but we gaveit to someone els in the end when ‘we found out ~ 2), twas fun reading the review What do you think about so many people, seemingly, making music lke you? Ifyou pan to be good at anything ithasto happen using your own ass ineiteble es exact ike natural selection. ‘Ave they all really you anyway? Some of them... ‘What do you think of the whole unsigned music upload thing? Is it a music revolution handing ‘over the power to the kids? Or too much ‘bandwidth taken up by too much bad music? keto think tsa bie ofboth. Like all things that change thereare certain pros and cons and say it’s definitely beter than itwas-— it's much more fun, anyway! Mest oft isnt copyrighted, so that's the biggest ps for me, What pisses you off most about the current music scene? ‘Too many sheep and not enough shepherds Le’ all ‘it back and havea long hard think, then make something different! We canal doit, surely ‘And what do you like about it? ‘wawaibu.com [an independent website dedicated to the avant-garde, ethnopoetics and “outsider ars") Me and my music ‘Who do you curently admire musically? Just off the top of my head: Kraiwerk, Guy Called Gerald, Derick Mays Mr Fingers, 808 State, Li Louis, Lidell Townsend, Bass Master Wartiors, Noel Willams, Martin Hannett ay Dil Sten Hanson, Xenakis Picco Umilan rian Bennett, ‘Squarepusher, AE, Groce Jones Pll Up To The ‘Bumper... Teould yo on forages. You've said that some of your own heroes have fost their way musically. Who did you mean? arly Chicago People. I's really upsetting. Mr Fingers what happened mate? Get your old ‘equipment bac for fuck’ sake. How many tracks do you think you have in your unreleased archives? Literally thousands... ifs out of conte. What do you think will happen to them? Some will come out, im sure. like to do somebig ‘old comps but the time t takes me to do one comp, ‘could make almost the same amount of newies. {s there anywhere musically that you haven't explored yet? Yeah, almost everywhere fee! like, “OK, I've just started and got the fel fortis shit now —Iets facking have it” | In the studio | In the history of Future Music, the interview We've been asked for most was one on you ‘and your studio, Why do you think we were ‘asked so much? Becouse Im briliant. ‘So why do you always say no? Because a rather do‘ track. Would we be disappointed because the myth thas gone so far beyond the reality? No, not ifyou saw one of my studios! ‘Should our readers stop asking (and what can ‘we do to stop them)?! ‘Wel, might do proper fce- t-te interview nex time. ‘What's the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard about your gear? ‘That Lnever made any ofit, And, thinking about it, wa Load thing you've ever souk our ‘That Tm not anice person, \What would you like to inventor see invented gearewise? Wscne of my ukimat aims fr Korg Yamaha or somncone who is capable to lt me design an lecronifhybridinstrument—but ely etme be the bass and not takeover halfway through. CConeon, please! [Il make you the bes fucking box thathas ever been crested, promise will toaly own everything ‘You've obviously gone back to analogue with this album, Does that mean you've tumed your ‘back on a more digital computer route? Im abvays working wth different set-up, side by ‘Side. ean'tkeep the same setup for more than afewtracks, Lwish Teould [take tall down and tart again, and right now have four studios on the ge. No. The worst things monitoring. Even with the bestheadhones in the world you cart compete ‘sith real monitors My fae lnprop/portable monitoring is Epytomie Research in-car thingies canbe nice sometimes, but my fave musics yourlive fiddling into an arrangement. The beat stretching although fun, does sound as good as it youhad cut something up by hand manually It can be good fora bitand to ty things ou,butw put everything through itis abad move. Nice try I dont seit [find that Linsice VST isbetter another program for that kind of thing. like trying programs out even ifTnever use them, just t see how people are thinking about musi bes simplicity isis down for me. The programming is sicker than just about anything else though, so respect. LUPIC by Xenakis puts almost everything de to shame. Its under IMBand itshitson everyone Aphex Twin | Interview Definitely submarine ammo asi almost | impossible to get || Sure. Raveolution 309, the Raven Max, MC 909 limited edon, Quasimii Van Helden, MAM. Freebass 383, Roland DJ-70,E-15, SP-808, Akai $3200, Behringer MX602A and all the Behringer effects that copy other things ‘music withthe most depth and ifitsall coming out cof one box, youre aot going o gett. ls good for demosof ecuipment—"Thisiswhat this soundcard sounds ike” or “Thsis this program” T'm not saying iteanthe good. Limiting yourselfis nce but’ ike cating the sane mel everyday. ‘Malkiple scundeard sapport would bea gigantic improvernent. Then you could havea whole array of soundcards fom cheap to phish. Pdlove tohave ‘ght different soundcards runing having different tlements coming out each one. You wouldnt have to throws your old cards out ether as you'd find ase forthe ik, "Trally ike this soundcard for hots? andso on WANT TO KNOW MORE? “Frakes ak ow. Fr mere, Vl wwwrephecorn mal us at hturemustsettirench.c.ak [No but other people probably will Yes woinnovative things aboutitareone-handed mouse nevigtion of waveforms ari th browsing/auditioning of stuff.Oh, and recording Ra Tare Visve eda look rot Fave comeup mith Yop, sort of tue, te zctualy an amoured Oh, yes. arr you itary bai, But he des ako ‘oma sub too, bought rum... Probab thom Riss. Tae rea oF 0 poe if tthe Yes, alo tue He was lure in years ack with a me made sampler ond reused sound from 2481 by messing wits machine code. Col! re in cur intervew, aitnough isa fact that he ci enter and wo —that emia corp! calli, node Node, but ‘moe defintely He ints atin te Intnvew ad was vor ety user f NI sofware wen it was ha use!