As we keep up the festivities we have joined forces with one of Glasgow’s finest party starters Thunder Disco Club to bring electronic heavyweights Simian Mobile Disco back to the Subbie.
Having started off as a four-piece band, Jas and James’s side project dedication and hard earned experience has helped them build and evolve over the last 7 years. In combination with the understanding of decades of electronic music, SMD have been able to create their own sound and audience. Often put into the same boat as the ‘electro’ movement with the likes of Ed Banger Records and Erol Alkan the duo have deliberately shied away from the noisiness and rockism of that scene with the aim of achieving something deeper, avante-garde and less cosmetic.
We caught up with Simian Mobile Disco over some Baileys and After Eights ahead of the event…
1. You come from a fairly broad musical background. How would you say your sound has developed over the last 10 years to where it is now?
We are always looking for new sounds, new music, new instruments. Also we try not to repeat ourselves. It’s been a bumpy ride but no one can accuse us of being complacent.
2. What factors have influenced this the most?
Usually it’s what we have just done, that’s what we are running from. Our studio has changed lots over the years but at root it’s always been a pile of synths, some modular stuff, some fx and a desk. The limitations of that rig and it’s strengths have been the most constant influence. The rest has been us finding new ways to play the rig.
(**Image by UhOh Disco **)
3. Can you please give us a a few key tracks which sums up the transition period to where your sound is at today?
Sleep Deprivation – Last track of our first record and already you can hear that we have started to move away from the ravey sound that was in the air at the time.
10000 Horses can’t be Wrong – From our second record, reflects the the more melodic and less abrasive stuff that we were playing out.
Nerve Salad – from the first batch of Delicacies 12s, an outlet for our more Leftfield or more club leaning stuff.
The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife – For Unpatterns we aimed to create a record that made sense at the end of the night, particularly when the end of the night was well into the next day.
It’s the beat (From Live record) – The rig for the live show is essentially a boxed up subset of our studio. This is us playing one of our early tracks but bringing it inline with what we do now simply by the nature of how we play it. As with all the live versions they vary from night to night but what persists is that we prefer a sparser, bonier version to what we were playing when we first toured this track on a very similar live rig.
Surstromming – Another Delicacies 12. We have been doing some collaborations with producers that we like, this one is with Cosmin TRG who we have been fans of for ages. There’s a few more of these collaborations in the pipeline and I hope we get to keep doing them as they are fun.
4. When and how did your passion for synths and analogue hardware begin?
When we started making electronic music soft synths were totally shit. They have come a long way since then but I still prefer using hardware, both in terms of the sound and in terms of getting hands on with a real instrument, it’s music after all, not word processing.
(**Image by Official Homework**)
5. What are your five favourite tracks of 2013?
Burn With Me – DJ Koze
25 hours – DJ hyperactive
Level 7 – Mathew Jonson
Archive – Midland
Wall to wall – Special Request
Renata – James Holden
6. You are both very passionate about food, what is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?
I have eaten brains before, quite nice actually.
7. Do you have a favourite Scottish delicacy? Or is there anything you would like to try?
I’m told that a Buckfast breakfast is a treat.
(**Image by Guardian Witness**)
9. If your plane were to cascade into a tropical desert island on the way to Sunny Scotland on Friday and the only thing that survives was yourselves, a Fisher Price battery powered record player and single slightly damp but playable LP, what album would you most like to listen to while sipping on your coconuts?
I was going to say Selected Ambient Works but I can more of less play that just by thinking about it, lets go with that anyway, just to be certain.
10. If you could pick anyone in the world to remix you, who would it be and which track would you want them to do?
I wish we could get Pan Sonic to do a mix.
11. Lastly, who are the up and coming artists we should be watching out for in the future?
https://soundcloud.com/ghostculture/sets/ghost-culture-mouth-ep
On a food tip Simian Mobile are doing an exclusive vinyl giveaway over here on our Facebook page, based ‘Delicacies.’
£10 Advance tickets to catch Simian Mobile Disco alongside Thunder Disco Club and Sensu tomorrow at the Sub Club are on sale here & both in store and online at Tickets Scotland.