Crack

You know the scenario. You find yourself at a really crap house party where some bloke’s mate is supposed to be DJing, but decides to stay home to watch Friday Night with Jonathan Ross instead. He just knows the party is going to be shit and you’re now wishing you’d stayed at home as well.

If you’re fortunate, someone emerges with an iPod. Usually however, there are at least two blokes who are convinced they’re the best DJ ever. Both are trying to take centre stage 'just let me put this one tune on!' You end up spending the rest of the night listening to numerous half tracks, the vast majority of which are total inappropriate rubbish. On an odd but all too rare occasion the two iPod DJ’s reach some common ground. This usually happens at about four in the morning (if at all) and if it does, it’s more than likely that it will be a Four Tet track that brings them together.

The Kofi Annan of modern music, Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), has the ability to bring the most polarised music heads together. It’s not that he hedges his bets with his music. Bland and inoffensive this is not. His tracks are always original and often complex; yet they stay true to their wide-ranging influences. All at once, indie kids throw down their guitars, B-Boys stop spinning on their heads, jazzmen hang up their trumpets, electro geeks stop fiddling with their knobs and the hippies finally let up with their incessant djembe playing and fire poy.

Kieran refuses to take sides and this rubs off on everyone in a very positive way. The irony is that he has become the very height of cool as a result, not that he cares mind you: “I don’t feel pressure with anything I do. As long as I’ve been making music, I’ve tried to set it up so people don’t have specific expectations of my music. People coming to my shows have been doing this long enough to know, I’m interested in a whole variety of things. I like changing it all the time."

In his 11 years as Four Tet, Kieran has played to some massive crowds. In Bristol alone he’s packed out the Thekla, the Cooler and Trinity Arts Centre. On this occasion he tiptoes into town for a scarcely advertised DJ set at one of Bristol’s tiniest venues, The Tube. Even Crack came dangerously close to missing this one.


Why did you decide to make this one such a low-key affair?

“I like doing low-key nights like this. It feels like you’re playing someone’s party, its more relaxed. When it’s not so much of a performance and it’s cheap to get in, there’s less pressure and it’s just more fun.”

So you’ve had enough of playing the big venues?

“Playing a big festival full of people is a mad rush also. It’s different. I like having variety. Imagine being the bass player in Snow Patrol every night, you’ve got to go out and play the same hits. You’re in a stadium every night and that’s just it.”

So we’re not going to be hearing a Snow Patrol remix any time soon then?

“They’re actually surprisingly cool those guys, I’m not a massive fan of their music, but I played a set in Hastings and all of Snow Patrol came down. They didn’t just stand at the bar yapping with each other either, they all went mental down the front and bought the support band’s CD’s. They were alright. They asked me to do a remix once but there’s a lot of remixes I don’t do because I just don’t have the time. I had a year were I did 16 mixes and I got to the end of the year and thought: ‘Why did I do 16 mixes, I should have made a new album’. I’m an idiot!”

There’s definitely been a lot of great remixes over the years, for a huge range of incredible artists. Any self respecting music lover has a dozen in their library. Aphex Twin, Bloc Party, Bonobo, Foals, Madvillian, Beth Orton, Battles, Nathan Fake, Sia, Black Sabbath, we could go on. How do they all come about?

“The record company will usually have an indie band and be like: ‘Maybe we can get some of the house music crowd to buy this too?’ It’s become a more creative thing recently, but it’s still firstly a marketing tool. I only manage to do a few of the offers. In the last few years I’ve got the chance to remix bands I know and really like. People like Battles, we’ll tour together and then they’ll ask me to do a remix. That works out really well because there’s a proper mutual respect and it feels more like doing a collaboration. I think I’ve been very lucky, I’ve been able to focus on mixes for tracks I feel a real affection towards, but that can also make it harder because you feel more pressure to do it justice.”

So what makes you want to remix, or not remix a particular track?

“I need to hear something I know I can take in my own direction. Sometimes I’ll be sent something I’ve never heard of before, but when I listen to it I can hear what I want to do with it. Other times I’ll be a fan of the band but I just know it won’t work with my type of sound. Then sometimes you get asked to do stuff and you think it’s just totally wrong -like Dido or something.”

What’s the worst remix offer you’ve ever had?

“Dido! I just love the thought of the A&R guy sitting in his office with his Dido album on his desk. He’s sold 29 million copies and he’s thinking: ‘What would be the next touch that would really work to take this campaign in a new direction? I know! Let’s get Kieran to do a mix!’ Hilarious.”

So what are you working on at the moment?

“At the moment I’m working on a new album. I’m pretty close to finishing it actually! I’ve been trying to focus solely on doing that and doing shows. I’ve been able to test run a lot of the new tracks at my shows recently.”

Your most recent solo release was the Ringer EP, which was quite a departure in style. A more synthetic and repetitive sound, almost psychedelic. Is the album a continuation of that or are you switching it up again?

“When I’m making an album, I prefer to do something you put on and enjoy the whole forty-five minutes, so there are shorter tracks and more variation. The tracks on Ringer were really epic ten minute things which were more of a single experience.”

You recently brought out two tracks with the elusive Burial. This was a musical marriage, which saw many in the electronica community sneaking home for a clean change of undergarments. What was it like meeting the mysterious producer?

“We’ve actually been friends for a long time and always talked about doing a collaboration. I was one of the people who knew what was going on and we finally got on it and it came together really nicely.”

Burial clearly has some unique production techniques, did that make things difficult? Did you learn any new tricks?

“I don’t think either of us uses normal production techniques really. That doesn’t really phase me, everybody I encounter has their own style, especially now people start making music in their bedrooms and just teach themselves. When people do it like that, without any trained engineers or anything, they develop their own weird kind of method. They’ll say: ‘Why are you doing it like that? I do it like this…’ But as long as people are doing something interesting that’s all that matters."

You’ve been collaborating with the legendary jazz drummer Steve Reid for a few years now, as Kieran Hebden. Doing live shows across the globe and releasing two live albums, (Exchange Sessions Vol 1&2) followed by two studio albums (Tongues and the recent NYC). The studio albums are a lot more structured, but still far more abstract and experimental than the Four Tet stuff. What has the feedback to the Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid work been like from the Four Tet fans?

"I think people were a bit overwhelmed because NYC was the fourth album in three years. People that are really into what I’m doing with Steve are ready for us, but I think for a lot of people it’s too much music coming out and they can’t cope. I don’t worry too much about that though. I just want to get all of it out there. I want to be able to look back in years to come and have everything documented. Having said that, there are loads and loads of things I do that will never see the light of day. Only a small proportion of the music I make actually comes out but I do like to constantly have things coming out, refreshing where I’m at.”

Of all the album tracks, collaborations and remixes you’ve put out over the years, do you have a favourite track or your proudest moment?

“Always the new stuff. The old stuff just sounds boring as hell to me because I’ve heard it too much, but then if I have break from it for a few years I can get excited again. I found a remix the other day for a band called His name is Alive and I totally enjoyed it. At the moment I’m working on the new album, so if that’s not the most exciting thing then I’d be freaking out. If I’m making a new album and want to listen to the old stuff then there’s a serious problem.”



http://www.myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden

Words: Jack Dolan

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