Simian Mobile Disco interview

Ahead of their Delicatessen album launch party next Friday in London, Ransom Note caught up with Jas to hear their thoughts on records & machines, warehouse parties and going to the movies together… or not!

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What do you make of the enduring popularity of these warehouse type events? Do you think the novelty might wear off at some point and people will start to say – You know what? I kind of miss doing my e-poo on a proper toilet? Or I kind of miss hearing this music on a sound system perfectly tuned to the dimensions of a room? Is there any credence to the to the notion that raw underground tech sounds better in a raw, literally, underground setting?

I think it’s a cyclic thing, the warehouse parties are great and they tend to increase in frequency when there is a lack of appropriately sized venues with a very late licence. London has lost a bunch of venues recently but that leave room for some diy parties and hopefully some interesting new venues.

Your billing gets a Special Records & Machines Set strap line at this party. Im guessing this means youll be incorporating some hardware and live manipulation thereof into your set? How does this work alongside the records? Are you going to be bringing sequenced drum and synth patterns into the mix? Are we talking time coded vinyl here?

No, nothing as complicated as coded vinyl, I think we will go for the *get the drum machine roughly in time and then cut across to it fast* school of mix fudging, or wait for a swooshhy bit. It’s going to be a pretty low-tech thing, I think we will be syncing the sequencer off one of the drum outputs. We are simple people, we just thought that, as it was just a cab ride away, we could bring a few more toys to make matters a bit more confusing for us.

And is this something youve rehearsed and honed or is there going to be a thrilling seat of your pants dimension to the proceedings? Clearly youre restless creative types – does it get a bit dull bickering about who gets to choose the next record and standing there stony faced whilst your partner yawns his way through the same slick blend hes already negotiated a gazillion times that month?

Actually djing is rarely like that but yep the machines bit is gonna be a ‘make it up as you go along’ vibe, probably littered with fuckups.

Me and my friends have utterly inconsequential, entry level media jobs and little to no pressing commitments beyond those. Yet we still struggle to find, say, a Thursday on which we are all free for a quick pint and a catch up. You and Jas/James (delete as appropriate) DJ, make your own tracks, remix, produce other bands, run your own labels and presumably have like, partners and shit. Do you still make time for EACH OTHER away from big speakers, faders and maggot ridden cheeses though?

Haha, James and I spend way too much time together. I see him more than I see my wife. But we have been mates for ages and share most of the same best mates so we do see each other away from being SMD when we see them but we don’t, y’know, go to movies together, just the two of us, when we are in London. Not that there is anything wrong with that, we just don’t.

See you on the floor.