[Music]

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO

Makes edits, hates electro and loves to DJ

By David Day

We have a policy about telling you only about events that have not sold out. Why tell readers about an event that they can't go to? As of this edit, SMD's show has tickets available, but we'll bet tickets for their Boston appearance, as of this printing, cannot be bought. Sorry. We spoke with SMD's Jas Shaw on the phone from London.

 

HEY IT'S BOSTON. THANKS FOR FINDING THE TIME.

I've been in the studio. My laptop was making a lot of noise.

 

YOU'RE IN THE STUDIO BUT THE ALBUM IS DONE, RIGHT?

Yeah. There's still a fair bit to sort out from our point of view because after the last record, the tracks were written kind of long form, kind of like eight to 10-minute long versions, which we sent out to vocalists. Then having vocals back in we just edit them down and condense them—which is something we enjoy and from a listening point of view. I always find that I like dance from that stuff, eight minute to 10 minute versions, but you make an album it's kind of boring. You know you don't need like a two-minute outro on every single song if you wanna listen to the cohesive whole.

 

YOU WANT THE FULL DANCE FORM .

Exactly ... there's a reason there's a three-minute outro on those songs and it's because you're supposed to be mixing the next one in. You put a little bit in to tease the crowd and all this kind of stuff. There's a purpose for it—whereas it's just boring if you're listening to it flat. From our point of view an album is something to be listened to at home. We wanted to work in that format and with the last record we were grateful just to cut it to shreds early. The songs are usually under four minutes long. If you cut yourself down to the bare minimum that it needs to work, you try to make as a concise a statement as possible. So what we're doing in the studio is preparing—we've begged our management and label that we can have a week or so in the studio reviving all the long versions so we can flick about on the digital, maybe press up a 12" cause a lot of people still know us through the stuff for our remixes and they consider us to make records that you would play out. The stuff on the record is just not the right format at all. Already we'd like just a couple of tunes to be like: "Aw yeah this used to be the long version, it's like we're not done yet." It should be fun.

 

THE TWO SONGS I'VE HEARD SO FAR ARE FAIRLY SHORT.

Which ones do you have?

 

"10,000 HORSES" AND "SYNTHESIZE."

That one's Todd Rundgren. It's from the late '70s. I was listening to the record and this track came on, completely a capella, and I was just like: 'I cannot believe no one's heard this....so good.' It was the first sample we'd ever used.

 

DO PEOPLE REQUEST ANY OLD SIMIAN SONGS? DOES ANYONE ASK FOR "CHEMISTRY IS WHAT WE ARE"?

It's confusing because we've continued the name Simian in the form of Simian Mobile Disco, so it feels like we've always kept the band name, which we haven't and never intended to do. Simian Mobile Disco was just us dicking around DJing basically. So if we thought that we were going to do an album we would have thought up another name. When Simian split up, James and I'd been DJing. People were calling us up: 'Do you want to come DJ at my bar, we'll get you drunk and give you like 50 Quid, and we just loved it. We have a background in loving electronic production, and it was something fun to do at the weekend. We would meet up and knock some tunes out. When we were DJing cause we were pretty skint at the time, so it saved us from buying a record. It was for the fun of it. We never thought of it, and it kind of crept up on us. A lot of small labels like friends were like: 'We'll put one track out for you." We had a few little releases and there was no money involved. Before we knew it the name had kind of stuck, and when we finished the first record, we shut down and we went 'Right, so uh we're gonna change the name?'. And the fellows from the label were like: "N o you're not. And we're 'We are.' And they we're: 'You're kidding me right?' And we were like 'Well it's a dumb name.' And they were like: 'Well stupid you, too late now.'

 

SOMEONE SOMEWHERE IS RIGHT NOW HEARING "WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS" FOR THE FIRST TIME AND THEY'RE FREAKING OUT.

It must be like the very first time we heard it. It must be like six years. It keeps coming back. I've gotten sick of it, and then I came back around to it being okay. I'll play it a bit, then I can't hear it anymore. I'm third generation down the cycle of nostalgia.

 

YOU DON'T WANNA BE PLAYING IT AT STATE FAIRS IN 30 YEARS.

Jesus Christ. I don't even have it in our record box. It's done enough. I don't feel any kind of attachment to it. But having said that it's a wonderful thing to have happened, because—from a musician's point of view—to write a tune that captures people's imagination and goes on to have a life of its own; that's what we're striving to do. But when it happens you get pissed off about it. You've got to be careful what you wish for.

 

THE NEW SONGS ARE HEADED RIGHT FOR THE DANCE FLOOR.

It's interesting you should say that. Based on "10,000 Horses" and "Synthesize" you would think that. It's more vocal tunes than instrumental and a lot of them are very short—between three and four minutes—and it works. To me it sounds like an indie record.

 

IS "HUSTLER" BACK? IS THAT MC BACK?

Oh, Char? No. We've worked with all new vocalists, none from the last record. Because there's a lot of vocalists out there, and we had such a long wish list, and still people who we've been chasing and have been reluctant. Maybe we'll continue—we'll try to break their will and get them on the next record. It's a wonderful thing working with a vocalist because when you get a vocal back and it works, it moves the tune into a place you didn't expect—usually for the better. It's those things we look for. It's that process of something going away from its original form and going to somewhere you didn't expect it to. I'll write something and then they hit disco or like a techno track. You come up with some chords you like, but quite often it doesn't have an identity of its own. It's only when you go 'I don't know what this is anymore I don't know where this fits,' when both of us get pretty excited, cause that's when you're onto something.

 

WHEN IS THE ALBUM OUT?

I have no idea. We're in the studio every night till we hand it in, and when we hand it in, you don't see it for months and months. But obviously they have to send it to you guys before and all that kind of stuff. This is a long turnaround, so I'm guessing it's gonna be sometime in the summer.

 

BUT THE SINGLES ARE OFFICIALLY OUT, I MEAN "SYNTHESIZE" IS ...

Oh yeah we put those out, and the reason they're a little more techno-y was we didn't want to put out a kind of obvious pop. I say pop, but you know like a kind of single-type single for the people who were still watching. We put it out on Beatport for the techno-heads basically. All the people we knew and all the contacts would say whether they liked it or didn't like it, and it would get around. It was an easy way to step back into things. We've been doing lots of absolutely loaded DJing, more than the last record. We're kind of more steeped in that techno-y thing. On the last one there's more of an electro influence. I can't stand all that kind of noisy electro crap. It's much more prevalent in the States, particularly in L.A.—that's the worst place to DJ. Jesus Christ, it's like forty seconds of each tune. It's like ...

 

NO ARGUMENT HERE. WHAT ARE THE REMIXES YOU'RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT. CAN YOU TELL ME WHO YOU'VE SENT IT OUT TO?

We're only just starting to get remixes in, we've not actually received any yet. Quite a few people have said they'll do them, but as I know sometimes it doesn't work out, so I don't want to say before we actually get something in. As far as people on the record, we've got Beth from The Gossip who's done a track. She is an amazing, amazing singer. She's superfun. We live in a really grungy part of London and we went out to get some food she made friends in the takeaway. It was a really good laugh. And Jamie Lidell, do you know him?

 

OH YEAH, YEAH.

The more clued up people know who he is. He's insane, we had him in the studio. We set up a condenser, like a professional studio one, and he wouldn't sing because he wanted to go through all our things and stuff. So we rigged it all up for him on a modular rig and he was just screaming and tweaking notes and yeah, it was a good afternoon. Who else have we got...we've got Gruff from Super Furry Animals.

 

HE DIDN'T SING IN WELSH?

He didn't sing in Welsh, fortunately, cause no one understands Welsh. Our lighting engineer is Welsh and cannot speak a word of it. But Gruff is such a legend, and the Super Furrys were like a massive massive interest for me when I was a kid. Having him in the studio was like one of those ticked off the list, like 'Yes.' Who else ... We had the girls from Telepathe.

 

PEOPLE KEEP TELLING ME I SHOULD LISTEN TO THEM.

You should get involved ... yeah, just so good. It's really interesting and left-field, but also really immediate and engaging. There are really strong melodies. It's a great record.

 

I'VE GOTTA LET YOU GO, BUT THE LIVE SHOW IS SO COOL, AND YOU GUYS ARE REALLY PUSHING EVERYTHING FORWARD. DON'T HAVE TOO MANY PLANS.

What do you mean?

 

WELL IF YOU WANNA MAKE GOD LAUGH TELL HIM YOUR PLANS.

Yeah, that's true.

 

 

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO

WITH JDH AND DAVE P

WEDNESDAY, 4.22.09

PARADISE ROCK CLUB

967 COMM. AVE.

BOSTON

617.562.8800

7PM/18+/$17.50

THEDISE.COM

SIMIANMOBILEDISCO.CO.UK