Aphex Twin, Opscene Magazine (December 1996)

Interview by Erik Quint
photo © Jan Willem Steenmeijer

The Aphex Twin: “My tapes are my diaries.”

Strange but true. Musicians often say the nicest things when the tape recorder is turned off after 45 minutes of pure interview time. Richard D. James, aka The Aphex Twin says..

“This may have be my last interview.”

He remains silent for a moment and then continues with: “But yes, press days are part of the job and I have a new record to sell. There are probably still people who don’t know me and who might like my music.” The new Aphex Twin album is called Richard D. James LP and contains half an hour (!) intriguing touches between quirky melodies, heavy drum ‘n bass rhythms and heavenly strings.

Why do they suddenly have ‘real strings’, those children of the digital age? Mo Wax’s Andrea Parker recorded Rocking Chair with a forty-piece orchestra, Pussyfoot’s Spacer made the first fully orchestrated drum ‘n’ bass track with Contrazoom, while Mr. Aphex already collaborated with Philip Glass last year.

“Do I like classical music? Yes, but I don’t know much about it because I haven’t gotten around to buying those records yet. I loved what I heard, but don’t ask me for the names of composers.”

On your new record is a song titled Goongumpas that in terms of use of strings is reminiscent of a mix of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade in a …

“I know the Nutcracker, but I think Goongumpas is more like music for an insurance advertisement.”

… in a Brian Wilson arrangement…

“I think that man is very good.” 

How do you make those strings, they are barely distinguishable from real?

“I have a violin at home that I use to make samples, something that has taken me centuries to master. I can’t play the violin, but I know enough about it to get certain notes out of it. In the near future I will work with session musicians, strings, to get better samples.”

Did you learn anything from Philip Glass, who made an orchestration for Icct Hedral last year?

“Yes, I learned from him not to do things. I learned how to get a large group of musicians together and let them play together. That wasn’t the way I would do it, because I don’t like a soft and smooth sound. What I liked about that session were all those sounds that I don’t get from samples, like talking people and strings breaking.”

On his new album, more than ever before, accessible melodies contrast with his characteristic violent rhythms. How does James see his development?

“I learned to handle my equipment. It took me a while to know what I wanted with my music; something that is complicated, but at the same time accessible again.”

Your new CD is accessible, especially in terms of length. Does that have to do with the title Richard D. James LP?

“Nobody makes those short records anymore. Most CDs take far too long. 75 minutes is too long, even for CDs that I really like. It all started with those dance records and DJ remixes. On vinyl it has to sound loud so that artists spread their material over two albums, but with CDs I have the idea that everyone wants to make their records as long as possible because it is possible. It also has to do with the way people work nowadays. A dance artist may make a mix of eight hours that he has to reduce to normal proportions, but he can’t part with those eight hours. Nonsense, of course, because we are learning to handle our equipment better and better.”

Have you heard Warp’s mix CD Blech?

“Technically very well mixed. However, I don’t like most warp releases.”

On your new record and your AFX singles, you can play with drum ‘n’ bass structures to your heart’s content.

“I’ve always loved the psychology behind breakbeat music. That you’re fiddling someone else’s drum sound if you don’t have money for a drum kit. I don’t listen to jungle much, but I like Luke Vibert and Squarepusher.”

Is jungle the new techno?

“Yes, absolutely. For me, techno always stands for new music made with new technology.”

Do you consider yourself a techno artist?

“Yes, but what everyone understands by techno as an idiom has not been innovative for years. Jungle is the next step because techno was originally breakbeat music.”

Rich is and remains a weird kid. He is so pale that his face has a bluish haze and it contrasts bizarrely with his reddish hair and beard. Although he rarely gets as off the ground in interviews as he does today, he hardly looks at his interlocutor. Eccentric? There is definitely a stitch loose on someone who performs with sandpaper and kitchen utensils.

Was that a Dadaist art expression or a way to deal with the adoration of a generation that would even applaud a remixed fart of yours?

“A bit of both. Some people thought it was cool, others were angry. There were DJs, who don’t have enough money to buy a few Technics themselves, who thought it was disgraceful that I destroyed equipment with sandpaper. Others thought it was a serious art expression, while it was no more than a joke.”

When Selected Ambient Works 85-92 came out, were you seen as the new king of the post-Eno ambient scene, was that status of prodigy frightening to you?

“It freaked me out a bit, but I was ready. I am someone who takes everything as it comes to me. I don’t get confused so easily by what others say, but it took me a year to get used to that status. I then took a step back to determine who I was and what I wanted. I make music for myself and when I suddenly started to become popular, I thought for a moment that I had to listen to all those people I was compared to.”

What do you think of your current image as an eccentric?

“No idea, because I rarely read back the interviews I give.”

People think you’re fooling around, that you’re ruining the electronic music scene…

“I like to fool everything I love. That’s a healthy attitude because you shouldn’t take anything too seriously, especially music.”

Many critics have fallen over Famous Knob Twiddler, your CD with Mike Paradinas that would be too corny. (LC Translation of this question appears to be especially bad, but I thought I’d leave it like this because I found it quite amusing)

“Those recordings were never really meant for a record. Mike is a good friend of mine and two years ago we made some recordings for fun. People around us liked it and told us to release it. It is also the best-selling record on Rephlex.”

To what extent do you run Rephlex yourself?

“I only do the fun things, like A&R. My partners are better at the business aspects. It is also very nice to have your own label as an artist, because then you have a certain affinity with your artists. What are my criteria for a Rephlex record? Anything original and good and then I don’t care what style it is. Squarepusher was the first artist on Rephlex that I really loved.”

“I never listen to my records because they are compilations, but I consider my tapes to be a diary and I consult them often. The pieces of music I’ve thought about the least often turn out to be my favourites. Experience often stands in the way of innovation because you base yourself on something you have already done. That gets worse as you get older.”

You are now 25, what is your experience as a musician …

“I don’t consider myself a musician… The outside world does.”

Do you feel responsible for that?

“No, not at all. I do exactly what I want. That way I still let my friends pick out the tracks that are released. I don’t care what songs are on a record and since I can’t distance myself from my work, I ask people whose tastes I respect to make that choice. They often choose the latest material that I don’t think the audience is ready for yet.”

Yet there are many beautiful melodies on your new record, are you a romantic?

“Yes, I’m especially nostalgic. I don’t know why, but I spend a lot of time doing things from my childhood.”

What does the Richard D. James LP symbolize to you, how will you look back on it in fifty years? 

“The album represents a picture of the times for me. However, this record is the silence before the storm, because what I’m currently working on, to release next year, is really insane. I’m currently learning so much about computer technology that the music can only get better. But first I will have to find a suitable place for my studio to be able to work in peace.”

Your neighbours in London probably like to see you leave, do you say goodbye with a concert in your house? 

“That is the intention, but I first have to calculate how many people I can have on the floor before everything collapses.”