Letter from the Editor “ G E T T I NG T H E R E IS H A L F T H E F UN” They say that regards to travel, ‘getting there is half the fun’ and I would have to agree. We chose the theme of journeys for this, our summer issue, because the itch to travel really kicks in come summertime. There is something about getting away from it all (whether that’s the office, your hometown, or simply the sameness of everything) that not only refreshes, but can inspire you anew, can give you some clarity on things back home and possibly help you make decisions about your life. So you journey somewhere physically to aid your emotional journey through the greatest journey of all: life. This is something that our writer Lulu Le Vay gets to the heart off in her piece ‘Inspirational Journeys’ when she asks a mixture of well known figures to recall a journey that really changed them. A poet included in this feature, Ronke Osinowo, nails it when she says “Travel to me is a crucial part of my mental development; it allows you to see difference without being threatened by it. It allows you to experience the ‘other’ without your own sense of reality being disrupted.” Another journey that is often high up on people’s wish-lists of ‘Things I want to do’ and has been turned into the stuff of legend thanks to countless books and films (Thelma and Louise anyone?), is the great American road trip. This is something that none other than our very own Art Director Lisa Schibel took on together with Lars Borges, who documented their entire trip with some really breathtaking photos that show just how diverse this vast continent is. Their journey started in New York and ended in San Francisco, which meant their road trip took them through Nashville, New Orleans, New Mexico, Arizona (including the Grand Canyon - thankfully they skipped the part about driving off it), Las Vegas and L.A. There is much more in this issue including a piece on ‘The Alternative Route’ (there are some surprising ways to go far on a very small budget), a look at what the future of travel will be like in ‘Dude, where‘s my flying car?’ and interviews with director Brad Anderson and actor Sir Ben Kingsley regarding their new film Transsiberian - a thriller that takes place on the longest railway in the world. So we hope this issue inspires you to start planning your next trip away – the possibilities are endless, and there is so much to discover - about the outside world, the people who inhabit it and as always, about yourself.
Best wishes, Liz McGrath Editor in Chief
4
CONTRIBUTORS
PE OPL E PUBLISHER PRODUCER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ART DIRECTOR FASHION & STYLE EDITOR PROJECT MANAGER GRAPHIC DESIGNER PROGRAM MANAGER ONLINE EDITOR PROJECT DIRECTOR ONLINE ONLINE MUSIC EDITOR PRESS COVER & OPENER PAGES
WEBSITE
Toni Kappesz Commandante Berlin Gmbh, Schröderstr. 11, 10115 Berlin, Germany Liz McGrath (liz@electronicbeats.net) Lisa Schibel (lisa@electronicbeats.net) Sandra Liermann (sandra@electronicbeats.net) Viktoria Pelles (viktoria@electronicbeats.net) Leona List (leona@electronicbeats.net) Claudia Jonas (claudia@electronicbeats.net) Semir Chouaibi (semir@electronicbeats.net) Carlos de Brito (carlos@electronicbeats.net) Gareth Owen (gareth@electronicbeats.net) Michelle Kramer (michelle@electronicbeats.net) www.electronicbeats.net
Lars Borges CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS/ ARTWORK
Lulu Le Vay, Johannes Bonke, Serena Kutchinsky, Mark Fernyhough, Peyman Farahani, Gareth Owen, Kevin Braddock, Daniel West, Laura Dunkelmann, Emma Mclellan, Gavin Blackburn, Gavin Herlihy Lisa Schibel, Leona List, Lars Borges, David Fischer, Erin Malone, Benno Kraehahn, Heike Schneider-Matzigkei, Aaron Sugiura, Charles Turner, Hugh More, Chin-Kiu Chris Cheng, Matt Long, Chris Weseloh, Andrew Barnes
DA N I E L
LULU
S E R E NA
DAV I D
WEST
L E VAY
KUTCHINSKY
FISCHER
Daniel West is a writer and curator who
Lulu writes regularly for the Independ-
Serena is a web mistress by day in her
Due to a general lack of daylight in Swe-
contributes to Dazed & Confused, Time
ent On Sunday, Dummy and edits ‘love
job as Managing Editor of Time Out On-
den David spent the past year and a half
Out and the BBC. He recently curated
& lifestyle’ website staganddove.com.
line. She freelances for a wide range of
trying to reinvent the idea of the studio.
a documentary photography project
She also finds the time to manage bands
print and online publications writing
Recently returning to his sunny Berlin
for Saatchi & Saatchi and is currently
Spektrum and George Demure as well
about everything from the hottest new
home there was a whole new world of
developing a collection of situationist
as promoting events and teaching music
sounds to social networking. Her cred-
possibilities opening up on that path, as
reflections on Berlin, his adopted home.
industry skills to young people across
its include Time Out London, Marmalade,
you can see in the beach wear story he
W W W . D A N I E L- W E S T. C O M
London. If that isn’t enough she runs
i-D, The London Magazine, The First Post,
shot for us.
electro label defDrive and runs mara-
BBC Collective/Music and more. She lives
W W W. DAV I D F I S C H E R . O R G
thons in her spare time. Phew!
in London and weekends in Berlin.
W W W . L U L U L E V AY. C O M
5
INDEX
“ON T H E ROA D” TUNE IN
F E AT U R E S
FOCUS
M O S T WA N T E D
06–17
18–23
24–43
44–45
QUADROPHENIA ................................ 18
MY INSPIRATIONAL JOURNEY ........... 26
MEALS ON WHEELS ........................... 40
PRIMARY COLOURS FESTIVAL ...............10
COACHELLA FESTIVAL
TRANS-SIBERIAN TALES .................... 30
ONES TO WATCH: JOHNNY D ............. 12
DANCE, DESERT PEOPLE .................. 20
EB NEWS .............................................. 6
THE ALTERNATIVE ROUTE ................. 34 AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BEATS ... 38
ONES TO WATCH: THE WHIP ............. 14 EB FESTIVAL BONN ............................ 15 WORD FROM THE WISE:JOSH WINK .. 16 TOUGH AT THE TOP:R&S RECORDS .. 17
JET SETTING
GET DRESSED
I NTERVIEWS
HEAR THIS
46–65
66–75
76–87
88–99
EXPOSED ............................................ 66
THE KILLS .......................................... 56
THE COLLECTOR’S GUIDE ................. 90
BOOKASHADE .................................... 60
MUSIC REVIEWS .................................92
ROAD TRIP USA.................................. 46
FALKO BROCKSIEPER ........................ 64
MY MUSIC MOMENT: ANJA SCHNEIDER ............................... 98
6
EB TUNE IN
»ON TH E ROAD«
Tune in Summer time is here and that means Festival season! Berlin has a great new one ‘Primary Colours’ so read all about that, as well as a review of the Electronic Beats festival in Bonn. Then there is Josh Wink dishing out his pearls of wisdom and an interview with the owner of the legendary R+S Records, which has just been reborn as a digital platform. Ones To Watch are hot new band The Whip and the incredible new talent Johnny D - his story is truly inspirational!
7
8
EB TUNE IN
All in the mix Ye a h b o y Two boys, one idea: Alexandre Briatore, 24, and Radek Sadowski, 28, within just a year turned a spontaneous idea into a hot fashion label. Whereas they claim there is ‘no particular style’ they are following - a common statement in the music industry - it’s generally quite easy to look at a style and find its origin. So let’s try. It starts with music, right? So, looking at the neon-infused previous collection, we can detect a touch of rave, and seeing the arty elements and graffiti-like graphics one might think hip-hop was an inspiration. And the Gameboy-element in their recently opened shop? Eighties-retro without a doubt. But now, with the whole lookbook shot in black and white, we get insecure. Rave, hip-hop, retro and minimalism? So maybe this time the claim that Yeahboy does not easily fit into a style genre does seem to be true. To keep variety at a high level, Yeahboy also includes a jewellery collection. And to keep the style-hungry satisfied, the new Yeahboy department store doesn’t only sell its own brand but also features labels like Stüssy (street/skate style), Wood Wood (those Scandinavian hipsters) and New Balance (sporty modernist styles). There is however a sad side to this story: this is a shopping point only for boys, as there is no Yeahgirl as yet. But here’s the silver lining: it’s time to steal your boyfriend’s clothes again! Y E A H B O Y D E PA R T M E N T S T O R E / S T E R N S T R A S S E 4 H A M B U R G , G E R M A N Y / W W W . Y E A H B O Y. B I Z TEXT
M E p a i r e d , YO Un i t e d Sabrina Dehoff Berlin based jewellery designer Sabrina Dehoff doesn’t fail to surprise us once more with her beautiful, quirky designs. Her new collection ‘Mepaired Younited’ is all about love, connection, and junction. The crossed and joined little objects like anchors, hearts, bells and planes are definitely a summer must-have. W W W . S A B R I N A D E H O F F. C O M TEXT
SANDRA LIERMANN
LAURA DUNKELMANN
NEWS
9
Shadow in the Lab The successful Nokia Trends Lab project continues apace in 2008 with new ways to motivate creatives and to create healthy competition. At the time of going to print at the end of May, it will have just been decided who has won the latest competition ‘What does your city sound like?’ From the sound of cars rushing by, children shouting or splashing puddles on the street – the possibilities are endless. The winner will have been chosen by DJ Shadow and will go with him to the international Nokia Trends Lab to create his own music track. The output of the whole project can be seen online, so make sure you check in to www.nokiatrendslab.com to find out who the winner was and what his or her track sounds like. The way you hear the sounds of your city will never be the same again! W W W . N O K I AT R E N D S L A B . C O M TEXT
Sideways A smart art project Get your hands on a copy of Sideways, an anthology visualizes the philosophy of green car brand smar people question general ideas concerning the environ mobility, now and in the future, is the name of the g 248 pages Sideways exhibits work in various discip as photography, illustration, graphic design, painting and architecture creating an eco creative firework pop-culture. 29.90€ | DVG VERL AG TEXT
SANDRA LIERMANN
L AURA DUNKELMANN
JAHCOOZI
P r i m a r y C o l o u r s Fe s t i v a l 09.08.2008/Citadel Spandau,Berlin Berlin has never had much of a reputation as a festival capital but that’s about to change this summer with the arrival of Primary Colours, a huge one-day music event to be held in Spandau, slapbang in the middle of Trinity Concerts’ Citadel Music Festival. Primary Colours features a packed line-up of artists working within the sphere of techno, hardly a surprising choice given Berlin’s insatiable appetite for the genre. Taking place on August 9, it’s the brainchild of Berliners Julia Schönstädt and Lena Brumby and aims to provide the city’s legion of techno fans with their own electronic festival. While the line-up features a handful of familiar names (Len Faki, Jahcoozi and Miss Fitz for example), the girls are keen to push new talent and give them the opportunity to play such a big event. Lena’s tip is Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts from Canada: “He’s not a big electronic act but he’s so extremely funky. I’m in love with his music. It’s really happy and perfect for outdoors.” Julia on the other hand is backing Channel X: “I’m really happy to have them because you just feel that they love doing what they do. I really want them playing at a peak time
to give them the chance they deserve and see people rocking to their music.” Primary Colours is a collaboration with Berlin promoters/label Beatstreet who will have their own stage at the event, a showcase for such artists as Konrad Black and Matt John. For such a techno stronghold it might come as a surprise that Berlin doesn’t have its own electronic music festival but legendary German bureaucracy has prevented such large-scale outdoor all-nighters from happening before. However, Lena and Julia have picked the perfect location with the Citadel; a gorgeous 16th Century fortress complete with spacious indoor stages and rolling lawns. Situated in an industrial area in the west of the city it’s unlikely to disturb anyone, leaving the techno heads free to party as the summer sun rises over the Berlin cityscape. TEXT
N E A L E LY T O L L I S
M Y S PA C E . C O M / P R I M A R Y _ C O L O U R S M Y S PA C E . C O M / B E AT S T R E E T B E R L I N
GET GE ET E TY YOUR OUR SUBSCRIPTION: SUBSCRIPTION S UBSCRIPTIO BSCRIPTIO BSCRIPTION: SC ON O N:
SLICES
www.eb-slices.net
SPECIAL SALES ISSUE
40 music videos from Ambient to House and Dub to Techno with an overall playing time of over 140 minutes.
As part of the ‘Electronic Beats‘ prog program the free dvd magazine ‘Slices‘ presents deep insights into the world of electronic music via extensive artist and label features.
Produced by
www.sensemusic.de
12
O n e s t o Wa t c h JOHNNY D
E R I T R E A N - BO RN, M AN NH E I M -BRE D TEXT
G AV I N H E R L I H Y
If yyou’re a breakthrough g DJ and p producer there can’t be manyy more potent p ways y of realisingg you’re y about to make it than getting g g booked to play p y a bigg gig g g abroad. Wheelingg his record bagg through g Frankfurt’s departures p lounge g in March,, the Eritrean-born,, Mannheim-bred Johnnyy D walked to the check-in desk on one such crest of adrenalin. His destination was London’s The End nightg club,, one of the UK’s underground g house and techno institutions. But when he slapped pp his passport p p for the attendant to verify, y, the dream veryy quickly q y turned into a nightmare. g Despite growing up in Germany, Johnny’s visa was not valid to guarantee entry to the UK. With a list of British dates ahead of him including clubs like Leeds’ Monocult and East London’s impossibly cool secretsundaze, the harsh reality of border laws putting the kabosh on his international career, couldn’t have come at a worse time. Since releasing his first EP on the Frankfurt-based imprint in September last year, Johnny D has made one of the most effortless arrivals into the underground’s big time. All three tracks, Gualia, Katalpa and Manipulation, were heavily played by all of techno’s big league. His second single Walkman a few months later, featuring his own vocals topped the charts of DJs like Jamie Jones and Dan Ghenacia. His latest EP on Oslo lead by the icy cool deep house of lead track Orbitalife is leading the mantle of a revolt in the underground against plug in heavy minimal techno for deeper, warmer textures in house. Deep, dancef loorfocussed house is currently Europe’s f lavour of the season on dance music’s more discerning dancef loors and Johnny D’s records capture the mood of tastemaking clubs like London’s Fabric or Frankfurt’s Robert Johnson perfectly. The common thread running through every record he’s made is a faultlessly polished approach to his production. Johnny D makes records with the finesse of an old master like Carl Craig, each record delicately posturing its elements to afford it the most impact, and all of them delivering a nod to the organic tones and melodies of soul and jazz. With a f lurry of remixes about to hit shops and another EP on London-based Safari Electronique (one track of which features a sample of Nina Simone’s classic ‘Feeling Good’), his free weekends should be disappearing off his calendar at a frightening
rate. “It looks like I won’t be able to go until I get my German passport,” he says. “The problem is the Consulate doesn’t believe I want to visit the UK just to play music and needs evidence to prove this first. But this is not easy to provide because my official music career only started last year.” “It’s not the first time that I’ve had problems with my passport or my Eritrean heritage when crossing a border line. Particularly in the current climate of terror, it’s much harder to get one from one country to another.” Johnny D’s family come from Eritrea in North East Africa. His parents f led the country in the 1980s to escape a 31-year-old war against neighbouring country Ethiopia. Despite the chaos of the country they left behind, his parents prospered in Europe. His family found political asylum in Germany, and his father found work as a mechanic before eventually returning to Eritrea to open a garage. His mother had small jobs here and there and studied at the same time before also moving back to Eritrea to work as a nurse in a hospital. Theirs is a success story barely imaginable to most Europeans, but one that came at a guilty cost. Many Eritreans in Germany felt guilty about the friends and family left behind in Eritrea and put on parties to raise money to send back home. Johnny remembers these as some of the first pivotal experiences in learning about rhythm and party culture. “I was still a little kid and can remember that the parties were really impulsive and went on until the morning,” he says. “The lyrics of the songs were filled with stories about the war and were very passionate. The songs could sometimes last for 20 to 30 minutes and people danced all night long.” In his lifetime he’s only been back to Eritrea four times. The first
was after the war in 1992 and the last w is still in a poor state and the political says. “People are poor but generous and that you don’t find so much these days.” As a teenager growing up in Mannhei music via the intense rhythms of UK early nineties. “Drum ’n’ bass was big Mannheim and provided my first contact with the music,” he says. “A friend took me to a party at the age of 12 and I was stunned by the sound and how people danced to it.” After this he began to collect mixtapes from everywhere possible. His older brother, a dancer at the Loft Club, brought house mixtapes home for him to listen to and his sister bought him his first set of turntables when he was 13. After a while he graduated onto wanting to make music himself and bought a computer and midi keyboard. “I learned mostly by myself,” he says. “Fortunately today it’s not as hard to start making music as it was in the eighties or nineties.”
deep house and techno into a fresh new interpretation on the blueprint laid down by their heroes. Next up from Johnny is a barrage of remixes for key labels like Leftroom, Sushitech, Supplement Facts, Moon Harbour, Connaisseur, Hypercolor and another couple of EPs on Safari Electronique and Oslo. If he’s lucky, he might even get to ride the wave of admiration that his records have attracted with some killer gigs overseas. But if it doesn’t happen any time soon, although hugely frustrating, it won’t hurt too badly. The planes to the UK may take off daily, but Johnny D’s success isn’t going anywhere just yet.
EB TUNE IN
O n e s t o Wa t c h
/ The Whip
TEXT
EMMA MCLELLAN
Are gonna get you tra shed!
It all started when we all ran out and bought g the Kitsuné compilation p records like there was no tomorrow and couldn’t stop p list eningg to that one track,, yyou know the one that yyou have to singg alongg too,, ‘I wanna be Trash’.
The Whip is the band responsible for that indie-electro gem and fortunately, after listening to the new album, you realise that they’re not going to sink into the one-hit-wonder skip like so many nu-rave wannabees at the moment. They’ve managed to create the seamless dirty electro/rough-boy vocal combination that thousands of struggling bands can only dream of. The indie kids can shoegaze while the nu-ravers bite their lips and dance frantically with their glow sticks. It’s the perfect compromise. However, it wasn’t a cracking start for singer Bruce and keyboardist Dan. “We were in another band together before The Whip. This record company piled loads of money into recording and we had three different producers and by the end of it all we didn’t sound like us.” That’s when they decided to do their own thing says Bruce: “Danny and I cooped ourselves up in a pub cellar in Manchester for about six months just writing songs. I worked with Danny and Nathan (the bass player) in a music shop in Solford, Manchester. Most of the gear we have we bought second-hand in the shop. We were like charity really.” So after all the hard work, it was time to complete the band so they asked Nathan in the shop to play bass and also his drumming girlfriend to take care of the rhythm department. A dangerous decision? “Literally like a week before our first rehearsal we split-up”, says Fee, “I look back and think how could it have been fine as it was, but now it’s just dead nice, all four of us are just like a little family. I don’t think it would’ve worked if I’d still been in a relationship with Nathan!” I guess somethings are meant to be! After the success of the ‘Trash’ and later on ‘Divebomb’ Kitsune collaborations, English record label Southern Fried picked them up and released their debut album X Marks Destination. Considering they’ve been touring almost non-stop since they got together two years ago, how did they manage to get the album sorted? Bruce explains, “We wrote the album while we were doing gigs. We’d write some of the songs in dressing rooms or on the bus. After a year of touring we went into the studio with Jim
Abbiss for three weeks and pretty much just recorded the bass and the drums because we’d recorded most of the keyboard parts on the road on the laptop.” Jim Abbiss is no stranger to musical success, having already worked with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and the Editors. Two years non-stop touring is a lot of work and must affect band relationships, especially after the drummer and bass player had been a couple. As Fee sees it: “When we started touring we were all quite polite to each other but now we’re brutally honest. Like I’ll say to Nathan ‘Get into the van!’ and he’ll say ‘You look like shit today!’ If one of us makes an error in clothing we all take the piss quite a lot.” Bruce adds, “But it’s good though, if you’re wearing something crap and somebody can tell you you’re wearing something crap. Sometimes Nathan and Fee squabble like brother and sister but only now and then.” Bruce does admit though that there can be downfalls to the rock n’ roll lifestyle, “It’s bad being in a band, there’s just booze everywhere!” It can’t be all that bad! Bruce goes on, “well the gig food is better over here, there’s more cheese and ham in Austria and Germany.” Fee, “... and the beer’s better!” In between eating cheese and ham and having to drink beer, The Whip have been adding their secret ingredients to some other bands. Bruce, “Me and Danny do remixing. I like remixing stuff that doesn’t sound that dancey. We just did a Hadouken remix and I really like that. We also did a mix for The Music. We haven’t really got much time though to do anymore because we need to start working on our new album. We’re hoping to get it out by this time next year.” Good to hear and so soon after the debut album. Looks like there’s nothing standing in the way of The Whip, well unless you’re into that sort of thing!
»ON TH E ROAD«
15
TEXT
EMMA MCLELLAN
E l e c t r o n i c B e a t s Fe s t i v a l B o n n / 19
April 2008
It was p plain to see as the audience started acceleratingg into the concert area that everyone y was excited about the line-up pp plan ned for the Electronic Beats Live Special. p There were music fans from all ggenres,, comingg together g for the audio-visual extravaganza g in the otherwise seemingly g y relaxed cityy of Bonn. To kick-off, English newcomers The Whip exploded onto the stage like a herd of electronic wilderbeasts playing tracks including club hit ‘Trash’ and the pulsating ‘Throw it in the Fire’. They were like a motor being oiled by synths and being revved up by the dirty bass and sexy, female drummer who just made everything look so easy. Not to mention the vocals that had a kind of eerie New Order sound with soul to them. Next up were Who Made Who, responsible for the current inf lux of porno-music-sounding groove-electronica in the shops at the moment, and if you think the name is crazy, well you should check out the stage outfits! Apparently the Who Made Who boys always make an extra effort to dress-up for their public and this time they really made an impression in their Arabic/Sheik outfits (the moustaches were astonishingly real!). However, the drummer Tomboy had to settle for his Kung-Fu outfit, “I had a real Sheik outfit that I bought on a trip to the middle-east but I left it at a gig.” Poor excuse! Then came German band Klee. Back for the first time in 2008, they filled the venue with hauntingly, beautiful melodies and the sincerest, thoughtful vocals I’ve heard in a long time. Suzie Kerstgens did an amazing job of captivating the audience, creating a sea of gaping onlookers. One to remember! Back to the beats, Stereo MCs produced the impressive show that they’re renowned for, treating the sell-out crowd to fresh material from their new album. However, there’s no controlling yourself when that fat beat comes in and you hear, “I’m gonna
get myself, gonna get myself, gonna get myself connected.” Still a great song after all these years. Last up was headline act MIA. starting off with their first ever electronic song, ‘Factory City’. There’s something very mesmerising about frontwoman Mieze. She’s another one who always makes everything look so effortless, although she’s constantly producing a demanding and energetic performance. To round off the evening, MIA. polished off their set with the new song ‘Mein Freund’ included on their forthcoming album due out this summer. The Electronic Beats Live Special was a rare chance to experience the wide range of electronic boundaries in modern music, also brilliantly illustrated by the wide-ranging line-up at the Electronic Beats Festival at springeight in Graz, Austria on 21 May featuring The Streets, Róisín Murphy, Roni Size/Reprazent and Robyn. To experience the sonic greatness of the The Whip live in Bonn have a listen to our webradio on electronicbeats.net. Here you’ll also find an exclusive ‘best of ’ the Electronic Beats Live Events, via our TV-center.
W W W . E L E C T R O N I C B E AT S . N E T
16
EB TUNE IN
A word from the wise
JOSH WINK 1
You are what yyou eat.
2
Ignorance g IS bliss.
3 If yyou know what you y have - lose it! And get g a hold of what yyou don’t know. 4 If yyou ggo into a record shop, p, steal CDs and gget caught, g , yyou will be arrested. What’s the difference to stealingg those same CDs online? Think about it! 5 There are no accidents,, there is onlyy some p purpose p that we haven’t yet y understood. Things g happen pp for a reason. 6 Music makes yyou feel a feeling. g Words make yyou think a thought. g Songs g make you y feel a thought. g 7 Follow the feelings g in yyour heart,, not yyour head,, and yyou’re well on the right g course of getting g g what you y really, y, reallyy want. 8
Keep p your y integrity. g y
9
Live,, love,, laugh. g
10 Be true to yyourself,, as yyou’re the one yyou have to be with. And you y do know! 11 Do what yyou want regardless g of what p people p say, y, as longg as yyou don’t harm others in your y process. p A pioneer of the American rave scene in the early nineties Josh Wink is the creator of anthems like ‘Higher State of Consciousness’ and other productions which are all very much his own distinctive sound - both fresh and timeless. In this issue of Electronic Beats Wink shares the wisdom that keeps the buzz in his game after 19 years producing music. Soak it up boys and girls! J O S H W I N K ’ S A L B U M ‘ W H E N A B A N A N A W A S J U S T A B A N A N A’ WILL BE RELEASED AUTUMN ON OVUM RECORDINGS.
12 Enjoy j y yyour jjourney, y, as it’s not always y all about where yyou end up, p, but the process p of getting g g there. The journey j y can be the best experience p of all. 13 I was trying y g to daydream, y , but myy mind kept p wandering. g ((Stephen p Wright) g ) 14 One p person can make a difference. You can make a difference. Make a difference!
W W W . M Y S PA C E . C O M / J O S H W I N K W W W . O V U M - R E C . C O M
15 I love what I do so much that I feel I don’t get g paid p for perp forming. g I do that for free! I gget p paid for ggettingg to the ggig, g, and leavingg (planes, (p , jjet lag, g, no sleep, p, hotels,, immigration, g , lines,, securityy machines,, airports, p , cancelled f lights g - yyou gget the idea). )
»ON TH E ROAD«
17
To u g h a t t h e Top
RENA AT VA ND E PAP E L I E R E /R&S RECORDS TEXT
SERENA KUTCHINSKY
Back in the day, R&S Records were hailed as dance music pioneers. They unleashed Detroit techno on an unsuspecting European audience and were key players in the first rave revolution. Then after more than a decade at the top, they sold out, burned out and faded from view. Now, with a new digital strategy and fired-up young team in place, label head Renaat Vandepapeliere is back in the spotlight. We caught up with him to find out why he’s giving R&S a second chance. R&S is based in London this time,, instead of Ghent where yyou live,, won’t that be a bit trickyy for yyou? The HQ is still in Ghent but we’ve handed over day-to-day control to the younger generation. Our lawyer Steven, who we trust completely, is President and Dan Foat from Phonica is in charge of finding new talent and taking the label forward. They’re based in London so it makes sense to run things from there. You’re celebratingg the relaunch in an innovative way, y, byy makingg yyour back catalogue g digitally g y available on Beatport. p How do you y feel about the ‘Digital g Revolution’? We now live in the digital world so I have no choice but to embrace it. These days, when you release a record it goes straight from production to the consumer, which is great in some ways, but it does make it harder to make money if you’re following traditional record label structures. Next yyear it will be 25 yyears since R&S was born. Anyy bigg birthdayy p plans? For a long time I’ve had the idea of doing R&S parties. We want to kick things off in the UK and then create a club that moves around the world. It’s going to need serious investment, so we’re taking it step by step, with the first party launching in London in December. You’ve hit the bigg 50 yyourself – what are yyour ggoals for the next 50 years? y ? I just want to grow R&S and give young people a chance to work in the industry. Saying that, one thing I still want to do is sign and work with a big band. I’m much more into live music these days and plan to leave Dan to run the dance side of things.
What’s been the best moment of yyour career so far? The first Tribal Gathering about 17 years ago stands out because I remember honestly thinking I’d never seen anything like it before, it was simply amazing. And the worst time? The minute we got involved with Sony, everything changed. Suddenly we were part of this big corporate structure. Also, I didn’t really see a future for dance music, it was all repeating itself. I felt like I had been listening to the same record for the last 20 years. What advice would you y give g to aspiring p g label heads? Go with the f low, follow your heart, as long as you believe you’ll make it. And be patient! Which releases are yyou most p proud of and which would yyou leave at the bottom of the bargain g bin? It’s got to be Aphex’s Digeridoo. It was the first track of his I put out and I still think it’s mind-blowing. He’s one of the scene’s biggest innovators. Nobody comes close. As for the bin – there’s probably quite a few but I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Whyy is now the time for R&S to ride again? g That’s a hard one. I don’t know if there is such a thing as the right time – I’m just following my instincts. It’s definitely a difficult time for the industry, but I’m excited. The one thing I know for certain is that it will be a crazy ride, just like it was before the big corporates interfered with our small independent minds. The R&S logo g looks a lot like the Ferrari symbol, y , did yyou have to payy them anyy royalties? p y My wife, Sabine, and I chose the design because we love horses and Ferraris. We run a stud farm together these days. There was a bit of an issue with Ferrari initially but we reached an agreement - we don’t pay them any money as long as they don’t make records and we don’t make cars! Sum up p the R&S philosophy? p p y Freedom and creativity. If music sounds good, it’s good – it doesn’t matter what it is.
Quadrophenia PHOTOGR A PHER PRODUCTION & ST Y LING MAKE-UP MODELS
T O B I A S S C H U LT SANDRA LIERMANN
WIEBKE OLSCHEWSKI (BASICS) L AU S T & LU I S A J O S E F I N E ( V I VA )
C H E C K O U T T H E N E W E L E C T R O N I C B E AT S C O L L E C T I O N O N W W W . E L E C T R O N I C B E AT S . N E T
C o a c h e l l a Va l l e y M u s i c & A r t s Fe s t i v a l
Dance, desert people!
»ON TH E ROAD«
21
TEXT
P E Y M A N FA R A H A N I
PHOTOS
E R I N M A LO N E
Southern California’s desert has over the last nine yyears become a true mecca for music lovers and hardboiled ravers. In fact on the last weekend of April, p , Palm Springs p g turns to jjust another p pit stop p in the Coachella Valley, y, and all attention is on Indio,, where one of America’s biggest gg festivals takes p place – the Coachella Valleyy Music & Arts Festival. Up p to 60,000 , people p p overcome misanthropical p heat to see bigg names such as Prince,, Portishead or Roger g Waters,, and more. For three days y that boiler is indeed ‘the coolest place on earth’. We hit the road for a one-off experience. p p Thursday night. We cram our rental car - a mid-size SUV - with water, vodka and dried fruit, which I know sounds lame, but we are going to the desert! We’re also equipped with a Californian camping book and a stack of information on Coachella. So we’re prepared and we have a destination: Indio, California, 200km east from Los Angeles in the Coachella Valley. Our motto: ‘our car, our home’ - don’t give a shit about a nice hotel, motel or camping site (apart from the fact that even the seediest place is thrice as expensive as usual). We hit the road! Ready and anxious to see Kraftwerk followed by Portishead followed by Prince, no matter how odd this line-up might sound for a Saturday night, but who’s complaining? We get to see the originators of techno, the light in darkest darkness incarnated as Beth Gibbons, and the funkiest MF on the planet. We couldn’t wait to dance in the desert! It was past midnight when we arrived at the festival site. Out of curiosity we checked out the spot, even though the only light we saw were huge spotlights that beamed up towards the night-sky. So we’d arrived, but still needed a place to rest. This is not Europe, where you pull over your car wherever you want and just crash. This is the United States and they have rules! We chose the Salton Sea Recreational Area, another 33km south, but refused to pay the camping site fee for the three days (we’re keeping our tactics a closely guarded secret!).
Friday noon, and the heat is on! Especially when you have to wait in one of the many male queues, while the first three are reserved for ladies with nobody waiting longer than three minutes. Finally I’m inside though, now just wondering how on earth I’m gonna survive the boiling heat. Nevertheless, first impression of Coachella - the most stylish festival I’ve ever been to! The crowd is mixed indeed, but the young and beautiful are heavily represented. As opposed to other festivals few show off their musical affiliation with band t-shirts, but a good amount of young new ravers show off their style and – super essential – their hotter than hot sunglasses. We, however, are on a mission, and had to figure out who we most like to see amongst the 130 acts split up on two outdoor stages and three tents, aptly named according to their size: Gobi, Mojave and Sahara. So, we checked out the Ed Banger posse, saw The Breeders, left early to get an idea of Cut Copy, rushed to the next tent for Goldfrapp, all the while taking shots and not articulating what we both were actually thinking - where did the fun go? That was the moment, having adjusted to the heat, the f low, and the fact that there’s too much to see to capture it all, when it was decided to just fully experience the main acts on Saturday, the Berlin acts on Sunday and leave all else to lust and luck. We then discovered the VIP area, and with this one of the secrets to Coachella: the music seems not to be the main raison d’être, but more like an enhancement to the experience of a party on a polo field surrounded by palm trees in the desert. Finally we
E B F E AT U R E S
were having fun with the people including The Raconteurs and Jack White, who declared rather than asked: “What’s up desert people?!” They rocked it without a doubt. The Verve reunited followed with Richard Ashcroft enjoying himself under the desert night sky, rewarding us with ‘Bittersweet Symphony’. Our final and relevant song for the day. Saturday afternoon and we’re already drunk in the traffic jam for the parking lot. It was insanely hot and we’re wondering if we we’re taking our job seriously! We came right on time to Erol Alkan banging the crowd in an already packed Sahara tent at five o’clock with maximal techno. Got a glimpse of Hot Chip who performed like rock stars and proved that today’s hottest up-andcoming acts are ready for the main stage. Back in the VIP area, we prepared for the glorious three headliners of the day. Saturday evening and Kraftwerk (to whom all electronica fanatics are somehow deeply indebted) initiated the peak time with ‘Man-Machine’, and followed up with all their classics, enhanced by amazing visuals; the only literal art performance on stage. Portishead left us speechless. Emotionally intense for the canned desert people, but Beth Gibbons forces you to your knees. Portishead are brilliant, their music is written for the desert, and their latest album resumes the stunning journey on a more psychedelic and restless path. Then it was time to come down and prepare for Prince, which is the other strange but great thing about Coachella. You get jerked from one trip to another. In a blink of an eye and you are abducted by Prince – yes! The funkiest MF in the world. Not knowing what to expect (the glory of our trip!) but hoping for some of the ultimate classics, Prince played it all. We caught ‘1999’, ‘Controversy’ and the sickest guitar solo of the festival. But we couldn’t take anymore. The desert had defeated us. Energy gone, already too far back in the crowd and hardly any way to get back in, we slowly start moving towards the parking lot, believing we were fully satisfied and blissful. Here comes the only bummer of the weekend. We couldn’t find our car! Hammered and frustrated, the frustration grew with every new song Prince played. Yes, we were able to identify some of the songs, like a cover version of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ and ‘Purple Rain’ and we didn’t even want to think of what else we missed. The man played a full two hours of which we probably spent more than half in the fucking parking lot! Saturday was intense and painful. Sunday morning. Our second day in chic Palm Springs for breakfast. Invigorated and semi-motivated, we head back to the final round of our desert experience. The day with the lowest attendance was quite relaxing. We stopped caring at all and hung out in the Heineken beer garden next to the Sahara tent, drinking Jägermeister shots and raving with Booka Shade and Modeselektor. The latter tore the place down! Apocalyptic and anthemic, culminating in a champagne shower while covering Scooter’s ‘Hyper Hyper’! Sahara remained crammed with Simian Mobile Disco, Chromeo and Justice, who have a massive following out here. To
be honest with you, we didn’t see them. But watch YouTube and see for yourself their huge lighted cross f lashing while every-one sings along to ‘We Are Your Friends’ until the beat drops into insane mayhem. We were too wasted (physically!), so we left after our little moment with Roger Waters who performed the entire ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ album. Shockingly, we almost missed all of Roger Waters, but managed to rush over to hear them play ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ (which is not on the ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ album), and were a tiny bit bummed but that’s how it goes. A guy from Portland in the desert for the fifth year running, described the festival thusly: “Coachella is like putting your iPod in shuff le mode.” You see the acts you have to see and the rest comes as it comes. So why are we out there? Because of that strangeness and bizarreness. Because of the intense and unpredictable experience. Because out there, we are all sweating more than anywhere else in the world and actually enjoying it. Prince made it even more clear: “You are in the coolest place on earth right now!” There’s no reason not to go on another road trip to Indio, California next year!
24
EB FOCUS
»ON TH E ROAD«
Fo c u s Ready for this journey? Ok....so we start with a collection of well-known musicians and writers such as Snax, Beardyman and Jazzie B, recounting the most inspirational journeys that they have undertaken so far - from a tour across New Zealand to a simple train ride to Hackney, to seeing the Berlin Wall for the first time - these are all gems of stories. Next there are interviews with the director Brad Anderson about his new movie about the ultimate train journey, Transsiberian, a thriller that should have us all on the edge of our seats this summer. We also have an interview with the film’s lead actor, the brilliant Sir Ben Kingsley. Then in ‘The Alternative Route’, you can find out how there are many ways to make your dream journey possible, from couch surfing, to swapping houses to hitch-hiking! Lastly we have some dee-liteful playlists, to take you around the world in 80 Electronic Beats!
25
26
EB FOCUS
M Y I NSP I R AT I O NA L JOUR N EY TEXT
L U L U L E V AY
I L L U S T R AT I O N S
LEONA LIST
larly beat up anyone ‘foreign’ that had the audacity to walk the streets. The station was littered with graffiti like ‘paki go home’ and ‘wogs out’. Once on the train, the scenery soon changed from heavy industrialism to open fields, to wasteland, to tightly packed council houses and high rise f lats, to concrete sprawls and eventually the city. The thing I remembered most about the journey was a bridge just past Barking station which had a huge NF logo painted in white on it. It always gave me a sense of fear, even though I didn’t know what it meant. To me it meant that I was unwanted, that I wasn’t welcome - that I shouldn’t be here. It always made my chest tight going under that bridge.
Ronke Osinowo “I had an unusual upbringing - I was fostered before the age of one to a white working class couple in Tilbury, Essex. My foster mother was a chronic asthmatic and couldn’t have children of her own due to her condition. My birth mother had me fostered so she could work as my biological father was studying and would soon enough return to Nigeria. I ended up staying until I was 18. Anyone who’s ever been to Tilbury from the seventies to the nineties would’ve known or felt its edginess - a kind of menace hung around the town and it was famed in the local areas for violence, poverty, illiteracy and an air of racism. Being black, a girl and a child in this environment was a daily challenge. My book ‘I Bring You Tilbury Town’ is a collection of thoughts and images as I remember them of a particular time and place. There have been many trips that have inf luenced me, but the one that affected me most profoundly would be the train journey from Tilbury Town to Barking when my foster mother used to take me to see my biological mother in Hackney. I dreaded going to see my mother in London - the fear that she would decide one day to take me back was always with me. Tilbury station was right by the docks and a famously violent pub, The Ship. It was a Skinhead haunt and they would regu-
Even though I didn’t want to be separated from my foster parents, the trip to London filled me with a sense of possibility - that there was something other than my life as it was to experience. It filled my mind with possibilities, with the sense that there was something more out there, even though it was far beyond my reach at the time. This stretched my mind and my imagination, as a lot of the people from Tilbury had never been to London, even though it was just a 45-minute train ride away. Travel to me is a crucial part of my mental development; it allows you to see difference without being threatened by it. It allows you to experience the ‘other’ without your own sense of reality being disrupted. It allows you to extend yourself as a person, to tap into pieces of yourself that are latent. Of course, physical travel can also be breathtaking, fun and challenging but mentally travelling is also very important. I travelled abroad alone for the first time when I was 18, but I felt that I had been far and away so many times before because of a strong capacity for daydreaming. I often imagined myself in certain places and though the reality was often different, my mental travel preparations still held strong sway as to where I wanted to go and what countries I gravitated towards in later life. I’ve always wanted to experience living high up in the mountains like a hermit, or a monk on a quest to reach a total state of Zen in some remote region of China.” Ronke Osinowo is a p poet livingg in London. Her book ‘I Bringg You Tilbury’ y is out now on Author House.
»ON TH E ROAD«
27
Beardyman
Snax
“I recently toured New Zealand and Australia with Bacardi. I travelled on a train for two days, up the South East coast of Australia from Melbourne to Sydney, stopping off to play two gigs a day. It was crazy. The bands I was touring with were all really safe and I loved the music and the vibe. That trip has definitely left a mark on me, really taught me a lot about how to handle myself around press, and being able to do interviews - and in all sorts of professional situations. I definitely became a bigger person. A long trip like this also made me determined to be true to what I want to do, more than ever before. I was inspired by the bands I met, one band called Pnau specifically - the way they record is to turn long jams into tracks. Also seeing how so many different bands conduct themselves, their ability to relax and talk about their work to journalists. Witnessing this made me more determined to make whatever music I feel like making and to be as industrious as possible.
“I’ve been on some very memorable journeys in my life so far. But it’s more the places than have meant something to me, rather than the journeys themselves. Most strikingly for me was when I saw the Berlin Wall on my first trip to Berlin from New York in ’95. I was stumbling out of Club Tresor when my guide nonchalantly pointed it out to me. I couldn’t believe that what was then just a thin graffiti-covered wall had once before stood as a monument to cold war fear and paranoia. Ten years earlier I could’ve been shot in the exact same spot where I had fallen out of a hip techno club. I cycle past that wall every day now and it still blows me away. Another incredible trip was when I travelled to Paris with Tara Delong and a handful of friends. She was my partner in the group Bedroom Productions when we lived in NYC and we were in Paris to play at the Andrea Reich gallery. It was our first time there and it was a wild time full of desperate partying, glamour and music. We were invited to dinner at a mansion belonging to the grandson of Pablo Picasso. We did bad drugs and someone smacked me on the head on the street for no apparent reason. A couple of years later, two friends from this trip died in strange and mysterious circumstances. The most memorable moment from this bizarre trip was when we were on the way to our dinner at the mansion, Hillary and I started singing ‘The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan’ by Marianne Faithful - the part where she sings about riding through Paris in a sports car. That was what was happening at that very moment - we were riding through Paris in a sports car! So that, quite rightly, became the theme song of the trip. Paris was blurring past us while we were insulated in our cab singing at the top of our lungs. I grew up in a hum-drum suburb of Maryland, so being somewhere I’ve never been before, seeing new cultures and meeting new people is hugely important to me. I feel like a different per
I will always remember this trip, not just the laughs and the experience, but the smells and the sounds. Also the effect it has way after you get home. Travel makes you wiser as it shows you how other people live. I’d get on a plane every day if it meant me seeing a bit more of the world. I feel richer for having had experiences all over the world, seeing how different cultures respond to the same material. For instance, in Finland, they say ‘thank you’ after a gig. Not ‘well done’ or ‘that was amazing’, but ‘thank you’. I loved that. I want to experience as many cultures as possible. It’s all about getting as broad a perspective as possible. We only know what we’ve experienced, everything else is mere conjecture.” Beardyman y lives in London and is the current reigning g g UK beatbox champion. p
28
EB FOCUS
son. Through travel and seeing the world one is able to get out of oneself and gain new perspectives. I’d like to see more of the Middle East. I’ve only been as far as Tel Aviv but I want to go further in and see what it really is like as opposed to what we’re fed on TV day in and day out. Also Japan, because I hear that visiting musicians are treated brilliantly!”
confidence. Being thrown into unknown situations where you meet new people sheds light on yourself, shows you a ref lection of yourself. But home is where the heart is, and there’re plenty of adventures to be had right there on your door step." Manchester lass Danielle Moore is the enigmatic g lead singer g in Crazyy P,, whose new album ‘Love On The Line’ is out this October.
Snax is an American electro-disco-soul artist livingg in Berlin. His new EP ‘Trouble’ is out now on defDrive Records.
Danielle Moore “My first trip away from home was when I was 18, back in ’89. I went to Berlin on a netball trip - we stayed at an army camp and also got to visit East Berlin. We had an amazing time and after we got home the following week the wall came down. I felt totally inspired by such an historic moment and the emotions that ran through me still stick with me today. It made me think about other people rather than myself. I found the city striking: the art, the no bullshit attitude, the bike rides, the gorgeous forests... Just outside the city centre the majestic architecture blew me away, such creativity really inspired me as a musical person. I had never been affected by history before. I remember I had a real moment - I was standing at the wall near the athletic stadium where Jessie Owens won his five gold medals. The sky was grey and surrounding colours industrial. We were all very quiet and feeling sensitive to the place - there was a fence bearing the names of people who had died trying to cross the wall and the river to get to the West. I recall us girls peeking over the wall and spotting a German patrol boat on the river. Thinking about it now send shivers down my spine. I will never take for granted the travel that I do in the band. Being able to visit new places offers a whole new perspective as well as making you appreciate home. For me, travel gives me
Marcas Lancaster “I’ve never been a fan of ‘touristic’ travel. I prefer to visit countries when I’m working or to be with people who live there. I’ve never developed an interest in ‘places of historical interest’ just because I’m on holiday. I find being a tourist alienating. Having said that, I visited India recently and loved it. What I find fascinating is how different cultures occupy different time periods simultaneously - in parts of India you can experience first hand how life was lived a thousand years ago, with the same preoccupations, tools and religions. I went on an incredible three-day train journey across India, from Mumbai to Chennai. I’ve never experienced a journey like it in my life. At one point we were woken up at four a.m. by the police, as we were travelling through a territory where the trains were attacked by tribes throwing spears. The police had to pull down all the hatches throughout the carriages to protect us. Over these three days, what was fascinating was the procession of different people getting on at each station. At one point, the carriage I was in was inundated with Indian hermaphrodites. They were extorting money out of men by coming onto them. People were so terrified of them they didn’t question handing over their cash. One of them even looked like Naboo from the
»ON TH E ROAD«
TV show ‘The Mighty Boosh’ - he f lashed his withered weird tits at us and was really camp. Very surreal. It made me realise the world is weirder than I thought it was. This trip didn’t change my life, but it was the best adventure, ever. But what did deeply affect me was seeing a five-year-old girl playing and begging next to a motorway, whilst looking after two babies. She was playing amongst the dirt, the fumes and the heat, and seemed to be genuinely happy. She was oblivious to her predicament and I think of her often, especially when people complain and moan about their shit. These people have no idea what being in the shit really is. To be honest, the most meaningful journeys I’ve had have been internally, through taking drugs - which is why people like doing them. A ‘trip’ is more enriching than any package holiday to Benidorm or seeing the Eiffel Tower. On LSD, one goes to another universe, yet physically you haven’t moved. It’s the same with dreams. You can have insights and understand how the world relates to each other, on acid or ecstasy you can realise how you feel about your parents and how it affects you. These experiences can be far more enriching than riding on a knackered old elephant in a national park in India. The idea was romantic, but the reality was tragic." Marcas Lancaster is a p producer and remixer,, livingg in London. His remix of Soft Cell’s ‘Sayy Hello’ is out now on ‘Heat: The Remixes’.
29
when I was 20. I appreciate it much more now than back then. As a youth I had the wrong attitude and was always looking over my shoulder thinking some cousin was spying on me. Now I have a house there, run my business from there - it’s like a second home to me. I always get a knot in my stomach when I’m heading out to Gatwick from my home in Camden. The closer I get to the airport, the more butterf lies I get f luttering away inside me. It’s a 12 hour door-to-door journey and these feelings are a mixture of excitement to be back in Antigua and general travel anxiety. Things like who I’m going to be sat next to on the plane or whether I’m going to get any grief about my luggage. As the car nears the airport, all the memories and feelings I have about Antigua come f looding back. I close my eyes and think about the smell of roast corn, frying fish and that fresh sea breeze mixed with humidity. Also the sounds of the birds and the animals. As soon as I arrive at St. Johns airport in Antigua, I get bombarded by the locals. I get a welcoming call from the Baggage Handlers through to the Customs Officer, all telling me about the last party they went to. I always give them CDs, which they are eternally grateful for. The drive from the airport to my house only takes 20 minutes, but it takes me an hour - I always do a few stops on the way. First up is the vendor who sells coconut water, delicious. Then I stop at one a few miles down where they sell English stuff like Heinz Beans and Walkers Crisps - here is where I place my order for my stay, which they deliver later on. Further down the road I stop at my cousin’s gas station where I get the lowdown on what’s been happening since I was last there - y’know, all the local gossip - and then I drive off to my house in Half Moon Bay. For me, this trip to my house is a way to acclimatise to being back - the island wooing me back in again. I like these journeys, it’s a down time, an isolated time to ref lect on life - accept who I am. I use the time on the f light to write lyrics, create plans, doodle and make notes. I find it encouraging, having this time to be creative and the space to read back through my ideas and make sense of everything.
Jazzie B “Most of the journeys I’ve made over the last 15 years have been to Antigua, where I travel to at least five times a year. All my brothers and sisters live in the UK, but I’m related to practically everyone on the island. My mother used to send me and my siblings over to Antigua when we were little. I went back on my own
All these journeys to Antigua over the years has definitely changed me as a person. Without them I would’ve been bored and more intense that I am now. Antigua and the time spent travelling there has chilled me out a lot. And what’s nice is that my kids are starting to love it as much as I do, which is important. The path has been made." Jazzie B barelyy needs an introduction. Famed for beingg the Soul II Soul ringleader g back in the nineties,, Jazzie has jjust released ‘Jazzie B Presents School Days’ y which is out now on Trojan j Records. Look out for new Soul II Soul material next year. y
TEXT I M AG E S
JOHANNES BONKE
M OV I E I M AG E S
D:PRESS
A A R O N S U G I U R A | C H A R L E S T U R N E R | H U G H M O R E | C H I N - K I U C H R I S C H E N G | M AT T L O N G | C H R I S W E S E L O H | A N D R E W B A R N E S
© A A R O N S U G I U R A | C H A R L E S T U R N E R (C H O P4 9 P H O T O S @ M AC .C O M ) | H U G H M O R E ( H U M O U R4 2 @ YA H O O.C O M )
T R A N S - S I B E R I A N TA L E S
»ON TH E ROAD«
31
To begin g to understand the monumental nature of the Trans-Siberian Railwayy it helps p to know some facts,, although g it is hard to ever reallyy describe how stunningg it is. It is the world’s longest g continuous railwayy network,, which leads 9,297 , kilometres fro m Moscow to Vladivostok,, crosses 89 cities and 16 ggigantic g rivers and can still claim todayy to be the pinnacle p of train travel,, t akingg in as it does such majestic, j , raw and breathtakingg landscapes. p The first p plans for this insanelyy epic p undertakingg started back i n 1870 and the actual construction dragged gg on for 22 yyears with overall costs exceedingg 1,455 , billion rubles. Altogether, g , workers numberingg 90,000 , struggled gg against g the challenging g g conditions of the Siberian environment: landslides,, f loods and snowstorms paralysed p y their endeavours again g and again. g Acclaimed movie director Brad Anderson,, who ggained rave reviews for his last movie The Machinist,, deployed p y the frostyy atmosphere of this man-made wonder for his dazzlingg thriller Transsiberian,, in which an innocent American couple p p becomes tangled g up p in the smuggling gg g intrigues g of the Russian mafia. For this issue of Electronic Beats we spoke p to Brad Anderson and his leadingg actor Sir Ben Kingsley g y about the p phenomenon of jjourneys, y , shootingg movies on trains and,, of course,, the metaphorical p jjourneyy we all face as we ggo through g life.
INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR BRAD ANDERSON
© D : P R E S S |C H I N - K I U C H R I S C H E N G W W W. F L I C K R .C O M / P H O T O S /C H R I S F LY E R /S E T S
“The train attendants are bad-ass, tough-asnails women” Mr. Anderson,, what’s so fascinatingg about the Trans-Siberian Railwayy that yyou actuallyy decided to base a whole movie in that environment? I was always really fascinated by train movies and Russia itself. I mean, I studied Russian at college and took the Trans-Siberian back in 1988 after I graduated from school. That experience very much kind of informed this movie and ultimately years later writing the script. The idea of setting a kind of paranoid movie on a very kind of isolated, very claustrophobic environment like a train seemed to make a lot of sense. There are not a lot of places one can hide on a train, not a lot of places to gather if you are trying to f lee or escape. That seemed like an interesting contrast. But I also wanted to create a little bit of the experience that I had back in 1988.
What kind of experience p are yyou talkingg about exactly? y The sort of raw interesting experience of being on a train, the characters you meet along the way, the cultural differences. And to put a couple of Americans, who tend to be so untravelled and inexperienced, in these unusual circumstances and see what happens. It was a good way to create some interesting suspense and drama. Was it clear from the beginning g g that yyou wouldn’t set the film in the Soviet Union as it was when yyou travelled there,, but in the p present time? Well, I wanted to have it in the here and now. But oddly enough that train, the actual experience of travelling with the TransSiberian really hasn’t changed. We took the train a couple of years ago when we were doing research for this movie, and in the 20 years since it hadn’t changed at all. The trains were exactly the same. The experience was very much the same, even the same kind of people. It was a little bit of time warping.
which I thought was a movie that certainly... that cold, metallic look of that movie was something that informed our movie a little bit as well. There haven’t been a lot of train movies recently, so we were just trying to do it our own way. You shot on an actual train. Did yyou move compartment p walls to have more space, p , did you y control the colours? Like you said, every wall could be removed, so we could place the camera where we wanted. The most complicated thing was that everywhere you look is a window, of course. So we had green screens outside of the windows and put in the landscape later on in the post-production. We just wanted to make it feel as real as possible. So we decided to shoot the whole thing hand-held, with a raw, in-your-face look to it. The production designer took real compartments, disassembled them and rebuilt it on a set, so it was the real walls. So we made it more comfortable for our crew once in a while. But in terms of the look, we didn’t want to do some f lashy work with the camera, we wanted it to feel as if we’d just gotten on that train with these guys.
How would you y describe this approach pp to someone who hasn’t seen the movie yyet? We wanted this physically to feel as we were on that train, cramped in amongst all the people in those tiny cabins. That’s the complicated technical side of making this movie. Fortunately, we had a really good production designer who built a really good set for us where we could put the camera where we wanted to. But in general we were gathering in there with the cast and the extras and just pushed our way through with the cameras and tried to make it feel real. The movie Das Boot was another kind of reference point. It is a similar experience shooting on a submarine and on a train. There are not a lot of places you can go, except forward and backwards. You see the way he moves the camera in that movie, it is unbelievable. We didn’t get that experimental, but certainly the experience of trying to find creative ways to shoot a movie in which over 70 per cent is set on a train was part of the challenge. At what point do you get out of the train, at what point do you get on it? Another movie was Runaway Train
You p portrayy the Russians as a dangerous, g , rough g and violent nation. Was that image g ref lected in yyour p personal experience p duringg yyour travels? The Russians don’t come across as the most affable people in the movie, that’s right. No animosity against Russians in general, once you get to know them they are incredibly soulful people. I spent some time there after college and it is just that there is a certain kind of mask, that at least at that time and even when we were over there recently, there is not a typical, warm American embrace-everyone-the-moment-you-meet-them atmosphere. It takes some time for them to open up. There is a certain cool Russian feeling. Again, this is probably a stereotype, but often in movies we don’t have a lot of time, and so we work with those kind of stereotypes a bit. But there is a certain coolness that I think is pretty accurate, especially on that train. The women who are the attendants on the train, they are bad-ass, tough-asnails women. You don’t want to mess with them. They will just toss you off the train. So I think it is a little bit of an amped up movie version.
© D : P R E S S | M AT T L O N G , F L I C K R .C O M / P E O P L E / M AT T L O N G
A ggreat deal of train movies have alreadyy been made. Did yyou benefit from them when you y were preparing p p g your y movie? We looked at train movies as we were preparing this film. I like a lot of those 1940s-type Hitchcock movies: The Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. I like the feeling of those movies and we watched them to get a feel, partly to sort out the tone, but also to find out more about how to shoot in such a claustrophobic environment. Where do I put the camera? How can I make the experience feel as kind of cramped as it is? So in watching those films, we came up with an approach for this movie.
The movie was shot in Lithuania. Whyy didn’t yyou shoot on the real Trans-Siberian Railway? y We thought about that idea and we did scout in Moscow and St. Petersburg. We wanted to shoot the movie in Russia, but from a financial point of view it was cheaper not to do that. We needed a country that was part of the EU, and also there were a lot of logistical complications with shooting in Russia. It was easier to get a train to work with in Lithuania where we ended up shooting the movie. Important to me was the authenticity and the realism of the look and feel. It would have been great to do the actual movie on the Trans-Siberian, but it would simply have been too complicated.
»ON TH E ROAD«
INTERVIEW WITH SIR BEN KINGSLEY
© D : P R E S S | C H R I S W E S E L O H , W W W. F L I C K R .C O M / P H O T O S / F R I N K I AC | A N D R E W B A R N E S , A N DY@ I T C H Y PAW S . C O .U K
“ I l o v e t h e n o w,, it’s all we have” How did you y find out the details about the Trans-Siberian Railwayy that is the centre of the storyy in Transsiberia? I have a natural schoolboy love of big trains and engines and trucks. I like them. I like being on trains. The preparation for me is very much the script. I know when I arrive, I don’t need to spend two weeks on a train beforehand, because I am going to be on a train for six weeks. It will take me five minutes to experience what it is like, because I will be on it and in it. So for me, I am much more on the page and listening to his accent and rhythm and his attitude behind his language. I play a local police cop, so I am more based on the Russian cabdriver who drove me across Los Angeles that morning. Or I by coincidence started to eat in a Russian restaurant in Santa Monica near where I stay in Hollywood. It was before I got offered the part in Transsiberia, but the restaurant was fascinating. There were a lot of ex-military Russians in that location and there where some tables ... if you turn to stare, big trouble. Don’t look too long at any of those tables. They were a pretty hard bunch. They were very nice to me, they always found me a table and brought me different vodkas to try and Russian food. I don’t know why I was there, but within two months I was offered the role of Grinko. I thought: I know him. He is that taxi driver, that waiter, that person I was frightened to look at over there.
33
So are yyou ever not working? g Or is the mind always y busyy with yyour p parts? Do you y mind-travel a lot? I think so. I am always collecting, just putting things in my back pocket. Not consciously saying that I’ll put you in a film one day – unless I absolutely adore them or they really make me angry. Then I would say I’ll get you one day, put you in a movie and show the world what a creep you are. This issue is about jjourneys, y , also in a metaphorical p way. y Is there somethingg in your y artistic life that you y regret? g No. Because life is good now, it is beautiful. I think we have to face the fact that everything in the past has brought us to me sitting here with you now. And if I had any regrets, it would be regretting the journey that brought me to this table now. I don’t regret that journey, because I am so happy to be here now. I love the now, it is all we have. People p know yyou best for yyour incredible p performance in “Ghandi”. Was that ever a p problem for yyou to be minimized to this movie? You were offered and also p played y a lot of decent men afterwards. That is not a problem, ’cause I also play villains lately. Life always finds a balance. That’s great. As an actor, I was allowed to fully explore that decency in historic times. But life will always intervene and the pendulum will always swing back and suddenly I am finding myself reading the screenplay of a movie called Sexy Beast. And I think: there he is, that’s the guy I have been waiting for. Everything swings back the other way, it is always moving, so there’s huge gratitude for that part of my career – and huge gratitude for Sexy Beast and everything that has come after that. But for me, my parts are all connected. We have both inside us. You and me, we both have a Don Logan from Sexy Beast inside us and a Ghandi inside us. We do, we all have these polarities inside us, only history and circumstance bring them out one day or another. But we do, we all do.
T H E A LT E RNAT IVE ROU T E Couchsurf the world What’s the concept? p Forget about forking out for an overpriced hotel or racing to bag that final dirty dorm bed in some smelly hostel. Thanks to popular community sites like couchsurfing.com, travellers from all corners of the globe can find a free sofa and, usually, a friendly host waiting for them. How does it work? The first step for any wannabe surfer is to sign-up with an online ‘hospitality network’. It’s free to register and members build up their profiles à la Facebook. The only obligation once you’ve enjoyed some gratis hospitality is that you have to repay the favour to any couchsurfers that come your way. How crazyy do yyou have to be? All travel junkies tend to be a bit nuts, in a good way. Couchsurfers come in all shapes and sizes, with the majority around the 25-40 age group. The US is the most popular couchsurfing nation, closely followed by France and Germany. Some get involved to meet new people, others are professional travellers and others just want the inside track on their chosen destination. Surelyy it can’t be safe? Although the idea of inviting people into your home or crashing on a stranger’s sofa seems a bit risky, all reports are favourable. Strict safety measures are in place on the various websites and users can publicly rate each other.
There’s also the slightly hippie notion of ‘karma’ which appeals to traveller types – the idea being that if you shaft someone, you will get shafted in return. What to pack? p Going armed with a ‘gift’ for your host is always a good idea and helps break the ice. Aside from that a Blackberry or any other portable web device is always handy so you can log on and decide where to make your next pitstop. There must be the odd horror story? y Nothing more severe than the occasional host pulling out at the last minute leaving the unlucky surfer to find an emergency alternative. Most surfers you speak to go slightly glassy-eyed when singing the praises of this caring-and-sharing phenomenon. Anyy celebrityy surfers? Funnily enough most celebs are more interested in staying in five-star pads than getting down and dirty with the locals. But there is the odd surfer who grabs the public’s imagination like 27-year-old DJ Adam Schofield who packed-up his Manchester life and set off to couchsurf for five years. This nomadic multitasker runs a popular blog, hosts couchsurfing club nights and plans to write a book at the end of it all. Phew! W W W. C O U C H S U R F I N G . C O M • W W W. G LO BA L F R E E LOA D E R S . C O M W W W . H O S P I TA L I T Y C L U B . O R G • W W W . S TAY 4 F R E E . C O M W W W. T R AV E L H O O . C O M
»ON TH E ROAD«
35
Swap your house
Stick your thumb out
What’s the concept? p No, this has nothing to do with reality TV. Back in the days before Wife Swap et al cluttered up our TV schedules, the idea of the house swap was born.
What’s the concept? p An ancient travel art that has had some seriously bad press over the years. Traditional hitchhiking consists of standing by the roadside and extending one’s thumb (or palm if you’re in South America) in the hope that some kindly driver will give you a free ride. Thanks to the wonders of the worldwide web, a new, more regulated version is emerging.
How does it work? Happy-swappers register online filling out information on their homes and adding enticing pics. First contact is made through the site and after that it’s up the individuals to iron out the details of the swap. How crazyy do yyou have to be? It’s less a case of being bonkers and more about trusting humanity. Yes, it requires a slight ‘leap of faith’ to invite strangers into your home but the key is to find people you can relate to and whose lives mirror your own. House-swappers tend to be either families, young couples or older people enjoying their retirement. Backpackers tend not to have many material possessions, let alone houses, so the chances of you ending up with a bunch of smelly crusties are minimal.
How does it work? There’s community sites where hitch-happy drivers and ‘thumbers’ can hook-up before they set off. Users post up where they’re headed and the site then matchmakes them with a suitable driver and vice versa. There’s also abundant forums where stories are swapped and tips shared. How crazyy do yyou have to be? While some hitchhikers might suffer from wanderlust leading them to spend weeks, months and even years shuff ling around, most are perfectly sane people who out of necessity are forced to attempt life on the road.
Can yyou make sure yyour p pad is safe? Ok, so accidents happen. But there’s ways of protecting yourself and the biggest tip is to take out full house insurance before you leave. For the little things – like watering the plants and replacing broken plates it’s a good idea to sign an exchange agreement.
Can you y make sure you’re y safe? Find a fellow hitcher or log-on for useful advice on where the safest pick-ups are and how to deal with dodgy drivers. There’s even advice on how best to jump out of a speeding car, if it should ever come to that.
What to pack? p Men everywhere will be glad to hear that, this time, it’s more a case of what to leave. A small gift displayed in a prominent position can help kick a swap off on a positive note. But make sure you mug-up on the swap family’s likes and dislikes - the last thing you want to do is leave a bottle of vino for a family of teetotal vegans.
What to p pack? Still on the safety theme – make sure you’ve got a fully charged mobile with you, and a tent can come in handy for those times when you’re forced to bed down en-route.
There must be the odd horror story? y Well, there was the legendary incident portrayed in ITV’s 2002 drama ‘The Swap’ where a family exchanged their £1 million home for a spacious beachside Australian pad, only to have their house, its contents and their car sold while they were away. To add insult to injury it was Christmas. Anyy celebrityy swappers? pp Top of the celebrity freeloaders is one Mr T. Blair and family who’ve camped out everywhere from Cliff Richard’s Barbados villa to Silvio Berlusconi’s Sardinian mansion. None of the swaps seem to have been that successful though, as he never invited any of them to take over 10 Downing Street in return. WWW.GEENEE.COM • WWW.HOMEBASE-HOLS.COM WWW.MINDMYHOUSE.COM
There must be the odd horror story? y How many times do I have to say it – this is not the movies! Most hitchers enjoy the random connections they make on the road, the exposure to different cultures and the feeling of belonging to a global society. If you don’t believe me, why not give it a try? Anyy celebrityy thumbers? Beat King Jack Kerouac is possibly the best known of the hitching bunch but there’s a surprising number of high-profile devotees. WWW.DIGIHITCH.COM • WWW.BUGEUROPE.COM WWW.HITCHHIKERS.ORG • WWW.HITCHHIKERS.ORG W W W. M I T FA H R Z E N T R A L E . D E
36
EB FOCUS
Become a volunteer
Go ‘off-grid’
What’s the concept? p So, you’ve so far failed to do your bit to save the planet and have an itchy conscience. Or, you’re tired of the rat race and want to give back. Whatever your reason, there’s a wealth of options for people who want a do-good extravaganza.
What’s the concept? p Escaping the rat race might be a bit of an eighties cliché but there’s nothing stereotypical about this back-to-nature holiday. Going ‘off grid’ involves finding a spot with no power or running water. The aim is to loosen the ties that bind us to our overstressed, overly material existences.
How does it work? Pick a programme that most ref lects your personal interests and embark on a foreign adventure. The range of possible employments is huge – everything from teaching English to tending elephants. The idea is that you work a certain amount of hours per day and spend the rest of your time exploring and communing with the locals. How crazyy do you y have to be? It might seem odd to sacrifice a relaxing beach holiday for hard labour on the other side of the world. But how many of us haven’t felt a twinge of social conscience at some point? Volunteers span all social groups and ages, with everyone from gap year kids to pensioners getting in on the act. Isn’t it a jjungle g out there? Well, it’s as safe or as dangerous as you make it. Going with a reputable company seriously boosts your chances of a trouble-free trip and the most common aff lictions are homesickness, cultural confusion and the odd bout of ‘Delhi Belly’ otherwise known as ‘The Runs’. What to pack? p Obviously it depends where you’re going. If you’re fixing potholes in the Lake District then malaria tablets probably aren’t necessary. But the more far f lung your location, the more thought is required. Going armed with a supply of children’s gifts (crayons, pens and paints are always popular) helps instil goodwill and is more productive than just handing out shrapnel. There must be the odd horror story? y Although it can all get a bit Big Brother at times, especially if you find yourself banged-up with a group of gap year kids, overall reports are positive. There are the odd urban myths – kibbutz jobs that entail masturbating turkeys, or the Australian kangaroo farm run by a bunch of escaped Nazis. Anyy celebrityy do-gooders? g These days it seems every z-lister is keen to brag about their ‘save the world’ activities, inspired by the activities of ‘Sir Bob’, Bono et al. Worst of all is Lady Mucca, who never wastes a chance to tell us all about her ‘wonderful’ work with landmines while simultaneously milking Macca for all he’s worth.
How does it work? Campsites are out. The first step is to develop an off-grid attitude, namely: a disregard for creature comforts coupled with a dose of eco-guilt. Then decide where you’re going, how you’re getting there and what type of shelter you’re staying in. Off-grid accommodations range from tree houses to huts to camper vans and even private islands. So,, this lot are definitelyy bonkers? True, some off-grid types are hippies living happily outside society but maybe they’ve got the right idea? There’s also plenty of mid-life crisis businessmen and eco-curious young couples. Isn’t it a jjungle g out there? Not exactly, but camping in the wilderness does have its pitfalls. Make sure you don’t get caught out by the weather and keep your wits about you. What to pack? p Ironically, you need quite a lot of gear to go ‘back to nature’. Camping equipment obviously, renewable energy sources like solar panels, candles, water filters etc. If the closest you’ve come is a few days at a festival you might also want to pack a good off-grid handbook. There must be the odd horror story? y Nobody’s been eaten by a bear, so far. The most common mishaps involve being moved on by the police. Off-grid camping is only tolerated in England, illegal in France and restricted to desert-like national parks in Spain. It’s easy to forget the law when you’re pitching your tipi in a far-f lung beauty spot. Anyy celebrityy off-gridders? g Bushman Ray Mears is probably the original master of the wild, but media whiz Nick Rosen is hot on his heels with a book on the subject already in the bag. Another self-sufficiency disciple is blonde bombshell Daryl Hannah, who’s converted her an eco-farm. WWW.CAMPSITEBUZZ.COM WWW.OFF - GRID.NET WWW.TREEHUGGER.COM W W W. D H LOV E L I F E . C O M W W W . T H E E C O L O G I S T. O R G
WWW.HANDSUPHOLIDAYS.COM • WWW.HELPX.NET • WWW.IKOPORAN.ORG W W W. G A P Y E A R F O RG ROW N U P S . C O . U K • W W W. O R I G I N A LVO LU N T E E R . C O . U K
TEXT
KEVIN BRADDOCK
I L L U S T R AT I O N S
LEONA LIST
AROU N D T H E WO R L D I N 8 0 E L EC T RO N IC B E ATS The ulimat e playlist p y for t hat int er galatic g space p f light g you y always y want ed t o t ake.
»ON TH E ROAD«
39
All Aboard, All Aboard
Deep Space Nine
1. Happy Mondays – ‘Step On’ 2. Wham – ‘Wake Me Up Before Your Go Go’ 3. The Rolling Stones – ‘Start Me Up’ 4. Led Zeppelin – ‘Stairway To Heaven’ 5. Jamie Principal – ‘Baby Wants To Ride’ 6. The Beatles – ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ 7. The Fifth Dimension – ‘Up, Up And Away’ 8. Frank Sinatra – ‘Come Fly With Me’ 9. Alex Gaudino – ‘Destination Calabria’ 10. Spiller – ‘Groovejet’
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
We Have Lift Off
Houston, We Have A Problem
1. Michael Jackson – ‘Thriller’ 2. Joey Beltram – ‘Energy Flash’ 3. The Doors – ‘Break On Through’ 4. Carole King – ‘I Feel The Earth Move’ 5. The Prodigy – ‘Out Of Space’ 6. Beastie Boys – ‘Intergalactic’ 7. Stevie Wonder – ‘Higher Ground’ 8. Jackie Wilson – ‘Higher and Higher’ 9. Diana Ross – ‘Upside Down’ 10. Goldfrapp – ‘Strict Machine’
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Warp Factor 5
Touchdown
1. Air – ‘Surfing On Rocket’ 2. The Rolling Stones – ‘Get Off My Cloud’ 3. Digitalism – ‘Zdarlight’ 4. Joy Division – ‘Transmission’ 5. Hawkwind – ‘Silver Machine’ 6. Mylo – ‘Sunworshipper’ 7. Gustav Holst – ‘The Planets Suite’ 8. Echo & The Bunnymen – ‘The Killing Moon’ 9. Skream vs Hijack – ‘Babylon Timewarp’ 10. What Planet You On? – ‘Bodyrox feat. Luciana’
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
The 5,000 Mile High Club
Home Again
1. The Brakes – ‘All Night Disco Party’ 2. Orbital – ‘Orbital’ 3. Daft Punk – ‘Around The World’ 4. The KLF – ‘3 a.m. Eternal’ 5. Kiss – ‘Crazy Crazy Nights’ 6. Orion – ‘Sunset People’ 7. Klaxons – ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ 8. MARRS – ‘Pump Up the Volume’ 9. Sun Ra Arkestra – ‘Space Is The Place’ 10. Fiction Factory – ‘Feels Like Heaven’
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Lou Reed – ‘Satellite of Love’ Extra T – ‘Extra T’s ET Boogie’ Air – ‘Kelly Watch the Stars’ Interdimensional Frequencies –‘Space Invader are Smoking...’ DJ Godfather – ‘Aliens Ate my 303’ Josh Wink – ‘Higher State Of Consciousness’ Foremost Poets – ‘Moonraker’ Chemical Brothers – ‘Galaxy Bounce’ John Williams – ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’ Layo & Bushwacka! – ‘Nighstalkin’
Led Zeppellin – ‘Communciation Breakdown’ Andy C – ‘Valley Of The Shadows’ Gnarls Barkley – ‘Crazy’ Black Sabbath – ‘Paranoid’ Basement Jaxx – ‘Red Alert’ Adonis – ‘No Way Back’ Public Enemy – ‘Fear Of A Black Planet’ Pink Floyd – ‘Dark Side Of the Moon’ Marvin Gaye – ‘Trouble Man’ The Doors – ‘Riders On the Storm’
Hot Chip – ‘Ready For The Floor’ Coldplay – ‘A Rush of Blood To The Head’ Supergrass – ‘Sun Hits The Sky’ The Beatles – ‘Across The Universe’ Joe Smooth – ‘Promised Land’ Talking Heads – ‘This Must Be The Place’ Steve Miller Band – ‘Fly Like An Eagle’ Elton John – ‘Rocket Man’ Brian Eno – ‘Music For Airports’ Belinda Carlisle – ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’
Lionel Richie – ‘Hello’ Axwell – ‘I Found U’ Kanye West – ‘Homecoming’ Roy Ayers – ‘Love Will Bring Us Back Together’ Justice – ‘We Are Your Friends’ Lynyrd Skynyrd – ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ Stardust – ‘Music Sounds Better With You’ Kylie Minogue – ‘Wow’ Rui Da Silva – ‘Touch Me’ Fatboy Slim – ‘You’ve Come a Long Way Baby
TH E F UTURE OF TRANSPORT RT T
Dude,, where’s e’ss m myy f lyy i n g ccaa r? r? Designing g g transport p is how humans dream off the futur future. r e. Fr From r om the W Wright right g brothers’ earlyy p planes to Michael J Fox ridingg a hoverboard,, fellow Homo sapiens apiens p movingg in novel ways y are singularly g y arresting. g Be theyy real or fictional,, such endeavours are almost most too seductive seductive. e. Transport p is so p proficient a vehicle – as it were – for the imagination g that futurologists, ologists, g , ffilmmakers ilmm m akers an and n d journalists j are tempted p into wildlyy inaccurate predictions,, both optimistic p p and nd pessim pessimistic. p m istic. Da Vinci’s helicopter p sketches took half a millennium to take off,, Victorian Londoners feared gro ggrowing owingg horse use would f lood the streets with dungg and Bladerunner author Philip p K Dick thought ught g cars would f lyy byy 1992. These futurists are balanced byy realists,, of course. The “Where is myy f lying y g car car?” r ?” p ph phrase h rase beloved of technology gy cynics y is a generalised g swipe p at the empty p y prophep p cies we are continually tinuallyy fed. TEXT
DANIEL WEST
I L L U S T R AT I O N S
As concisely cisely rhetorica rhetorical as that ph phrase ase may be, it distracts from veryy real pro progress. ress Next year, Virgin Galactic will begin public space f lights. P Plucky ucky touri tourists ts will be whisked beyond earth’s atmosphere ssixx abreast. At $200,000 a seat it’s still a little dearer ( just) than a TFL Zone 6 Travelcard, even if the dollar keeps falling. fall ng. SSo,, if you feel like cashing in on the Mustique pad, you can buckle up next to William Shatner, Paris Hilton or Stephen Hawking, each of whom has signed up. Those of you without an offshore off hore should be heartened to hear that Virgin frequent f lyer miles can be used instead of cash, and you’ll only need two million of them. Personally I’d need a break from the in-f light meals meals. Like all new forms of transport, Virgin Galactic will begin as an elitist jaunt before the price falls to more accessible levels. Richard Branson plans to offer $20,000 tickets after the 500th passenger has f lown. Space travel will lose attractiveness as it gains familiarity, just like long-haul f lying. As with conventional planes, your first experience will be a frightening, exhilarating coming-of-age. Before long you’ll bemoan weightlessness ove over deep vein thrombosis. Space f lights will become a means to an end – no more exciting than a rush hour commute commute. Space travel sounds futuristic, but it’s as old as the EEC. Sputnik 2 carried a stray dog named Laika into space in 1957. She died after four hours in orbit. Luckily, teleportation isn’t ready to be tested on sentient beings, but scientists are making steps in tha that direction. In 2006, researchers in Copenhagen teleported a light beam half a metre. Trekkies will have to wait a while longer for the pimp-my-f lying-saucer version, but the Enterprise’s hyperdrive may be closer to realisation. The US military (who else?)
LEONA LIST
is investigating a 2005 proposal to power a spacecraft using antigravity. The device would use vast magnetic coils to propel itself into another dimension of space-time. It could leave Earth at lunch and land on the moon in time for dinner, Mars in less than three hours and, most tantalisingly, reach a galaxy 11 light years away in only 80 days. This concept is based on the brilliant theories es of late German scientist, Burkhard Heim Heim. Heim’s quantum fiddling could usher in a huge leap for science. Theories heories are being liberated from blackboards as physicists become truly physical. Inevitably though, historically familiar forms of new transport are more immediate and evocative. Solar sails are a f ledgling technology which harness rays of sunlight like wind to manoeuvre spacecraft. They’ve been used numerous times by NASA and other agencies but sci-fi, as ever, is one step ahead. A space yacht rigged with solar sails features in Planet off the Apes the novel, while Disney’s Treasure Planet movie thoughtfully updated the Treasure Island book with an intergalactic schooner and a cyborg Long John Silver. Simpler still is the delightfully named space tether: a cable from Earth to the heavens, presumably transporting an astronaut called Jack to a celestial giant. “Fee! Fi! Fo! Set lasers to stun.” Sci-fi aside, some mass-market transport changes are already beginning to bite. Toyota has sold over a million hybrid cars with electric batteries. Brazil has produced ethanol for 29 years, and the sugar cane-derived alcohol now powers one third of its vehicles. Ironically, this shift from petrol to sustainables may have more impact on 21st century development than anything space-
42
EB FOCUS
related. If the West can kick its oil habit, global geopolitics would be inverted. OPEC would be relegated from heavyweight trade group to irrelevant old boy’s club. Stripped of economic importance, the never-ending Iraq war would become unpalatable even for neocons. Texan oil barons would wallow in self-pity and Alaska’s census would be decimal. Hydrogen is even cleaner than ethanol, emitting only air and water from the exhaust pipe. So promising is the technology that BMW, Mercedes and Ford now make hydrogen fuel cell cars. Through reduced emissions, renewables could reduce global warming without having to compromise on the car culture so deeply embedded in the Anglo-American psyche. Though solving one problem, new fuels like hydrogen produce others. I rode a prototype hydrogen-powered motorbike two years ago that was whisper quiet. With no internal combustion engine roaring under the bonnet, hydrogen cars are a potential death trap for schoolchildren and the hard of hearing. According to BT futurologist Ian Neild such safety issues will be offset by automation from 2020. He predicts that cars then will be fully automated, with a small black box acting as your personal chauffeur. General Motors demonstrated an automated car (dubbed ‘The Boss’) at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in LA. Removing human error would make road deaths f latline, but there is something a little spooky about relinquishing total control to HAL. Horror stories of sat navs gone bonkers are commonplace. Dirt tracks, one-way streets and farmyards – all have cropped d up as obstacles for drivers following their gadgets. Visitorss to the Yorkshire village of Crackpot were directed to the edge ge of a 100ft cliff. One woman nearly drowned writing off herr £96,000 Merc in a river. Technology bermuda triangles aree also a worry. New York cabbies complain of a black spot around round the Empire State building caused by the radio masts atop the skyscraper. Stalling engines, faulty horns, doors that hat lock themselves – plenty of gremlins have crept out of thee dashboard. The problem has been exacerbated by radio masts sts relocated from the World Trade Cen Centre, yet mention of 9/11 11 brings to mind an even darker threat for cyber cars: remote te terrorism. A street full of web-enabled cars is a hacker’s playground. With every vehicle a potential missile missile, vid ide am no m naati is e sys yste n-r work wh whic ou the ty, drop pas ass siggna d stops Thee ld d’s firs rs del is being b built b at athrow w d is che ed o be up a d ru ning n 2 9, prob ably befo e rminaal 5’s age yste tem
Road and rail-based private transport lacks the social interaction common to buses, overland trains and tubes. Public transport remains one of the few social melting pots in otherwise segregated cities, bringing together everyone who can’t afford (or doesn’t want) a car, taxi or bike. There’s something comforting about shared journeys and the scale of public transport networks, particularly in an age of cocoon-like office cubicles and shoebox f lats. It’s arguably the most acute contemporary evidence of society; a reminder that we are one cog in a much larger system. The tube is trumped by big boats as a way to experience the sublime, however. Freedom Ship is a vast f loating city, ass yet unbuilt. If constructed it would dwarf the world’s currentt largest ship, Knock Nevis – itself so large it can’t navigate the English Channel when fully loaded. With 18,000 apartments, ents, 10,000 ho hotels, a hospital, high school and subway system, em, Freedom Ship is a touch ambitious. Its 1,400 metre-long hull would be over five times Titanic’s length, and just 30 metres etres shorter than the Grea Great Pyramid at Giza. Freedom Ship iss conspicuously large, but invisibility is a far more attractive ve prospect for military transport. Sea Shadow was a stealthy hy looking ship built by Lockheed for th the US Navy in 1985. Its angular hull ref lected radar, although not well enough for itt to have entered production. Proteus is an even weirder-looking ing boat currently in development. It resembles a giant water ter boatman insect, with four spidery legs descending to catamaran tamaran hulls. Its lightweight design reduces fuel consumption, ion, making the craft ideal for biological studies in areas sensitive to pollution. Whether spider-shaped boat or sledge, bicycle or magnetically levitating train, transport has an enduring power to outline human achievement. Forms of transport are the most tangible milestones of human evolution. The algebraic miracle of space rockets, a TGV in full f light, the transition from four limbs to two – each is proof of man’s dominance of technology and environment. More profoundly, transport is a godlike way to escape the mortal constraints of time and space. Tea clippers, steamships, and planes have successively shrunk the world. Where once it took months to traverse the globe, now a few hours and a credit card ard is all that’s needed. Although the modes are new, the impulse to travel is as old as the id. “Our nature lies in movement, movement,” wrote Pascal, “complete calm is death.” Dreaming of fut ansport, too, is innately human. We believe that generations to come will improve upon our technology, finding solutions to today’s insurmountable problems. This self-awareness marks us out from all other life: we comprehend our wn evolution, and our power o change its course
M e al s O n W h e e l s Moutarde au Miele by Albert Ménès Tea ‘Russian Breakfast’ by Mariages Frères Plates ‘Nymphenburg Sketches’ by Nymphenburg The Prince of Natural Waters by Decantae Cutlery by Laguiole @ Q-Quadrat www.le-laguiole.de Plaid by Johnstons/ www.johnstonscashmere.com Macaroons by Ladurée Chocolate by Mariages Frères Brut Impérial by Moet & Chandon Glasses by Riedel Mosto Oro Olio by Calvi Candle ‘Coeur d’éte’ by Miller Harris Kaspiar by Royal, Place de la Madeleine Confit de f leurs de lavande
PRODUCTION
SANDRA LIERMANN
PHOTOGRAPHER
AT T I L A H A R T W I G
EB JET SETTING
BY
LARS BORGES & LISA SCHIBEL
PACIFIC OCEAN
FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA
WASHINGTO N
MONTANA
OREGON IDAHO CALIFORNIA
UTAH SAN FRAN NEVADA CISCO LAS VEGAS ZION NP LOS ANGELES GRAND CANYYON
ARIZONA
MEX
ICO
VERMONT
MINNESOTA
WISCONSIN
NEBRASKA
COLORADO
WA IOWA
PENN
ILLINOIS
MEMPHIS
OKLAHOMA
OHIO
INDIANA
KENTUCKY
MISSOURI
KANSAS
SANTA FE
NEWSYLVANYOIA RK
MICHIGAN
WEST VIRGINIAA
TENNESSEE
MISSISSIPPI ALABAMA
TEXAS
BIG BEND NP
AUSTIN
LOUISIANNA
VVIRGINIA
NASHVILLENORTH CAROLINA SOUTH CAROLINA
ARKANSAS
NEW MEXICO
NEEEWW JERSEY D N DDEEELLLAWARE MAARRYLLLAAANND
GEORGIA
IC O CEA N
ROAD TRIP
WYOMING
NEW YORK
NEW HAMPSHIRE MASSACHUSETTS RHODE ISLAND COONNNNEECCCTTIICCCUUTT
ANT
SOUTH DAKOTA
MAINE
NEEW ORRLLLEEAANNSS
ATL
USA NORTH DAKOTA
CANADA
FLORIDDAA
A dream comes true! Once decided to hit the road in the ‘Land of the free’ , the trip p alreadyy starts while decidingg on your y route. Is it the west coast from Seattle to San Diego g yyou want to explore? p The Great Lakes yyou want to dip p yyour toes in on a drive from Chicago g to New York? Or do yyou want to do a nostalgic g drivingg tour on the Great Mother Road Route 66? We decided to navigate g ‘from sea to shiningg sea’ – from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean startingg in New York drivingg all the wayy to San Francisco in a month. Here are some highlights g g this huge g continent revealed alongg the wayy and references for your y future travels in THE countryy for road trips. p
NEW YORK
Chelsea Hotel Bob Dylan composed songs while staying at the Chelsea, Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey here and Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, William Burroughs, Jasper Johns, Patti Smith, Arthur Miller and many others passed through the hotel doors in the 1960s. Since you always have to fill in an address when entering the USA the Chelsea Hotel is definitely a good choice for a second home in New York City: you’re right in the centre of gallery-district Chelsea and already have some artistic, bohemian and freaky housemates. WWW.HOTELCHELSEA.COM
Junior’s Call a cab anywhere in New York City and tell the driver, ‘Take me to the best cheesecake in New York’ and you’ll certainly end up at the corner of Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues in Brooklyn, at Juniors. WWW.JUNIORSCHEESECAKE.COM
“ R a n d o m e n c o u n t e r s o n Av e n u e C a r e t h e rea son why I love NY!” S A M I N A | WO R K S I N T H E G L O B A L R E S E A R C H D E P O F L OW E WO R L DW I D E
ROAD TRIP USA
Music City They don’t call Nashville ‘Music City, USA’ for nothing. It is the home of the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, a multitude of live music clubs, concert venues and many major record labels. Walking down the streets in ‘the district’ (downtown Nashville) there’s literally music and sounds everywhere, even the traffic lights chirp like birds and what seemed to be an electricity box somewhere in the streets emerged to be some kind of weird open air juke-box playing Johnny Cash tunes! R o b e r t ’ s We s t e r n Wo r l d Bar, nightclub and ‘Honky tonk heaven’ which offer live music all day from 11am till 2pm ranging from traditional country or bluegrass tunes to which even the cities cool kids shake a leg . WWW.ROBERTSWESTERNWORLD.COM
Brown’s Diner “There have been more record deals signed here in Brown’s Diner than in the Country music hall of fame” says Miranda Louise, a country singer herself who is working in this Nashville institution. Browns is famous not only for the signed record deals but also for the best cheeseburgers in town! WWW.HOLLYEATS.COM/BROWNSDINER.HTM
Hatch Show Print “Advertising without posters is like fishing without worms” said the Hatch brothers and they know what they’re talking about being one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. Over the years Hatch has featured all famous music performers in the unmistakable look of letterpress printmaking (wood and metal images are pressed against paper); every machine is hand-operated, and every poster is handmade.
49
Satellite Radio To enjoy good music not only in Nashville but your whole trip make sure you get a vehicle with XM radio. Since you’ll spend a lot of time in your car it’ll really be worth it: commercial free music playing each genre (50’s on XM5, 80’s on XM8 etc.) exclusive concerts and original music series, news, reports, traffic and weather. You’ll find your favourite, we fell in love with ‘Theme Time Radio Hour’ at XMX hosted by Bob Dylan every Wednesday. Each episode is an eclectic brew of blues, rockabilly, soul music, bebop, rock-and-roll and pop music, centered around a theme like ‘Cadillac’, ‘Joe’, ‘Birds’, ‘California’... WWW.XMRADIO.COM
WWW.COUNTRYMUSICHALLOFFAME.COM/SITE/EXPERIENCEHATCH.ASPX
“ I love Na shville for its live music venues where g reat musicians play for tips. And I l i k e w o r k i n g a t R W W,, T H E h o m e o f t r a d i tional countr y music in Na shville, famous for b u r g e r s , b o o t s , b e e r a n d b o o z e .” R I L E Y |WO R K S AT R O B E R T´S W E S T E R N WO R L D
Beale Street Memphis is home to the founders and originators of many American music genres, including blues, gospel, rock n’ roll, and country music. Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and B. B. King were all starting out in Memphis’ Beale Street in the 1950s. They are respectively dubbed the ‘King’ of Country, rock n’ roll and blues. WWW.BEALESTREET.COM
Graceland Graceland, the former home of rock n’ roll legend Elvis Presley, is one of the most visited houses in the United States (second only to the White House), attracting over 600,000 visitors a year. Even if you’re not one of them it’s fun to go there and watch the gathering of the worlds most devoted Elvis fans, step into his ‘Jungle Room’ and shed a tear at his grave. WWW.ELVIS.COM/GRACELAND
A. Schwab’s dr y goods store “If you can’t find it at A. Schwab’s, you don’t need it!” is the motto of A. Schwab’s family owned store, the only remaining original business on Beale Stree established in 1876. And it’s true, they have everything from voodoo items to underwear, hats, ties, stockings, overalls, knick-knacks, kitchen goods, you name it. The store is a local tourist attraction with two floors of shopping and, between the first and second floors, a small balcony which houses the Beale Street Museum, a collection of Beale Street memorabilia along with several items and records of the Schwab family, which has run the store throughout its lifetime. Carry some small change -- the nickel candy machines still work! While you’re there, look for Mr. Abe Schwab himself, third generation store owner, who might give you a tour if you’re lucky. WWW.BEALESTREET.COM/CLUBSSHOPS/ASCHWAB.HTML
“Memphis is all about B B Q , B l u e s a n d B e a l e S t r e e t .” DEON | ST UDEN T
EB JET SETTING
New O r l e a n s Po s t - K a t r i n a The number of visitors to New Orleans nearly doubled in 2007 compared to 2006, and the city is hoping to attract even more tourists with a new campaign to bring people in during the slower summer season. There are still ‘Hurricane Katrina – Americas Greatest Catastrophe’ Tours but the French Quarter is cleaner than ever. French Quarter Before we went there they someone told us that everyone has to visit The Quarter, at least once in their life and now we know why: The oldest and most famous neighborhood –a National Historic Landmark– in the city of New Orleans, with its numerous historic buildings is just a very, very special place on earth: Full of voodoo, smells of Cajun and Creole cuisine, stuffed gators from the surrounding swamps, Carribean vibes, colonial architecture and a vibrant nightlife. For some good New Orleans jazz visit the Maison Bourbon on Bourbon Street. WWW.NEWORLEANSONLINE.COM
N e w O r l e a n s H i s t o r i c Vo o d o o M u s e u m The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum is believed to be the only museum in the world dedicated to Voodoo, bringing together ancient and modern day Voodoo practices. A wide range of spiritual services from custom Gris-Gris bags (charms or talismans which are kept for good luck or to ward off evil) to spells written just for you are provided
here by the world’s only white voodoo priest Charles M. Gandolfo (owner and curator) and Queen Margaret. WWW.VOODOOMUSEUM.COM
Café du Monde Well known for the café au lait, coffee spiced with chicory and French-style beignets served there continuously since the 19th century, this café is a wonderful place to start your day in New Orleans. Make a wish and blow the powdered sugar onto anyone who is going there for the first time! WWW.CAFEDUMONDE.COM
Creole and Cajun Cuisine Louisiana Creole and Cajun cuisine blend French, Mediterranean, French Caribbean, African, and American influences. Typical ingredients and traditional dishes include the ‘holy trinity’ of celery, bell peppers, and onion, lots of Crawfish, ‘dirty rice’ (white rice cooked with small pieces of chicken liver or giblets), Etouffee – typically served with shellfish or chicken over rice, Gumbo – a stew or soup consisting primarily of a strong stock, meat or shellfish and the vegetable, Roux – a mixture of flour and fat, Po’ Boys - also ‘poor boy’, a traditional submarine sandwich with fried meat or seafood served on a baguette, Jambalaya – a New World version of the Old World dish paella) and Catfish.
“The only two cities in the States wor th l i v i n g i n a r e N e w Yo r k a n d N e w O r l e a n s –and between the two, New Orleans is more laid back and fun...come here to celebrate ‘Mardi Gras’ with us and you’ll see! ” B R I A N | WO R K S A T H O T E L R OYA L I N T H E F R E N C H Q UA R T E R
ROAD TRIP USA
Big Bend National Park Sometimes considered three parks in one, Big Bend includes mountains, desert, and river environments. An hour’s drive can take you from the banks of the Rio Grande (where you can take a bath in the hot springs next to the river) to a mountain basin nearly one mile high. Here, you can explore one of the last remaining wild corners of the United States and experience unmatched sights, sounds, and solitude.
55
Gage Hotel Located in Marathon Texas, this fully renovated hotel offers elegant accommodations furnished with authentic period décor, fine-dining that will delight your senses (we had the best bison ribeye-steak of our lives here) and a pool perfect for an evening swim - all in a rustic, west Texan setting, surrounded by the mountains of Big Bend National Park. WWW.GAGEHOTEL.COM
WWW.NPS.GOV /BIBE
“The South by Southwest (SXSW) music and media conference showca ses hundreds of musical acts from around the g lobe on over eighty stages in downt o w n A u s t i n . We ’ r e l o o k i n g f o r w a r d t o p l a y a t S X S W tonight...the festival is the bomb!” G A B E & C E D | D J S | M Y S PAC E .C O M /C E D H U G H E S | M Y S PAC E .C O M /G D O T N I L E S W W W. S X S W.C O M
“The worlds f irst all female m a r i a c h i b a n d c o m e s f r o m S a n t a Fe – t hat says it all! Generally the city is well-known a s a centre for music and arts and its m u l t i - c u l t u r a l c h a r a c t e r. G e o r g i a O’Keef fe, one of the most well-known New Mexico -ba sed ar tists lived here for a time and also in Abiquiu, a small village about 50 miles away and wa s inspired by the f lowers, rocks, animal bones and landscapes of the Southwest – check out the Georgia O’Keef fe M u s e u m i n S a n t a Fe ! ” J OA N A / B A N D L E A D E R / S A N TA F E
White Sands Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world’s great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and created the world’s largest gypsum dune field.
Caf é Pa squal’s Owner/chef Katharine Kagel wrote a book on New Mexican cuisine, and she shares her expertise at this small, casual eatery. You might have to wait more than an hour for a table, so call ahead for reservations. Their motto: “Panza llena, corazon contento!” – “Full stomach, happy heart!”
WWW.NPS.GOV /WHSA
W W W . PA S Q U A L S . C O M
Adobe Architecture Pueblo-style adobe architecture evolved and became the basis for traditional New Mexican homes: sun-dried clay bricks mixed with grass for strength, mud-mortared, and covered with additional protective layers of mud. These adobe homes are characterized by flat roofs and soft, rounded contours.
EB JET SETTING
Grand Canyon National Park Though you know images of the Grand Canyon this powerful and inspiring landscape overwhelms your senses through its immense size when you see it with your own eyes. Unique combinations of geologic color and erosional forms decorate a canyon that is 446km long, up to 29km wide, and 1,6 km deep. Located at Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Grand Canyon Skywalk affords a view into the main canyon from a 1,200 meter high U-shaped cantilevered glass bridge jutting 70 feet past the rim. Breathtaking! WWW.NPS.GOV /GRCA WWW.GRANDCANYONSKYWALK.COM Indian Reser vations Indian reservations are managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs. Most Indian reservations are in the western United States, often in arid regions unsuitable for agriculture. Life qualities in some reservations are comparable to the quality of life in the developing world. Nowadays it’s all about purchasing ‘Native American Artwork’ which most of the times is not authentic. It’s a story sad beyond belief.
The Strip You have to throw yourself into the nighlife and drink gamble, or get married, otherwise there really is nothing to do in Sin City! Spend too long looking at all the people with their Eiffel-Tower-shaped, neonpink Margaritas who have put great expectations in their Vegas-adventure, it can quickly become a pretty sad place too. WWW.VISITL ASVEGAS.COM Bellagio Inspired by the Lake Como resort of Bellagio in Italy, Bellagio is famed for its elegance. One of its most notable features is an 32,000 square metre artificial lake between the building and the Strip, which houses the Fountains of Bellagio, a large dancing water fountain synchronized to music. You can risk a game with the world’s best poker players here (200$ buy-in) but also just feeding the slotmachines with quarters is fun and worth it. When you stay at one machine for a while they provide free drinks the whole night through! For a nice dinner, the Olives at Bellagio offers fine Mediterranean-style food like house-made pastas, steaks, rotisserie dishes and brick oven pizzas. WWW.BELL AGIO.COM G r e e n Va l l e y R a n c h The Green Valley Ranch Resort, Spa and Casino is only minutes away from the Las Vegas Strip but feels like another world. You will discover a real escape with the pampering and relaxation of a luxury resort and spa but casino action at the same time. Try the mouth-watering risotto cooked by world-renowned Hell’s Kitchen chef Gordon Ramsay in the resorts Terra Verde restaurant. W W W. G R E E N VA L L E Y R A N C H R E S O RT. C O M
“ I h e a r d a s a y i n g a b o u t Ve g a s that seems to be true: ‘Ever y big city has a river passing through; the river in Las Ve g a s i s m a d e o f m o n e y ’. B u t another thing is true: the nightlife is crazy here, I´ve come from LA with some friends to party all night long!” AT H E N A / S T U D E N T / L O S A N G E L E S
“I like Los Angeles because you can have almost ever ything within the range of two h o u r s : t h e P a c i f i c , t h e c i t y, t h e d e s e r t and even snowy mountains. The variety of nature in California is the most amazing I have ever seen. Besides that I love the st at e of const ant decay of Los Angeles. This place seems to be on the edge all the time in so many dif ferent ways. And it’s tr ue: it never rains in southern California…well… a l m o s t n e v e r.” SV EN / MOTION DE SIGNER / V EN ICE
Santa Monica If you don’t want to stay in the vast and amourphous city of LA, the agreeable seaside city of Santa Monica is a pretty nice place to set a homebase from where you can start exploring. It has a pedestrian friendly downtown, lots of shopping and eating possibilities and of course wide, wide beaches!
Art Scene The new art district around Cienega Boulevard is expanding fast and LA nowadays is a worldclass art capital and home to a lot of renowned and newcower artists, who come here for the relatively low rents, the light, and the space. Visit the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), especially the new BCAM (Broad Contemporary Art Museum) to see the essence of contemporary American art and the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) or one of the numerous galleries. After your gallery tour relax with LA’s artists in the Mandrake bar.
Chateau Marmont For those who came to LA for some serious star-gazing this Hollywood landmark is a definite must: Back in the day there was Marylin Monroe, Greta Garbo, John Lennon and Yoko Ono reposing in one of the 63 rooms, cottages or bungalows. Today you might meet Johnny Depp, Tobey Maguire or Amy Winehouse. The chateau was built in 1929 after an infamous royal residence in France’s Loir Valley, which is very typical for LA architecture style in general. It is currently owned and managed by Hotels AB, run by celebrity hotelier André Balazs.
WWW.LACMA.ORG | WWW.MOCA.ORG |WWW.LAXART.ORG| WWW.HONORFRASER.COM |WWW.REGENPROJECTS.COM| WWW.MANDRAKEBAR.COM
WWW.CHATEAUMARMONT.COM
Highway 1 This Pacific coast highway follows some of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. Big Sur, the 145 km of coastline between the Carmel River and San Carpoforo Creek, is famous for its pristine natural beauty and dramatic, rugged coastline and has been an inspiration to writers, artists, and seekers of a more simple life. Stop at Grandpa Deetjens Big Sur Inn and stay in the cozy and rustic rooms and cottages or at the Whale watching Café in Gordo to see the gray whales pass by in the distance. Point Piedras Blancas is home to California´s largest elephant-seal colony. WWW.DEETJENS.COM WWW.BEACHCALIFORNIA.COM/PIEDRAS.HTML
Po i n t L o b o s S t a t e Re s e r ve They call Point Lobos ‘the greatest meeting of land and water in the world’ and if you walk along one of the beautiful hiking trails next to the ocean you might understand why. An unusual collection of plant and animal life concentrates here, ranging from high plankton concentrations and moving up the food chain to large mammals like sea lions.
Santa Cruz A young and hip student-town, home to the University of California (UCSC) where southern California beachstyle meets northern California lifestyle. Go hiking in the redwoods, biking at the beautiful W Cliff Drive or of course surfing with Santa Cruz’ beach boys and girls. WWW.PARADISESURF.COM
PT-LOBOS.PARKS.STATE.CA.US
Mojave Deser t The Mojave Desert’s boundaries are generally defined by the presence of Joshua Trees (tree sized yuccas). To have a closer look at this desert land shaped by strong winds, unpredictable torrents of rain, and climatic extremes visit Joshua Tree National Park. WWW.NPS.GOV/JOTR
Ghost towns On the cold, frosty morning of January 24, 1848 a tiny, pea-sized gold nugget was discovered in the American River in California and attracted tens of thousands of gold seekers. They built small communities and towns all over the state and many of these places grew and are buzzing cities today. But thousands of these places died and today there are around 9000 ghost towns in California varying from absolutely remote locations with very little remaining to flourishing tourist towns such as Calico. WWW.GHOSTTOWNS.COM
“SF kills a lot of your prejudices about America. Berkeley is g reat because a woman poet in her 60ies can appear and give you an example of her latest work. In other words: the hippie movement was born in Berkeley and is still alive here!” FR EDRIK | PHOTOGR A PHER | BER K ELEY
C h i n a Tow n San Francisco’s Chinatown is one of North America’s largest. Established in the 1850s it is not only the oldest Chinatown in the United States, but one of the largest and most prominent centers of Chinese activity outside of China. Chinatown has experienced decline over the years due to the emergence of other large Chinese communities in the Richmond and Sunset Districts of San Francisco, and possibly from the revitalization of Oakland’s Chinatown only 16km away — and from the development of Asian shopping centers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Nonetheless, it remains a major tourist attraction — drawing more visitors than the Golden Gate Bridge.
Mission District The Mission is ethnically and economically diverse with a population that is half Latino, a third White, and 11 percent Asian. Hipsters center around Valencia Street and Mission Dolores Park on the western side. However, there are certainly no distinct racial lines. A fusion of the disparate cultures is evidenced by the many colorful Mexican and Latin American themed murals throughout the neighborhood. Luna Park with its casual décor, lively bar scene, and delicious, moderately-priced cuisine is a Valencia Street institution, loved by San Franciscans and visitors alike. WWW.LUNAPARKSF.COM
Haight Street Haight Street is an internationally known, legendary destination in San Francisco, California. It was the primary site for the Summer of Love (1967) when George Harrison walked down it with a guitar in his hands, followed by a cadre of Flower Children. Today it is frequented by locals, enjoys a brisk tourist trade and a considerable degree of yuppification. After having relaxed with the hippies in Golden Gate Park, enjoy a hand-crafted ale at Haight Streets own micro-brewery, Magnolia Pub & Brewery. WWW.MAGNOLIAPUB.COM
CA P
R A F SIMONS
SU NGLASSES N E C K L AC E
C O L E T T E F O R L I N DA FA R R E L
TOPSHOP
B AT H I N G S U I T
LIZ HURLEY
E X POS E D
Ph ot o g r a phy
Styling H a i r a nd M ake -Up
David F i sch e r G รถtz Of fe r gge ld
L e n a Pet e r s e n ( B a s i c s B e rli n )
P h ot o A s s i s t a n t M ode l
K r i s t i na We i nhold
A l ex E l l i ot ( I c o n i c m a n a gge m e n t ) Production
S a n d r a L i e r m a nn
SU NGLASSES WAT C H
WAY FA R E R , L I N DA FA R R E L V I N TAG E
M O D E L S OW N
N E C K L AC E T- S H I R T
CHANEL
N U MBER9
PA N T I E S
A M E R I CA N A P PA R E L
FOU L A R D
CHANEL
BIKINI
LIZ HURLEY
TURBA N
A M E R I CA N A P PA R E L
SU NGLASSES JAC K E T
B R AC E L E T SCA R F
V ERON IQU E BR A NQU I NO
ICECR EA M CHANEL
B AT H I N G A P E
BIKINI
AG E N T P R OVO CAT E U R
N E C K L AC E
YSL
B AT H I N G S U I T PA N T S B E LT
A M E R I CA N A P PA R E L
B AT H I N G A P E
R A L P H L AU R E N
B R AC E L E T
F EN DI
EB INTERVIEWS
»ON TH E ROAD«
I n t e r vi ews There are some really exciting new artist albums out there at the moment and that’s what this Interview section is all about getting to know. First up is UK band The Kills who we interviewed on the Berlin stop of their Europe-wide tour, these two are true rock n’ roll hipsters! Then there is the ever impressive Booka Shade, who with their third album The Sun and Neon Light are ready to wow the critics again, and there’s Falko Brockspier with his excellent second album Heavy Day.
77
e h T s l l i K
s
»ON TH E ROAD«
79
NYHOUGH MARK FER ZIGKEI E I D E R - M AT IKE SCHN PICT U R E S H E
TEXT
f o s t i r e The m , s t a u q God, s , s t s o h g y l d d o d an d e r e k i mon t a e m e k fa
Despite p a recent historyy of mental and financial breakdowns,, The Kills’ p personal and creative chemistryy has remained untainted. Indeed,, from tonight’s g encounter it’s immediatelyy evident that tabloid hounded Englander g Jamie Hince has lost none of the broodingg intensityy he shares with his enigmatic g Floridian musical co-conspirator p Alison Mosshart. Sittingg side byy side on a battered leather sofa,, p pale-faced and clad in regug lation Velvet Underground g black,, theyy are the p picture p perfect rock n’ roll hipsters. p On a conversational level though, g , theyy are far from strungg out clichés. Full of humour ((Jamie comes across like Leslie Nielson’s edgy gy yyounger g brother in his deadpan p delivery), y), theyy constantlyy finish off each other’s sentences like psychically p y y conjoined j twins. There is little doubt that The Kills are currentlyy and collectivelyy in a veryy ggood p place indeed.
Followingg an extended p period of missingg in action/getting /g g lost somewhere in a recordingg studio in Mexico,, the twosome have returned to the p pop p culture frayy via mascara-splattered p longg player p y ‘Midnight g Boom’. Regardless g of a lengthy g y and painful p ggestation which saw them descend on numerous cities throughg out the world in a series of misguided g attempts p to invoke the desired musical impetus, p , the end p product is their most p powerful and focused testament to date. With numbers as stirringg as ‘Black Balloon’ and ‘Tape p Song’, g , the p post-recordingg session love bites courtesyy of a certain Kate Moss should swiftlyy become a mere afterthought, g , even to the most celebrityy obsessed ears. Rather than maturingg ggentlyy with age, g , The Kills have ggained confidence to distil their sound into a series of childlike brush strokes. A couple p of tracks,, namelyy ‘Cheap p & Cheerful’ and ‘Alphabet p Pony’, y , were formed around Jamie’s newlyy acquired q MPC-60 hip p hop p drum sequencer q and take their cue from p playy gground chants inspired p byy ‘Pizza Pizza Daddio’ - a sixties documentaryy focusingg on inner-cityy American school children.
Über-hip p Anglo-American g sleaze rock duo The Kills jjoins Electronic Beats in a suitablyy darkened room to consider the merits of God,, squats, q , gghosts,, and oddlyy monikered fake meat…. If yyou were to p playy someone jjust one keyy track off Midnight g Boom to succinctlyy sum the record up, p, which would you y choose? JA M I E ‘Sour Cherry’ I think. It’s not the best on the record but it’s the one I like playing. It depends. Different songs suit different people. I’d sort of weigh up the individual and then play them something accordingly. A L I S O N …depending on what they are wearing. As a band yyou seem veryy much out there on yyour own. How do yyou avoid unwanted outside inf luences? JA M I E We live in a bubble. We just do our own thing and aren’t really phased by that much. Every so often industry people will say to me, “your new album has sold so many copies” or whatever, and it generally surprises me because I don’t give it much thought. Also, I think with a lot of bands, people’s reactions to them are quite important to their evolution. I really appreciate our fans but I don’t actually care what they think. If you’re on some kind of personal journey like we are, you can’t consider what other people think of you or what they want you to do. Do yyou ever wake up p to find yyourselves on a Lynch-esque y q road trip? p Our life is a road trip. We’re so drawn to touring. That’s the norm for us. To me, being in the studio is weird; being on the road is where we want to be. A L I S O N Completely. But it’s not like a typical road trip. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told me this was just a big practical joke and we were being driven around a movie set. We just get out of the bus, play a show, climb back into the bus and do it all again. It’s easy to forget where you are. JA M I E
Which European p destinations are particularly p y close to The Kills’ hearts? JA M I E Paris and Berlin. I lived in Berlin for three months, on Oranienburger Strasse at the Tacheles squat a long, long time ago. I worked on it, building bathrooms and so on. It’s weird visiting there now. I keep going to see it with all this excitement before leaving slightly underwhelmed. It’s all bloody Novo Hotels these days. Do yyou view London’s rapid p development p into an all-encompassingg shopping p pp g centre an act of cultural terrorism? A L I S O N We leave London to record these days. We leave England. To be creative you have to leave. Unless you’re loaded. JA M I E Well we live in Dalston, the last little bastion of East End poverty. Artists and musicians always gravitate to the poor areas. We don’t have a Starbucks in Dalston, just little Polish and Turkish shops.
We’ve got a Tesco now. I discovered it the other day. Yeah, a Tesco Metro. I’ve been battling with London for years now, but I think the most exciting place to be isn’t necessarily the best place to live and I still want to live in London, even if I have more fun in New York or Paris. ALISON JA M I E
Is 2008 what yyou imagined g it would be? JA M I E No. When I was a kid I thought everyone would be wearing silver and riding around on jet packs. I’m attracted to nihilist things, so I love the way we’re destroying cultural standards and destroying most things with any value. We really are. Things are a lot more throwaway now, but you never get what you expect I suppose. Are yyou keen believers in the p paranormal? JA M I E I have a curiosity for it. Ouija boards definitely work, but I think once you give way into believing in such things there are a lot of things you have to give way into believing in, like destiny and religion. I’m an atheist through and through. I think when you’re buried, that’s it. It’s over. The afterlife seems like a clever thing to make people believe in, because then people don’t feel like life is urgent. Religion causes people to feel they have to suppress a lot of things in order to achieve something after death. If you don’t believe in God and the consequences of your actions you’re probably going to act like a crazy chaotic nightmare, which is not what they want you to do. Everyone always says “I don’t believe in God, like an old guy with grey beard, but I do believe in a force.” It drives me fucking mental. Yeah, everyone believes it’s a fucking force. But it’s fucking not. A L I S O N I believe in ghosts, but I’ve never seen any. Friends of mine have. My friend saw a cat person outside the window one time. I’m not sure about Satan, but I love that fake meat ‘Seitan’. How has the chemistryy between the two of yyou developed p over the p past yyears? (awkward laughter) JA M I E We’ve become more psychically linked with each other. You wake up in the morning and just know by the way someone blinks whether to stay away from them, or whether they want some support, or whether there’s going to be inspiration to write a song. We can read each other much, much better these days. We’ve never imposed rules on each other. From day one we’ve always been allowed to scream blue murder at each other so there’s not any censorship involved. I think that’s helped our friendship a lot. There’s no kind of politeness involved either. We just behave however we like to each other. If we feel angry then the other person gets the other end of that person’s wrath. There is a hell of a lot of catharsis in our friendship. Do yyou see a long-term g future for The Kills? We don’t see it ending. JA M I E I feel that this is our life, so I’m not sure we’ll always be making records and touring, but we’ll certainly be doing something. ALISON
Booka Shade N
A Darker de Of Neon
»ON TH E ROAD«
83
Booka Shade de are arguably a g y the most famous German music export p since Kraftwerk. Startingg life as a synthy pop p p duo,, theyy slowlyy butt surelyy ggravitated towards harder techno sounds,, threw off the shackles of beingg a major j label act and started to createe their own o vision of electronic music. The rest,, as theyy say, y, is ((dance music)) history. y Ridingg the crest of a wave that saw w them as a both label bosses and musical creators,, Booka Shade released their second album Movements to almost universal sal acclaim. accl Named as album of the yyear byy Resident Advisor,, theyy clocked up p a staggering gg g 200+ shows across the gglobe.. So with w the release of their latest,, most p personal album,, The Sun & The Neon Light, g , loomingg near on the he horizon and preparations p p well under wayy for upcoming p g US shows,, Walter and Arno spent p some timee ta talkingg to Electronic Beats about difficult third albums,, inspiration p and not conformingg to p people’s p expectations. exp p
So yyou must be p prettyy busyy right g now… WA LT E R Oh yeah. We are getting so many calls from people, the e people we are working with and stuff, ‘Can we do this, can an we w do that.’ It’s like, hey, we leave NEXT WEEK! Ha ha! Just Jus get it ready, hee hee! A R N O Its funny, we always have this immense pressu ssure when a tour starts, any band does, the lights, sounds, visu isuals. We would obviously have forgotten something if theree was w no stress! WA LT E R It’s different than with the Movements Mo tour, as there we perfected as we went, it got bett etter and better, but now, we just don’t have the time. It has as to t be at the point that for the first show, Coachella, it hass to be perfect. Do yyou feel p pres ressurised havingg Coachella as the first show? Pressure ure?! Ha ha! What pressure? (They both fall about laughing ing). We do a little bit, yeah. It’s a bit better now, we now know now the gear works, we had a secret show last weekend outside Berlin where we tested everything. But you know failing is ok, it’s human, and we needed to take that risk because everything with our set up now is new. After the last tour, everything was really well, basically crashed. You could really feel the equipment falling apart by the end of the tour. Now all the music, arrangements, all of the equipment, the lights, everything is new but we feel less pressured having done one show already.
ba back, and was like ‘Are you guys crazy?! You have all these great songs, and you’re going to throw them away…’. So we then spoke to our staff, all the guys at Get Physical, and the feedback we got was that there were just a couple of changes needed here and there. So we made them, and suddenly there was this picture. It was always there! We were also just a little bit stuck with which single to start with, and once we had this, the picture was in place. WA LT E R So we decided to go for the more planetary thing, which funnily is actually not really a single but more like a club track, and after Numbers and all these more song-based things on DJ Kicks, that kind of music, we wanted to do something different, and people perhaps didn’t except that. We don’t like to always give people the same Booka Shade sound.
ARNO
So is this yyour difficult third album? Or yyour p perfect third album? A R N O Hmm. The production was like you say, the difficult album! It was our second album proper, and looking back, sure we had some horrible times. In January, for example, we wanted to throw the whole album away and start again, we just didn’t feel how everything should come together. We loved the songs, but we just missed that overall view. At this point our tour manager, who until then had heard nothing, heard some of the stuff. We thought we might as well play it to him, as we were going to start again, and we played him the stuff, and he listened to it and came
When I heard the album,, it wasn’t what I expected, p , but after a few listens I got g into it much more. WA LT E R Yeah, after Movements, it was a funny time. We didn’t plan for it to be such a huge success. We didn’t intend to have an album with four or five worldwide club hits on it. I remember the day we played Pukkelpop and when we played In White Rooms people were just going really crazy… I mean Arno was starting to cry, and I was standing there just thinking how can we top that? Is there any way to do that better? This was a really big question for me, a turning point in the production of the new album, because we then said it just doesn’t make sense to try and do an album with seven club hits, to do just the same thing again. So we had a drastic change, a break, and said let’s go back to what we really like, more cinematic stuff, our other sides, more deeper atmospheric stuff. With tracks like Duke? Exactly, very much John Carpenter inspired. But you know the Sun & The Neon Light feelings, we really experienced that on the tour, we definitely had those much darker parts. Copacabana, for example, was really written at the Copacabana… you know
that’s not a story, that’s really true [the songg ] and you can see that our state of mind was not in the best shape pe at that moment. You know to write song like that, when the sun iss shining and you are actually at the Copacabana…. but all of th h ose experiences went into this album and then there was the b irth of my son which was very important for me, so from that p oint you really grow up again, it’s the next level of your life and… You see that there is more to life than music and clubbing? cl g Exactly! There is a lot more going on around you and d this ref lects in the album. It shows musically that you know wee want to go more into songs. So it was clear before yyou ggot to the studio that this is was not ggoingg to be another Movements? A R N O Well, we worked on the album for about 15 months s , but inbetween we had DJ Kicks, we’ve had the shows, the DVD,, we had a lot of different things going on. It was a constant songw w riting process, but yeah, we knew we didn’t want to do a pure dance album, that was for sure. WA LT E R There were a few things that were perhaps present on n the old album, elements of In White Rooms and Mandarin Girl,, and we just had to scrub them out, get rid of them! A R N O We had the chance to be working on a particular sound very ve early on, first with Freemind by DJ-T then with our own stu u ff. That then transformed into this blueprint that was later calleed electro house, which is just now being beaten to death, all th he sexiness has gone. It’s like the kind of riffs we started to use, theree are lots of people now doing that, so why should we continue doingg that? We need to look for something new and it took a long time to find, let’s say, a new musical language. ‘Duke’ was one of the first songs that gave a hint of how the album should sound, this darkness, tension, a slower beat and a minimalist melody. WA LT E R Also the playing live. At the beginning we thought we’re a club act, we have to have that punchy sound, and then the audience started to get bigger and bigger, and then we played concert halls and then we said “OK, we can do other things now in the show, it’s not really necessary to play four-to-the-f loor all the time, but we missed the songs.” So we said, “well why not try and do a track with an orchestra, having these strings coming in over breaks and things.” These were just ideas for the live show which started to become a bit deeper, a bit more soul-orientated. It all depends though. At festivals, for example, where there are so many people and you have just 50 minutes, we do try to make the biggest impact. Like at Coachella, we’re playing in the dance tent, so we are going to really go for it. Even there though, we are going to try it out with these big strings and try and do something new.
How was it to work with an orchestra? Well, we have actually worked with an orchestra before because we also do film music from time to time, and stuff for adverts. Also, when we were doing major label pop, we had the chance to work with orchestras then, so it’s not completely new for us. It’s always a great feeling though. Did yyou conduct?! A R N O Ha ha, no not conducting! Walter did the string arr rrangements, then a guy we have known for many years, a conductor, con wrote the sheet music and conducted. We did it her ere just outside Berlin with the Brandenburg Orchestra. A great gr hall with a 40-piece orchestra, it was amazing. We didn’tt want it too big though; we didn’t want to go Hollywood! How do you y feel about touringg the album um,, consideringg how manyy shows you y played p y on the back of Mo Movements? Your commitments are different now... A R N O I am afraid…! I am afraid that it will l be very long. It’s more dates, more midweek dates and it is p lanned as far ahead as December, so we know for the next sevven months what we will be doing. It’s roughly the same process every time, you start with Europe, then you go to America which h is, of course, the most important market, so you have to go a few times, first st with w a small tour, then a bigger one. In the autt umn we go to th the smaller cities, these more rural Texan places. What is it like touringg the backwaters ers of o America? Well we did Calgary in the past, pas whic ich was really funny.
WA LT E R
Do p people p gget the music sic tthere? WA LT E R Well, in the e DVD DV (Booka Shade Mome ments Tour DVD) all those peoplee at the beginning, going absolute tely nuts, that’s in Calgary! Th That is Calgary! People were chantingg “Booka Fucking Shade, Booka Fucking Shade”, it was very crazy. A R N O I am really curious to see how somewhere like Texa xas will be… Austin could be fun… A R N O Yeah, exactly, but before we have only really played d big shows in LA, Miami these kind of places. We will be playing at Lollapalooza, which is really a kind of rock-based thing, I mean we are playing directly before Nine Inch Nails…! We’ll have to wear our metal clothes. And yyou are p playing y g Glastonbury, y, too. Yeah, we are headlining the dance tent. I mean if you told me five years ago I would be even playing at Glastonbury… All these people that support us, like being on the iTunes pre-sale list, I mean it’s just crazy, and the only reason is that the head of iTunes guy is a big Booka Shade fan, a big supporter. It’s the biggest platform for downloading in the US, and ahead of a tour there, for us that is just amazing… WA LT E R
»
N THE R AD«
“It just goes to show how far you can come with independent structures, and what we love is that we made the right decision a few years ago when we said sa we don’t want to work with major jor labels anymore. We were fed up p with it, we needed to find nd some s other way to promote and release our music. music We strongl ngly believe that it’s a great time now for independents; ther here re is so much you can do with the Internet, places like Beatpor port for ex example. We have had so many offers from big compan mpanies wanting to use our music, offering us a deal and we can say, you know what, aapart from money, what can you offer ffer us? We don’t need that, we hav have our own structure. Howeve wever, we are also completely reliant on the people at Get Phy Physical, the label, because really, we have nothing more to offer o than the music itself. It’s like the guy from iTunes, we can’t c give him any money, he just likes us! That’s reallyy go good, that’s healthy. We have the rights, if someone wants to u use our music, they have to speak to us!”
ARNO
85
“On the last album, we spent €5000 marketing it. That’s it. “O Ph Philipp from M.A.N.D.Y said to us if you are really honest with yourself, and you are doing the music that you are really into, be it free jazz or whatever, you will be successful. For a long time we felt like a pinball of the music industry. All this chart success and all this stuff in the end was not making us happy. I mean we did some really fun stuff, but there was other stuff that was just getting worse and worse. In the end we felt like we had Big Brother watching us all the time, and we just said that’s it, enough!” WA LT E R
Falko Brocksieper
A GOOD D DAY I S A H E AV Y DAY Y TEXT
GARETH OWEN
Falko Brockskieper p is p probablyy best known as the So you y moved here from Cologne g – you y did art there? head of Sub Static,, the label he runs in conjuncj tion with longg term collaborator MIA. He is also a rather ggood DJ,, Producer and is about to make his
Yeah, I moved to Cologne from my home town to stay at the academy of media arts. I graduated in 2002, stayed a few years more and then about three and half years ago, MIA and I thought it was time for a change.
in the arts? Apart p from yyour music. B o n d e DNo o R all. o lTheeved No, not at all reason why I started with arts was because I the masses. We spent p some time on a sunnyy morning graphic design. I do all of the graphic design for / D i pourl labels, oally into and for a few friends as well, and some other stuff chattingg techno,, house and movingg to Berlin.
live debut,, showcasingg his new album
in that direction. It was really about media design, but as I got into music more and more, it stopped, and now the stuff with the label is my only outlet for that! But it’s fun that way, when you do something like that you are doing it just for yourself, it’s not about some customer that doesn’t understand!
»ON TH E ROAD«
What prompted p p the move to Berlin? Well, first I got really tired of Cologne. In the end, especially when you are involved in the scene, it’s a really small city. It’s a nice city, but for me personally, I got stuck there a bit too long. Within a few weeks I decided I needed a change in my life, and decided to move to Berlin. You know, like everyone! Ha ha! In Cologne, people were maybe a bit critical, but really the reason everyone does it, is it’s worth it. I didn’t regret it for a single day. Here, just by walking through the streets you can find an inf luence, or find that every day there is something going on at a club, or a party, or something happening. In Cologne it was like, do I go to the one party, or not! Sub Static was set up p while yyou were still in Cologne g though? g Yes, the first release was 2001. It started in Cologne when MIA and I met. We shared that fascination and we thought it would be good to have our own little playground for what we and a few friends were doing. So do you y still work with the same artists? There are few artists that are still on board like René Breitbarth, a long time friend. His was one of the first records. He did one last year and will probably do an EP this year. Things definitely move and change, you meet new people and you change the style of things a bit. Is there a certain sound yyou are lookingg for? It’s really different most of the time. We are definitely not the label that thinks that such and such a sound is cool, so let’s see who is doing that. I think it makes no sense. It makes the label appear artificial. So most releases are quite spontaneous – we hear something from an artist, and it’s just that feeling, “Yeah, we need that.” Categorizing g g electronic music is a reallyy difficult thingg but how would you y describe your y sound? It’s weird whenever I write about my own stuff, I sometime make fun of it and make up stuff just for that record, but really the term I really like is just: techno. Ha ha! Because for me that is the one place where it started, where I got in touch with that overall style. I am really not a fan of tiny sub categories. For me what I am doing is techno, even if sometimes I want to do a more downbeat track, or even something a bit more housey. So techno and well, maybe house are the genres I see myself in! How did yyou gget involved in music p production? Well, I started DJing in 1993 in my bedroom, of course. That’s where it started. I was getting into raves and I found it all really fascinating when I was like 17. I started DJing and then about six or seven years later I started to try and make my own productions. I guess, you know, the classic way!
87
How do you y feel about performing p g the album? You haven’t played p y live before! Yeah, well the release party will actually be the second time I will have played it live. So we shall see! How was the makingg of this different to Host Deluxe? Well, the first album was much more, let’s say, naïve. It was much more simple. Well, I guess my music was more simple! At this time I didn’t have so much pressure, we just had our little label, we didn’t think about, how can we market this, or whatever. It was just, send this to distribution and they will sell it. But if you want to survive as a label and as an artist, you have to think about these things. Competition and the more commercial side of the underground music scene has increased so much in the last five years, to the point where it’s now completely different. So I had to really think. I wanted something you could really listen to on a CD and I wanted some DJs to play it, so it was a much harder process to make it. I really had to think more about the style of everything, about what I was trying to say to people. It’s actually a totally new approach, which is what everyone now is doing. In some ways that is really quite sad for me, as the innocence is lost a bit, but on the other hand it’s interesting and challenging, especially when you are into graphic design and things like that. You then get the whole picture. What other artists are interestingg yyou right g now? Well, I think first off the most well known DJ’s are not the best ones. The irony is that if you are a big DJ, you have to have some big records to play out, where one has nothing to do with the other. For example, Mark Schneider is one of my favourite DJs. He is a really good example of how DJing is a real passion for someone, he’s not trying to be fashionable but he still is, because he goes his own way. I mean artists, its always changing, but Jay Haze I am really into. Jay has the approach to go beyond what it is common to do. I really hope his new album format is going to work out. I really like the album. He’s remixingg a Lament as well? Yes, him and Mike Monday. It’s going to be a two track release, no original and I am really excited about that too. Mike Monday and MIA are also paying at the record release party at Watergate, which is the starting point of some shows to support the album. Just don’t ask me where yet!
EB HEAR THIS
MUSIC REVIEWS
Hear this Here are all the latest and greatest CD reviews - not to be missed is The Infadels new album! Then get moving with the Collector’s Guide to Transportive Tracks and to round this issue off, the lovely Anja Schneider from mobilee Records reveals how her trip to Mexico proved especially inspiring when making her new album ‘Beyond the Valley’.
89
R’ CTO E L COL UIDE G
S
TRANSPORTIVE T R AC K S TEXT
VIK TORIA PELLES
I L LUST R AT ION S
LEONA LIST
CHROMATICS
TELEX
Running up that Hill
En route vers de nouvelles aventures
Autobahn
Better get a lawyer
‘Night Drive’ - 2007
‘Neurovision’ - 1980
‘Autobahn’- 1974
‘Three Legged Dog’ - 1995
Many would be intimidated by the excellence of Kate Bush, but not Chromatics from Italians Do It Better label, whose cover of ‘Running up that Hill’ achieves its own heights inversely by way of their very individual emotional restraint. The album is Night Drive and its narcotic, distant, pop-synth melancholia is the very essence of a night ride’s lulling exhaustion.
Few acts can boast a musical journey incorporating both Eurovision (they finished last in 1980) to being remixed by Detroit greats like Carl Craig. Many of their tracks (think Belgian Kraftwerk with more vocoders and humour) are also about trips and transport (Tour de France, Moscow Discow, Twist à Saint Tropez), and the quirkily optimistic ‘En route vers de nouvelles aventures’ will ensure a happy voyage wherever you may be going.
Nothing better captures the monotony of a long trip than Kraftwerk’s conceptual classic. The 22-minute title track (reduced to around three minutes for single release) perfectly transmits, in their inimitable style, the exhilaration of the fast lane, tuning of the car radio and repetitiveness of white stripes and green borders streaking past the windows.
Providing the ultimate backdrop for roadtrips, it’s fitting that Australia should also supply the appropriate sounds. The Cruel Sea’s unique droning surf sound and the rough and raw vocals of Tex Perkins will give you this wonderfully lawless and liberated feeling you want on the road; y’know, like a fugitive on the run from the troubles of life, love, the law …
BRIAN ENO Ambient 1
‘ Music for Airports’ - 1978 In a perfect world, streets are free from dog shit, your realestate agent cares about your water heater, and airports are these queueless centres where transportation blends with relaxation and we all f loat along picturesque walkways to the ambient sounds of Brian Eno. B-52s Planet Claire ‘The B-52s’- 1979
This debut album is a musthave for long car journeys. Whenever the enthusiasm levels drop below satisfactory, just insert and play. Caution: may cause speeding, erratic steering or inadvertent dancing by the side of the road.
KRAFTWERK
A GUY CALLED GERALD BRONSKI BEAT Smalltown Boy
MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE Raw Cuts (12”) ‘MCDE’ - 2008
The artist name and the soulful sounds will lead your mind straight to Detroit, but Motor City Drum Ensemble is the moniker of Danilo Plessow from Germany’s own motor city, Stuttgart. Also responsible for the jazzy house tracks of Inverse Cinematics, this musically precocious 22-year old was producing his own music at age 12. Look out for releases on Four Roses recordings and the debut album Passin’ Through out soon on Pulver Records.
THE CRUEL SEA
Proto Acid – The Berlin Sessions
‘The Age of Consent’- 1984
‘Laboratory Instinct’ - 2006
Suffering the persecution of a young gay man in a small town is maybe something we can’t all relate to, but this timeless song about realising your individuality and following your own path nonetheless belongs on the soundtrack to practically all our lives.
A tenuous link to transport but stay with me: A quality trip requires quality acid, right? So, you want to pick your producer with care. Gerald Simpson has been breaking ground and inf luencing the industry for 20 years. His sound is at once psychedelic, soulful and – like himself – exudes effortless rhythm and pleasurable vibes. Just open wide and trust in the man.
FLYING LOTUS Roberta Flack feat. Dolly ‘Los Angeles’ - 2008
For journeys of the introspective sort present your ears to Flying Lotus an dreamy sound tronic experim album Los Ang Warp records.
EB HEAR THIS
MUSIC R E V I E WS OUR FAV
OUR
RE V I E WS
G A R E T H O W E N / G AV I N B L AC K B U R N
ITE
INFADELS ‘ Universe In Reverse ’
APPARAT ‘Things to be Frickled’
HEADLIGHTS ‘Some Racing, Some Stopping’
GROOVE ARMADA ‘Late Night Tales’
(Pias Recordings )
(Shitkatapult)
(Polyvinyl)
(Azuli)
New album from Infadels, the London based Indie band who mix screeching guitars, electronics and hooks a plenty into near perfect pop music. It’s no wonder Mazda have used their track; "Can’t Get Enough" to soundtrack their latest TV Advert. Universe In Reverse is an album full of hits, or soon to be hits that showcase the bands ability to cross genres while still maintaining their desire to stay true to their roots. According to the band, their manifesto wrote itself, and consisted of delivering a raw sound, chaotic gigs and the burning desire to see the band follow their instincts without apology. GO
It’s little wonder we’ve heard little of Sascha Ring lately; he’s obviously been a busy boy in the studio to knock out this record. CD1 features tracks from the likes of Nathan Fake and Boysnoize, which have all received the Apparat Magic Touch whilst CD2 is a collection of Apparat cuts remixed by a wealth of artists, Boysnoize, Phon.O and Modeselektor to name but a few. If Saturday night was especially hardcore, then this is for your Sunday afternoon. G B
Hey kids! Why don’t we all buy turtle-neck sweaters and paint a VW campervan in dayglo colours and we can drive off right into 1970 and solve crimes like who’s haunting the old Chalmers place and who’s scaring the property developers away from Willow Creek. Scooby and his gang would no doubt be singing along to this breezy, hand-clappy LP. Well whaddya know, it was old man Withers all the time! G B
The mighty Groove Armada dig deep into their record collections to put together this spiffy mixtape but for all you nay-sayers who think this is just a quick cash-in you’d be mistaken. All the tracks here have been tweaked ever so slightly transforming them into something you’ve never heard before. Not necessarily what you’d call a remix, more a re-interpretation. Check what they’ve done with Love is the Drug and you’d think they’d recorded it themselves. Genius. GB
MUSIC REVIEWS
93
WHITE WILLIAMS ‘Smoke’
DANIELE BALDELLI ‘Cosmic Disco? Cosmic Rock!’
ZENZILE ‘Living in Monochrome’
(Domino)
(Eskimo Recordings)
(Uncivilized World)
Covers can fool you into believing a record is something it isn’t. On this one you might think you’re gonna get some godawful Woodstocky-Crosby Stills and Nash-Hindi-Kula Shakery nonsense. Whereas this is a straight-down-theline pop rock effort with some smooth, sunny vocals and snazzy electronic f lourishes. Perfect accompaniment for your summer BBQ and (Buddah be praised) he doesn’t mention Marrakesh once. G B
Daniele Baldelli has been behind the decks in one way or another since the late 1960s, as one of the first ever Italian DJs, laying down a mix of white European disco, synth pop and new wave, and black American soul, R&B and funk. This is Italian disco! Eskimo Recordings have put out a gem of a mix (and this is a real mix with records) that bounces from the sublime to the rocking to the bizarre – Spirits Potato Land theme?! There are tracks from well knowns like La Bionda and the Thompson Twins, rubbing shoulders with the Bronx Irish Catholics, as well as rarities from Martha And The Muffins and Torch Song… This makes me want to dance in decadent Italian nightclubs, circa 1985. White suit optional. G0
This is one of those pick ‘n’ mix kind of records which incorporates elements of several different genres (in this case jazz, lo-fi and reggae to name but a few) which is saved from appearing to be an uncertain hodge podge by being bound together with some spiky rock guitar riffs and addictive electro beats. An impressive LP with something for everyone. GB
YOUNG KNIVES ‘Superabundance’ (Inkubator)
This is the kind of rabble-rousing record you especially need to listen to if your weekend usually consists of screwing your best friend’s wife and kicking in ethnic minorities. Although one glimpse at the foppish graduates in tweeds who recorded it might make you balk. Nevertheless, it’s a swarthy, drunken barbarian at heart and a brilliant slice of jagged indie rock which will achieve notoriety on its own merits rather than on any manufactured, music press hype. G B
TAPES ‘N TAPES ‘Walk it Off ’ (XL Recordings)
Oh my God. If devil’s child Damian from The Omen raped that creepy Regan chick from The Exorcist and their offspring hooked up with one of Sweeney Todd’s bastard children to hang out reciting incantations with Anton La Vey and they started a “project” to score yet another Kenneth Anger Magick film, it might possibly sound like this. Just get Dr. Crippen in to produce it and it really is THAT evil. Dig out your crucifix and pray you don’t ever have to hear it. GB
FALKO BROCKSIEPER ‘Heavy day’ (Sub Static)
Head of Sub Static with partner-in-crime MIA, recent newcomer to Berlin and maker of fine electronic music, Falko Brocksieper has released what could be called the complete techno album. From opening track Lament you know that electronic treats are in store as Heavy Day forges a path between Northern Exposure style euphoria on The Whole Story to f lecks of Gallic Strings on That Night, via the electronic rush of album opener Lament. This is mostly an album for home listening. Intelligently structured, layered arrangements and a level of attention to detail in the sound creation means I will be coming back to this album for a while yet. GO
EB HEAR THIS
GONG GONG ‘Mary’s Spring ’
GLIMPSE ‘Elephant Skin ’ (Leftroom)
(Pias Recordings )
Gong Gong? No I’d never heard of them either, and I can’t pretend as the information in front of me is minimal. It talks of “delicate and funny music, scratched by abstraction” and I don’t know what that means. Erring on the side of experimental is often a dangerous thing, all style over substance and groove and rhythms lost to the expense of weirdness. Mary’s Spring however, manages to combine a double bass with hands splashing in the bath, ringing telephones and bleeps from a distant galaxy, into an album so charming, enchanting and good I want to dedicate myself to a life of sonic experimentation.. GO
KINK ‘Signal EP’
(Discos Capablanca)
Glimpse, the up-and-coming Brixton-based producer, follows the recent sublime Five Easy Pieces with Elephant Skins, his latest release on Left Room. Dark conga drums, which really do sound like the jungle radio, lead you into things before some seriously spooked out vocals and touches of Jazz sax appear like animals showing themselves one by one. Jay Haze takes things in a more generic house direction, but Johnny D delivers a stunning remix, taking the jungle intensity, upping it a notch or two and stripping the track back down to a driving minimal beast. GO
HOUSEMEISTER ‘Who Is That Noize ’ (Allyoucanbeat)
(Boe Recordings)
New label from the heart of East London, BOE Recordings. With strong support from the likes of Paul Woolford, Burnski, Laurent Garnier and Mark Knight, BOE are quickly being established as a must-watch label. Sometimes and Skip The Groove Ft. Rachel Row are a pair of up front house tracks, guaranteed to get bums shaking and feet moving, but for me it is all about the title track. Signal is the kind of acid house monster that destroys dance f loors and drives people insane at five a.m. There is so much wonk in this, I feel like I might fall over. Great. GO
GRACKLE (AKA SPECULATOR) ‘Jungle’
Housemeister, the techno B-Boy delivers his second album allyoucanbeat. On Who Is That Noize, Housemeister has borrowed more that just the ‘z’ from his contemporary Boys Noize as he delivers an album of crunchy electro that could only have been made in 2008. This is the sound of robots fighting in the street, like a West Side story re-imagined with vengeful cyborgs. This is actually a good thing, but don’t expect much let up from the electronic strings of album opener Hallo Lieblingsmensch to tracks like Red Eyed Robot, which is as close to techno break-dance as I get. GO
Berlin based FUCK HUGO has been making quite a name for himself recently. With very little fanfare, he has slipped out the first release of his own label, Jungle, by New York’s Grackle (aka Speculator) DJ, producer and purveyor of tropical disco as well as being part of a loose knit Berlin/NYC disco collective with his new label boss. Jungle is sparse and ambient, the beats hardly there as the track f loats along on the barest number of sounds, making you wish for a little bit more to get stuck into. More a collage than a song. On the remixes though, things get a lot more interesting. Unit4 deliver a moody druggy version with plenty of chug for those who want to do the disco shuff le. However Hugo and partner-incrime T Keeler’s version is the best thing by far. At once both melancholic and joyous, this deserves to be heard wide and far. Imagine a robot humanoid ref lecting from the window of his spaceship on the love he will never know, and you are almost there. G O
MUSIC REVIEWS
NEVA DINOVA ‘You May Already Be Dreaming’
CHAZ JANKEL ‘Get Yourself Together’
(Saddle Creek)
(Tirk)
The tortured vocals, acoustic guitars and minimal production make this record typical Saddle Creek fare and it does make you wonder when the label are going to take the plunge and diversify a bit. By no means poor, it does tend to be the kind of record that should only be played when life gets too much and you decide to put away a bottle of Smirnoff and down 50 Tylenol. Then it’s the perfect soundtrack to your departure from planet Earth. Shake well before use. Keep out of reach of children. GB
The driving force behind Ian Dury And The Blockheads’ tight as you like rhythm section, Chaz Chankel, had been out in the musical wilderness for the best part of 20 years. Then in 2007 came a clutch of hotly received 12 inches on left-field disco labels Tirk and Big Bear. Now Get Yourself Together (also on Tirk) has landed. A shimmering housey builder, all scratchy guitar licks, sexy keys and falsetto vocals that get better with every listen. New kids on the block Hercules And The Love Affair provide two killer remixes, taking the original’s chuggy funk and turning it into two similar, but slightly different, acid house workouts. Finally, as if that’s not enough proto-house / nu-disco for your money, there is a lovely Todd Terje re-edit of a slightly older track, Glad To Know You (listen out for some very bizarre lyrics….) GO
95
ALLEZ ALLEZ ‘The Best Of Allez Allez ’ (Eskimo Recordings )
The name Allez Allez should ring some bells. But no, not the music mix blog run by a pair of bearded DJs Allez Allez the Belgian New Beat band of the early eighties. Allez Allez were slightly more than a f lash in the post-disco pan, but since their last club hit in 1985, they have dropped off the radar and out of site. That was until their self-titled track was tweaked and remixed by Lindstrom and Prinz Thomas a couple of years back. Now we have the best of Allez Allez covering all of the hits as well as a clutch of remixes from the Eskimo Stable. Taking the wobbly bass and tight percussive sound of New York post punk bands like Liquid Liquid and Felix, and adding a European twist on things, it’s a wonder why it has taken until now for a best-of CD to be released. Recommended. G O
MAREK BOIS ‘Boissche Untiefen’ (Rrygular)
You know that particular kind of Berghain moment where the sun is shining through the stained-glass window and you realise for the first time in hours that you haven’t been near a cup of tea or a shower in what seems like weeks, and that you really ought to throw in the towel, go home and jump into your nice clean pyjamas. But then it somehow goes pear-shaped and you end up in Bar 25. Forgotten? Stick this on and it’ll all come f looding back. G B
EB HEAR THIS
BOOKA SHADE ‘Sun & Neon Light’ (Get Physical)
DELON & DALCAN ‘Tanz’ (Boxer)
Minimal techno often gets a bum wrap and in many cases, rightly so. However, Delon and Dalcan’s pristine collection of clinical beats and robot vocals are an example of when it’s done well it can be extremely good and proof, if any was needed, that when all those sci-fi movie predictions come true and they power up the Zero Gravity Disco this is what we’ll be f loating around to. Can you hear me Major Tom? G B
One time synth pop duo, darlings of the international dance scene, so-called creators of electro house as well as being co-owners of arguably Germany’s most famous record label (Get Physical, duh...), Booka Shade are back with their third album, The Sun & The Neon Light. Third albums are notorious for making or breaking an artist’s reputation, so it must be with some trepidation that Walter and Arno deliver their most personal album to date. In short, it’s pretty good. Leaving behind (mostly) the dance f loor friendly feel of Movements, and adopting a more song-based structure, Booka Shade have delivered an album as complex as it is subtle. Sure, it’s still Booka Shade, but perhaps a more grown-up and ref lective version than we have come to expect. G O
AKIKO KIYAMA ‘7 Years’
REKLEINER
(District Of Corruption)
(Murmur)
As you can probably guess Akiko Kiyama hails from the land of the rising sun. Appropriately she makes techno that’s as perfect as the rising sun, that is if you could see it from a windowless basement club as you danced yourself into a frenzy. Akiko is barely 25 and has already released a string of happily received EPs, and now she drops her debut album; 7 Years, on District Of Corruption. Sick, twisted laptop techno, that makes it difficult to fathom how someone so young can make something so complete. Progressive and intricate in some places, crunchy and minimal in others, 7 Years sounds both familiar and unique. Like a younger, more dancef loor friendly Autechre this is the kind of techno that chews up expectations and spits them right back out. GO
Murmur…. new label from Geddes, musical controller of London’s mulletover parties. Some People is atmospheric, groovy techno for tripped out dancef loors and slightly messed minds. It’s fair to say a bit of mulletover’s distinctive blend of the funkier ends of techno and the more jacking ends of Minimal are ref lected by Rekleiner, the musical project of Geddes, Anthony Middleton and Luca Saporito. Dubby beats, quirky electronic sounds and a deep underground feeling are intensified by a haunting synthesised vocal. Perhaps best enjoyed with smoke machines and lasers. Daniel Stefanik follows his recent remix work for Get Physical and Vakant with an even deeper, druggier remix. Music to get lost in ... GO
MUSIC REVIEWS
THE LONG BLONDES ‘Couples’
JAY HAZE ‘Love And Beyond’
(Rough Trade)
(Tuning Spork)
It doesn’t seem five minutes since EB were reviewing Long Blondes’ first LP back in 2006 and up they pop with album number two. It’s all change this time round though; the angular, spiky, art-school rock of their stunning debut has been smoothed off and re-made/remodelled on a record which is still recognisable as the band at heart but has a softer, more disco approach to it. Give it time and you’ll love it just as much as Someone To Drive You Home. GB
Jay Haze’s latest offering is not one, not two, but three discs of new material that could only be released by someone who feels that they are at the top of their game - and herein lies the problem. There are almost 40 new tracks spread across this release and well, to be frank, they can’t all be good. Veering from summer hip-hop, via poppy R&B to straight-up minimal tracks with the likes of Villalobos it’s difficult to see the point, or even if there is one. That’s not to say that all is bad, but listening over the three CDs I can’t help thinking that some quality control should have been applied. Quality not quantity is the message here. My favourite – Can’t Forget Feat. Dexter, and even that nicks the lyrics from Chicago stalwart Mr Lee. GO
FLYING LOTUS ‘Los Angeles’ (Warp)
Flying Lotus is a name becoming synonymous with a new breed of sonic experimentation. Taking his reference points musically from hip hop, cutting edge techno and an obvious love of dubstep Flying Lotus has woven a rich, sometimes unsettling fabric of sounds, textures and beats that slowly envelop you as you listen. For his debut release on Warp, his home city of Los Angeles was the main inspiration; a city where the gulf between those that have and those that do not have has been captured by nervous scratchy beats, white noise and disembodied vocal snatches. GO
MONDO FUMATORE ‘The Hand’ (Rewika)
We’re all getting older. It’s harder and harder to get up in the morning, we’re ready for bed again by 7pm, each day brings a new ache (usually somewhere in your back) and you suddenly find yourself thinking about your bank account more than sex. So what’s wrong with an album full of perky indie rock that makes you think about 1997 when you could go four days without sleep and didn’t have to groan to bend down to pick up the keys your shaky fingers have dropped? GB
97
MY SIC MU ENT M MO
I N T E RVI E W FOTO
L I Z M C G R AT H
BENNO KRAEHAHN
A N JA SCH NEI DER Anja j Schneider is the drivingg force behind the veryy successful,, Berlin based,, mobilee record label. Anja j and the label have a huge g followingg around the world and her music takes her on manyy travels. Here she tells us how one special p jjourneyy ((a road trip p across Mexico), ), p proved veryy inspiring, p g, as directlyy after this she went into the studio to record her new artist album ‘Beyond y The Valley’. y One of the most interesting journeys I ever went on was travelling 5000km through Mexico in my little Renault Clio – it was a total adventure. It was my idea to go – a friend told me at an afterparty in Mexico that he would go from Monterey to Los Angeles and that it would take four hours, but he meant the f light, not a drive – however I thought he meant a drive and I thought “that’s not so long”, and I got inspired to drive through Mexico. So from the beginning we started off on the wrong foot. I was with Diego – my Mexican boyfriend - and he was saying “No no, its much longer than you think”, but I didn’t really listen! We missed two f lights because Mexico has totally different roads than I was used to – and I thought I would drive through it in two weeks but it took at least three; I basically estimated the distances completely wrong. We started in Monterey and ended in Baja California, a little island – we also missed the connecting ferry twice – in some ways it was a disaster but it was all so much fun! It’s so colourful in the Mexican towns and by the coast, but then also driving through the desert was such a crazy experience with all the dust and open spaces.
On this journey I became a big fan of the Mexican Mariachi bands. They are very traditional and historically important in Mexico and yet you still hear them everywhere – the young and old both love them. Usually a mariachi consists of at least three violins, two trumpets, one Mexican guitar, one vihuela (a highpitched, five-string guitar) and one guitarrón (a small-scaled acoustic bass). They dress in silver studded charro outfits with wide-brimmed hats. The original Mariachi were Mexican street musicians or buskers and they usually sing about drug deals and gangsters and this sort of thing. As this was exactly the time that I was preparing for my album, I was really inspired and I went to the Mexican f lea markets to look for old instruments that the Mariachi bands use. I managed to buy some but when I took them into the studio in Berlin my producer told me I was totally crazy and that he couldn’t use them. They were a bit too old and useless, but still I think I took some of the f lavour into my music. The songs on my album Cascabel (which is a Spanish word for a snake) and Safari, were especially inspired by Mexico. During the whole trip I felt like I was in a road movie or maybe a Tarantino film – and the Mexican Mariachi music was our film soundtrack! WWW.MOBILEE-RECORDS.DE