Words With: Autechre, Vol. 2 (2015)

Part One of this interview is available here: Words With: Autechre, Vol. 1 (2015)

Whereas Part One focused mostly on production and process, Part Two is more personal, discussing various artists, influential and contemporary:

Rob Hall, MMM, Alexander Robotnick, Jack Dangers aka Meat Beat Manifesto, Richard James aka Aphex Twin, Renegade Soundwave, Latin Rascals, Ben Stokes aka DHS, Disco Mix Club aka DMC, 23 Skidoo, Unique 3, 808 State, A Guy Called Gerald, Future Sound of London, Mark Stewart, Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc, John Peel, Art of Noise, Jay Dilla, Hudson Mohawke, L.I.E.S., Laurel Halo, Hyperdub, Lauren Bousfield, Oneohtrix Point Never, Drexciya, Dopplereffekt, and Joshua Kit Clayton.

CZ
Have you noticed that the way that you make music, or think about music—has it changed as you guys have gotten older, and have a family?

Sean
Rob's got a family, so I can't really answer that. I'm literally just a studio hermit these days.

Rob
I had some profound changes when I first had children. When [my son] was born, and was old enough to listen to music, there'd be certain tracks that I took—not for granted—but have always been part of me. 

I wouldn't listen to them differently, but they'd affect me much more emotionally, because I'd think, What? If he [Rob's son] just inherited that feeling for this track then, then jeez, this is gonna be special. You see the poignancy of how you feel about a particular track. And it can be arbitrary in a sense: what you went through when you heard it, or who you were when you were checking something out, those kinds of values, they shift a bit. 

So yeah, it has these profound effects like that. But once you reach a certain age, you're back on track doing things your way. Not being affected by those different perspectives on things. You become a little more reinforced of who you were pre-children. 

Sean
So you go into man-child mode, basically.

(laughter)

CZ
Could you tell me about your relationship with Rob Hall, and what's kept it going for so long?

Sean
Cuz we're old mates. (laughs) 

We've just known him for 30 years. We have really similar taste in music, but obviously he's got his own take on it, because he's quite an individual character, really. He always knows how to match what we're doing, and he knows what we're doing, basically. He's someone that we trust to come up with a decent playlist and not get boring. He's a fucking brilliant DJ and totally underrated. 

But he can't survive just doing Autechre tours, so he's got a life beyond doing music. He's got a job, a family, all that stuff. But when we do a tour, we can usually drag him out for it, and we all have a lot of fun.

Personally, I think he's a brilliant DJ. He's really good at creating a kind of consistency, being able to play tracks from any point of the last 50 years. It's difficult to know what era the tracks are from if you're not that familiar with dance music. He's got an immense reach, and a very large and very specific record collection that really fits with what we do. So it's really easy to bring him along and say, "There you go."

Rob
He's got the capacity to surprise us a lot. There'll be a lot of times where we just presume he'll have the right stuff to play for us, and he'll have no doubt loads of new stuff in his inbox or have his ear to the ground somewhere, and he'll come out with these things that actually sound—without sounding ridiculous—life-changing. There'll be times when I've stepped up and gone, What's that!? and he says, Oh, it's the new MMM. 

And then he'll play some house, and he'll say, Oh, it's [Alexander] Robotnick or something. This is insane! And he's just a guy. Just a guy that plays these tracks—stop it, it's perfect!

When he does it [DJing], he does it really, really right. And it's way more than you expected. And it keeps working, and that keeps happening, so we keep asking him to come with us, it adds a whole special sheen to the situation.

Sean
We used to do little house parties, before we had a deal or anything, when we were doing pirate radio. We'd just be DJing house parties, little parties. And then Rob was always like—always the guy who'd end up getting on the decks at 2 a.m., when everyone's a bit fucked, and everyone's just past the peak, nobody wants to move. And Rob sets up on the decks and plays for three hours and it was always just really good. 

And I think… it was that thing really, getting yourself to a point where you're letting other people take control, and he'd play loads of tracks that would fit, cuz he'd know how to tweak ya. He's a bit manipulative with music. In a similar way to we are, I suppose. He's not known for being anything other than our tour DJ, but I think that's the way he likes it. It's low pressure, you know. 

CZ
Have you heard the new Meat Beat Manifesto record?

Sean
The Skam one?

CZ
Yeah.

Sean
It's fuckin' really good. I love Jack [Dangers]. He's totally underrated. He should be getting loads more gigs than he gets. He's never really been one for following fashion. He'll slightly acknowledge it in his tracks, but won't dive into a scene and make his presence felt. But I rate him for that. He's not always made tracks that I've always got into, but when he's good, he's fucking untouchable.