Interview-Plaid
March 3rd, 2004 by Koldo Barroso
"Spokes" is the latest album from Plaid, one of the most creative and personal electronic artists since the 90’s. Apart from containing new music and a different sleeve, the new work from the duo on Warp records is a sample of how quality, freshness, fun, and beauty can be synonyms of electronic music today.
-What makes "Spokes" different from your former albums?
-It contains previously unreleased music and has a different sleeve.
-Are you happy about the current electronic scene in the world?
-There’s lots of good music out there some of it is electronic. I doubt there is a electronic music scene, it covers too much ground now and magazines are too busy slicing it up into sub groups. The ’scenes’ tend to be media constructs.
- What made Plaid survive and the project go to the way-side?
-We continued writting and releasing music and of course sold our souls to the government several years ago. our super powers have also been a great help.
-What was your day job before becoming a professional artist?
-We both did various jobs full and part time until 1996 to support our music, including a container control clerk, stationary gimp monkey boy, porter in a dental hospital and changing room attendant in a large womens clothing store.
-What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you live?
-It’s an on-going joke, I haven’t got to the punch line yet but the anticipation’s killing me.
-The most beautiful memory in your career?
- We’re lucky to have travelled to plenty of beautiful places with our music, mount Fuji in Japan is one of them.
-Your favorite non-electronic artists?
-Stevie Wonder.
-The artists you’d die to work with?
-Andre 3000.
-And go to bed with?
- Mara Carlyle.
-Which dead artist would you like to visit if you would go to a hypothetic heaven?
-Mozart.
-Which is the factor that has been the most influential in the development of your music throughout your career?
-The early hip hop movement. the first music that really excited me. We still try to write music that captures that energy.
-How do you think music will be at the end of this century?
-Probably pretty much the same. Hopefully there will be a move away from the western tonal scale as our ears become familiar with other possibilities. More interactive music would be good and musical algorithums that sound different everytime they’re played, but we have all these things now and people still want to hear is "Club Seven".