Interview
Earplug
April 2008
The mosaic of Kieran Hebden’s musical narrative is one of constant, relentless evolution. From his collaborations as part of Fridge to the ever-mutating sound of his Four Tet moniker and his inspired improvisational playdates with legendary drummer Steve Reid, the UK-based producer/performer re-invents any genre he’s exploring. For his expansive new Ringer EP, Hebden swapped his usually dense, cascading rhythms for something more streamlined and club-friendly. The result is a set of dynamic and effusive techno-inspired rhythms that do more with 30 minutes than most sitcoms. Earplug’s Patrick Sisson dialed Hebden up in London to discuss dinner dates with Caribou, getting into the right headspace for Ringer, and the benefits of befriending a Brazilian brewery.
Earplug: Since you recorded Everything Ecstatic, you’ve been collaborating with different people, trying new things, and going in new directions. Were you looking for something specific?
Kieran Hebden: After the Everything Ecstatic tour, I felt like it was time for something different. As luck would have it, I’d met Steve Reid a few months before. We got on straight away — did two shows the weekend we met. After that, we realized this was something we were going to take much further.
EP: How has he influenced your music?
KH: I’ve learned so much about rhythm from him. He plays this steady, 4/4 pulse all the time. For me, improvisation, rather than being some quest for freedom, is more about music being something fluid… I wanted people to get a slice of where my musical head was at that day. The stuff I’ve done with Steve, like the songs we just recorded in New York coming out later this year, don’t have any rigid format or compositions. They’ve just got set melodies and ideas and then we go into the studio and capture where they’re at now.
EP: Did any specific moment solidify how Ringer was going to sound?
KH: Over the last two years, I’ve been doing a lot more DJing at this club called the End in London. I had to learn how to do these eight-hour sets and be a techno DJ… When I started working on Ringer, my natural instinct was to move away from the jazz and hip-hop influence of previous releases and more towards techno… I think every track has this heavy, 4/4 kick drum. I wanted to make it sound awesome through a big club sound system. I went into a studio for a day to tweak the sounds so they were pummeling enough.
EP: Is Steve interested in electronic music?
KH: One of the things I like about Steve is he’s not stuck, and he checks out all types of new stuff. He met Theo Parrish and became interested in his music. He was very interested in my music. He loves jazz and he’ll play me stuff like Art Blakey. He’s also into hip-hop and listens to A Tribe Called Quest.
EP: Would you consider performing some of the new material with a live band?
KH: I really like doing live electronic music with electronic equipment, rather than translating it for a band. Live is having pieces of a song recorded and performing is a chance to rip them apart and take them into a new place based on reacting to loud rooms and live audiences — which always makes me react in different ways.
EP: Dan Snaith [aka Caribou] recently mentioned that when he was working on Andorra, he would ask you for second opinions. Do you have a person like that you go to for musical advice?
KH: Dan actually lives down the road from me, and we’re good friends. When we’re working on new music, we’ll go sit in each other’s houses and get an honest opinion of what we’re doing right and wrong. It’s actually a really healthy thing to find someone you can talk to about music who knows how to discuss it. On that type of level, we’re really good friends. One of the things we enjoy is just getting nice food and talking. I’m living in London and surrounded by musicians, and to the outside world it’s like, “Why aren’t you frantically recording and making records together?” But I think everyone’s already making all the music that they can.
EP: You did some shows recently in Brazil with a group called the Open Field Church that do choral covers of Can songs. How does a Krautrock choir sound?
KH: Kind of mad. This choir formed and started singing Can songs, punk songs, and other stuff they loved. They were showing up at parties, or would just go to gigs and sing for people waiting in the queues. I was approached by Brahma beer, this massive beer company in Brazil, and they said if I found a Brazilian artist to work with they’d finance my trip over there. So I suggested the Open Field Church, and they went for it. They paid for the whole group to come over and hired a tour bus. We went around the UK doing these crazy shows. It was definitely an experience.