Alex Smoke

Emma Warren

OK, On the couch we’ve got techno whiz kid Alex Menzies, better known as Alex Smoke straight out of Glasgow. He released two pretty classic techno albums within less than twelve months of each other. That was Incommunicado in 2005 and Paradolia this year. By way of introduction, he’s going to start off by playing “Passing Through” from Incommunicado. Here we are, Alex Smoke.

(music: Alex Smoke - “Passing Through” / applause)

Alex Smoke

Now it’s dropped, I can stop.

Emma Warren

OK, well the first thing I wanted to talk about... We’re going to talk about loads of stuff. We’ve got a lot to talk about with Glasgow, with Detroit, with techno, with the way you make your records, some of the engineering you do, the way you DJ, all that sort of stuff. But first off, it’d be great to know what it was that first got you into music.

Alex Smoke

OK. I’m from quite a musical family, so classical music’s pretty important. Playing the cello and the piano and singing in the choir for five years. My mom’s a violinist and my dad plays instruments too. Then discovered hip-hop, got into Detroit techno and that’s when I got into that.

Emma Warren

Are you the kind of guy, would you recommend learning an instrument and sticking with it?

Alex Smoke

Absolutely. But, at the time obviously I hated it. Yeah. Towards the end it really pays off.

Emma Warren

So what happens when you’re 14 and you start wanting to ditch your instruments and just knock about with girls? What is it that keeps you going through?

Alex Smoke

First, I was six when I started wanting to ditch my instrument, and it’s carried on for me about another 10 years. Luckily my mom’s pretty hardcore, so she just beat me up until I stopped moaning. So I was alright.

Emma Warren

So your mom used violence and the threats of violence to keep you practicing.

Alex Smoke

Yeah, you can’t underestimate the power of violence, everyone.

Emma Warren

Mm-hmm. You mentioned that it was getting into hip-hop that ignited your love for music or your interest in...

Alex Smoke

Some of it electronic music.

Emma Warren

In electronic music. I wanted to get you to play some music that really influenced you, and you talked about a Craig Mack record. We’ve got “Flava In Ya Ear” here.

Alex Smoke

OK, there used to be a show on Radio 1, which is before Westwood had a rap show. For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s UK Radio. It was the precursor for the rap show he used to play. I’ll see if I can find it.

Emma Warren

OK. Before you play it, how dedicated were you to your radio shows? Were you staying up to tape it?

Alex Smoke

Absolutely, I was a pure geek. Just getting your cassettes, and pausing and stopping and Westwood had habit of particularly chatting nonsense. Anyone who knows Tim Westwood on the rap show knows he’s got one of the worst voices in radio. He took a lot editing, but it was worth it.

Emma Warren

Do you still have your edits of old-school Tim Westwood shows?

Alex Smoke

I wish I actually had more of the old stuff I recorded because the stuff on there, which I’ve definitely lost now, which I can’t remember what it was, yeah I’d dearly love to have it back.

Emma Warren

Well, let’s remind ourself about the record that really influenced you. Some Craig Mack, please.

Alex Smoke

OK.

(music: Craig Mack - “Flava In Ya Ear (Remix)”)

Emma Warren

I’ll say a little word of warning for anyone who’s downloading things from iTunes in a hurry: Always check what version it is you’re paying for.

Alex Smoke

That’s not actually the original version, that’s not Craig’s version at all. That’s someone else rapping, it isn’t even Craig Mack. I apologize. I’ve got a version on here which is, but it’s got a mad skip in it so I couldn’t play it. Apologies that it’s not right.

Emma Warren

OK so without hearing the undoubtedly brilliant original...

Alex Smoke

Yeah, we’re doing well so far.

Emma Warren

What was it about hip-hop that did it for you?

Alex Smoke

At the age of 15, anything with swearing in it, for a start, is tremendous. It was the fact that it was so... It just sounded like real people talking about real things, and it had a lot to say, it’s not just vacuous pish. It’s really saying something, and these people sounded like they meant it.

Emma Warren

We should just point out for the non-Glaswegian speakers that “vacuous pish” is a particularly Scottish way of saying what?

Alex Smoke

Empty, devoid of meaning.

Emma Warren

Empty and devoid of meaning. So, hip-hop kind of grabbed you and took you up to date with music?

Alex Smoke

Definitely. Techno around about the same time but probably hip-hop. The first Nas album was the first album I bought, full album. It was great to discover something that you could really claim.

Emma Warren

So what was it that you really got into after that?

Alex Smoke

Round about the same time from Radio 1 there was a thing called the Essential Mix, which is just a two hour DJ mix in the middle of the night on a Saturday night and I used to record all them. And Laurent Garnier was someone who I just picked up on in about 1995 playing Detroit techno and I really, really got into that from there, buying Carl Craig and UR and all the Detroit stuff. The second major influence.

Emma Warren

So techno is your second major influence. Do you have something you want to play us to sonically illustrate what you’re talking about?

Alex Smoke

What was I going to play you? 2001?

Emma Warren

So what is it you’re going to play us and tell us maybe where you first heard it or what the record did for you.

(music: 2001 - Unknown)

Alex Smoke

There’s actually quite a lot more to that track but, you know, there’s a lot more acid and stuff like that. It’s not even from Detroit, I’m not even sure where he’s from, I think he’s from Germany, 2001. It’s emotional but it’s still very machine music, it’s incredibly quantized but it’s still got emotion.

Emma Warren

So is that the thing about Detroit for you, the emotion?

Alex Smoke

Definitely. I can’t even put my finger on it necessarily. I love rhythm and I love percussion but it’s more about the melody.

Emma Warren

So who do you think is the master of melody and emotion in terms of the techno massive?

Alex Smoke

I have to say Mad Mike probably. When you think of how much he’s engineered even, when you engineer for someone you’re really putting in half of yourself, things like The Martian and everyone he’s worked with in Underground Resistance, he’s the master.

Emma Warren

Are you an Underground Resistance completist?

Alex Smoke

I’m not a completist, no. I used to live with a girl who was a completist so I just nicked all hers. That’s not true.

Emma Warren

One of those, on your way out the door, “Mm, I think that’s mine?”

Alex Smoke

I’m deadly honest. I’d never do that to someone’s Underground Resistance collection. She would have killed us.

Emma Warren

We’re going to talk a bit about the connection between Glasgow and Detroit and the fact that Underground Resistance had quite a big influence in the whole Glasgow scene in Scotland. But before that, there’s another record that you told us about that you said was quite important and influential in terms of your own musical journey and that’s an Autechre track. I’m not going to try and pronounce it because in typical Autechre style...

Alex Smoke Autechre

Autechre, I didn’t get into until later. Autechre, I remember when I first heard Autechre I was just buying records and I was 18 or something and they’d just started and I didn’t get it at all, but it’s a grower, Autechre. It’s kind of like getting into something, it’s more about the texture, it’s not even about sonics anymore, you can almost hold it. It’s called “P.:ntil.”

(music: Autechre - “P.:ntil”)

Emma Warren

So you said it’s music you can almost hold, what kind of crazy shape is that tune?

Alex Smoke

Dodecahedron. It’s just satisfying. But it takes a bit more work to get into.

Emma Warren

I guess that sometimes it’s not about instant gratification, it’s about finding something in music that’s a little bit under the surface. I remember some of my favourite music when I first heard it, I hadn’t liked it but I’d been intrigued by it, it has that alien quality in it that pulls you in and makes you want to like it or understand it.

Alex Smoke

I think most people, quite often the things you like the most are the things you’re a bit indifferent about at first, you grow to get them.

Emma Warren

So persistence, persistence, persistence. OK, Glasgow, Detroit. What’s this connection between the two cities?

Alex Smoke

It’s just the classic case of a big industrial city with a big industrial background that’s kind of collapsed. In Detroit, Motor City, it was about the car industry and heavy industry and coal and steel and it collapsed, and in Glasgow it’s coal and ship building and there’s just a lot of parallels and it’s about, it’s the music of a certain amount of struggle, particularly with Detroit. You see the UR guys, they had nothing. They’re really from very tough backgrounds.

Emma Warren

So in what ways would this relationship, this understanding between Detroit and Glasgow, how would that manifest itself?

Alex Smoke

Even to this day I think it’s this very close tie. UR people will play in Glasgow, there’s a club called Club 69, which is underneath a curry house in Paisley, the middle of nowhere, and it’s just the guy from the curry house who works upstairs as a chef, is like behind the bar with cans and it’s really super low-key, but if the UR guys are anywhere in Europe, they’d come over and play for nothing. It was more of a classic case of doing it because of mutual understanding.

Emma Warren

So what were these gigs like, these Underground Resistance gigs underneath the curry house?

Alex Smoke

I’ve only ever been to two where Underground Resistance played.

Emma Warren

Who was playing?

Alex Smoke

The first one was Drexciya. Obviously, I’m delighted to have had a chance to see Drexciya, that was really special, and the second one was Stingray, which wasn’t as good but Mad Mike was there and that’s pretty cool.

Emma Warren

So this Drexciya night, give us a flavor of it. If you could describe it to us, if you close your eyes and take yourself back to that night, what was it like in the middle of the dance floor?

Alex Smoke

Basically the club looked like a student squat with added extra camouflage netting, and it’s got a low ceiling so you’re just about scudding your head off the ceiling. Wall to wall speakers on both sides, like that. It’s hot and dark, no lights, nothing. It’s just camouflage netting and big speakers, and that’s it. Simple. Very simple.

Emma Warren

And very effective.

Alex Smoke

And sweaty.

Emma Warren

Mm-hmm. How did nights like that, Underground Resistance, Detroit techno in general, how did that influence your music?

Alex Smoke

When I first started, the only drum samples I had were a 909 and an 808, so for a start it was... I guess the idea of melody and using synths in that Detroit-y kind of way. It’s not an exact thing, but it’s definitely... It’s the first thing I’d really gotten to realize you can have something very straight and you listen to the beats, and the beats aren’t doing much, they’re just straight but it’s enough. It’s a really driving... It’s not even the way I make music necessarily, but certainly the way I used to. A lot straighter.

Emma Warren

What are you really feeling from Detroit now? Because you played us a track, your favorite Detroit techno track that’s not from Detroit. So maybe let’s widen it out a bit. What in the Detroit style or the Detroit genre are you feeling at the moment?

Alex Smoke

Actually there’s a guy called Shed, who’s got his own label called Solo Action. Confusingly he also recorded his Solo Action on the Solo Action, but anyway.

Emma Warren

How very techno.

Alex Smoke

How very techno, exactly. It’s kind of like Detroit techno, but a bit more bendy and a bit more... But you can tell it’s still quite traditionalist but bit more crazy in terms of production style. Detroit, it’s a tough thing because it’s a dying city. There’s still a scene there, obviously, Jimmy Edgar and people up in Detroit. It’s not the same, it’s struggling definitely.

Emma Warren

Let’s move on a bit now to your music. Your first album Incommunicado came out on Soma Records in 2005. Tell us a bit about that record.

Alex Smoke

Basically it’s just music I was... It’s everything from... There’s tracks on there from four years before when I first started. It’s just a collection of tracks, you know? At the time I kind of felt I had to prove myself by covering as many bases as possible and trying to cram as many different influences in there as possible. There’s everything from really chilled out electronica to really banging, weird rave stuff.

Emma Warren

Well, you’re going to play us something from the album, aren’t you? A track called “OK”. Is this the banging rave or the bendy techno side of things?

Alex Smoke

This is actually one of the first tracks I actually wrote, but then I had to modernize it because the original one I wrote was pretty pish. It had elements which are light, like the strings and stuff. I’ll maybe start it halfway through because it makes more sense than just listening to intros of everything.

(music: Alex Smoke - “OK” / applause)

I actually really hate listening to modern music, it’s just murder.

Emma Warren

We’ve talked about this before. Alex, he’s really pushing himself. Just wait until he plays one his vocal tracks.

Alex Smoke

Yeah, I’m actually going to pass it.

Emma Warren

We’ll have to cushion him with some audience love.

Alex Smoke

If I start playing, just don't [inaudible].

Emma Warren

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty on that tune. How did you make it, what were you using to make it?

Alex Smoke

Logic, for a start, it was all done in Logic. There’s also strings in there. It’s one of those tracks that’s actually had an awful lot in it because when I first started I just didn’t know when to stop, so I’d be like, “Right, OK, I’ll write an oboe part, and I’ll write a string part, and I’ll put in a ukulele.” It took me a long time to trim things down a bit. I think there’s some really crappy, shitty string samples in there. When I say samples, I mean multi-samples like you play on a keyboard. I can’t even remember, to be honest, what I used for the bassline and stuff.

Emma Warren

You did the first album. That came out, did really well, rave reviews, everybody loved it. And there’s a classic thing with artists, when you’ve got 20 years. How old were you when Incommunicado came out?

Alex Smoke

24.

Emma Warren

24... So you’ve had a whole lifetime, 24 years, probably 20 years of playing music to get the album together. Then you’ve got 12 months to do the next record. How did you bridge that gap?

Alex Smoke

For me, it wasn’t really an issue. I’m bit of a workaholic, and once I’d got up to speed in terms of production skills and things like that then it’s just what I do all day, every day, so it wasn’t an issue. That’s why I want to hear the progress from one album to the next. I don’t want the second album to just be the same as the last album. I like to hear progress and change and variety.

Emma Warren

We’ve got Skream coming in on Monday, and I was reading an interview with him where he was saying that his computer broke down, and for three days it was at the mender’s. He was pacing the house, couldn’t sleep. He was ringing up the computer guy every three minutes, saying, “Is it better yet? Is it better yet? Can I have back soon? Can I have it back soon?” I was telling you this yesterday, wasn’t I, and you said the same thing happened to you.

Alex Smoke

I totally understand. If you’ve got problems with your computer... I always used to hate computers, because I never really understood that you could just use a computer for whatever you were into. I mean there’s been times when I’ve not been... I remember I had really bad RSI for a month where I couldn’t do anything. I had to learn how to use my left hand as my right hand. I remember I was... Oh, it was ridiculous. I’d got this thing for a French TV thing, and they came over to Glasgow and Jim from SOMA put them onto me because they wanted new talent or something. I’m on this video with these Tubigrips, like bandages, on both arms. I just felt like... I looked like a mad, mad, weird, weird bastard. [laughs] A few of them must have looked at me going, “Either he must be really into his music because he’s mental or…” I don’t know, it’s kind of sad.

Emma Warren

I thought it was interesting that you said then about you used to hate computers until you realized that you could do whatever you wanted and I read an interesting thing that Bill Drummond said, who was in KLF, and he said the only art these days is knowing how to use your computer and knowing how to make your computer do what it is you want it to do, so I guess that’s a liberation almost?

Alex Smoke

When I realised, I got my hands on as much software as I possibly could.

Emma Warren

OK, so 11 months later Paradolia came out, again on Soma. We were going to talk a bit about as an artist using your voice. It’s one thing to sit there and make beats or samples or whatever, but what’s it like when you make the decision to start recording your yourself and using your voice as an instrument?

Alex Smoke

On the first album when I first started using my voice it was the most hidden thing ever. There’s a track called “No Consequence” where I just hid my voice as much as possible and at the time I didn’t have a microphone. Most people will know this but if you use your headphones, you [can] just use them as a transducer but in the opposite direction and you sing into your headphones and plug your headphones into the input. So on the first album I just used my headphones to sing into so it’s really muffled anyway and I just put so many effects on it that you couldn’t really hear a thing, it’s more like an instrument.

Emma Warren

So what made you decide to come out of the closet?

Alex Smoke

Come out of the vocal closet? What are you saying here? [laughing]

Emma Warren

What made you step into the vocal booth, shall I say?

Alex Smoke

I’ve got a singing background and it’s also the most natural instrument, it’s an extension of yourself. So if you want to convey emotion or a personal thing, then the vocal is the way to do it and that’s why people connect with vocals the way they don’t connect with another instrument, it’s a very personal one to one thing. If you want to add emotion it’s the best way and words, again, it’s another dimension.

Emma Warren

What kind of things do you like to write about?

Alex Smoke

Any old pish that comes into my head to be honest. It could be anything from politics and things which are going on around you, anything that influences you, relationships, obviously. Everything like that leads into it, anything with an emotional response.

Emma Warren

So you’re writing about anything emotional? Politics, relationships?

Alex Smoke

And quite a lot of the time the things I’m singing, I’m not even singing coherent sentences. There’s a track “Make My Day” and I’m just mumbling, there’s a few sentences in there.

Emma Warren

The Cocteau Twins approach?

Alex Smoke

Yeah, it’s like [mimes vocals], a lot of that. And it’s enough.

Emma Warren

I think this is the perfect moment to hear “Make My Day.” Can you give us a blast of it?

Alex Smoke

No bother.

(music: Alex Smoke - “Make My Day” / applause)

Don’t make me blush [to participants]. To the geeks amongst you, for the vocals, obviously it’s pitched up, but the stringy sound underneath is also the vocal but slowed down and put into a sampling synth that slows it down and you can re-pitch it. And the drums are Machine Drum, I think.

Emma Warren

Any other little technical secrets or tips you can tell us about that record?

Alex Smoke

There’s a thing called a convolver, which is the same principle as a vocoder where it takes the signal from one piece of audio and imposes it onto another and the bassline is just from that.

Emma Warren

For you, is one of the things that you like to do with your production is to find way of turning up the weird on it?

Alex Smoke

Just trying to not think too much about trying to follow a style or whatever comes and the way it should work if you’re producing is just to start off with one concept, one idea. So say, I’m thinking, “OK, I want a bassline which is quite fast and goes like this,” then you do that and one thing should lead to another. So whatever it is, if you shut your eyes and you listen to whatever loop you’re working on and what suggests itself next? And if it suggests a bit of singing, then you know [you should sing]. And that was like that.

Emma Warren

So you’ve got a bit of an intuitive approach to the way you make your music, it’s kind of like you’ll sit there and have an idea and wait for it to unfold almost.

Alex Smoke

Most of the time, yeah.

Emma Warren

It’s interesting, rather than having an idea for where A is and where B is and how you’re going to get from A to B?

Alex Smoke

Sometimes you have to work that way. Say, for example, I have a deadline on a remix and it has to be a certain style, then you have to think a certain way but if I’m writing stuff for myself then it’s [more intuitively].

Emma Warren

You just mentioned remixes there and I know you’ve said you’re leaving remixes for the moment but can you just tell us a couple of artists that you have done a remix for?

Alex Smoke

Sure, lots of different types of things, really. The last ones were Depeche Mode, which I kind of made a mess of smiling and Steve Reich. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen and you sit down and you’re like, “Depeche Mode, I’m getting the chance to remix Depeche Mode,” and then you just totally fuck it up. And Steve Reich, which for me is a really great personal thing because Steve Reich is an incredible minimalist composer, and yeah, lots of minimal guys, and loads of friends. Remixes are something that all the people you meet and you’re pally with are like, “Can you do us a remix?” I find it very, very hard to say, “No, no chance.”

Emma Warren

So the bulk of your remixing has been the minimal guys, the mass of the minimal guys and your pals. And you DJ as well, right?

Alex Smoke

I started DJing when I was 18 when I first went to university, which I never finished. I was doing Biology in Glasgow, Aquatic Bioscience, but I hate water so I don’t know what I was thinking. I knew I wasn’t going to finish, basically. So I was doing that and you get a grant system. For going to university the government give you a certain amount of money and you can get a loan so I got the loans and I got a decent grant and I spent it all on hi-fi, decks, and lived on toast, literally. Lived on toast for two years.

Emma Warren

So aquatic biology’s loss is techno’s gain?

Alex Smoke

Some loss, I can tell you [laughter].

Emma Warren

You were saying before that you DJ quite a lot in Germany and Spain. If we were to rock up to, say, Berlin or wherever to see you DJing what are we going to get from a set from you?

Alex Smoke

I like to keep it kind of open. I’m not like super-open, I don’t play hip-hop or drum & bass, although I like them and have records, I wouldn’t feel comfortable mixing really disparate styles. But certainly electro, techno and Detroit, old Chicago. I tend to stay pretty 4/4 apart from electro, just trying to make it interesting: some vocals and...

Emma Warren

And with your live stuff, you play live as well?

Alex Smoke

Mainly live, it’s probably about 80 percent live.

Emma Warren

And how do you do that?

Alex Smoke

Because I don’t really have any hardware in my studio, I’ve just bought my first synth, really, so...

Emma Warren

And what was that?

Alex Smoke

An Electron Monomachine, for anyone that’s interested. It’s just a good weirdo synth.

Emma Warren

There’s a recurring theme of weird.

Alex Smoke

Weird. Yeah, weird’s good. Fact. For live it’s just Ableton Live on a laptop, MIDI controller, just having as many things mapped to the MIDI controller as possible, then just triggering loops individually with the mouse, keep it simple.

Emma Warren

Now, you’ve got a new compilation coming out? Who’s putting this one out, Soma?

Alex Smoke

This isn’t a plug.

Emma Warren

This isn’t a plug, but if you want to buy it, it looks like this [holds up CD cover].

Alex Smoke

No, don’t do that. If Soma see you doing that.

Emma Warren

It happens to not be out yet but it’s a compilation, isn’t it? What kind of compilation is it?

Alex Smoke

It just gives you an opportunity to play things you are into, some dubstep on there, some Basic Channel, who are definitely a massive influence, and some Detroit and some electro. Just what I like, a mixture.

Emma Warren

Do you want to give us a blast of something that's on there? Maybe The Vision, you were saying?

Alex Smoke

Oh, right. OK. This is like a classic, this is Detroit. This is like Robert Hood. I need to see if I can find actually. In fact... I don’t think I put this one here.

Emma Warren

Maybe don’t play it then. If it’s not on there. Tell us, what is it about Robert Hood that you like?

Alex Smoke

Robert Hood is one of those guys who’s really... That's minimal. It’s just really simple music. To the point. This isn’t particularly minimal writing. The word deep is also a dirty word, butt I do like my music quite deep, like thoughtful.

Emma Warren

He also has a pretty neat line in trilbies too.

Alex Smoke

Oh, does he? I never knew it. I hate trilbies, really. I’ve got a couple...

Emma Warren

I’ll tell you what, he looks pretty dope in it.

Alex Smoke

Really? I’ve got a couple of friends from Aberdeen who once came out clubbing wearing trilbies and we were just like, “What are you doing?” So I’m not a big fan.

(music: unknown)

Anyone making techno tracks, just have the word Detroit repeated, and it's a winner. A winner. Golden rule.

Emma Warren

From a sonic point of view, or from a production point of view, if you're getting into the deepness of it, what is it that they do, technically, that does it for you?

Alex Smoke

OK. It’s funny because Detroit’s the one kind of music that when I listen to I’ve never dissected it. When I listen to stuff like a lot of modern music, I really dissect it. I really want to know what they do, maybe. When you think about the equipment they were using. It’s all analogue gear, for start. It’s a lot of filters, and keeping it moving, keeping it bubbly. Nothing’s too “ba-dah” in your face. You’ve got the drums kind of doing most of the work. Then underneath it you’ve got things undulating, and then you’ve got strings coming in, on top, but nothing too spiky.

Emma Warren

Have you been to Detroit?

Alex Smoke

I haven’t, actually, no.

Emma Warren

OK. You did a bit of engineering yourself, didn’t you?

Alex Smoke

Mm-hmm. It’s one of those things, when I first started out, and I was... I obviously hadn’t had records released, or I had one record released, but it was crap. And I was just trying to get my foot in the door, and ended up working with a few people in Glasgow. For me, I really hated engineering for other people. I didn’t like it because people would come with literally a loop on a CD. “Well, I’ve got this great new idea for a track. Here’s a loop. I’ll be back next week, if you just sort of finish it up.” I mean, you know. It’s just like, “You’re a dick.” I’m not into that.

Emma Warren

I heard a funny story about some kind of acid house guy in London who was in the studio with someone, similar thing, had come there with a sort of idea. Then, turned to the engineer and said, “Can you make it sound a bit more wicked?”

Alex Smoke

That’s exactly right. That’s almost exactly... yeah. At the moment, engineering wasn’t really my thing. I was doing it for deep house guys. I find it difficult.

Emma Warren

Now, you very kindly offered to play us something that you did in the very first year that you were making music. As a way of showing...

Alex Smoke

What not to do.

Emma Warren

Kind of what not to do, but also not to be afraid of doing stuff, which in retrospect, you don’t think is very good. It’s kind of a part of the process, isn’t it, to get your crap ideas out first. To get the...

Alex Smoke

It’s just working through it, and a lot of people find that they’re writing tracks and just don’t finish. This is for everyone. If you’re working on tracks and you don’t finish, but it’s the process that’s important. It’s the fact that you’re working through it, you’re learning. Don’t get hung up on it. Just leave it behind. Start again. Start a new track and just keep moving. Because all these tracks, you’re thinking, “It’s going to go to waste. It’s not going to get used. It’s a shame because it’s some nice elements.” It’s better to just keep moving. In special circumstances it’s good to maybe find the really good elements and make another track out of them later on. In general, it’s best to just keep working.

Emma Warren

It’s kind of like the idea of keeping things in a drawer, isn’t it? Do it, finish it, put it in the drawer, and then if it’s...

Alex Smoke

Move on.

Emma Warren

If it’s something you can come back to...

Alex Smoke

If it's worth to come back to.

Emma Warren

You’ll be able to come back to it.

Alex Smoke

To be honest, I’ve never. I’ve just got hundreds of tracks that, yeah there's bits I like but...

Emma Warren

This is something from early days Alex Smoke.

Alex Smoke

This is pish.

Emma Warren

This is pish, he says.

(music: Alex Smoke - unknown)

So what did you learn from doing this one? Where did this kind of lead you?

Alex Smoke

Good question. I don’t know. I remember I was trying different things with the hi-hats to try and make it, trying to experiment with chopping things up. I used a choppy plugin. I created just a big mad noise for the high hats, and then just chopped up so it sounds like hi-hats, but it’s actually just a chopped, big noise. I just experimented with techniques. I remember it was when I just got Absynth, for the first time, in Native Instruments. Absynth, although it was before it was Native Instruments. It was made by some guy... Anyway. Yeah.

Emma Warren

At the other end of the spectrum you’ve also got something you’re going to play us that you’re working on at the moment. Tell us something about what it is.

Alex Smoke

This is just something that I was doing when I was in America a couple of weeks ago and I was doing this in my hotel and I’d forgotten it was here until I looked at my laptop. I don’t use my laptop in the house, I’ve got a desktop. So this is just, literally, a loop so don’t get too excited.

(music: Alex Smoke - unknown)

And that’s back to the beginning of the loop.

Emma Warren

So in order to get an idea of your working process, what are you going to do with that?

Alex Smoke

It’s one of those tracks that’s rolling along and it would probably come in, I probably wouldn’t do too much with it in terms of arrangement, just ease along. It’s not a kind of “ta-da” track so I don’t know, I really don’t know. As I say, it’s an organic process so I just have to sit down with it and I probably wouldn’t do any more actual parts for it. Maybe it could take a weird vocal or something.

Emma Warren

Weird, again. Where do you tend to like to work? Are there certain places that are good for you to work?

Alex Smoke

Normally, I never work on the road but because I was in America for two weeks, I couldn’t not work for two weeks.

Emma Warren

These were DJ dates?

Alex Smoke

No, live, generally speaking. So normally, when I’m on the road, I don’t work because it’s not ideal and when you’re in the house, in the studio, you’ve got the DSP cards and the actual things that I use every day. And what I found as well is, if you work on things, if you’re away from your environment where you can actually finish, then you end up starting things and wasting ideas and not ever really ever finishing up. So it’s better for me to be in a position where I can finish it.

Emma Warren

Now, you’ve got some other things on the go as well, haven’t you? There’s a hip-hop project on the cards I hear.

Alex Smoke

Yeah. I’m kind of into doing as many different things as possible. Just not worrying too much about my career plan or thinking, “Oh. Where is this going to take me?” It’s not got a label. It’s just the question of doing it and there’s a hip-hop outfit called the Shadow Huntaz. They do stuff on Skam, which is a UK label. A bit like Warp but smaller. So, I just sent them an email and was just like, “Do you fancy doing a weird hip-hop thing?” Weird again. That’s what happened with that. Should I play something?

Emma Warren

Yeah, what’s the kind of... You said weird hip-hop? Are there any kind of musical peers, if we were drawing a Venn diagram around this new project. What other things might you...

Alex Smoke

If you were drawing a Venn diagram...

Emma Warren

Around it.

Alex Smoke

I mean, you would have to say, in terms of electronic hip-hop, Dabrye is the obvious person who’s doing really electronic hip-hop and using MCs. There’s also other people doing it, people like Clark on Warp. Kinda like, quite hip-hop. I can’t think of many people actually doing really, you know. It’s like electronica but with vocals.

Emma Warren

OK, so can we have a little moment of the new project?

Alex Smoke

A blast.

Emma Warren

Does it have a name yet?

Alex Smoke

It doesn’t, actually. I have no idea. Anybody that has any bright ideas for what to call it then...

Emma Warren

Any names for Alex’s electronic hip-hop project will be welcome afterwards. Do let us know.

Alex Smoke

Absolutely. Let me find it now. Not sure what to play, that’s all. I’ll play the more upbeat one, then.

(music: Alex Smoke feat. Shadow Huntaz - unknown / applause)

Emma Warren

Alright, then.

Alex Smoke

Thanks.

Emma Warren

You have a pretty fast work rate, and it seems like you tend to get things done and out pretty quickly. What’s your estimated time of arrival on this one?

Alex Smoke

It depends. This one is a good example because I’ve been working on it for maybe three months. I did a whole bunch of tracks and they sent me the vocals, and I’ve done the first versions. Then, I’ve kind of changed my mind and then just restarted, but formed them from scratch again. Quite often, the second time around is the best time. I don’t know. Maybe it will be finished. I mean, I can finish it. It’s more about if I’m looking for a label now, and if I find a label then it will get finished rapid. Maybe a couple weeks, and if not, then maybe I’ll take a bit more time over it. A couple of months.

Emma Warren

OK, so basically, if you got a label deal tomorrow and you’re at home and in the right place to be doing it, you’ll be able to finish that whole album in a couple of weeks?

Alex Smoke

Yeah. I mean, it’s all about application. If I really want to focus and apply myself then, yeah. I like to keep the momentum up. I think if I take too much time off, then, I don’t want to lose momentum. So I just like to keep going.

Emma Warren

Yeah. You were just saying, “I’m in America for two weeks and that’s too long. I can’t go two weeks without working.”

Alex Smoke

I mean there’s no way, really.

Emma Warren

How long can you go without working?

Alex Smoke

Out of choice, I wouldn’t go more than a day, really. A couple of days, maybe. Unless I’ve had a heavy weekend, but that’s pretty rare these days. I’m pretty good.

Emma Warren

Another interesting project you’ve got coming up is something very interesting and quite different to the other music you’re doing. It’s sponsored by... It's music to accompany the human genome project?

Alex Smoke

It’s an Arts Council sponsored thing so there’s artists doing their thing and they’ve got an orchestra called the Scottish Ensemble, which is a twelve-piece ensemble. So they want me to compose a classical piece of music. They gave me a free reign and said, “If you want to use electronics, feel free.” But to be honest, I’d rather just keep it…

Emma Warren

Is this meant to be the sound of human DNA unfolding?

Alex Smoke

That’s actually the way I’d approach it and that’s a different way of working. It’s quite conceptual. You’re thinking, “How do I create that kind of texture?” And then you can also have lots of contrivances. So, “OK, there’s four base pairs in DNA, maybe I’ll have four instruments doing three different things?” Stuff like that so you can really play with it. And classical music, there’s more rules than you think. Obviously, it’s not classical as such but it’s repetition and shifting things up and...

Emma Warren

How do you think it’s going to be, instead of sitting in front of your computer pressing buttons, you’re going to be speaking to people? “Play faster, play harder, play slower, play weirder.”

Alex Smoke

That’s definitely the scary bit. Dealing with people as musicians, particularly musicians who are used to dealing with professional composers as opposed to producers who are giving it a shot. It’s quite daunting, actually.

Emma Warren

Are you going to write the music first and take it to the orchestra or are you going to work with them?

Alex Smoke

There’s no way I could actually work with an orchestra, that’s just not the way it works. I just have to compose with samples at home and then write out the score. The computer does a certain amount, I can write with the keyboard and Piano Roll and compose like that and do the final thing by hand, I think, because it’s the only way. But I know how to read music.

Emma Warren

It’s quite a thing, isn’t it? Squarepusher did his thing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Alex Smoke

He’s one of those guys who’s actually a really gifted musician. A real multi-instrumentalist, a phenomenal bass player, a real musician. I don’t know how Aphex did it, I really don’t know.

Emma Warren

So what exactly did Aphex Twin do? He did a similar thing, didn’t he?

Alex Smoke

He did it with the London Sinfonietta, I think. I’m not exactly sure how they worked it, I don’t know if he had an orchestrator who orchestrated it for him, which is what I’d expect. Jeff Mills recently did a thing with an orchestra called the Blue Potential, which is like Montpellier Philharmonic or something, playing classic techno tracks with an orchestra.

Emma Warren

That sounds a little better than Acid Brass, which was a brass band from a Northern mining village playing acid house classics.

Alex Smoke

Jeff Mills had an orchestrator who basically did all that orchestration.

Emma Warren

So he’s the equivalent of a photographer who just presses the button?

Alex Smoke

To be fair to him, I think someone else came up to him and approached him with the idea.

Emma Warren

Now, in this kind of vein you were telling me about a Philip Glass remix of an Aphex Twin record that sums up the beautiful and wonderful and fantastic things that can be created when electronic music and mentality comes together with a classical vibe?

Alex Smoke

For me, whatever your background is, all of you have got really different backgrounds, whatever your background is, is to try and bring in your influences and to make it something interesting. So for me anything that’s combining genres, classical with Aphex Twin, it’s just great. Great to have that interface.

Emma Warren

So this is a Phillip Glass mix of what?

Alex Smoke

“Icct Hedral,” another catchy name from Aphex Twin there.

(music: Aphex Twin - “Icct Hedral” (Phillip Glass orchestration))

Emma Warren

I mean, obviously I know this is a Phillip Glass mix, but Aphex Twin is pretty much the don.

Alex Smoke

Absolutely. Just a real actual genius, a guy doing his own thing and he has to do it, he has to let it out of his system.

Emma Warren

OK then. Now, this would be a good time to get some questions from the floor. Who would like to ask Alex a question?

Alex Smoke

Youse all just want to go home, eh?

Emma Warren

Is there a mass inertia taken over you. If there’s anything that anyone wants to ask just say it, and... Aha. Where’s the microphones?

Audience Member

What are you doing with the selecting of your tracks...

Alex Smoke

What is that, sorry?

Audience Member

[inaudible]

Alex Smoke

Yeah. For every track, I’ll just deconstruct it and bounce down kick, bassline. Then just have them all in single loops. Nine tracks or 10 tracks and then, yep.

Audience Member

You’ve got like a steup, you know each track as each track? Is it spontaneous?

Alex Smoke

They’re loosely grouped together, but quite often I’ll tune all the loops. Make sure everything’s in tune. They’re all in the same key. Then you can pick and choose to some extent.

Audience Member

Interested to hear a bit more about when you first started listening to electronic music, you said you heard hip-hop, Craig Mack, [inaudible]. I guess techno is at one end of the spectrum, synthesized music, and hip-hop is a bit more sample-based. Seems like very different kind of influences.

Alex Smoke

Yeah, I dunno why particularly I... Whatever moves you. Maybe it’s just because that’s what I was exposed to, and also because I think they’re quite honest. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just people honestly thinking, “I want to do that,” and doing it. I don’t know how to explain.

Emma Warren

Another question there in the back.

Audience Member

Hi.

Alex Smoke

Hi.

Audience Member

I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about... How do you start a track, because I find it so daunting, wanting to scream. How do you start, do you start with a melody in your head, or drums, or what starts a track for you?

Alex Smoke

OK. Quite often for me, that’s the bit that I enjoy the most. Starting a track, like new clean sheet. Quite often, just trying to go as crazy as possible. Get something going that’s totally impractical. Just get five plugins in a row. Maybe just choose five plugins at random. Get something weird happening and then kind of try and rein it in afterwards, trying to take it too far and then trying to control it and make it useful. That’s quite a good way of approaching it, just to kind of really let yourself go and just go [makes noise]. Then try and bring it into line. The other way, again, is to just have a melody in your head, and just get on the keyboard, a few chords. I definitely recommend full on.

Emma Warren

Is that a way of getting rid of blank page syndrome? So you’ve no longer got a blank page in front of you, you’ve got something...

Alex Smoke

It’s a good way as any, certainly. It also means you are maybe pushing things in a direction where you wouldn’t necessarily think to go, per say.

Emma Warren

Have you got another example of other ways you’ve started things aside from that kind of way that you just described?

Alex Smoke

I’m trying to think if I’ve got anything. How do you mean?

Emma Warren

Are there any other tracks that you’ve started in a different way?

Alex Smoke

Yeah. There’s a track in the last album called “Prima Materia” which is quite... It’s orchestral, but it’s kind of rough, it’s not done really realistically. It’s using a lot of orchestral samples and the way I started that was just purely trying to write it the way I would try to write classical. Just writing a cello sequence and then thinking, “Well now I need a little offset in the violins and a little horn sequence.” Doing it like that.

Emma Warren

OK. Cool. Thank you. Anyone else? With anything else?

Audience Member

[inaudible]. Have you ever sampled yourself playing those instruments?

Alex Smoke

To be honest, I’ve never done it, because only recently, have I had, one, the space to do it. Then, it’s just the whole thing of actually recording and getting a good acoustic. I’ve never really got around to it, I’ve never really got to grips with the whole live recording thing. It’s on the cards, definitely. There’s nothing that beats real playing.

Audience Member

Thank you.

Audience Member

I was going to say, do you ever sample anybody else’s music in yours?

Alex Smoke

Actually, no. I hear people do it all the time and it’s really good, but I’m a bit of a control freak and I like to really place every note and know what’s happening. I don’t know, it’s never appealed.

Emma Warren

Then, we’ve got another question in the row ahead.

Audience Member

[inaudible] in your composition process, or in your life?

Alex Smoke

As in, using a program with a randomizer, or?

Audience Member

Yeah.

Alex Smoke

Sometimes in a limited sense there’s... For example, there’s a function in Logic where you can randomize MIDI, and say randomize. But to be honest, as I say, I’m a bit of a control freak. In the way I use plugins, maybe. I’m up for random but not in terms of notes. OK.

Emma Warren

OK. Anything else?

Audience Member

What sort of MIDI controller are you using in your live show?

Alex Smoke

OK. At the moment, something called the UC17. It’s okay. It’s just got a lot of knobs on it.

Audience Member

What would you like to see in a MIDI controller? If you could pick your own what would you have?

Alex Smoke

To be honest, big rubberized things, thousands of lights. Just something a bit more pazzaz. To be honest, for me it’s okay, it’s functional. As long as it’s got a bit of variety. You know like rotaries and buttons and pads for... As long as it’s got that, I’m happy.

Emma Warren

OK. Any more? Please give it up for Alex Smoke.

[applause]