anderswolleck

This month, like corn flakes, discover the dance music giants, Underworld, again for the first time. Because with the release of the anthology Underworld 1992-2002 you wont just be getting their popular tunes. The 23 year old band made of up Karl Hyde and Rick Smith has included a remixed version of their most popular hit Born Slippy, which made it big as the theme song for the movie Trainspotting, but they are also including such modern classics as Bigmouth, Rez and Spikee. Also on the double disc CD are many remixes and some new unreleased tracks as well.

Underworld has had a tumultuous history. The band was started in the members hometown of Essex, England. All the members were originally part of a band called Freur which did the music for the movie from which they took their name from, the Clive Barker opus Underworld. From the ashes of that and a number of others there came Underworld. The band had some mildly popular tunes before breaking up in 1990 where they all went their separate ways until they reformed officially again in 1992. Fame followed with Born Slippy but instead of going for the big bucks, they learned their lesson and kept their music close to their hearts.

As dance and DJ music seems to roll around again in popularity Underworld keeps plugging away. Hyde and Smith are always on the cutting edge of whatever is going on. They have a different website supporting a different aspect of Underworld. From the record albums they cut to the books they write to the graphic design shop they founded.

I got a chance to talk with Karl Hyde, about the past, a little bit about the future and jamming.

Check out the website for Underworld.

Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you glad that this is not a greatest hits album?

Karl Hyde: Definitely. Im glad its not that. If it had been a greatest hits album we wouldnt have put it out.

DRE: Whats it like talking about this kind of album? Some bands dont stick together.

KH: After 23 years I think were kind of stuck with each other. Its interesting talking about the ways weve worked and some of things that went on during the 90s. Looking backwards is not something that were comfortable with because we tend to dump it and move on.

DRE: The kind of music you do is very modern and there has been a big resurgence lately. How much has that affected you?

KH: Were always noticing younger people at the shows. Every time we play live its like were playing to fans weve seen before but the front rows are younger. So they come in at the front and steadily start moving towards the back.

DRE: Have the recent people like Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers have much of an affect on Underworld?

KH: No because the Chems didnt come too much longer after us. Norman [Cook] is a fantastic DJ who makes music very different from our own though it is kind of club based. He makes something which is very different. Weve always been thrilled when people linked to the dance genre are doing well because if somebody is doing well thats good for everybody.

DRE: I know Underworld was never into making lots of money. Because after Born Slippy got big because of the Trainspotting soundtrack I believe you were offered a big deal.

KH: Well we were offered deals from a lot of labels that saw the potential for business with us but weve always been very loyal to the people that we work with. We said from Day One that wed stick with Junior Boys Own Records as long as it kept working for us. Its a relationship thats still working today so there has been no reason to destroy that relationship by going for money instead. We kind of learned through experiences in the 1980s that people matter more than cash.

DRE: I read that video installations were your thing back in college.

KH: Yes in the 1970s.

DRE: No one who does video installations are interested in money.

KH: [laughs] Thats definitely true. I would say its a myth to say that were not interested in putting food on the table. We want to be happy so as long as we have enough money to put food on the table and keep doing this for as long as we want then thats cool. In the 80s we tended to change because of the people we got involved with. We had to become different from the idea of what we wanted to be. We remain autonomous now from any organization that could control the direction we want to go in. Thats important so we do ok.

DRE: I know Darren [Emerson] went to DJing in 1999. Does that make you think about doing that?

KH: No I never DJed. At the end of the 80s when Underworld went bankrupt I did a lot of session work and Rick came back to the UK. I was fortunate to work with some great people.

DRE: Was that when you worked with Debbie Harry and Prince?

KH: Yeah Debbie but not Prince. I was working up at Paisley Park when he was getting the New Power Generation together. That was an extraordinary time, to listen to them rehearse. Working with Debbie and [Blondie guitarist] Chris Stein was one of those dreams come true. What musician wouldnt want to be playing those great tunes with people as talented as that? They were just extraordinary, lovely and very generous of spirit. They taught me a lot. Hanging around them was a kind of a catalyst for my early writing in New York.

DRE: What made you guys decide to come back together and still call the band Underworld?

KH: It was a good name. Its easy to say as opposed to some of our groups that had symbols instead of names.

DRE: You had one I cant even pronounce.

KH: Yes Freur and even before that we just had a hieroglyph. If you want to talk about making no money that was the way to go [laughs]. Also it was important for us to show people that were not hiding anything. We were that band that made that music in the 80s and were the same people, this is what we are doing now. One of my heroes, Miles Davis, was never afraid to reinvent himself but he kept the same name. If it was good enough for Miles then its good enough for us.

DRE: You could have called yourself the Miles Davis Experience.

This new collection starts in 1992. Was that the year you came back together?

KH: We kind of got together probably 1990 but then I worked with Debbie in 1991. We were writing on and off then. Darren was playing the material out in the clubs. We were throwing away a lot of material and it wasnt until about 1992 when we put out Big Mouth. There was one release before that called Mother Earth and The Hump. Then we played the Experimental Sound Field in Glastonbury with friends of ours. We performed this Quadraphonic Experience and played for 18 hours in a field in Glastonbury. That was really the catalyst for Underworld the live band, the real beginnings of putting out records and being self supportive really.

DRE: You mentioned Miles Davis. Jazz seems to slowly be seeping back into youth culture through electronic mostly.

KH: I think jazz has always been around because its so cool. Its got a great vibe to it and it takes you to virtual spaces in your head. Good jazz is very evocative. I cant help but listen to good jazz. If I see a good jazz record store Im in there. I was in one the other day in London where I promised myself I wouldnt buy anything but dammit. Im an addict when it comes to records.

DRE: I heard you have a monstrous collection.

KH: Its not monstrous yet but its getting that way. We did a session for a radio legend named John Peel. Hes the man who has done more for informing my musical tastes since I was little than anyone else. We sat there talking about records and I realized I was a dead man because when I go home tonight Im going to bring home so many records my wife is going to chuck me out.

DRE: [laughs] Have you guys gotten any new equipment lately?

KH: Weve been using quite a bit of software stuff. Weve been writing the new album on our laptops.

DRE: Is that the first time youre using laptops?

KH: Yeah weve always had our own studio building. Weve had a lot of gear in there but nothing portable.

DRE: Is it different?

KH: Yeah it is! Its nice because you get to write in bits rather than locking yourself in a room. You can write in hotel, bus or airplane. Its kind of an ongoing process. Something different happens when you dont shut out the world as much. Weve also been swapping our PowerBooks and working on top of each others music. Now it gets all jumbled up and thats lovely. There is very little conversation. The conversation takes place as a jamming process. Weve always loved jamming whether were making books, films or music. Jamming is really high on the scale of importance. Its been nice to looking at jamming in a different way.

DRE: Are you writing separately more?

KH: No but were writing more in general. Were writing together more because we get together to swap PowerBooks or hard drives. Were enjoying each others company in the studio because weve been on the road since May 2002. The experience of playing live has been a wonderful one. The best its ever been in 23 years has been the last two years on the road because of the fantastic team of people who take care of the show. We kind of brought that enjoyment of each others company back to the studio. Our friendship has grown. I love jamming with Rick and we seem to connect in a way that we havent ever before.

DRE: I read that you said you were anti-brand. What does that mean?

KH: It beats me. Maybe I was having a bad hair day.

DRE: You have also said that Underworld needed to get away from everything that happened to the band after Trainspotting came out.

KH: What I was probably saying there is that we never had pressure from the people we worked with to be anything other than ourselves. Junior Boys Own has always said that whatever music we make they will put it out and do their best. But there were people outside our circle telling us to write another Born Slippy, that we can be massive and bigger than whatever. There is nothing up that road for me and Rick. We dont write hits to order. We write music as it comes. Even the nature of the band now is changing because have to move on. When people were saying those things we just ignored them.

DRE: How did it go from making video installations to making music?

KH: I was doing installations in galleries which I absolutely adore galleries. In the 70s I felt like I was educated in quite an elite language that was very exclusive. I wanted my work to be inclusive and welcoming. Galleries were very intimidating for me and mates growing up in the farmlands. I felt that that wasnt right. I wanted to broadcast my art not narrowcast it. Id been in bands since I was 10 or 11 years old. I felt radio wasnt intimidating so I figured thats the medium, the carrier. So I focused on music for 10 years. Then Rick, me and a bunch of other guys formed [design company] Tomato. So there we were with a bunch of other artists making visual art. I thought the graphic artists were more fine artists than any fine artists I had met because these were people who made work because they loved it not just because they were commissioned to do it. They made personal work and that inspired me. Then we found ourselves working with a large group of artists in the early 90s. Some made music; others made books, films or whatever. That made us able to self-finance ourselves because we were making works for TV commercials. That put food on the table and enabled us to set up Underworld without having to look for finance outside.

DRE: Obviously this year there was this movie called Underworld [with Kate Beckinsale ] and it uses electronic music. Does that just roll right off your back?

KH: Its fine, whatever. People can call their dog Underworld Come here Underworld. Roll over. Play dead. Thats not us its a film. Its funny because we named ourselves after a film called Underworld [released in 1985] that Rick, some others and I wrote the entire score for. It was based on a Clive Barker book and it was not very good. That of course has no bearing on the current Underworld which could be fantastic.

DRE: Did you work on that movie out of a love for horror?

KH: It was out of love for film. Someone offered to let us score a movie and we jumped at it. We watched films incessantly in the evenings. We would rent videos and watch them all through the night. We would write to things like The Terminator with the sound turned down with all of us watching playing along to the scenes. We lived and breathed film because that was what we always wanted to do.

DRE: What movies do you watch today while you write?

KH: We dont tend to but Rick carries a lot of DVDs and hes usually up all night watching something on his PowerBook. Hell come down and tell me he had idea while watching something that has absolutely nothing to do with the idea. Hes very visually inspired. When he sees something he turns it into music.

Our influences mostly come from the real world now rather than the virtual world most of time. I love the energy of cities and things like that.

DRE: You and Rick have always gotten along it seems.

KH: Rick has tolerated me for a long time. Ive been a necessary evil in his life because the things we make together he liked the end result of. We were kind of like bookends over the years. Whats happened in the last few years working as a two piece weve grown as friends. Thats kind of a new experience after 23 years. Well hello!

DRE: Are there a lot of differences between the two of you?

KH: After so many years there are a lot of similarities. Hes become a bit like me and I have become a bit more like him. We still have something we can hold onto for our own identity.

DRE: Whats next?

KH: We just finished touring with the last shows in Japan.

DRE: I heard that was amazing.

KH: It was fantastic. We tried a brand new production that will go into the next tour as well. We did this BBC broadcast last week which was another drama come true. Were working on a new album and there is a Playstation 2 coming out with our friends from Tomato. Its using the gaming platform as a way of exploring our sounds and Tomato art. There are a lot of brand new pieces of music and elements in that. Weve also set up a book publishing imprint to publish In the belly of St. Paul which came out a month or so ago. Thats my writings I did in the nights and alleyways of London in the 1990s.

DRE: You guys have really embraced a lot of the new stuff thats come along.

KH: We get bored. How else are you going to keep yourself occupied on the long winter nights?

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck