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  Coldcut Interview
interview 0373 added
08.02.06 words:
Nikesh
technical:
QED
Coldcut are musical pioneers in this country. Not only has their self-produced label, Ninjatune, produced some of the most genre-defying dance music of the last twenty odd years, but so has their band. Comprising Matt Black and Jon More, they are
Coldcut.
Most people come into music, do the same thing for a few years, slowly sink back into obscurity and spend the rest of their life collecting publishing royalties and re-forming for tribute tours.
Ex-art teacher Jonathan More and computer programmer Matt Black have been a team since the mid-eighties. Both Matt and Jonathan had been building their DJ reputation on the nascent rare groove / warehouse party scene. Jon had a show on the then pirate station Kiss FM and worked in Reckless Records in Londons west end, where he sold Matt a bootleg of ‘Across The Tracks’ by Maceo & the Macks. Matt came back the next day with “Say Kids, What Time Is It?” and suggested they work on it together. The band grew from there and the rest is history.
I caught up with Matt Black, one of the core members of Coldcut, over email and discussed everything from their new album, to the size of Strictly Kev’s ego.
Please introduce yourselves to the ukhh.com audience and tell us where you've been for ages?
 Let us introduce ourselves: Yo! “As I believe they say on the street”. Anyway, I’ve been away on the beach researching my new film Beaches and Massages of the World. A guy called David Rockerfeller gave me $50m to produce it with, but, um, we got through that and now we’re seeking further funds. If any readers fancy contributing just get in contact with us via Ninja Tune…
In between times we have managed to produce some art installations, software developments, websites, some pirate radio stations, remixes, productions, and, er, a child.
Tell us about the new album and whether the changes in the music scene have helped evolve your sound?
The initial goal was to make a coherent album. The last album, “What’s that Noise?” was a bit ‘welcome to our mad laboratory’. It was wayward, odd and diverse, and so we wanted to balance that with coherency. I wanted to make something that perhaps has a broader appeal than what we’ve done before, because it’s a challenge to make a record that is different and odd but has a broad appeal.
Was there pressure with this album, having been away for so long?
We had to overcome the self-appointed traffic wardens of style; pronouncements that as we don’t have guitar we are no longer relevant. Luckily we’re able to club them into submission with hitherto unglimpsed weapons of funkjazztical technology.
“...It’s okay to copy people, we all learn by copying people...”
Ninja Tune is now a firmly established label. Which of your artists/projects are you most proud of?
 We’re proud of the whole family, but in particular, Strictly Kev, who has the highest talent to ego ration of anyone I know.
Ninja led the way in terms of music DVDs and online shops. Did you think the internet would be the boom it is?
Yes. See The Shockwave Rider, 1975 by John Brunner and The Neuromancer Trilogy by William Gibson. They predicted the arrival of a global computer network that becomes the most important environment for communication and exchange.
Ninja is hugely popular all over Europe and Japan. How did that happen?
By keeping it real. By putting music first. We first visited Japan in 1990 and found a common allegiance to the essence to hip-hop in a lot of people there. That’s helped I guess…
What's next for you as a label?
There are lots of interesting projects coming up – a new Ammoncontact album and a new Daedelus album. It’s all about pushing the boundaries of hip-hop forward.
“...what are we going to do with all this technology now? Answer: write some songs...”
Is this a reflection of years of work or a flurry of recent activity?
Some of the songs we have been working on for a long time and some came about at the last moment, like True Skool with Roots Manuva. We just worked until we had a finished product we were happy with.
What do you hope to achieve artistically with this album?
 We wanted to make a more complete album and everyone tells us we’ve succeeded, and that does feel good. Dance music is about tracks, it’s about 12” singles, and the number of albums by dance artists that can be seen as successful albums is pretty limited, you can almost count it on the fingers of one hand.
The novelty of just doing phat beats and funky noises has worn off a bit, and we thought - what are we going to do with all this technology now? Answer: write some songs. We’re not Lennon and McCartney yet (!) but we’re still sharpening our edge, not losing it.
What are your live plans?
On stage we’re going to be between four and seven people. There will be Raj Pannu on the decks, Juxta on visuals, Jon Moore on sound, and myself on audio/visual-scratching, plus the vocalists. The main backbone of the show will be a full on audio/visual experience, which I call ‘live cinema’ or ‘scratch montage’.
As pioneers in this country, what advice would you give to up and coming artists?
It’s okay to copy people, we all learn by copying people. But don’t just copy and forget who you are. It’s that mixture of being inspired by all the great art around you, but finding your own take on it. Read the rule book, digest it, then write your own.
“...Dance music is about tracks, it’s about 12” singles...”
What is next for you as a band?
Gigs, Gigs, Gigs! Party, party, party! We’ve got about 30 or 40 gigs in the tour, and that’s going to be a hard grind but we love it. We’re going to do Europe, Japan, the States, even Chile this time I think.
What equipment did you use to make the album?
More and more we can do everything from our laptops, which is a significant development from when we first started out. Live: In terms of software we just use Ableton Live and our own VJAM software for visuals. Also we use Pioneer DVJ-X1 to scratch and manipulate visuals, which compliments VJAM very well.
Whose music (not on your label) are you liking at the moment?
I’m getting into the Temperance Seven at the moment, who were a bunch of art school students in the 60’s. My parents used to play them and I’ve recently rediscovered them. They’re absolutely stinging! They’re like us, man, four white guys who fell in love with black music, in their case 20s and 30s New Orleans jazz. It’s so witty and the musicianship is excellent. I’ve been learning the Charleston with my girlfriend over Christmas.
The album, “Sound Mirrors” is out now on Ninjatune and boasts a whole heap of talent, from Saul Williams to Jon Spencer and Roots Manuva. Buy it… an essential soundtrack to the 06.
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Nikesh Shukla
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