Underworld Interview

[gmonkey]

Underworld Interview

Back when this writer was a candy raver girl, complete with candy necklaces, hair in pigtails and pants with legs so wide it looked like I was floating rather than walking, Underworld had just burst on to the American dance scene with their anthemic "Born Slippy .NUXX." Certainly, synthesized music had long been reaching the masses in the form of industrial and house music, but there was something about Underworld, with its haunting poetry for lyrics and blend of raging beats that solidified my personal love for electronica.



It doesn't matter where we each are in our own personal journeys through electronic music. Where some have been around the scene long enough to call ourselves jaded ravers, there are some who are just beginning their trip into the madness. Yet it's probably safe to say that most of us can count Underworld as one of the definitive acts that has shaped our communal genre as we know it.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with Karl Hyde of Underworld as they were about to embark on the recent, albeit brief, US tour. He shared with us insight into Underworld's own journey of where they've been, where they're going now, and most importantly, when they're coming back.

How does it feel to finally be heading back to perform in America?
KH: "Being back in the states is great. It's not a big tour, so we're playing a few dates. We really want to come back and do a major tour with new records and new material. We like playing in America. It's interesting - we seem to be playing in America more now than in any time before in our actual career. It goes the other way for most people, but we're kind of wrapping up in America."

What's your favorite US city to play?
KH: "It's not something I can even begin to say. We've been very lucky to be playing a form of music which attracts people who are really cool to play to. Everywhere we go, you just get this great vibe coming off of people. They're all different, playing New York, Vegas or San Francisco, LA, Chicago - they're all very, very different. There's always deeply passionate energy and a joy that we're met with, and that's fantastic!"

So there's a discernible vibe between each city?
KH: "I couldn't say what it is, but it's going to be affected by the landscape. And that's another cool thing about playing a place like America - because you have such diverse landscapes, it's fantastic. It's like when we go tour in Europe, except the US is one big country, with great diversity of landscape, it's brilliant."

As Underworld evolves musically, what are your influences as of late?
KH: "We do this web radio show off our website underworldlive.com. Because of that for the last four or five years we've been buying and receiving music mostly, I would say, from independent labels or artists that haven't been signed. We help promote other artists, young bands, new artists of all genres. It's a massive influence on our music and us - probably the biggest single influence on us would be doing those radio shows. But in the last year and half we've been more focused on the kind of sounds and music that we were digging in the early 80s, music that started in Germany with bands like Kraftwerk and Neu! and Faust, and DAF and those kind of forefathers of the electronic scene. And it's manifesting now in people like MGMT. But for a lot of contemporary bands, it's not only electronics. They're doing what we were excited about in the early 90s and that's fusing together a kind of German-based electronic sound with indie sound. You're getting guitars and singers mashed up with machines, that's the sound that we do."

Is that where you see electronica seems to be heading as a genre?
KH: "There's always going to be purists in every genre whether it's folk music or jazz or dance music. There are always going to be purists who strip it down to its most minimal focused dynamic. From our previous incarnations we brought guitars and singers and we brought a specific sense of structure. But we fuse that together with this fantastic journey that machine music makes and the energy that it creates and a crowd that wants to go on and on to celebrate it. What we see at the moment is there's a current passion for something we've held very dear for a very long time. And that's fantastic because now we've got younger bands taking things we're passionate about and re-presenting it to people like us in a fresh and exciting way. And that's very stimulating. It's like jamming, like having a conversation with another band."

It's a bit like picking your favorite child, but do you have a favorite song to perform?
KH: "It changes all the time. I've never been one who wanted to do that. I personally respond to the moment. When I walk onto the stage I'm literally responding to the moment. A piece of music which may not have worked very well for the last six shows suddenly comes together in a moment tonight and takes me to a glorious place. So I just have to make myself very raw and just walk onstage and be ready to experience the moment. So for me what's the most important thing is what Rick [Smith] does. I love what my partner Rick does; he makes music that just sends me. And you put that together with the energy of the crowd come to celebrate and I... I go crazy."

Have you been to any shows lately as a spectator?
KH: "I'm trying to think now. I have tried to get to see other artists. I'm going to put the phone down and go 'of course!' [laughs]. I do try, I really do try to get out to see other artists, it doesn't happen often because we're either touring or in studio, which is why I've spent time on youtube looking at other... Oh! I went to see The Prodigy, which is kind of funny, because we only live a few miles apart where we come from. Essex is kind of the techno capital of the UK but it was great to see them back out and do a powerful show. It's great to the see The Orbital back together again. "I'm also interested in seeing new bands and what they're doing. Even bands like Kasabian that are fusing indie culture and dance culture, I know that's a band that makes reference to people like us in music, and god bless them, they make great sounds."

As far as your audience goes, do you see the age of the crowd changing at all?
KH: "I do and it's exciting that when we played on the weekend you get some faces that you've seen for a long time, but actually we're getting a lot of young people coming to the shows now. And that's been happening for the last couple of years. Whenever you have a big hit you always get a new influx of people, but in the last couple of years, regardless of hit or no hits or whatever, a lot of young people have been turning up to our shows, that's really exciting because you can see they're getting off on it and they're discovering this for themselves. That's when you know that the scene has got new energy."

When are you planning on coming back to Chicago?
KH: " Well, for us, we want to finish our material towards the tail end of this year and then set out on a proper, full-scale tour. I love playing Chicago. Yeah. You've got some great record shops too. I nearly froze to death once in Chicago, but that's another story."