Author Topic: Je Suis Animal  (Read 19097 times)

Johnny Mac

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Je Suis Animal
« on: November 20, 2006, 03:08:01 pm »
Has anyone else bought this yet?

I bought it last week and it arrived promptly.

Very different sounding kinda stuff to cable, I quite enjoy it so far though.

And the cd packaging is very nice.

Pete Cable

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Re: Je Suis Animal
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2006, 01:28:07 am »
I love it - you have to remember Matt is the drummer - I'm not really sure what his input is song wise - he might have had the urge to be 'creative' with a guitar beaten out of him. I think we thought pretty similar when choosing what to do next music wise - (a) something different from cable, to try and avoid comparrison and (b) not be so heavily involved in the songwriting.
With cable, being in a band lost many aspects of the fun of it, once we got on a treadmill of write songs, argue with record company about new songs, agree which songs can be recorded, record songs, argue with record company about recordings, remix/master songs, argue with record company about the new mixes, prepare artwork, argue with record company about art work...(do you see a pattern? :D) And what made it specially hard would be the deadline set...we would literally finish touring one album, when the label would say 'you have 13 weeks to write a new album'. That meant 13 weeks to write around 15-16 songs (10 or 11 for the album and b sides to cover all single releases). Infectious were pretty hot on us releasing an album every year - they were worried that anythign longer would mean the kettle would go off the boil. Soo it was hard work and we all contributed to the writing - Richie didn't just wack stuff, he would input into arrangement, had a great ear for vocal melodies - we all made suggestions and not just on our own instrument - Matt would often pick up the bass and go 'i imagined something more like this' or I'd pick up a guitar and suggest a change on the rhythm, or swap the chords round, or like I did in song1, just go 'how about this in the middle?' and play one chord for like 16 bars!
so when it came to doing HS6 - I knew what sort of band I wanted to form, but I wanted the others to have more of an active input than me - because If I drove the ideas too much, it would just end up all cabley.
So as a result, there is a backlash - I worry that HS6 is too cabley, I also worry that Cable is all I'll ever really achieve and yet many a cable fan is disappointed by how not-cabley we are.
I'd been listening to alot of stuff like early zz top, sabbath, ac-dc, zeppelin - fuzzed up sleaze rock and I fancied starting a modern blues band with a punk ethic to songwriting. I wanted it to twang and swagger, rather than hurtle along like an express train - just wanted to break away and try that. I remember thinking it would be great if we could make blues rock cool again by giving it a fresh coat of paint. Like what the whole baggy thing did for psychedelic 60s type stuff.
So I was hoping JSA would be at right angles to cable and I was pleased when I heard it. I just wish Darius' work had seen the light of day - it was probably the most imaginitive out of everybody - I contributed some drum loops and a bit of scratching here and there, but what got used in the final mixes, I don't know.

Johnny Mac

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Re: Je Suis Animal
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2006, 10:48:27 am »
Awesome post Pete. Thanks for all the background stuff.

I can see why you would want to try something different and deliberately try to get a sound away from Cable and to be honest I really like HS6 stuff. In one way I suppose, at least we get everyone from the band producing different output now and see different influences in everyones work!

Greg

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Re: Je Suis Animal
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2006, 10:15:45 pm »
HI Pete,
             Hope your feeling much better now. Do you play any other instruments as well as Bass and Decks?

Oh, And you do what you do, and don't care if no one else likes it, if your into it. Thats all that matters!!!

Matt's got great feel in hiss playing. Niceone!

All the best ;)

Greg.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2006, 10:17:23 pm by Greg »

Pete Cable

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Re: Je Suis Animal
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2006, 12:52:49 am »
I started out on turntables in 1984. In 1990 I bought a drumkit, which suffered personal abuse for a few years before I decided I couldn't play for toffee. I then, on a whim bought a squire stratocaster and played guitar for about 2 years before buying a bass, which was done just to fill in for a band who had no bassplayer. I have a lovely rare old roland SH2000 keyboard, but I wouldn't claim to be able to pay that either - i just coax it into making bubbly squelching noises that I sample. I never refer to myself as a musician. The HS6 guys roll their eyes at me because I don't recognise 'Em7', I just go 'that one, with the finger here'. I'm happier thinking I'm a songwriter, arranger and performer and the above things are the tools i use to to carry that out. If I'm recording a guitar by strumming it, or hitting it with a stick makes no difference to me, i'm just after a sound to do the job I'm imagining in my head.

Greg

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Re: Je Suis Animal
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2006, 12:26:09 am »
Hi Pete,
           Thats really intresting. I bet you have all sorts of fun trying to work out what Ged plays. He comes up with some 'out stuff'. You kind of remind me of the the guy from Nightmares on wax. He thinks of music the same way.

I have checked out Razer cuts on Myspace. Really good. I can see how you and Cooper work well. Any plans to do a one off in Derby. For fun one time. I bet Neil would be well up for it!!.

How is Ged these days? Hope he's well and a little bit less stressed!
All the best
Greg.

Pete Cable

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Re: Je Suis Animal
« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2006, 12:45:39 am »
Ged is always stressed! I don't know how he runs a business to be honest, he's so bloody twitchy! He is what me and Phil call a 'proper' guitarist - he has grades and all that caper - he says stuff like 'myxalidian' and 'pentatonic' and expects us to know what he's on about. The razorcuts stuff only showcases one tune that is a 'cuthustlers' track, which is very commercial - but that was done on purpose. Most of the stuff we've recorded together was quite 'beard strokey' instrumental breakbeat type stuff with a feel of DJ Shadow to it - but I had that one tune that's up there (I originally knocked it together on a hand held akai s20) and I just thought it was a great pop tune, like daft punk or avalanches. I presented it to him and he thought it was a great tune to work on. But to say it was so simple, it proved a nightmare to actually record. At first, we spent a day recording Neil playing real drums for it which then all got scrapped - as soon as real drums went down, it sounded like a bad pop record. Nothing could compete with the sound of the 909 used on it. Then we mixed it at the hive, sent it to the label and they said it sounded bad - there was some kind of bass rumble at certain points in the song. So we went to Liverpool and mixed it again. The label guy road tested it in a club again and still the rumble was there. In the end, we had to give up mixing and mixing and mixing and I rebuilt the whole thing from scratch - resampling every record and squeek and squelch all over again. Finally we got the thumbs up and I'm expecting the test pressings any day, but this record has seriously taken about 2 years to get right, especially as me and Coops are so busy. Listen to the 'locked horns' track or the 'tribute' track for what razorcuts is about. The other stuff is a bit 'light'. I'm also waiting on TPs of the stuff coming out on 33TT after xmas - I know they're in the post - apparently the Japs have gone mental for it already, so I can't wait to get it.

Greg

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Re: Je Suis Animal
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2006, 11:37:29 pm »
Ha..ha... Ged is a funny fella. The funny thing is if you ask him about Grades he'll deniy anything about it and probably stress him out more!!

Man, Thats impressive constructing everything on an S2000. I hate noisers that should'nt be there. Digital hiss dose my head in.

Going to keep an eye out for Razercuts tracks in the new year.

I'm defo going to make it to a HS6 gig soon. I've been meaning to see you guys play for agers, but I'm sooooo busy I always miss the gigs.


All the best
Greg.