UNKLE - Interview - Autumn 2008
By: Yousif Nur
Rockfeedback recently caught up with UNKLE main man James Lavelle to discuss the X-Files, his new album of collaborations with the likes of Josh Homme and White Lies, the current hip hop scene, DJ Shadow, and his constant desire to artistically progress. Here's how it went down.
Rockfeedback: The tracks you've had featured on the X-Files soundtrack, were they written with the film in mind, or were they tracks you already had that the producers requested?
James Lavelle: "One of them they licensed actually, the other was from War Stories, a track called 'Broken'. Initially, I was asked to do a remix of the theme. Having talked to Chris (Cornell, creator of X-Files) about it, I said I'd rather just do a re-interpretation, as though we were doing it as a cover version, rather than actually taking the original parts and use those sounds. So we did a sort of orchestral version of the X-Files theme. We had to turn it into a four minute track, and the funny thing with the X-Files is that everyone knows that piece of music, but you only know about thirty seconds of it! You don't know what goes on afterwards. So we had to make it into a song. It was interesting, we only had five days to do it so it was quite an intense experience to turn it around. I think the theme has been remixed a few times over the years."
RFB: Your newest release is a collaborations record, where you work with Josh Homme, Gavin Clark and White Denim. You must have huge admiration for them all?
JL: "The thing is, it's not really a new record. It's a collection of songs and ideas that have been around since we finished War Stories. They've all been used in some way or another, in film, tv, computer games, whatever kind of media. I have quite a regular working relationship with Gavin from having done tours with him and the band we worked on the last record with. We ended up using two tracks on another soundtrack which are on this album. I really like working with him. A lot of the time when you're working on film stuff, there's a certain mood that you're trying to create or ask for, and Gavin really works well in that kind of mood. So we ended up doing a lot of work with him in that sort of premise.
The Josh Homme thing came about because we have an ongoing relationship. He's a really good mate of mine and a really good person. I wouldn't say he's a guy I hung out with on a regular basis or have a massive relationship with, but whenever we see each other and work on certain things, we tend to talk about doing things together. We've done remixes of three Queens of The Stone Age songs, 'Burn The Witch', 'No-One Knows' and 'I'm a Designer', we did those three. But the chemistry was originally meant to be a vocal song and it didn't happen. It ended up how it was, Josh did the vocals and sent them to me after the record was finished but we didn't really do anything with it. I thought it was be nice to use it on this record just so the fans could see what the song was intended to be like.
I like what White Denim do a lot. They happen to also be on my manager's record label, Full Time Hobby. That's how I heard them originally. I just really like what they do and from that we hooked up and we were looking for a good guitarist to play on a track and they happened to be in town and we hooked up and it was really nice just to be that spontaneous."
RFB: Do you strive for longevity?
JL: "I don't really have anything else to do. I don't know, you should just, keep trying to push yourself, and that's all I know. I just fight to keep my head above water, to really keep going."
RFB: Creatively or business-wise?
JL: "My business success has been pretty low, some might say. I wouldn't consider myself someone that is particularly successful in that area. Creatively, it's like some sort of search for the holy grail, really. You're just trying to better yourself and find this 'thing'. I know that there's a lot of people that would say exactly the same thing but have not necessarily been as fortunate to be around still. I think that you make sacrifices. You have to keep yourself active, keep yourself 'in' to a certain degree. I don't mean that in a trend way, but more information-wise - you've got to try and stay relevant, but staying relevant is also a case of actually having to go out and go to gigs, meet new people, bang bang (bangs fists on table) - keep on top of it."
RFB: But in saying that, it's also a young man's game nowadays...
JL: "That's the problem! The weird thing for me is that I get put into this thing for what I do, but I'm 34, I'm not in my 40s. I've been doing this for twenty years, but I started when I was 14 and it's because I started when I was so young that I'm still doing it. Also, with what we do, because we've never reached that massive, massive over-riding success, nothing's eclipsed any hunger to try and achieve..."
RFB: ...the fine balance between mainstream and underground? Well, at least this way you don't offend anyone!
JL: "Ooh I dunno... it seems I've offended a lot of people over the years. But people can take music so seriously. It's difficult.
RFB: Certainly in the hip-hop realm.
JL: "That's a difficult thing to let go of. Moving from working with DJ Shadow to where I am now was quite a painful experience. That's being elitist about hip-hop though. And I was, when I was one of those kids. But what made me get into music was that hip-hop was about taking the best things from a lot of bad things and making them good. When you look at hip-hop and what it was when I first started, Afrika Bambaataa and people like that were taking elements of records from Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, Apache, f**kin' country records - as long as it had a beat in it, elements that were cool and making something happen. It was about learning and taking from all these different influences. When it came down to actually being in the music it created, people became so closed-minded, and I found that very difficult. That was one of the reasons I got out of the hip hop scene. Even though that was one of the places I came from.
RFB: The biggest irony perhaps was that it wasn't meant to be taken so seriously.
JL: "True."
RFB: Why is the visual aspect so important to UNKLE?
JL: "It gives it an identity, it's a part of the creative process it's inspiring to work within. I think it's always been part and parcel really for me."
RFB: Should more people follow your example of a creative outlet that encompasses more than just music?
JL: "Yes. But then again, it's not an easy thing to do. I don't mean that in that I should be rewarded for it - I just mean that it's quite a difficult and arduous thing to do, and you need the right kind of support. I'm a very fortunate person to have been given that. I think people should strive for it though. Having as much control as you can have is the best place to be. Just jump into it.
RFB: What are your thoughts on where you are at now?
JL: "Happy, confused, just trying to keep my head above water! I feel challenged creatively in a really good place. But I feel historically quite bewildered by it all. It's just been so many years and there have been so many different things I've been involved, in so it's like 'where's it all gone, what's happened when, what, which where..?' I'm not just trying to take stock of that, trying to not dwell on the past, move forward and live each day as it comes and enjoy that creatively."
RFB: Do you not make many plans then?
JL: No, but I make a lot more plans than I used to. I never used to be able to see past a certain point. When we used to have meetings on making records, I used to think 'f**k next year, what about next week?' But now I've started to think about next year and the year after, which is quite strange for me. And I never think ahead. So there.
Artists in this article: UNKLE