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In the fickle world of dance music Simian Mobile Disco are doing something unique. They’re thriving. While dance might be a genre which goes under, above and back underground more than your average District Line stopper, James Ford and Jas Shaw are appealing to everyone with their bleeped up electro-dance - music which verges at times as much on the rock world as it does on the neon sweat pit sounds of your local super club. It’s no surprise, therefore, that as Gigwise chats to James Ford, the group's producer extraordinaire, talk flits between their impending debut solo album, its imposing live support tour and, ahem, 'New Rave.'
You see, Simian Mobile Disco might be on the verge of releasing their debut solo album, ‘Attack Decay Sustain Release,’ but for both James and Jas the music industry is far from a new world. For starters, they’ve seen it all before in their previous band, the indie four piece, Simian. And yes, that is the group whose song, ‘Never Be Alone’ is now better known as the anthemic, ‘We Are Your Friends,’ thanks to a Justice remix. Whilst their previous alias - which was formed at Manchester University alongside fellow students Simon Lord and Alex MacNaughten – achieved acclaimed success (not only with WAYF), for both James and Jas – the self-proclaimed “electronic heads” of the band - Simian was never really the musical road they wanted to travel down. Consequently they left, with a US Tour still in full flow, to follow their electro dream. “We were always pulling in that (electronic) direction really so it was a natural thing for me and him to carry on making tunes, mainly because it’s a good laugh and pretty easy.”
Even before the official ending of Simian, James and Jas had already begun to flutter their electro wings under the (then) comical pseudonym, Simian Mobile Disco, at their after show party DJ sets which followed Simian gigs. “We just decided to DJ after a lot of the gigs. We did a lot and the places we played as a band didn’t have the same release for dancing and fun and that kind of stuff so we always ended up going to after shows,” James continues. “Then when Simian sort of split up and we decided that we didn’t really want to do it any more as a band, me and Jas just kept getting asked to do remixes and getting asked to play.”
Now, two years on from their ‘mutual’ desertion of Simian, with a flurry of critically acclaimed productions and remixes in their SMD back-catalogue, and with their debut album on the way, Simian Mobile Disco has suddenly taken on a life of its own. As James explains, it’s gone farther than both men ever expected it to go. “To be honest we didn’t even really intend to be DJ’s, we just kind of slipped into it quite naturally. We’ve always just enjoyed the process of playing together and making music,” he adds. ”For me as a producer the biggest buzz that I get out of this whole thing is actually making tunes, making records and stuff so it was just natural to keep on doing it. We get on well, we have similar tastes and interests and it just happened without too much thought.”
Like so many dance acts, producing an album of artist material is always a challenge. For SMD, it has been no different. “We wanted to make a record that you could listen to all the way through at home so that it isn’t just a bunch of club tracks stuck together. We hope that it works as an album.” Was this always a conscious target from the outset? “Yeah,” he admits. “I suppose we were conscious of it. I think we still made the same tracks but we normally make the tracks in a sort of club format. You know, eight minutes long with long drum intros and outros.” After listening to initial sessions, James confesses that they weren’t happy. “We listened to it and thought that it didn’t feel right. We wanted something that grabbed you a bit more and was a little bit more pushy.”
There’s certainly evidence of this more concise approach on the albums first single, ‘Its The Beat,’ which precedes the long players release. Featuring a vocal collaboration with The Go Team’s, Ninja, it’s a concoction of catchy acid bleeps and snappy lyrics which neatly summaries what you can expect ahead of ‘Attack Decay’s…’ full release. The album - which was recorded with analogue equipment to maintain any “idiosyncrasies” – also features a collaboration with their old Simian band mate, Simon Lord (‘I Believe’), which proves that relations aren’t really that hostile. James explains: “It’s probably the most songy one on there. I suppose we’ve got a history of working with him and he kind of knows what we want.”
The band were always weary about over using vocals, however. “We didn’t want to go too far down the vocal collaboration route because it starts going a bit like UNKLE or something like that where it’s more about the singers than the actual group or the music,” although he adds. “I mean obviously with me producing I’ve got opportunities of getting Alex Arctic (Monkeys) and Klaxons on it but we thought we’d stay away from that until a bit later in the game.”
Ford, who has produced for both the Arctic Monkeys and Klaxons, and been heralded as the ‘Godfather of ‘New Rave,’’ was reluctant to talk about his other projects in our meeting, but, seeing as he did bring it up – can we expect an SMD collaboration in the future? “Yeah I reckon we probably will because they’re all really talented and I’m sure we could do something really good, but just for this album we thought we’d make it more interesting instrumentals at this moment in time you know?”
Indeed for the intrepid producer and his musical partner, there are more immediate issues on the horizon. As well as their DJ’ing duties, SMD will shortly embark on a live tour. Although they are semi-uncharted waters for the outfit, they are still maintaining a cheerful optimism. “We’re trying to make sure that its fun for us. We’re going to just do it so it in the men and machines way like Orbital and The Chemical Brothers but we’re going make it so we’re not playing to a backing so it’s going to be different every night. We’re actually making the noise at the time so it could fall apart, especially using the older gear. But we want to make it so we can tailor it to our mood and to the crowd – so we can play a really short vocal one or we can really stretch it out and play really minimal.”
It’s partly because of Ford’s involvement in the supposed New Rave movement, that SMD often find themselves in front of such diverse crowds. As a result, there’s a pressure to be able to be able to adapt on the spot. That’s something they’ve already proven they can do however. “If we’re doing Fabric or something like that we need to make it harder and more strung out whereas, if we’re playing an indie club to people who are more used to watching bands we have to make it more songy you know?”
Simian Mobile Disco find themselves amongst a dance revolution. It’s a revolution which they are, perhaps unwittingly, currently spearheading. “Whereas a few years ago there was the minimal purist dance epic and then real back to basics rock, now people are more into mixing them up and seeing what comes out. I personally find that quite an exciting thing,” he adds. “I think especially with bands like Klaxons coming through dance music is heading back towards more of the mainstream of popular culture as opposed to being sidelined again - it should be a good year.” Indeed, with SMD at the helm, it promises to be a very good and happy year all round. Put on your dancing shoes.
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