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01Hey Boy, Hey Girl
02Music: Response
03Block Rockin' Beats
04Song to the Siren
05Out of Control
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Before the Chemical Brothers hit the stage at Red Rocks for their KTCL "Rave On the Rocks" set, MTV Online sat 'em down and asked about their approach to performing live. Join us as Tom Rowlands (with spectacles) and Ed Simons (without) reveal what it takes for a pair of DJs to put on a successful stage show. |  |  | |
MTV Online: How do you feel about playing Red Rocks, Colorado, with its whole connection with U2's "Under a Blood Red Sky?"Ed Simons: It's cool. It's a brilliant place.Tom Rowlands: We like playing in the outdoors. Nice people dancing under the stars. It's a beautiful thing. As long as it doesn't rain, of course.MTV: How's your whole tour going?ES: It's going well. It's been kind of interesting to see the reaction to this kind of music. The music we're playing is different. We got some new songs. It leaves people in a different place than previously. It's kind of less bombastic, but it still kind of bombastic.TR: We're doing all sorts of shows... like last week, we were doing this whole cyberfest thing, which was sort of like a rave, and today we are playing here, which is like "[the] home of rocking" in Red Rocks. And next week we're playing Woodstock, so it's, like, all different things together, which is nice.MTV: Any interesting stuff that has happened so far?ES: No, nothing interesting ever happens to us. No, we played this rave in San Francisco, which is like one of the biggest raves, and it was good for us to play. There was people of all ages there and stuff.There's a difference here in America. There's a difference of age structures, and it felt like we were playing and getting across to people in a cool way.TR: It was like when we first came to America in 1994, and we used to go to Orlando and play the raves there, which was exciting.... It's still good to know that our music means something in those kinds of circles.ES: The whole kind of "electronica" thing kind of made a barrier between the people making dance music and the kids that go out and enjoy it. In a rave situation, it creates a different feeling of what the music is for, or how it can be enjoyed, so it's good to just go to a rave and play it and enjoy it, which is what we've always done.MTV: Can you tell us a little about the visuals in your show?ES: They are done by people called Vegetable Vision. They're good friends of ours, Adam and Earl, and they put together these film loops, and they started using video now. When we play live, it's quite right to hear the music and to sort-of drift off into different aspects of it, and the visuals help to give it that psychedelic effect, with the light shows and everything. What we wanted to do is make this incredible environment when you hear our music.MTV: Can you explain what happens during your live set?TR: We're basically doing remixing of our own records, but live, like on one channel, you'll have a snare drum. One, you have a kick drum. One, you have the bassline. One, you have a snip of the vocals. We've got no desire to sort-of replicate the recorded version. When we play live, it gives us the chance to really play around with it and often create new things. A lot of jamming goes on, we find. The machines that we work with, since we've worked with them for a long time, it's very intuitive, and we can sort-of make new songs as we go. And that's what keeps us excited about doing it.On the last two [tours], when we came to America, we were jamming, and a lot of that stuff came onto this record, and ideas and how stuff was working, so it was cool. "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" totally just came out of playing live. We used to play as an encore, and it was only kind of half-written, and we used to just make up the rest as we went.MTV: Do you have anything to say to kids who want to go into this line of work?TR: Good luck. Well, if you've got an idea, don't be afraid of doing it. You don't have to know. There's no exam or qualifications for music. You just have to have ideas. You could do it in your bedroom, on a sh**ty little hi-fi, on cheap gear. Some of the stuff we did wasn't on big expensive gear in studios, so it's just the idea if you get it.ES: The best way to get your music out there [is] don't trouble record companies. If you make one album and give it to the right DJ, you are in the right direction.* * *The Chemical Brothers' new album, Surrender, is in stores now.
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current release:
"surrender"
label: astralwerks |  | |
