Bibio Interview – July 3rd
Pretty Fly For A White Guy!
I am the last interview of the day for Stephen Wilkinson (AKA Bibio) and after a long day of question and answer, one would think he’d be out of steam. Not so. Something tells me he is one of those rare individuals who has the ability to talk under water - and not just about music either. Me thinks he would be very good at that drama game where you choose a topic from a hat (eg. oranges) and then have to speak on that topic for two minutes. It’s refreshing though to speak to someone with a veritable opinion on everything but never once feel like it’s being rammed down your throat. And it that sense, the experience of talking to the man behind Bibio is not dissimilar to the experience of listening to his music.
Running the vast gamut from folk to funk to electronic, his tunes offer the Bibio interpretation of the genre’s he spans. His first musical offering, the full-length album Fi, was released by US label Mush in 2004 due in no small part to the support of experimental Scottish duo Boards of Canada. This was followed two years later by the more song-based Hand Cranked and last years organ inspired EP, Ovals and Emerald. The beginning of this year saw his final release with Mush, Vignetting the Compost, before moving labels to Warp for the release of a new album - only five short months later. In Ambivalence Avenue he has managed to create an offering that delivers beautiful, atmospheric stimulation as well as attention grabbing fodder that demands active listening. It’s hard to believe that when trying to generate industry interest in his original recordings, English labels were reluctant to take notice.
“Well in 2002 I sent a batch of demos out to different record labels and wasn’t really getting much of a response so I decided to send a CD to Boards of Canada. I found their PO Box on their website and just sent it to them. And a year a half later I get this really positive email back asking if I’ve ever considered doing anything outside of the UK. I thought it was a joke at first because I’d told this friend of mine that I’d sent my demo to Boards of Canada. I thought he’d faked an email address.”
Although disappointed at not gaining a response from English labels, it was the lack of acknowledgement that was the most discouraging aspect. “I was just a bit frustrated because I didn’t get any response at all. I’d send demos out and wouldn’t even get a rejection letter back from them and then you kinda lose track of who you’ve sent what to. But Warp was the dream label because it doesn’t strive to be underground. It’s managed to keep its dignity while also expanding and it’s not afraid to sign bigger acts for fear of losing or damaging their reputation.”
One thing that stands out when looking into Bibio’s already substantial back catalogue is that even though electronica is not normally associated with lyrical greatness, Bibio is a master of syntax. |
“Well the other thing I like to do with words is that you come up with a sentence or lyrics or just a title or whatever and you’ve got this idea of what it means and then afterwards you listen to it and you think of all these other ideas that it might mean or these other ideas that people might get from it. There may not have been the intention for that in the first place but it’s one of those nice things that I like about language…that you can say a sentence and, depending on the nature of the sentence, it can be taken in different ways and I kind if accept those ways. Like sometimes I’ll write a song or I’ll come up with a title and then I decide afterwards the meaning. So it’s almost like the words are suggesting an alternative meaning to me even though I wrote it. I like doing that. I like lyrics that are metaphorical rather than generally descriptive…
At the end of the day if someone buys my record and listens to it, it’s their experience, it’s not mine. You know, I made it but I don’t necessarily want to dictate to them what I’m trying to say. I wanna plant a seed in their head more than dictate. I like listening to music where the listener is also doing something creative...Like political music generally tends to be like ‘this is a point, I’m going to get it across, this is exactly what I mean,’ whereas music that’s more poetic or ambiguous is more like the listener turns it into their own little creation just by listening to it and thinking about what it might mean.”
So what does the title of the new album, Ambivalence Avenue, mean to Bibio?
“It was based on an experience I had where I was on a coach and I was visiting London and I had this weird day dream where I imagined myself in the future living here. I wasn’t living here at the time. And it wasn’t necessarily that particular situation that was powerful, it was this weird feeling that it left with me like I couldn’t work out whether I liked it or whether it scared me, or what...And I think, if anything, it’s about that particular feeling that sometimes occurs in life where you feel strongly about something but you can’t tell what it is. It’s not ambiguous as such but it incorporates a bit of melancholy and a bit of joy and a bit of awe. So it’s really about that sensation.”
And as for the name Bibio?
“It’s a type of fishing fly. I think it’s Irish in origin I found out later. It’s a small black and red fly, nothing fancy, but it’s a classic fly. There’s lots of different fancy designs and crazy colours that use googly eyes, but this one, it’s pretty bland to look at. But it does the job and my Dad always swears by it and he still uses it now.
|
I really tried to revisit that. And…(I liked) the idea of something small and inconspicuous capturing something beautiful and majestic.
Because I’m not like a kind of front man or an in-your-face kind of person so I liked the idea of this anonymity. Like with fishing the thing that’s important is…the fish, you know, it’s the beautiful thing. In this case, it’s the music.
And also at the time it paralleled the fact that I had virtually no equipment to make music with but I tried to capture something with what I had. It was that low-fi aspect as well. Because if you think about fly fishing, it’s such a simple idea – to make a tiny little imitation fly to catch something as beautiful as a rainbow trout. But the skill of the angler and the imagination of the angler of where to cast…that’s what makes it such an amazing sport because it’s such a personal thing. Like that fish thinks it’s chasing its dinner but you’ve tricked it so the way you catch your dinner is to use your intelligence.”
But does Bibio use this hunting technique when finding the samples he uses to create his sound?
“I generally record everything myself. Occasionally I might take something from a film, particularly if I want something that’s like New York, you know like a New York 70’s kind of scene from a film then the best place to go is a 70’s film set in New York. But for example with Ambivalence Avenue the song, I wanted it to sound like it was in Hyde Park or something. Like there’s a little scene in the middle, quite a subtle part where there’s a piano in it, where I wanted it to sound like you’re sitting in a nice park and you’re surrounded by the hum of a big city. And I didn’t want to use samples that time so I went into Wolverhampton, recorded some sounds from the city, took them back, played with them and then mixed them in a particular way until they sounded like a big city…
But I enjoy doing it myself…Sometimes I do it just for that. I go out and I record sounds and I never use them. It’s that kind of ‘you never know’ feeling that you might get a gem of a recording. It’s the same with the music. I don’t really sample records much. Ninety-nine point nine percent of my music is me playing instruments and then I try to make them sound like old records by using old equipment like tape recorders and stuff.”
So what comes first in this chicken vs egg style stand-off – the sound or the song?
“It can happen in all different ways you know. Sometimes I just start a track by playing a guitar and finding a riff I like, record it and then once I’ve got the first thing down, everything else just seems to fall into place a lot of the time. And sometimes I have these weird feelings where I’ll write a track and I’ll think ‘this song needs a pigeon clapping in it or something.’ And I’ll stick to my guns with stuff like that because I’ll think that that was an honest thought so I should really pursue it...
Other times I might just make a beat. Like the last track on the new album came about cause it was a really hot day and I didn’t want to sit in my studio. So I took my sampler outside and a microphone and just started getting household objects, gardening objects, like a watering can which is where the title comes from. It’s a play on words with the Welsh for water and can in English – Dwrcan. And I think I was just like scraping this watering can on the floor, dropping gravel inside it and using all these sounds to make the drum. Rather than using drum machine sounds or whatever, I’ll just use objects like that and play with them so that they become abstract and you don’t recognize what they are. Like speeding them up or slowing them down, simple things like that really. And that’s how that track started, just as a beat, and then I just started putting synths and guitar and stuff and it just fell into place."
Although Bibio has been creating recordings and existing almost exclusively in a studio setting for most of his music making career, the live environment is something he is yet to conquer completely.
“I’ve done a few (live gigs), but not in London. When people ask me, I’m working on my live set basically. I’m probably just going to do DJ sets at the moment, work on my live set at home until I’m happy with it. Because it’s like I’ve got this new album and new music and stuff and so I want to work on something that goes with that new sound really.
And to be absolutely honest I’m more of a studio person…You put me in a studio and I’m happy. I’m pretty stage shy so you know. I’d be happy to spend most of my time in a studio but people are asking if I’m playing live…I’ve done some gigs. I played Green Man Festival last year…but I think the sets that I did back then were more mellow and a bit more ambient and it suited the kind of venues and the kind of situations I was playing in…
|
Whereas I’m thinking now, if I want to get on the road, doing proper live shows, I want to have something that’s more upbeat, something that’s more of a night out…So I think my live shows might end up being more upbeat."
Collaborations are also something Bibio would like to dabble in.
“I’d love to collaborate with people. One of the things that I miss when I work alone is the buzz that you get when you’re working with someone, especially when you’re playing a live gig. Like when I’ve been playing in a band or just jamming with some people with guitars and drums and whatever, sometimes I can’t wipe the smile off my face because I’m just loving it so much…And I don’t get that cause I work alone so I definitely want to work with people."
The ambient nature of Bibio’s songs also allows a certain amount of flexibility in the context in which they can be used. Getting one of his tracks into a film also appeals to Bibio and he’s taken the first step by having one used in the trailer for the recent Friday the 13th film.
“The Mush guys landed that one for me. It was quite random at the time really. Because at first I thought ‘how the hell is a Bibio track going to work in a modern horror film, a modern Hollywood horror film?’ And then I kinda saw it in the context in which it was used. Like in the trailer it’s used in this bit where there’s all these happy-go-lucky young people about to go on this holiday. And the music’s got like that warmth in it but it’s got like a tinge of sadness...the song is about childhood and natural beauty and wonder and stuff like that and in a way, that kind of adds to a sinister edge if it’s used in a different context. So yeah that was quite a surprise but I was pleased.
I’ve always wanted to hear my music in a film to be honest. I’d really like my music to be used properly in a soundtrack somewhere…It’d be nice to see your music used to enhance someone else’s cinematic art.”
And as this interview took place just days after the untimely death of the King of Pop, I’m curious as to Bibio’s feelings on the issue.
“Michael Jackson dying doesn’t necessarily make me sad. Michael Jackson becoming the person he did makes me sad. Like this little boy that’s just unbelievably talented and full of energy and just being abused by the industry. Just changing his appearance in the way he did. Every single photograph I see of him in his later life he just looks so sad and tortured and I just think, even with all the allegations and stuff, he’s probably one of the most tortured people on the planet. So maybe now that he’s past away, I mean it’s not a relief but at least he’s not suffering anymore.
But I just totally felt sorry for him more than anything really…He himself has been a really tortured person, turned into a product, made to seem like he wasn’t even a human being. (It was) like he was some kind of scapegoat or puppet or something like that. And it all started off because he was just so talented and it’s just disgusting to see someone changed like that. I think it’s so easy to point the finger at someone like that, someone like Michael Jackson, and accuse him of being a freak…where everybody has contributed to that. Everybody’s bought into this idea that a human being can be a product.
Like when I was a kid, Michael Jackson was the most famous person in the world, everybody knew who he was. He was like Coca-Cola or McDonalds and, in a way, there’s something a bit wrong about that…He’s just a guy that sings and makes music and he’s been turned into this super product. So generally I just feel sad about his later stages but it’s nice that he’s got this legacy and you can listen to the early works, the Motown era and stuff and he’s just an undeniably amazing, amazing guy. I think King of Pop is a fair title really, to be honest, legend."
And that my friends, is your introduction to Bibio
Ambivalence Avenue is out now on Warp Records
Lee Hutchison |
