Here's a transcription of a CBC Stereo interview with Mike Paradinas
that I recorded off Brave New Waves in January 1996. I think it was a
re-broadcast, but I'm not sure.
MP = Mike Paradinas
PS = Patti Schmidt, host(ess)
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PS:
San Francisco is probably a hotbed of techno, rave.....umm what am I
trying to say? That's where things are happening is in San Francisco.
People there have organized a number of raves, bringing over
international DJ's. Reflective organized it so that Michael Paradinas
could come over earlier this year and...well... play to very
enthusiastic crowds. Trainspotters were therecircling around him,
writing down all the gear that he'd brought with him. Also Reflective
put out Mike Paradinas' alter ego, Kid Spatula, that was released a
couple of weeks ago.
[Other deleted comments]
My guest tonight has been releasing tracks since about 1992. He
operates under the guise of many names. Muziq is probably the most well
known of all of them. Jake Slazenger is Mike's cheeky other side and he
joins me from our London, England studios after this track from Jake's
'95 release called Makesaracket.
[Plays Track.]
Hi Mike. How are you?
MP:
OK. Thanks.
PS:
There's been tons of press on you in the last year and I'm not if this
is true or if its a media creation but it seems that you have a talent
for catastrophes.
MP:
Its a media creation if its what I think you're talking about.
PS:
They're talking about gigs where things alwasy go wrong, brazil nut
poisoning.
MP:
oh that. That's just from one article by Ben Wilmot in the NME. That
was just a joke really. Just a couple of things had gone wrong this
year but things go wrong with everyone.
PS:
What kind of things go wrong for you? Anything significant?
MP:
Well...um....for instance, playing live as you just mentioned. I was
playing a gig at the Phoenix Festival in the UK and it was outdoors and
it was raining all weekend and the tent split all over my electronic
equipment....which was a bit disastrous.
PS:
Was it insured?
MP:
No. It was hired! So it wasn't really my problem. [laughs]
PS:
OK. Good.
MP:
Some of it was mine, but the water didn't hit my bit.
PS:
The Salsa with Mesquite ep got you in trouble with the Kettle Chips
Co.....
MP:
They write to us , yah. They just want a copy of the EP and sent us
some crisps, yah. They weren't suing or anything. They were just like
pleased.
PS:
You borrowed a flavour from them?
MP:
Yah, well they couldn't copyright a flavour so we were okay. Well
didn't use a trademark or represent Kettle Chips on the cover so we were
okay.
PS:
Are you a freak for chips? :)
MP:
Thay're my favourite flavour, yah.
PS:
Now you didn't always work alone did you?
MP:
No. Always working with different people.
PS:
No but did you not have a partner a few years ago?
MP:
Ya. As muziq. Um...I was working with a bloke called Fran Norton.
That was in 92 or 93. We stopped working together in 93. Since then
I've released my records and stuff. All the stuff that we worked on
together has been released already...about two or three songs.
PS:
Doo you miss working with someone else or do you really like being an
isolated fellow?
MP:
Sometimes I really miss working with someone else. It's just
different. I don't wish I was working with someone else everytime I
make a track on my own. But there's room for both. I'm always working
with other people. I've done an album with Aphex Twin which will be
coming out this year. I've just been working with Wagon Christ, ya
know? Each person you work with is a different person, a different way
of working.
PS:
What things did you maybe learn from working with Wagon Christ?
MP:
UMM. You just learn more about them really. Aphex Twin is a really
easy to work with.
PS: [shcoked]
Really? I find that kind of surprising. Maybe thats just my own
perception of what he is from what I've read in the press. I expect him
to be rather particular.
MP:
Well, umm. He's not the easiest person to get on with. He's... I don't
know...hmmm... but he's really easy to work with. You never really know
whether he's serious or not. Whether he's taking the mickey about
everything or he's totally serious. Working with him is very easy. We
made the album very quickly.
PS:
This is old isn't it?
MP:
We made it in '94
{NOTE: At this point I actually thought they were going to play a
track, had a massive adrenaline rush, and then couldn't sleep all night.
:)}
PS:
What's the holdup with it. I would think that somebody would really
want to release something like that.
MP:
Yah. They're trying to release it this year. Maybe February or March.
Its just that the record company its on doesn't have any money.
PS:
Who taught you how to work gear?
MP:
I sort of taught myself. Its not very difficult. With electronic
instruments you get a manual, you read it and just work it out really.
PS:
Ya. ya. Your first experiments, what kind of stuff were you using? Tape
recorders? Walkmans? And what did it sound like?
MP:
I used to chop stuff off the radio when I was a kid. Everyone does
that, but my first synth I got when I was about 14 and used to record
little things with that and I had a drum machine. Not seriously, just
little poppy tunes and stuff.
PS:
Is it anything that you could go back to and revamp and then re release
at this point?
MP:
If I wanted to but at this point I've got so many tracks that I do all
the time anyways that there's not much point. Off my second album Bluff
Limbo which was released by Rephlex as Muziq there was a track from 1986
or 87...87 it was recorded which I did when I was 15 with my first
synth. That's the only one I've done just because I was listening to a
few old tapes and thought I'll pop it on.
PS:
A lot of people describe all the material that you create as having a
very homemade quality about it. Do you agree with that assessment?
MP:
Ya. It is homemade. Its not highend gear. It cheap. Its a very
conscious thing. I could now afford to get a lot of high end equipment
but....um .... I don't need to. It sounds good the way I record. I
concentrate more on ideas than on production.
PS:
If you had to pick a signature sound that's identifiable through all
your aliases, the way you listen to others and say,"Oh yeah. That's a
Luke Vibert track."
MP:
The sound of the gear I use. I would have probably said it was my old
drum machine. I can always recognize it cause hardly anybody else uses
it. I always recognize when another band's used the same drum machine,
an Elises (?) HR 16 drum machine which I distort. Now I've got a new
drum machine: a Yamaha Y-30. Its a lot treblier.
PS:
Now you play live. By that you mean that you don't just put a DAT in
and let it unwind and watch people's faces.
MP:
No. I take my computer out with me. Its a big hassle.
PS:
Why do you choose to do the more difficult?
MP:
You know! Cause I don't want to play a DAT [laughs]. It doesn't seem
much point. What would I do? Its a lot of work and a lot a risk taking
my equipment on the road. My sampler is on its last legs. I had a gig
on the weekend in Utrecht, Holland and when I opened my sampler when I
got home, it had sort of come apart. The metal thing has come of the
top. Its just worrying.
PS:
Why do you think its important to play live? Does it matter to you to
make it immediate?
MP:
You sort of get an immediate reaction from the song. I can test out new
songs on an audience. It's an interesting way of getting energy back
from seeing people dancing. I used to be in a band and I see playing
live as a part of it.
PS:
Do you think audiences can react or associate with you as an electronic
musician, one man on stage the same way they can with a band?
MP:
Its not the same way, no. As I've said before, it's like a studio based
activity and its not made for playing live. Its unnatural. Its takes
me a lot of work on my computer to get it to the stage that I can
actually perform it live and that means bringing in parts when I want
to, extending songs, shortening them, changing the speed. That's not
natural where as it is for rock bands. Rock bands arn't studio based?
PS:
What about the idea of spectacle and the idea of connecting with the
crowd that seem to be very important in music? Do you get a sense that
that happens for you?
MP:
UMM. Not to the same extent as if therre was a front person or a
vocalist. Its just music and not a spectacle as well. I haven't got
into that visual aspect as much. I've just been working on computers
for music at the moment.
PS:
Somebody set up a very extensive website for you in San Francisco. Have
you visited it?
MP:
You mean Alan Parry?
PS:
I don't know who it is.
MP:
I visited one. I think it was Delaware. And that's really good.
PS:
Do you find it really freaky that someone would put that much effort
into you?
MP:
No. Its allright. I don't mind. If I was a fan I probably would have
done the same thing if I was on the internet but I haven't got the
internet at home but I'm hoping to get it soon.
PS:
So you're curious about it?
MP:
I have visited one website before which is different from the one before
which is Alan Parry and that one wasn't so good. This one which which
is really well run [ie Alan's] is excellent.
[End of first session. They play Funky Pipe Cleaner from Musik's In
Pine Effect]
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THAT'S IT FOR TODAY. MORE TO COME ON WEDNESDAY.
This is an approximate transcription only. It has been edited a bit for
umm's, ahh's, etc. and should not be accepted as an official
transcript. It is, of course, not approved by the CBC and has only been
transcribed in the interest of Mike Paradinas' fans that are outside of
the broadcast limits of CBC Stereo. It is not an attempt to replace
Brave New Waves as typing out a whole interview is a pain in the ass.
Dave Ross.