AAA - Ask Autechre Anything - Sean and Rob on WATMM!

Sean and Rob of Autechre have graciously agreed to subject themselves to you, the Autechre fans for a "ask anything" - you'll have until 7 November, 2013 to post your questions here in this thread, and Sean and Rob will choose which posts to respond to - try to ask interesting and respectful questions, and a HUGE thanks to Sean and Rob for supporting WATMM, and keeping in touch with their fans. We're really fortunate to have great electronic musicians with a long history of making cutting-edge electronic music here among us!

Please only post questions - I know the natural instinct is to post YES! Thank you, etc., but please only post questions so Sean and Rob don't have to dig through pages of praise to get to the good stuff.

Non-question posts will be removed

Will we ever see another LegoFeet release?

Are there any plans to release a compilation of soundboard recordings? I would pay handsomely for such a thing...

  On 11/2/2013 at 3:25 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Will we ever see another LegoFeet release?

possibly, we still have a pile of decent material from that era, we could have done another CD easily

what we have more of tho is stuff from between LF and Incunabula (mostly stuff Warp didn't want for Incunabula cos it didn't fit the AI theme or whatever)

Have you ever been asked to compose a soundtrack for a film - if not would you consider it, and what kind of feature would best suit the Ae aesthetic ?

Have you ever felt tired or bored of doing these kind of albums and styles? I mean, have you ever thought of taking a rest, or collaborate with other artists? If not, what's the secret to keep releasing the same amount of music after 20 years and still wanting to experiment, being fresh, and making fresh and bound-breaking tunes?

Any live events planned?

  On 11/2/2013 at 3:27 PM, oscillik said:

Are there any plans to release a compilation of soundboard recordings? I would pay handsomely for such a thing...

we were discussing this recently (milking it for all it's worth)

the main barrier is the sheer amount of it we would have to go through, it's a few months work i reckon, if it was going to be comprehensive (and that's hard cos the archive is WELL patchy)

and we were debating what we'd actually do with it as well

ie. whether it's better to stitch the best bits of different gigs together (like a lot of 70s/80s live albums did) or to release them slightly edited (george lucas), or to touch them up here and there sonically, or leave them totally untouched

it's our style to release them untouched really - but they would sound a bit weak if we left them 100% intact cos they were mixed for a live rig, and what sounds good mixed in a venue can sound terrible as a 2 track master played at home (a bit better really loud on cans but never quite right)

the fact that we would prob end up messing with the sound sets off my autism and makes me want to make other changes

also there is a bit of a source consistency issue, as in the gigs that were recorded were prob not the best examples of any given set (it was always venues doing the recording, we would just be given a DAT at the end), and a lot of the best captures were actually by fans, so we'd have to try tracking people down to get WAVs of stuff we only currently have as MPEG or whatever

  On 11/2/2013 at 3:50 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/2/2013 at 3:27 PM, oscillik said:

Are there any plans to release a compilation of soundboard recordings? I would pay handsomely for such a thing...

we were discussing this recently (milking it for all it's worth)

the main barrier is the sheer amount of it we would have to go through, it's a few months work i reckon, if it was going to be comprehensive (and that's hard cos the archive is WELL patchy)

and we were debating what we'd actually do with it as well

ie. whether it's better to stitch the best bits of different gigs together (like a lot of 70s/80s live albums did) or to release them slightly edited (george lucas), or to touch them up here and there sonically, or leave them totally untouched

it's our style to release them untouched really - but they would sound a bit weak if we left them 100% intact cos they were mixed for a live rig, and what sounds good mixed in a venue can sound terrible as a 2 track master played at home (a bit better really loud on cans but never quite right)

the fact that we would prob end up messing with the sound sets off my autism and makes me want to make other changes

 

 

also there is a bit of a source consistency issue, as in the gigs that were recorded were prob not the best examples of any given set (it was always venues doing the recording, we would just be given a DAT at the end), and a lot of the best captures were actually by fans, so we'd have to try tracking people down to get WAVs of stuff we only currently have as MPEG or whatever

 

considering the attention to detail that you both put into stuff, it's understandable that you'd both wanna take time to release any recordings. I know I can speak for a lot of people here when I say that soundboard releases would be appreciated, even in untouched format. the 1994 recording of Kalpol Introl that is floating around is seriously mindblowing, and makes me jealous I couldn't have been there at the time.

I'm sure most here will understand the reservations you both have over releasing live material, and I'm sure we all hope that more gems show up. 10 vinyl box set at £300 each, yes please I'll throw money at the screen right now.

  On 11/2/2013 at 3:41 PM, mcbpete said:

Have you ever been asked to compose a soundtrack for a film - if not would you consider it, and what kind of feature would best suit the Ae aesthetic ?

we have been offered stuff but soz i can't talk about any of it cos NON DISCLOSURE

big fan of shane carruth and neill blomkamp

and loads of retired or dead people

hollywood is in a kind of creative whirlpool atm

Will you ever come to Rochester, NY??????

If you guys had been born, like, 20 years later & first formed Autechre around 2009/10ish, how might the internet/free software/etc have effected how things played out?

  On 11/2/2013 at 3:43 PM, Rulohead32 said:

Have you ever felt tired or bored of doing these kind of albums and styles? I mean, have you ever thought of taking a rest, or collaborate with other artists? If not, what's the secret to keep releasing the same amount of music after 20 years and still wanting to experiment, being fresh, and making fresh and bound-breaking tunes?

bit of a leading question, but thanks

we're not trying to be bound-breaking but we are interested in new things (basically novelty is really subjective)

and novelty takes a lot of different shapes, ie. a familiar thing can sometimes seem good in a new way, because of some change in perception or association

i dunno how other people get bored tbh, maybe they're just approaching it differently

Awesome!

My question is: have you guys given any thought to what might be new or interesting formats in which to release stuff? Obviously 24-bit Bleep seems to have a foothold now (at least for Ae releases), and Gescom MD and generative software were experiments in the past—now (2013) seems like it might be the time for either a solid shift to something more “audiophile” (whatever that means) or something more “software” too (like a streaming or generative or interactive website or something).

Just curious if anything like that might be brewing since you’ve toyed with formats in the past.

  On 11/2/2013 at 3:45 PM, Lesley said:

Any live events planned?

not dates but we're working on it

  On 11/2/2013 at 3:57 PM, unteleportedman said:

Will you ever come to Rochester, NY??????

ask local promoters

but nah prob not, you're too close to nyc

  On 11/2/2013 at 3:43 PM, Rulohead32 said:

Have you ever felt tired or bored of doing these kind of albums and styles? I mean, have you ever thought of taking a rest, or collaborate with other artists? If not, what's the secret to keep releasing the same amount of music after 20 years and still wanting to experiment, being fresh, and making fresh and bound-breaking tunes?

i tend to think we're onto something quite different each time we return to the studio after a tour or whatever, cos we seem to need a break from it (at least in the past its become a pattern i suppose). and also having been involved with making music with mates all these years, like say gescom and all its varying contributors, i feel my best time working is in this way, don't like the idea of being ported to a studio to get on with producing work with others unless i'm comfortable there. so tend to stay at home, (last of the bedroom producers hahah)

  On 11/2/2013 at 4:03 PM, Cryptowen said:

If you guys had been born, like, 20 years later & first formed Autechre around 2009/10ish, how might the internet/free software/etc have effected how things played out?

hard to say, we'd be using everything differently

do u have future plans to produce musics with the mick harris?

i'm rather fond of the tracs of yr musics that have bits of warm natural sounds in them, such as water or marbles or these types of things. do u think this might occur more frequently in yr future sounds?

do u like jug band?

This advert from the early 00s always sounded spookily similar to Yulquen - did you guys have a hand on it, or is it someone in the advertising agency that's a fan !

Have you ever considered "going back to the roots" for an album, and make it heavily inspired by your earlier works? (Incunabula, Amber, Tri Repetae etc.)

I haven't had the good fortune to be able to see you perform live, but I have heard that you play in the dark. I'm guessing that you do that because you want the audience to focus on the music itself. But releasing music means that you have less control over how people experience it: do you have an ideal set of conditions that you would hope people will listen to your music in?

What do you think about the all the hip-hop that has been getting a alot of people have been talking (hudson mohawke, drake, asap, kendrick, odd future etc)? do you like any of it? Basically I would be interested to hear a new hip-hop song you like (if any)!

Thanks

what became of the zoviet*france / AE collaboration - any chance of hearing any of that material (if it actually exists) ?

That might sound rather dull but do you have any favorite song/album/era in your career ?