So! Are you tearing Piekarnia's roof off tonight?
I'm hoping to. I've got better tunes this time
You hold residencies at two superclubs: UK's Passion and Dutch's Kremlin. Have you noticed any differences between the crowds in these places? What about Eastern Europe?
Last time here seems like back in the old days in England. That's what it reminded me of - when I was 18, 17, 16 and I went out for the first time to proper underground clubs. In Warsaw I felt that way again and it was incomparable with anything else.
When you perform in Kremlin, do you happen to play dutch trancey style? Do you change anything in your performances to fit into a specific place?
I can't play dutch trancey style, 'cause I don't really like it (laughs). And getting back to various places... The difference I've noticed is that Dutch people don't like long breakdowns. Strange...
I've got a feeling that breakdowns are getting longer and longer recently...
It depends, if it's Digweed (laugh)
Right! So what did you feel as a teenager, when Warren charted your "Horizons"?
(laughs) I was just peeking! I was properly like: "I don't believe it's really happening". I was amazed.
Who helped you stay on the ground?
My girlfriend. Well, I might be able to play records that are ok, but I'm an idiot for the rest of the time (laughs) She tells me that!
Great motivation!
Leon: Same with mine!
Nermal: Confirmed (laughs). You had problems with Silver Planet, Easy Access never really left the ground...
Yeah.
But I don't want to get details of the parting. I'm rather interested whether the indecency between artists and labels is an everyday problem in the industry?
When I realised what had happened to me for the 3 years I'd been in Silver Planet, I started getting away from them. I spoke to loads of other artists I knew and similar things have happened to almost everyone. Well, more or less everyone. So now, I try to look out for my friends who are younger than me and just getting into the whole thing. Me and my girlfriend help them with contracts, so they don't get screwed. But even so, during the last month I've seen someone trying it on with a friend of mine. If you're an 18 year old perk kid and it's your first record or your second record - you really wanna get signed - you don't think of what's gonna happen. You don't think: "I should check". You just think: "Fuck it! I want a record out!" and there are a lot of people, who play on that. But there's also many people who run record labels in a really ethical manner. Really ethical manner! With respect for their artists. These people are keeping the scene alive.
So now it's Border Community time? Where did the name come from?
It took forever to think of a name! Every time we thought of a name that we liked, it was already taken. So that's like an amalgamation of two names that we liked (laughs). The idea is our home - our friends all over the place that we chat with on the internet, hanging together and trying to meet up. Which is not often 'cause I'm too busy. So it is a little community. Some of the people don't make music, they do art work or just like to write stories, or just like to chat, or roll joints or whatever. It's a community on the edge of things - like on the borders - not straight up progressive or something like that. Just interesting little things on the edge of people's activities.
Just as I thought! The name works! (laughs)
Cool! (laughs)
Ok! What releases can we expect and who is Nathan Fake?!
(laughs) You've heard of Nathan Fake already?!
Yeah and I want a CD!
(laughs) That's what I'm not allowed to give out. The vinyl will be ready in a month or so. He's... oh, I have to be careful not to get his age wrong. He's 20! He's a very sweet guy and he doesn't really like progressive house at all. He just likes techno and Boards of Canada. That's kind of why his records sound like techno and Boards of Canada (laughs).
Easy to imagine! (laughs)
So that's the second release. After that, we've got kinds of things. Like some of the tunes aren't that big. We don't expect to sell as many copies of them as some of the other things. But we think they're all good and that's why we're doing it. So it's like a tech-house, kinda lo-fi... it's all melodic, it's all emotional, soulful and in some way good. And later down the line there's this producer Petter from Sweden. Hopefuly, we're gonna be doing something with him and let him do exactly what he wants, 'cause I think he's one of the greatest producers around at the moment.
I have read about him in one of the interviews with you but haven't listened to any of his tunes.
All right! Well, I've got a mixed CD coming out. I put three productions of his there, so you'll hear it.
Great! But the mixed CD is going to be a later question!
Ah, OK! (Laughs)
What do you think of Yunus and Mo Shic and the whole Middle East vibe? People on various message boards often put the three of you in the same line - as unique producers pushing the sound forward.
Oh yeah? Yunus and Mo Shic are more progressive but I do respect what they're doing. Some of Yunus' tunes are in my bag, so I can see whether they're good. Some his stuff I think is brilliant. And it's cool that the scene is taking off in the internet. It's one of the good things about the internet. The people all over the world can become accepted in the scene as global, rather than centered on Europe or America like it was before.
Do you visit message boards?
I don't read them at all (laughs). I'd read them occasionally, when I'd got really bored on tour or something. I have a look at my laptop but I find them a bit depressing. I think some of the people on those message boards just don't even have a basic understanding of what music is about. It just becomes like collecting stamps.
I agree with what you said in one of the interviews, that 90% of artists incorporate someone else's sound. The this-should-sound-like-this-track attitude.
Yes
On the other hand, there's the Luke Chable's remix of PQM's "You Are Sleeping" on your chart. For me it sounds like James Holden!
Leon: Yeah! Definitely!
[moment of embarassment]
Got Ya!
I wouldn't want to say that it sounds like me but the bassline is like the hoover sound that I like.
Leon: The melody is definitely yours.
I really like Luke Chable's music.
Leon: He's amazing!
Yeah! It's amazing music and it doesn't really sound derivative. I've heard people doing some attempts on copying one of my ideas before but Luke Chable is not one of them. It's maybe the same vibe to the track but it feels original to me.
So it's a good copy! (laughs)
No! I have heard records, cds and things where people have gone from little deep tones, echoing melodies and stuff, then just progged it up. That's horrible but not when Luke Chable does it, he's the proper artist. You understand?
Yes. "You Are Sleeping" sounds right to me. But let's get to your productions. First of all - "Nothing". In my opinion, the promos were given out way to early before the official release. You and big jocks like Sasha or Tiesto simply wore the tune out!
That was about the point that I started to realize Silver Planet weren't very nice people. They told me I have to let them release it, 'cause they thought, they owned it. Even though it wasn't covered under the contract they've got me to sign, when I was a teenager, because the song was written by someone else. It's like a legal mess. They tried to stop it ever coming out, since I didn't want to release it with them, 'cause I knew they were liers and thieves and unpleasant in every way. And so for six months it was just shit - war between lawyers. I didn't think it was gonna come out. For a long time I thought it's just never gonna happen. And in the end, we knew we were right, so we just - "Fuck you!" - we put it out on Loaded. That's why it took so long. It's frustrating!
It was also frustrating for me, because I really loved the track and when Polish djs finaly got the chance to play it, I had to scream and runaway from the dancefloor, because...
...it's a year old - yeah!
Actually Leon was the first one to perform it
Ohhh (laughs)
First time I heard "Nothing" was when I listened to your mix from Screen, Helsinki.
Oh, that was before it was even finished! That was just a demo version.
Cool! But what does the name "93 Returning Mix" refer to?
Leon: Oh yeah! I was asking that myself.
When I finished the mix, I realized it kinda reminded me of the 1993, Paul Oakenfold, goa trance kinda stuff I used to be into, when I was very young (laughs). And so I thought - Fuck it - 93 Returning Mix! There's also a graffiti in London that says: "39 returning" or something...
...I don't think the author meant the sound.
It probably had some lexical meaning and I thought, no! 93 Returning! Bring back the trance! But now... I got bored with trance (laughs)
What about the follow-up?
Umm... it's half-done at the moment (laughs)
Well! It was half-done few months ago! (laughs)
Well, in a year my taste has changed a bit, and now it's difficult to follow up something that's quite a big tune, that loads of girls like. If I was left to my own devices, I would be writing clicky leftfield sound, rather than big tunes that girls like.
You don't feel like a smash hits producer? (laughs)
It's just hard to go in the studio and say: "I'm gonna write a smash hit today!". You just go with an idea and you do it. So, we did one idea and in the end I ditched that one, and that one halfway through like a new one, which I really, really like. I think it's the best thing I've done - but I always think that! (laughs)
So how long does it take to make a track?
It depends. I don't know... Sometimes I do it very, very quickly, like in two days. But then - "Break In The Clouds" - I spent two days doing edits on the first two minutes.
Oh, Jesus! On the first two minutes... (laughs)
Just a little sort of snares, backwards, reverbs and things like that. My girlfriend would walk into the room and I'd be listening to a half second of like "click!", "clack!" for like half an hour and she'd say "James you're an idiot!". (laughs)
What's with your collaborations? What about Ali Wells?
Oh, we're gonna do something... We really wanna do something! I've djed a lot for the last year. I'm gonna just take it a bit easier for the next year and try to do more production. We wanna do something, just because we can call it "James and The Giant Perc" (laughs)
(laughs) In that case, you really have to do it! And what about Gwill Morris?
He's busy being a doctor at the moment, which is a really good thing to do with your life, so I'm not going to stop him. But I'd like to do something again with him, because he's a cool guy. Another reason to lessen djing in the future.
And how about something completely new? Any brand new collaborations?
Well, nothing finished (laughs)...
...halfway through, right?
Like in the next year, I think I'm gonna do a project for different music - not dance music, not club records. And then, at the same time gonna try on a hand as a different things. I have done a techno track as well. And quite a lot of techno djs picked up on the first Border Community thing, so it's quite cool. I've always been into more that just progressive but as being stuck permanently with Silver Planet and I couldn't do anything other than what they wanted!
How long was the contract with Silver Planet for?
It would be running forever, if I hadn't found a lawyer! (laughs)
Is it true that you have your own engine for Buzz?
There's a software for helping me do the sums for like - tricks and stuff but I use the same Buzz as other users
So only rumours...
(laughs) Me and my friend are thinking of starting a software company at the moment. Not for production but for djing. The kind of laptop djing but completely different to Final Scratch. Final Scratch I think a bit overrated.
Leon: We could see it work for five minutes when Yunus played and then it got stuck. (laughs) Shit! I guess he managed to play one track from the laptop.
Shit! I don't understand it, because with the Final Scratch you've got a laptop but you're still using Technics. And for me CDJ1000 is better than Technics to play on anyway, so why bother with the Technics? And then like if got a laptop why can't find yourself a beat match, having just to play the record from start to end with no fucking looping, no jumping, no re-editing, no muting parts. You can do so much with the computer. The idea about software is to make it - so you can form live an exciting key to do as much as Sasha does when his ProTools do a mix cd. Kinda like using all the parts of the computer, rather than backwards looking thing for old men who can't work with cd players to play mp3.
When I think of CD players and putting all heart into it, I think of James Zabiela. What do you think about him?
I saw him at Homelands last year now, and it was wicked! It was really, really good.
I love the guy - he knows what he's doing. And he's not a producer really. He's "just" a dj
Yes. He's like a proper old-school dj and he deserves all the credit, all the attenton he gets.
And he is extremely skilled, despite of being very young - he's a threat to everybody!
(laughs) Yeah!
But let's get back to Holden. There were some rumors about your artist album being prepared for Sony.
No, no, no... Definitely not! 'Cause I was supposed to do it for Silver Planet, not Sony, 'cause they owned me (laughs).
The case in England now is the dance music kinda got underground again and major labels for the last 1,5 - 2 years issue cheesy shit, you know - trance. Not even proper trance. Like Ian Van Dahl - Belgian pop trance...
...Armin Van Buuren.
Yeah... well, Armin Van Buuren is too cool for the major labels in England now.
???
Yeah, it's that bad! (laughs)
Well, you have blabbed a while ago and I know that there is some truth in the rumors about the Balance compilation
I just finished it - like a couple of weeks ago. It's two cds, there's loads of my friends stuff, edits and re-edits. It's kind of all the music I love rather than just what can I play in the clubs.
Old stuff? New stuff? Unreleased?
It's mostly new stuff but I don't really care how old something is. I can never understand - were saying before - that attitude. As long it's not like a big big tune if it's old it really doesn't matter. Ashley Casselle, who's one my favorite djs to go and watch and doesn't give a fuck at all! He looses things to gets???... He's coming to a record shop, forgets where he puts his records and 6 months later he finds it and it doesn't really matter, 'cause he's playing underground music. And he's playing stuff that loads of other djs aren't playing. So who gives a fuck at this all?! They're still good and people second it, so....
I agree but I have to object. It's about "Nothing" and Deep Dish putting it on Toronto...
That CD got delayed because of the label but I can't tell you on tape.
Later... (laughs)
Yeah (laughs)
There are very few producers who make quality music - especially progressive quality music. The sound is going into a different direction? Which way?
For me - especially once we get our software up and running - it's about.... we've always tried to play everything and now I've got better at fitting everything together. At the start I fucking loved techno and I loved deep house and getting it all fit together and make sense was a challenge.
That was the question about James Zabiela, 'cause he knows how to do it! He plays Dave Robertson's techy stuff, he plays tribal, deep house, breaks, funky - everything! And everything fits!
And everything fits together! And I think that's about that kind of an open-minded attitude and surprising people with what they don't expect, occasionaly. I played on Thursday and my last track was a 170 bpm - like heavy metal - electronic but like heavy metal done electronically.
Jesus Christ!
And Nathan Fake again. Sick as fuck! I don't know if I play it tonight, 'cause I have a fear of raid (laughs). Fucking amazing! I look on people's faces when it goes from the 130 bpm, to huh [James imitates various cracking voices]. You can see a few people like "what the fuck is this?!" but they've run out jumping and are like: "I get it!"
If you don't see me standing next to you at that time check the floor... '
(laughs)
Three fast questions for a smooth finish! Favorite non-electronic albums of all times?
Mogwai - "Young Team", Judas Priest - I can't remember the name of the album. It's a very early one. Queen - "The Greatest Hits". Oh and The Beach Boys - anything by the Beach Boys (laughs)
What are the secret dj weapons in your CD Wallet for tonight?
Loads of stuff from Petter and Nathan that no one else's got and some other stuff from my friends. Also prepared The "Nothing" a'capella, tricks like that, edits.... I did a re-edit of an ambient track on my laptop last week. I played it out in Greece, it sounded ok but when I listened to it at my studio I realized it needs a bit of work to bring it back again. So it's in my wallet but I'll only play it, if I'm drunk enough - think it's a good idea (laughs)
Cheers Man! (laughs)
Cheers!
And how are your hamsters doing?
Timo died, which is really sad but George...
George and Timo?
Yeah.... George is on top form!
So maybe that would be all... Do you have something to say for you Polish audience?
Umm... I'm not very good at thinking of things to say. I can answer questions but I'm an idiot - remember that! (laughs)
We'll leave our readers with that conclusion ;)
Silver Planet Official Statement
Silver Planet wishes to make the following points in relation to James Holden’s interview with SoundRevolt.
1. James Holden signed an agreement with Silver Planet in July 1999 for all records produced under the name Pulse State. Contrary to what JH says in his interview, he was not a teenager when he signed the agreement but was 20 years old.
2. JH was not happy with this production name and wanted to change it to James Holden and in December 1999 another agreement was signed for all his recordings under this name and the old agreement made null and void. The agreement is only for recordings released under that name and JH was, is and has always been free to record under any other name.
3. The track "Nothing" was delivered to Silver Planet as an instrumental track written 100% by James Holden (the master was and still is labelled as such). As such, it fell under the agreement between JH and SP meaning that only SP was entitled to release it. An ambient version was also delivered by JH to SP which was licensed to Mashed Mallow Grooves Vol. 4 with JH's approval via email. The label copy on that compilation did and still does recognise SP as the original owner of copyright.
4. Some time later, everyone agreed that the track could do well with a vocal so SP introduced JH to a vocalist, Julie Thompson, who was a friend of SP’s. She was engaged as a vocalist to sing and write some vocals on the track and not as a producer. As SP had introduced JH to Julie Thompson and engaged her as a vocalist, clearly SP would be releasing this record and not anybody else.
5. JH had 100% creative freedom in his productions and was never steered in any manner at all, nor was he pushed towards progressive music. SP organised for JH to DJ on the MFS float at the Berlin Love Parade in July 2000 thereby nurturing JH's interest in techno - not fighting it.
6. What happened for 3 years is that SP worked hard on JH's career before he was known and sang his praises to anyone that they came into contact with. SP employed JH's girlfriend at two separate occasions and it was only when SP explained to her and JH that SP could no longer employ her (for a variety of reasons) and gave her 2 months notice to give her sufficient time to secure alternative employment that the relationship with JH became sour. Consequently, JH attempted to break the deal with SP by commencing a legal case and making spurious claims and allegations against SP. JH and SP’s relationship had never been stronger until SP did not wish to continue to employ JH’s girlfriend. This attempt not to fulfil his contractual obligations with SP mirrors other failures by JH to fulfil his recording commitments to other labels he was signed or licensed to (such as Hope, Midset, Bedrock and Sony).
7. JH’s friends Hywel Dunn-Davies and Gwill Morris still work with and record for SP (under the names of Chimera and Main Element respectively). SP has never treated these artists differently from JH. If SP were such bad people as JH alleges, then why are his friends still working with SP? Because SP has done nothing wrong.
8. JH is still contractually signed to SP for any records to be released under the name James Holden.
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Comments (2)
~Elmo (November 18th, 2004):
moron..
