Interview

FX - What are you currently working on?

ML - I’m working on some music for the Rambert Ballet with two extremely talented choreographer/dancers from the company. I’m also doing an album with a smashing group called ‘Kaleidoscopes’. I’m working with Mish Mash too.

FX - What have been the main turning points in your career?

ML - It has been such a struggle to get anywhere at all and frankly in the beginning, I was rubbish in many respects. The main things for me were realizing that I needed to do music irrespective of whether or not I was successful just because I was an artist at heart and also realizing that great things are made through a kind of pathological, obsessive determination.

FX - What's the piece of music that changed your life?

ML - Are Friends Electric by Gary Numan totally. Also, seeing the Cocteau Twins supporting OMD when I was about 12. It took me months to come down from those experiences. I’ve been a punk, a new romantic, a soul boy, and a poseur. I listened to nothing but R&B for about 4 years at one stage. I love Dusty and The Carpenters. There’s so much innovation continually in music – it constantly changes my life!

FX - Tell us a secret about the way you make music.

ML - I do have some secrets actually - I can only say they involve arpeggiators, I love arpeggiators.

FX - What are the essential pieces of equipment in your studio?

ML - Monitors, obviously. I love my BM15A’s with all my heart! I know it sounds cheesy but I can’t function without BFD, so BFD is totally fundamental to me. Before this product came out, you couldn’t do drums properly at all unless you recorded them, which is an absolute nightmare. I remember when it first came out - I couldn’t believe how good it sounded. You don’t notice the detail levels at first, but you really miss them when they’re not there. The other things - I use a lot of Arturia stuff…. I love the Jupiter 8. I use the Vienna symphonic library as well, for strings, which is incredible.

FX - Can you give some tips on the key to a killer drum groove?

ML - The first thing is knowing what you want. I frequently try to imitate ‘real’ drumming as closely as I can, and for this you really do need to know how a drummer actually plays. I mean, I’ve been to drum clinics although I can’t play! Accents, pushed and pulled beats and velocity – its incredible the amount of realism different velocities alone can produce.

FX - You were telling me before about how you decided to use just the tamburo kit on a whole album?

ML - One of the things I’ve done recently with George Demure. What we decided to do for this record is create a virtual band, so we’ve chosen just one drum kit from BFD for the whole album. I’m really interested in making things sound live when they’re not, that is one of the things that I love about BFD.

FX -You were talking before about the Requirements of pop?

ML - In pop music 70% of it is about the sound of the kit and the rest of the time you just want someone to play really evenly and not particularly flamboyantly, you want the beat laid down and nailed and everything buoyant and just rock on timing wise. That’s why in loads of practical situations I’m like ‘please… don’t put me through that, I don’t want to spend weeks and weeks doing drum replacement when I can just program it perfectly and its gonna sound better’. I’ll say to people, ‘Are we gonna go to a studio that compares to Air studios with these engineers, with these mics? We’re not are we, so its not gonna sound as good is it?’ So normally I win that argument lol.

FX - What would you like to see next from the software developers?

ML - More percussion, more electronic drums. I’d sell my Mum for more electronic drums.

I had this idea where you could get the drummer in the studio and you get him playing on a real kit and you record what he’s doing as midi information, so you get all the velocity information from the kit that he’s playing and then you convert that information so that BFD can play exactly what he’s played. You can say to the drummer, this is your performance but you can’t afford this drum kit or be in these studios.

FX - Where do you see yourself in 10 years time in terms of music?

ML - I hope I keep developing and getting better. I would love to study classical harmony properly. I would love to be associated with music that actually contributes something to culture. I would hope to be minted by then, too!

Interview: January 2009