The Guardian: Post Questions to The Chems

[whirlygirl]

Now is your other chance to ask the Chems your questions

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/12/post-your-questions-for-the-chemical-brothers

A's to the Q's

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/19/the-chemical-brothers-we-played-on-top-of-a-toilet-block-with-sequencers-on-the-loo

Q1 You've collaborated with loads of great artists – who's the one that got away?- ShermanMLight

Tom Rowlands: "One that got away" implies that it was feasible, but I did have Kate Bush on the phone. I sent a track, she was very sweet and said: "It's a nice idea, but you're alright on your own. It's fine as it is." But you've got to aim high, haven't you?

Ed Simons: We are both massive Bob Dylan fans and after one long-running conversation, we thought: "Why not ask Bob Dylan?" It got far enough that we were asked to write to him, so maybe he liked the idea. I'm not sure we ever wrote the letter.

Tom: We did try, but got stumped at what to call him. Robert?

Ed: Bob, if you're reading this, we're still here.

Q2 Do you have any anecdotes about the late, great Andrew Weatherall? - FulhamFreds

Ed: He was an incredible DJ, a funny guy and really kind to us. Just after our first record came out on Junior Boy's Own, we got him to DJ at our club Naked Under Leather in Manchester, but then we had to move it to the University of Manchester's student union bar, the Swinging Sporran. Not his usual gig. But to be fair, he took his shirt off and pummelled it, although he was heard to say on arrival: "Ed, you bastard!" We used to get quite tongue-tied around him. I remember being in a nightclub asking him what synths he'd bought. He said: "I'm waiting for the Chekhov Warp." Which I took to mean a new synth we hadn't heard of. A couple of weeks later I realised he meant he was waiting for the "cheque off Warp" records to buy new equipment, so when we remixed Saint Etienne's Like a Motorway we called it the Chekhov Warp mix.

Tom: Our first ever live gig was at his club, Sabresonic, that normally hosted proper techno DJs. We didn't think of ourselves as pros, so we told him we wouldn't feel comfortable on the stage. I think he appreciated a wrong way of doing things, so he set us up at the back of the room on top of this makeshift toilet block with the sequencers on the loo.

Ed: I once looked through his DJ box and one record was labelled "Italian piano canterer. Break open only in emergency."

Q3 I worked behind the bar at the Monarch in Chalk Farm during the 90s and you guys DJ'd with decks set up on a trestle table next to the bar. My best day at work. What has been yours? - Flanboy73

Ed: You never think "That was the one", but we have been looking back for the book [Paused in Cosmic Reflection, published later this month] and headlining Glastonbury in 2000 was a phenomenally good gig for us.

Tom: I always remember doing Galvanise at the Hit Factory in New York. There was a lot riding on the session and I remember walking along 34th Street in Manhattan on a bright blue day with this nervous anticipation. Then later coming out of this iconic studio with this amazing piece of music.

Q4 You've been responsible for some cracking remixes, such as Jailbird by Primal Scream. How much involvement does the original artist have and are you typically given free rein? - VerulamiumParkRanger

Ed: We would never take one hi-hat from the original track and call it a remix. We take the same ingredients somewhere else. In the big 90s run of remixes we did for Primal Scream, the Charlatans and so on, people would come down and contribute or bring stuff on tape. In terms of free rein, we've only had a record label man ask us to change something drastically.

Tom: He didn't get his way, although when we did Björk's Hyperballad, she said: "I will never have a record with slap bass." She made the right call. How did we ever think Hyperballad needed to be a slap bass odyssey? Although we reworked those bits for our track Dig Your Own Hole.

Q5 On your new album [For That Beautiful Feeling], you have reworked an obscure Teresa Harris track. The DJ version (at Amnesia Ibiza) features a Jesse Jackson speech which you previously sampled in your Ariel [Tom's pre-Chemical Brothers band] days. Any plans to release this? - OffWorld1

Tom: There is an Andrew Weatherall connection there as well. He used to lay that Jesse Jackson speech down in the acid house days.

Ed: It's from an Aretha Franklin gospel album that Tom got me for my 21st, so it's a sacramental text. We like to make different versions for DJ-ing that we don't necessarily want to release.

Tom: I'd been working on the music and then found this obscure soul funk record by Teresa Harris featuring the Gene Parker Quintet and took the vocal. The power comes from those two worlds colliding in a really odd way. If there's any mad alchemy, we will always pursue it.

Q6 Can you tell us about Wolf Alice singer Ellie Rowsell's writing credit on Feel Like I Am Dreaming [from the new album]? - OffWorld1

Tom: Ellie is an incredible singer and a couple of years ago we did a lot of sessions with her towards writing a song that never got finished. While making this album, we had been DJ-ing and came back to that performance, so we looped the "feel like I'm dreaming" bit and put it in this other song. She gets a writing credit because she came up with the words.

Q7 I remember hearing that, when you first started doing sets, you used to get paid in beer. How quickly did that change into pots of cash? - 11LFO11

Ed: When we DJ'd at the Heavenly Social everyone who might have bought us a drink was busy jumping up and down. We did get paid in beer or cider but were just happy to be asked. Rather than going out on a Friday night, we would DJ, take our friends and make a night of it.

Tom: When we played the Hacienda in 1995, each of us had a hotel room rather than sharing a car home. That felt like the first proper gig. People from New Order's road crew who worked that gig are still with us today.

Q8 I heard you turned down a gig at the Sydney Opera House because their sound system wasn't up to scratch. Are there other big opportunities you've declined on artistic grounds - bathman

Ed: That story is quite apocryphal. There was a technical issue with hanging the speakers. We weren't talking down the acoustics of the Sydney Opera House! We would love to play there.

Q9 As a fellow alumnus of the University of Manchester, is the rumour about you playing at the Bop at Owens Park an urban myth? - BiggestGeoff

Ed: This was the Friday night disco at the halls of residence. I was the DJ there and I was bad. I would play cool records I'd heard at the Hacienda, but we were student freshers so I would drink quite lot, get on the mic and call out to Tom and our friends. After I was fired, the first record my replacement played was All Night Long by Lionel Richie. They loved it.

Tom: I entered and lost the Battle of the Bands in the bar at Oak House [student accommodation], where I set up with my drum machine. I had completely forgotten about this until my eldest daughter went to Manchester and lived in Oak House. I walked in and thought: "Oh my God ..."

Q10 You once said that when you first met Noel Gallagher he said something rude about Tim Burgess. What did he say? - ImitationFireplace

Ed: It wasn't rude. It was more like: "You've had Tim Burgess do a fantastic job singing on Life is Sweet. I respect him, but also I back myself to do a similar job" [which Gallager did, on No 1 single Setting Sun].

Tom: "I back myself!"

Ed: Well, I can't do a Manc Noel impression. Words to that effect. But in Noelspeak ...

Watch: The Chemical Brothers - Setting Sun

Q11 When you were told you had to change your name, what were the other potential names on your shortlist? - subsub

Ed: When we were called the Dust Brothers we got a very nice but firm letter from the American Dust Brothers asking: "Can you please change your name quite quickly?" Suede had just become the London Suede [in the US], so we were going to become the London Dust Explosion. If we had I don't think we would be having this conversation now.

Tom: Didn't your mum suggest the Grit Brothers?

Ed: I think that one was mum's. Luckily, Tom suggested: "We've got a track called Chemical Beats ... how about the Chemical Brothers?"

Q12 How close is your relationship? Would you like to be brothers? - dbates73

Ed: Tom's got a brother I'm very fond of, but we have spent an inordinate amount of time together and have a shared history in our bones.

Tom: We used to live together, go on tour and go on holiday together and we still see each other socially. We've probably spent more time together than most brothers.

[ThePumisher]

I asked for K+D+B, knowing we won't get the answer we want...

[shakermaker]

I'm going to ask Tom about Atlanta 

[Wolkenkrabber]

I asked for K+D+B, knowing we won't get the answer we want...

I'll upvote your question(s) if you upvote my six-questions-in-one-post under username OffWorld1.
I even asked about Pumisher's Erection Song (I didn't call it that though).

[ThePumisher]

I even asked about Pumisher's Erection Song (I didn't call it that though).

Wanted to ask that too, but had a feeling they delete the post if i write erection...

I'll upvote your question(s) if you upvote my six-questions-in-one-post under username OffWorld1.

Done


Edit: Just discovered your easter egg in those questions 

[Csar]

I'm going to ask Tom about Atlanta

[whirlygirl]

You rock @Csar for getting this and the Chemical Costumes a boost on the main forum page   

[Explud]

Meh

[whirlygirl]

Following up

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/19/the-chemical-brothers-we-played-on-top-of-a-toilet-block-with-sequencers-on-the-loo

[ThePumisher]

Damn, Wolkenkraber, your Jesse Jackson and Ellie Rowsell questions got answered. And now i even want to hear more of that Rowsell session 


Ed about Andrew Weatherall:

"We used to get quite tongue-tied around him. I remember being in a nightclub asking him what synths he'd bought. He said: "I'm waiting for the Chekhov Warp." Which I took to mean a new synth we hadn't heard of. A couple of weeks later I realised he meant he was waiting for the "cheque off Warp" records to buy new equipment, so when we remixed Saint Etienne's Like a Motorway we called it the Chekhov Warp mix."

[Wolkenkrabber]

Damn, Wolkenkraber, your Jesse Jackson and Ellie Rowsell questions got answered. 

On the minus side, nothing on the unused Trespass score, Contra, Here Come The Drums/Papal Disco or Pumisher's Erection Song.
On the plus side, considering they only answered a handful of the 80+ questions, I'm fortunate to get two responses- unlike anybody else. Maybe because I asked "new album" questions?

The response to "Goodbye" (BBSG DJ version) wasn't exactly an answer to the question asked but hey, that's the Chems for you! Their comments about Weatherall using the Jesse Jackson speech of course match up with this discussion & soundcloud here on the forum.

I guess obscure questions about unreleased music would be better suited to Reddit than a mainstream newspaper. Hey ho...

And now i even want to hear more of that Rowsell session 

Me too! We could have been searching forever for the source of that vocal. Glad this one got cleared up anyway. This is the one bit of satisfaction I get from this Q&A.

Ed about Andrew Weatherall:

"We used to get quite tongue-tied around him. I remember being in a nightclub asking him what synths he'd bought. He said: "I'm waiting for the Chekhov Warp." Which I took to mean a new synth we hadn't heard of. A couple of weeks later I realised he meant he was waiting for the "cheque off Warp" records to buy new equipment, so when we remixed Saint Etienne's Like a Motorway we called it the Chekhov Warp mix."

And this is the funny bit! I had always assumed it was a reference to Star Trek: Mr Chekov, warp speed. I guess the name of the remix might have worked better if St Etieene had actually been on Warp records, but they were on Heavenly.

Tom: When we played the Hacienda in 1995, each of us had a hotel room rather than sharing a car home. That felt like the first proper gig. People from New Order's road crew who worked that gig are still with us today.

So Shan Hira was there that night?

Tom: I entered and lost the Battle of the Bands in the bar at Oak House [student accommodation], where I set up with my drum machine. I had completely forgotten about this until my eldest daughter went to Manchester and lived in Oak House. I walked in and thought: "Oh my God ..."

Good stuff. Haven't heard this one before.

[shakermaker]

great selection of questions.

London Dust Explosion forever.

[whirlygirl]

I was just chatting with the hubs this morning about the Bob Dylan bit from the Q&A. Too funny (and kind of endearing) they didn't know whether to call him Bob or Robert, so they never got far enough with reaching out   That said, I hope Bob (or Rob, Robert, Bert, Mr Dylan) is reading because it would be pretty radical to hear what a collab would sound like!

There were some good nuggets in the Q&A and I seriously did a little happy dance when I saw the response to two of Krabber's questions!