Q & A with Tom Rowlands (2016)

[Fragor]

Hi Tom.I am writing from mexico, First  Im sorry for the worst english that you  have to read .After say that,  better you prepare  for the best live  for this country ,if happens this will be my first  concert in my life i am 26 years old ,  a shame i know,.Well .like said before  if happens gonna be amazing for me . that my first concet in my life r will be the chemicals bros,  i lost the chance to go a concert form  Kraftwerk the last year.  i feel so bad for that ,I hear you since i was 14 in 2004  with golden path , use to always take a shower with that,  Since then I have been a fan. I love everthing, music, lyrics, video,  u guys  have a wide  taste. your rythms are extrasensorial for me all the sound sometimes schizophrenic with your sounds. and the rythm density is amazing,  that teletransport my mind, well  i used to be a lot of questiones, some technical but that dont really to explain to normal people like me. my question is  while make music  you have ever experienced anything paranormal¡?  when come from all inspiration ¡? some spiritual ? u play whit  sound waves like nobody else.  In mexico We appreciate a lot  the chemical music . thanks for read Tom and chemical team .

[Wolkenkrabber]

with golden path , use to always take a shower with that

Golden Path + showers = ?

[chemreact]

I see whole bunch of questions/problems but no answers

[androidgeoff]

Patience, patients. The Chemicals are on their way.

[WhiteNoise]

I see whole bunch of questions/problems but no answers

From what I know, they're collecting a bunch of questions, and then Tom will make a series of posts (somewhere) answering them in bulk in the coming weeks/months. I can ask around and see if they know when yet.

[geebee99]

What happened in Chicago 🤖

[Bosco]

nerd rape

[satur8]

Hi Tom. What is the fan question you'd love to answer but are never asked? And, what's the answer? 

[orangewedge99]

Will there be reissues of all your albums on Vinyl? (Dig Your Own Hole, Come With Us etc. ...)
Nearly all your albums are very valuable on wax!

[WhiteNoise]

Now that questions have died down we are compiling a shortlist of questions to send to Tom. There are so many good questions here and unfortunately we can't answer all of them... we are trying to pick the best questions (unique questions in particular), and trying to include as many people as we can!

I might also edit a few questions for grammar/clarity, nothing huge, and when multiple people ask the same question I am making it a question from both of you.

Also, if anyone wants their real name used instead of their screen name, let me know! I still don't know if we're including names with the questions but I'll send either your username or real name along with the questions.

Also what do I do about my own questions!? My post got the most likes but I feel bad using too many of my own. Or even picking my own!

[ThePumisher]

Also what do I do about my own questions!? My post got the most likes but I feel bad using too many of my own. Or even picking my own!

If you're doing another bunch of "nous somme le pouvoir", i'm fine with that.

[Enjoyed]

Quick poll with two or three choices for people to vote on?

I liked and want to hear answers to all of your questions, but if we have to pare them down I could pick a few of the more burning ones of yours.

[Wolkenkrabber]

Also what do I do about my own questions!? My post got the most likes but I feel bad using too many of my own. Or even picking my own!

So whoever at Chemical HQ is responsible for picking out the Facebook questions won't also pick the Forum questions? If they did, that would solve your problem WN. I guess it might have helped if we had kept it to one or two questions per post. You may just have to pick 2 or 3 of your faves from your own post.

Also may I add that Trespass Against Us is probably the only new Chemical release we will get in 2016, yet not one person liked my post/question back on page 1. Whaaaat?  Surely Tom (& Adam) would love to talk about this!

[FluxAnswer]

Would you rather fight one horse sized duck or a hundred duck sized horses?

[WhiteNoise]

If you're doing another bunch of "nous somme le pouvoir", i'm fine with that.

This can happen

Quick poll with two or three choices for people to vote on?

I liked and want to hear answers to all of your questions, but if we have to pare them down I could pick a few of the more burning ones of yours.

So whoever at Chemical HQ is responsible for picking out the Facebook questions won't also pick the Forum questions? If they did, that would solve your problem WN. I guess it might have helped if we had kept it to one or two questions per post. You may just have to pick 2 or 3 of your faves from your own post.

Also may I add that Trespass Against Us is probably the only new Chemical release we will get in 2016, yet not one person liked my post/question back on page 1. Whaaaat?  Surely Tom (& Adam) would love to talk about this!

HQ + Tom will still be picking out questions. My problem came from trying to cut our questions down to a top 30... I am now sending a longlist of nearly every question we asked, just organized and roughly ranked so they can find the better questions first.

And Skyscraper don't worry about like count too much. Your question's a good un.

Also, there were a few questions I didn't include since the answer is already known... I will try to answer those ASAP.

[WhiteNoise]

Here are some of the questions which already have answers... (if your question is here it does not mean I did not send it anyway)

Why did you give up on this track below which is also known among fans as "Problem/ Question" or "Animal" track and which you played live in 2005 (live set) and 2006 on a DJ set at Summercase festival in Madrid?

They haven't given up on it yet!

When creating your own music, do you worry about other people using samples/song writing styles that they have used in songs that either you have done or have been influenced by as well? Or do you see it sometimes as intentional and more of a tribute/acknowledgement of the actual sample/style of writing and where it has come from and how its been used as part of that culture/scene?

They get this a lot in interviews, they always say music isn't linear, everyone is inspired by all sorts of music throughout history, and they have no problem with people adopting their styles, because in a way, they adopted them too. From a 1997 Addicted To Noise interview:

ATN: Now that people like David Bowie and U2 are incorporating trip hop sounds in their music, do you feel that you were there first?

Simons: Well, I think we can definitely say that we were doing that before David Bowie. Although David Bowie in the '70s used to make funk records.

ATN: Plus wasn't David Bowie at one time into Kraftwerk?

Simons: Yeah, I suppose he was, yeah.

Rowlands: He went to Berlin because he wanted to recreate the cabaret scene and all that.

ATN: But you guys feel like you were there first?

Rowlands: They were all there before us because they're all older than us.

Simons: We don't really have a problem with them incorporating sounds.

Rowlands: It's not ours. It doesn't belong to us.

Rowlands: [Bowie] just made the weirdest record I've heard in a long time. [Begins to sing "Little Wonder."]

ATN: Have you heard some of the new stuff?

[Both sing.]

Simons: Absolutely insane. I don't know what I think about it. They're just two records, separate records playing on the same record which I think is quite a good idea. [laughs] When you hear it, you go... pretty odd, Dave.

Rowlands: Dave! Pretty odd.

Are there any plans to release your edit of Charles B 'Lack of Love'? I've been desperate for it since hearing you play it at Bugged Out Weekender 2 or 3 years ago, it is absolutely incredible!

You can get it at the end of their One Mix! Not unmixed of course.

• More order than question, but you have to release a full studio version snow/surface!

• Where's Hot Acid Rhythm #2?

Does the Apple Music Festival count for Snow/Surface? The quality is unreal.

And Hot Acid Rhythm....

"To be honest, we don't really understand how it happened," Brother Ed Simons said Tuesday at New York's Royalton Hotel. "We didn't call her. Someone did, though. In the past, we've been closely involved with all the collaborations we've done. People have always come to the studio and we've worked together. This is the first time we've done anything through the mail."

Simons' musicmate, Tom Rowlands, described the track as "a strange sort of Jamaican acid explosion," but Simons quickly added that the song's not quite finished.

"She's done her bit," Simons said. "But we've still got to mix it and make it flow a bit better."

The duo said the song will likely come out in America in some form (an Eve-free "Hot Acid Rhythm 1" is on the U.S. version of the Brothers' single "It Began in Afrika," released last month), and they hope that the pairing will pave the way for future hip-hop projects.

"It's something we've always tried to do," Simons said. "When we were working on Come With Us, we sent a couple of the tracks to Outkast to see if they wanted to do something with us. They said they were quite into the music we sent them, but then they blew up and became more massive. But maybe that's something for the future."

and I can't find anything else after that! 

Do you ever have all the melodies in place when having guests on a track or is it always more organic than that?

Other than the Further recordings (I believe) it's always more organic, they send a track and give them some notes on what they have in mind for their part.

How did you guys find Kate Gibb for the artwork?

This is a wonderful and beautifully designed article on her work and how they met:

http://www.cornermag.com/meet-kate-gibb-the-artist-who-charmed-the-chemical-brothers-and-kate-nash/

"'After my masters, I made all this work, colour-copied it and posted it out to people. Eventually I got my first album cover job from that. Pre-computer! This company contacted me and said: 'Do you want to pitch for this band?' and I got it! Then the following year they asked if I wanted to pitch for another job, and it just so turned out to be an album cover for The Chemical Brothers. It was completely nuts!'

Gibb was given just a weekend; and although music-obsessed, back then the dance oeuvre was not remotely on her radar. 'Virgin Records used to be where Tom Dixon is on Portobello Dock and I remember going round there to listen to the album. It was just me and the art director, Mark, and their manager in this massive office. There I was, perched on the edge of the sofa with my coat on. And he played the whole of the Surrender album with this surround-sound. I remember Mark saying: 'It's not Belle and Sebastian, is it Kate?'

By Monday morning she'd thrown every attempt at the brief in the bin. 'I phoned Mark and he said that I had until 11.30am to just do something. I'd gone to see Larry Clark's film Kids and I'd got the book. There were all these contact sheets in it, I just put them on screen and did a treatment and that's what I showed them - and I got it! It was pure fluke!' Chance (as well as a hefty dose of talent) had, again, played its part, and Gibb, for her part, was in disbelief: 'I remember finding out how much I would be paid and thinking: 'I can get a pager!'

Over the ensuing years, she developed an ongoing relationship with the band, subsquently working on several of their albums. 'When I met them, I learnt how they put their music together. I remember telling Tom telling me that he'd been writing the next album and I said: 'What? You write music?' He looked at me as if I was mad. I just had to say: 'I'm sorry, I have NO idea!' And then I suddenly loved them, because I worked out that they put their music together like a piece of art, with all the layering and textures, like a collage.

I was a complete convert.'"

Mr Rowlands,

We know the capabilites of you an Mr. Howlett (the Prodigy). Will you ever consider make a song together?

I think this has been asked before, I'm not sure Tom has said anything, but Mr. Howlett has said he's not interested, as it would basically be two guys doing the same job. You've heard The Chems remix of Voodoo People?

Have you ever released any music under a secret alias? If so we would love to know more!

I'd love to know if he has some other projects, but he did an LP as Harpoon back in 93, and he recorded as "RAR" i.e. Rowlands Audio Research for an I Break Horses remix. He had to call himself RAR because if he had used his real name, his remix would have been too expensive for the band/label to afford, no joke!

[Csar]

Why did you give up on this track below which is also known among fans as "Problem/ Question" or "Animal" track and which you played live in 2005 (live set) and 2006 on a DJ set at Summercase festival in Madrid?

They haven't given up on it yet!

Yeah, I remember. But I want to hear that from HIM! And I want a deadline!

He had to call himself RAR because if he had used his real name, his remix would have been too expensive for the band/label to afford, no joke!

Nice little tidbit! Strange, is Tom Rowland's name bound to his record label he's signed under as part of the Chems?

Also may I add that Trespass Against Us is probably the only new Chemical release we will get in 2016, yet not one person liked my post/question back on page 1. Whaaaat?  Surely Tom (& Adam) would love to talk about this!

Wait, what? Damn, I went back and gave you a thumbs up! I certainly want to know everything about it!

Btw, I'm fine with any question that'll be landing on Mr. Rowlands table. Maybe you can pick some of the more unusual queries or make it 50/50 (ordinary/extraordinary Qs). Do you have any overview of the FB question to prevent double questions?

[Drebbin]

I signed up to ask this one question: Is there any chance you will be releasing a copy of the version of GO you have been playing on your most recent set, particularly the one you played at The Montreux Jazz Festival - https://youtu.be/EdmT1Ab6qHg?list=PL8678B2918E012228&t=832.

We would all pay good, good money!

[Wolkenkrabber]

I wonder if it's too late to add another question. Well I hope not...

If you were to put together a DJ set of current (i.e last 12 months or so) tunes by artists other than the Chems, what sort of stuff would be in there?

[whirlygirl]

I LOVE THIS THREAD! Welcome, newcomers!

WhiteNoise, HQ, and Tom have their work cut out for them. 😊