Interview With Dave Clarke

Techno is very individual by its nature and with that individuality comes the double-edged sword of freedom, all you can ever be is yourself. Dave Clarke needs no introduction here, we all know how he divides the community. He really is the Devil's Advocate but rather that than faceless techno bollocks, right?

He's served his time and had more problems getting his music out than I care to think about, a lesser individual would surely have given up but he hasn't and I think that says more about him than any ill placed comment he's every made. I feel we've managed to get closer to Dave than anyone else has before, we found him open, honest and driven - no question was refused and all his answers where honest, relaxed and considered. I know how difficult it can be for creative people in a world of critics but he does care, perhaps his only crime is caring too much and daring to be himself, ladies and gentlemen - I give you Dave Clarke...

Wotcha Dave, how the devil are you?
Feeling pretty shit actually, got a flu virus type thing and feeling really bored as I hate to not be working (unless it's holiday time), but that sort of illness is inevitable when you spend a lot of time in airplanes, comes with the job.

What are you like when you're not working then?
Bit lost to tell the truth, takes me a few days to get it out my system then I have a couple of days of being relaxed and really glad, then I'm itching to get back to the grind stone.

Got any other hobbies we should know about?
What apart from cigars, fast cars and leather pants!!!!! Music is still a hobby, love movies, recent faves are "Battle of Algiers", "Ivans XTC", "21 Grams". also like trash eye candy films as well, can't get into books, OD on Shakespeare's soliloquy's when at school which unfortunately put me off reading novels (the odd Gore Vidal does creep in though). Also love food, esp. Japanese.

LD is at the bar, what you drinking?
What are you buying! Depends where I am and what I'm doing, like jack and coke, old fashioned, straight vodka (when chilled down), Lychee Martini when in metro sexual mode, like wine too.

Best and worst gig ever?
Best Live: Creamfields, Worst Live: La Scala, DJ dates are more difficult, had a great weekend just now in Portugal, had some bad ones in Germany in the mid 90's, hated the Tribal weekender that I last did.

Tell us something about yourself we'd never know?
One of my ex girlfriends is now the most wanted woman in the UK, Interpol are after her (saw that on the news over a year ago).

How's the touring and Album going?
The touring is going really well, in a month I did Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia (including Hobart at last), Europe and Brazil, as times goes on I really appreciate how lucky I am to be doing something I adore. I have been touring heavily now for at least ten years but only in the last year or so have I started to do live as well, and I played live to 25k people in Sao Paulo so I have to say I'm pretty pleased.

The album got really good reviews in the world press and has been well received, I didn't know what to expect when I released it from the press, the only bad review I saw in the printed press was in a really lame UK music technology magazine so I'm not disappointed. I felt happy that at last my 2nd album came out because when you fight on two fronts simultaneously to get out of an unjust contract it can get messy but eventually everything came through and Skint were there for me.

Nice, are you glad all the shit is behind you now and you can actually get your work out?
Yep, not nice having to deal with that, big big pressure, wish I could have released an LP sooner though but I was fighting legally for about five years.

Did you work with Tom Hingston on the sleeve design and typeface?
I didn't directly work with Tom Hingston until the final bits, said what I wanted and got various ideas back, then eventually chose the end result, I wanted black and gothic. On Archive One I wanted it to be sealed in red with loads of languages so in a way had more input, but I'm not a designer so left it to the experts on "D A" and agreed the end via budgetary compromise.

Is it nice to have someone as big as Skint behind you?
Skint have been very supportive, but I wouldn't say they themselves were big, they just could call upon the muscle when it was needed.

IN THE STUDIO

Would you describe yourself as a bit of a "techy nerd"? And do you like playing with instruments and studio equipment, or are they just tools of the trade Dave?
Sadly yes, but a hardware techy nerd, love being in studios with all the lights off, LED's flashing and flying faders moving, really get into the engineering side as well. It's really sad how many big dance artists (some in the techno field) have their albums ghost written and engineered and put their name badge on afterwards, I feel it's so important to be there at every level, my weakness is I can't play instruments, I hate that, but eventually I get the sound I want through trial and error.

Full kit list?
Haha in your dreams!!!!!

Come on Dave, 3 favourite bits then?
Tannoy Speakers, Blue Cactus Microphone, Cranesong Hedd

Analogue or Digital?
All dynamic outboard is analogue, all eq analogue, samplers, mastering tools, desk and metering is digital (prefer the ballistics of digital and as mastering is normally with the CD in mind the vu, whether BBC or CBC is near useless.....need to get within 0.01db of final headroom). All the above is entirely hardware as well.

I'm not a flat earther I do believe that with digital we are almost at analogue level and both have advantages and disadvantages, but if used together the old cliche "best of both worlds" rings true.

Any particular favourite bits of gear?
Love my speakers and decks, the only bits to have not been part ex'd at some point. Also love my cables (solid silver AES EBU with massive Teflon insulation)

Fuck me you are a nerd, check the cable specs [laughs]
Didn't tell you that all the molecules go one way!

Software vs. hardware? Done to death but still, have you tried both? Do you have a preference? Do you care?
Interesting, have always used a software sequencer since the Umi, then went on to c-lab notator on the Atari, then I had to go on Cubase as no one in Italy (at acv) used C Lab and have stuck with it ever since. Got my wallet burned when I took on digital audio manipulation via a nubus sd2 card on a Power Mac 8100, never did what it should've so after spending over £6k back in the mid 90s I felt shafted so stayed with hardware which never broke down, didn't need to be beta tested, and had a resale value, occasionally I looked at what was on offer, but didn't liked the interface or the converters.......until now, just got a waves diamond bundle so I can do shit on the road.

With the technology and software readily available these days, every amateur/semi-professional producing music in their home/bedroom/shed is expected to deliver commercial quality recordings. Do you think that it's compromising the musical output as people get lost in the technology? Should labels take more responsibility and be prepared to pay for studio time to make a good recording out of a good piece of music?
Yes and no, there is something inherently snobbish about declaring disdain on the democratisation on technology (and yes I have a moan too), it is compromising the output but that is because the filters (record labels, magazines as opposed to the 6 pole variety!) aren't working, too many labels putting out too much lame shit in the hope that if you throw enough mud it will stick, then you get distributors going down as their quality control was slack, but without this initial democratisation, all of us reading this would dream about £20k samplers with 8bit sampling and 512k memory (forgetting that Gordon Moore even had a law for a second).

With regards to studio time being paid for, I would rather see an artist do their electronic stuff on their own then get fleeced in a rock and roll establishment, you can buy a decent hard drive multitracker and sampler now for less than a day's rates in a decent studio, so you can spend more time honing your craft with no bills coming in aside from the techno lust that we all fall too!

Do you produce in your own studio and prefer to use others? How involved are you in the engineering side? Do you prefer to use a studio with a dedicated engineer to do the tedious bits, or just get stuck in yourself?
Mostly my own studio, recently finished off a remix in Laibach/Umek's studio which was fun. I adore engineering, I actually feel I construct music not write it. I haven't used an engineer since 1988 on my own material, there is nothing better than getting stuck in, I feel like a pig in shit, utterly happy.

Who do you most respect as a producer these days and why?
I really hate these sort of questions as I will always think of someone later. I respect the people from the sixties who had shit to play with except for their imagination, producers of The Stooges, Lou Reed (really don't believe Warhol had anything to do with desk manoeuvres though), Hendrix, George Martin etc, etc, etc ad infinitum.

Biggest pile of crap you've ever bought?
Some horse manure for spreading on the garden.

Come on, I once bought a JP8000 and sold it after two days, it was the biggest trance machine ever, only to informed by Vince Watson that it's what he use (I love Vince's work) and he duly announced that I am in fact rubbish - you must have bought something that when you got it home turned out to be crap instead of clay?
Didn't like the Tascam DA88, thought the converters were horrible and the interface wasn't as good as it could have been, luckily didn't buy it though it was on loan. I spend a lot of time researching before I buy, if you don't then you waste money and time.

How do you approach writing a track Dave?
With trepidation, a lot of insecurity.....then normally after either the rhythm or bass does everything either fall in place or get scrapped.

Do you master your own stuff?
I Premaster it, you should never believe you know better than a good vinyl masterer or CD, I am lucky I have at my fingertips a lot of hardware mastering tools like phase meter, gunometer, fft and precise eq and multiband compression etc, but there is still a lot to learn, sometimes nothing has to be done to my stuff on transfer, other times minimal re'eqing, Miles from Metropolis finally finished "Deo Gratias" for me with eq and dynamics, he nailed it in 30 mins when I just couldn't. Don't believe your software/hardware can do the job with wizard....anyone can "pump a track" nowadays.

Do you always use the same person to master your stuff and are you always there when it being done?
Haven't used the same person and I'm very rarely there now, was for the LP but for the singles I don't need to be, Nilz does a lot of my Skint vinyl 12" stuff and we just talk frequencies and phase alignment over the phone, these people are professionals why should I not trust to do a job they do every day? I would love to have Bob Katz do my stuff some day and Rick O'Neill at Turtle rock.

Continue to Part 2 >>>

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