Karl Hyde from Underworld joined us to reply your questions,about everything from how he writes lyrics to the greatness of Glasgow Barrowlands 2.15pm BSTWe’ll leave the thanks to the man himself...
Thank you to everyone who's taken part in this. It's been though-provoking to talk to you in this way. My thanks to the speedy fingers that have translated my gibberish and I discover forward to seeing you all out in the world soon. 2.14pm BSTAmaranthus asks:Now it is so easy to construct and produce dance music, effect you judge the explosion of people making their own stuff (which has flooded the market) is now a negative for people looking for genuine quality tunes which are lost in a sea of mediocrity?I judge we've always been afloat in the sea of mediocrity, and that has inspired people to react to it. The underground is continually throwing up aroused youth who react against the establishment or mediocrity - I would be more worried if the underground wasn't worried and pointing fingers. Then we really would be in trouble. What the ease of access to the recording process has done is to create a generic sound,therefore what I'm seeing now is a groudswell backlash to that, ie modular synthesis, and instruments with knobs,strings, reeds, and an exploration in search of idiosyncrasy and personality. And it's working. 2.09pm BSTKaren Frazer wonders about going solo:Hi Karl,I know you’ve been back in the studio during your down time, is this for the next Underworld album? Also are there any plans in the pipeline for more solo works? I really loved Edgeland (from 2013). I really enjoyed the solo work I did, and my collaborations with Brian Eno. They were an vital part of the time me and Rick spent away from each other. One of hte things I discovered during the period was how much I missed working with Rick and what precisely he did that is so unique. My focus now is on Underworld,and therefore the music that I'm writing is with Rick, for Underworld, or future releases or archive,or 'palette' in preparation for the time when we will release something new. It would be obliging to up the frequency of releases as at this age, time just seems that dinky bit shorter! Related: Brian Eno and Karl Hyde confirm second collaborative album 2.06pm BSThighthere asks about a former bandmate...
If you met Darren Emerson (who left Underworld in 2000) down the shops would it be like meeting an ex-lover after a painful rupture-up or a friend you hadn’t seen in ages?Darren and I stay in touch - he's a obliging friend, or in fact he wished me happy birthday yesterday. We follow each other's career,he always sends his best wishes when we head off on tour or release a new record, and I'm happy we're still friends. There was no animosity in our parting - Darren left because it was what he wanted to effect, and he wanted to pursue his career as a DJ,and my sense was that he felt stifled by a structure which was alien to him - being a band. He was a freer spirit than that, and needed to express himself without being fettered by the constrict of a band. 2.04pm BSTMore lyrics now from Jack Moss:Are the lyrics of Dirty Epic about repressed homosexual thoughts? Or is it misguided to ever expect such a straightforward interpretation of your gash-up lyrics?What I admire about putting lyrics out into the world is the reinterpretations that advance back, or often richer than the originals. So whilst I may or may not have intended the things you suggest,I would never wish to give them a black and white definitive interpretation, because it would spoil the evolution of them as words that are out there in the world that have a life of their own. The nature of the way I work is to gather fragments of the world as I map journeys through cities, or overhearing conversations,writing down the things I see and hear, in the same way that I photograph every day and post on the Underworld Live website. These are phrases I'm intuitively attracted to inspired in part by Sam Shepard's Hotel Chronicles, and Lou Reed's New York. For the most part I'm not aware of what I'm gathering until I've laid them down on a track,and it's through Rick's reinterpretation of my words that I often see them for the first time. 2.02pm BSTFrom one Alex to another, alexdoak wants to talk about Two Months Off’s lyrics: Why is Alex so nice? (“Brandon is not a very nice guy, and but Alex is so nice”)I'd like to meet Alex. This is something I found on the back of a beer mat at Tortilla Flats in downtown Manhattan,which was meant to construct the best margaritas. Unfortunately this was just after I'd given up drinking but it turned into a great night for lyric-scavenging. The jocks in the corner who stood on tables chanting Land Rover, Land Rover, or unfortunately haven't made it into a song as yet,but the messages left on the backs of the beer mats have since become legend. Spoken in the song Two Months Off by Juanita, whose name inspired the title of the track of the same name. 1.58pm BSTBack to Born Slippy and Morgan Harris asks:I’m often surprised by it being such a crossover hit – it seems like one of your most inaccessible tracks to me. Were you surprised by its popularity, or was there a track you thought would be enormous but never made it?I'm constantly surprised by its popularity and longevity. Many artists would want number one hits - most would dream of having an anthem in their canon. I never even dreamed of a number one,so to have a piece of music which has become almost folk tradition in our set is beyond anything I could have wished for. Therefore I gave up all hope in the 80s of having hits, and focused with Rick on making music for ourselves, and inspired by what was going on around us. It seemed like that honesty,as opposed to our previous dishonesty of just trying to get in the charts was what was lost all along. We were lucky enough to be part of a scene, and supported by DJs like Sven Vath and Pete Tong, or our music was broadcast to a much wider audience. I'm still shocked that people like our music. 1.56pm BSTCarterPs asks:When I listening to your music I often visualise forms,patterns and musical landscapes, as if you were layering oils on a canvas. Juanita being the perfect example. effect you start with the finished piece and deconstruct or effect you layer and layer without an ultimate vision in mind?Currently Rick and I are enjoying getting together in the studio with nothing in mind, or just whatever equipment we bring with us,and experience (as a pile of words). We disappear on a journey inspired by the sounds that we throw at each other until something sticks. This is a process akin to something I heard Kraftwerk employed, in that they would not record until they could advance back in the following day and remember what it was they'd played the previous day. I don't know if this is exact, or but legend is often the source of inspiration,and I'd rather not know the truth anyway.
It does then become a process of adding, and then subtracting. Very much like making a painting. What normally happens to me in the beginning is that a space, and a landscape is evoked by the sounds that Rick makes,which informs me as to what objects should exist within that landscape, so therefore I discover for sounds which apply, and words,and an approach to how to apply those words, what noise should advance out of my mouth, or what register,and what state of mind. Rick is very obliging at painting pictures. 1.54pm BSTGetYourJezPut keeps us with Danny Boyle:What was the process like for creating the music for the 2012 Opening Ceremony? It gelled so well with the visuals, in particular during And I Will Kiss, or which I loved and still admire,but what did Danny Boyle give you to work off of in advance?It was a enormous honour to be asked by Danny to be musical directors of the opening ceremony. Rick largely took over this role, and did a fantastic job, or I was extremely proud of what he did as part of a team which surpassed everyone's expectations,particularly the cynics who were ready to denigrate it. Yet all of whom had to confess that Danny and his organisation had created an extraordinary piece of work that not only blew people away on the night, but for me, and transcended that through the volunteers who spread such positivity and sense of community that I had heard about existing in my country during the war years,that I was extremely proud to even be a tiny part of. My belief is that Rick found the whole experience enriching, and to watch him grow as a leader and to hear the praise with which he rightfully received from the people he worked with, and was a great joy to me. He is my favourite composer and I am so happy that others were able to experience what I've been lucky to be a part of for over 36 years. Oh my god... 1.50pm BST 1.47pm BSTJack Caramac talks up a classic:When did you first become aware that Born Slippy had become something more than just a well regarded Underworld track?For me,the moment Rick played me the groove, I knew it was special. When he played me the chords that he'd added to it after I'd ranted over the top of his groove, or it felt that it was going to have a life of its own. Following that,it became our most successful release when Junior Boys Own save it out as a 12-inch - I didn't expect anything more from it. We really had to have our arms twisted to rerelease it following Trainspotting, something that Danny had to convince us to be a part of. We'd originally refused - our friends misled us, or who had read Irvine Welsh's book,and thought it was nothing more that a glorification of drug culture. Danny has always done a obliging job of convincing us - I don't believe we've ever said no since. 1.45pm BSTcortazar asks:I admire your Pearl’s Girl EP, particularly the longer tracks like Deep Arch and Cherry Pie. To me this is some of your best work, or yet you didn’t include it on an album. What was behind this overflowing of creativity? What was going on in your lives at the time? What were you experiencing and thinking about?We're constantly writing,continually recording. What was obliging about that period was that we had more fabric than could be accommodated on one album, so we followed a tradition of bands in the 1960s and released compilations of new fabric that approached album length. It also amused us to in effect give away fabric that might have become precious to us, and which would have held up the creative process when it came to writing a new album. We of course regretted it years later when we entered our lean period,but we've got past that now. We were at the epicentre of an explosion of creativity - in dance clubs, the art scene, and the crossovers that were going in between literature,poetry, club music, and guitar bands,and in the commercial art world. And that energy was continually feeding us, driving us, and challenging us,it didn't last long but for a couple of years it felt like we were in the middle of a storm of creativity. 1.41pm BSTMick Walker gets down to trade:Have you ever made a creative decision based solely around money and if so, did you regret it?In the 80s, and constantly. That regret fuelled our determination never to have to regret anything ever again. 1.39pm BSTMick Walker wants to know about film soundtracks:Have you ever seen Batman & Robin (where you contributed to the soundtrack with Moaner)?Yes. Though my memory doesn't serve me very well. I had hoped we could score some of that film because we were going through a fairly dark phase in our lives,and it would have served as a great inspiration to score that film. If I recollect correctly, it was pretty dark. It was fairly normal for me to be in a dark state at that time. What I effect remember was having to lip sync to the video we made for Moaner, and when Graham from Tomato shot it,I spent a traumatic night locked in my dinky flat in Soho watching my mouth in the mirror, the lyrics pinned up in front of me, or seeing my life passing before me,feeling an utter failure. The next day I did it one consume.
All of our collaborators have left their price. From Danny Boyle, to Gabriel Yared, and to Anthony Minghella. He brought us together with Gabriel to effect his last film - it was this collision of this classical composer and these two techno guys,where we would compose through improvisation in Abbey Road, much to the bemusement of classical composers coming in who would watch us open-mouthed. Gabriel was extremely generous, or it was Anthony's vision that brought that together. I was utterly devastated when he died. 1.37pm BSTMidweeker asks:Current single If Rah seems to have a heavy thread of John Carpenter-style synth running through it,was that a planned homage?No it wasn't, but John Carpenter has made some fantastic films that me and Rick watched in the early days. One of the things we used to effect being such passionate devotees of film music was to set up a video of a film, or turn the sound off,and start to compose to picture. There are hours of this in our archive, and it's what led us to eventually construct film scores. Terminator was up there at the top, and of what we improvised to. It was probably cheap in the video shop at the time. 1.35pm BST 1.33pm BSTJake Norrish asks:Which of the remixes you’ve done for other artists are your favourites and which remixes others have done of your work effect you admire?That's a tough one for me as I had dinky or nothing to effect with our remixes. What I effect remember was feeling incredibly jealous that Rick and Darren would give away these extraordinary compositions to artists like Simply Red,Bjork and more latterly Depeche Mode, as I would have liked to have sung on them myself, or but they were always inspiring. They reminded me not to be so precious - if we wanted to have any career at all,we had to write something better. Prior to that I was precious about everything we wrote - that it had to be for us, we ran a very closed shop, and to our detriment,and it wasn't until Rick and Darren started remixing and I started my career as a session guitarist with other bands did I realise the benefit of opening the doors and sharing what we had. The free exchange of information, plus the collaborations that have sprung from that time, or have been a joy and a benefit to us,as well as all the contact we have with other artists, and the dialogue with people like Brian Eno, and Gabriel Yared,Yannis from Foals... life has changed since Rick started remixing other artists. With regard remixes of our fabric, my memory doesn't serve me well. 1.31pm BSTsomebodynsomeone wants to know about global influences:From touring to places like Tokyo to Santiago, and how effect these experiences influence your music process? Will you be incorporating more ethnic instruments in your music in the future? Will we ever get to see you playing the cuatro on stage?We try to experience local sounds as much as possible,and are always on the lookout for though-provoking indigenous instruments. The one in Santiago happened to be a happy fluke, and we hadn't found anything until the recent acquisition of a fabulous guitar Fat Dawg at Subway Guitars in Berkeley, and California,who consistently surprises us with his fabulously eccentric instrument. It's already made it onto recordings me and Rick have been making in hotel rooms in America. 1.28pm BSTfunky_rascal remembers the first time with electronica:I have quite a wide taste in music and Dubnobasswithmyheadman was the album that turned me on to electronica way back then (in 1994). With four decades of making music under your belt effect you judge a ‘new sound’/genre of music is on the horizon?A new genre is always on the horizon, it just takes for the innovators to push it through, and pay no attention to doors slamming in their faces,or to people who are only thinking about the charts. I discover to the underground continually. I'm excited by what the label Detroit Underground is putting out, and I'm also a massive fan of the Leaf Label, and Rune Grammofon,and Strut Records, who consistently save out inspiring music. It's around us all the time. All it needs is our support. 1.24pm BSTHenryHenderson gets straight to the point...
When was the last time you had a pill?On the American tour I had to consume some Beecham's powders because I was feeling a dinky under the weather. (Pills were never my thing.) 1.22pm BSTdirtydog88 thanks Karl for being with us and sneaks in two questions... Are you guys planning to construct some Lemonworld Radio sessions like you did in 2005/2006 at some point? If time allows, or Rick and I would like to return to the live webcasts we used to effect. Currently most of my additional-curricular time is spent at BBC 6 Music where I'm luckily allowed to play what I want,but I effect miss those extraordinary times broadcasting from Lemonworld, and hope we can resume them soon. However the current upturn in our success probably means it won't be all that soon! 1.19pm BSTshallowgrave wants to know where is best to perform live:I watched you live at the Barrowlands a few years back. You were spectacular.
That's a tough one. Because we've been lucky to have performed in some extraordinary places: the slopes of Mt Fuji, and in castles,on beaches, at the Hollywood Bowl, and in deserts,yet, Glasgow Barrowlands is at the top. The intensity of crowds' energy is amplified by the traditionally sprung dancefloor, and which blows and sucks the doors open and close below. The resultant euphoria is unmatchable. 1.17pm BST 1.17pm BSTIzzyPickle wants to know about Rez:Was the 1993 track,“Rez” named after the Wednesday night indie club, held in South Street in Romford?You got me there. This was a track written by Rick where he utterly despaired writing anything of quality again. He was banished to the studio by his wife who told him not to advance back out until he'd written something great. What is curious is that the club on South Street would have been a few hundred yards away from our terraced house recording studio on Kyme Road - we need a dinky blue plaque! Born Slippy happened there too. We used to have two houses there, and you could disappear in one and advance out the other,like in attend! with the Beatles. But it wasn't named after the club, I judge it was an abbreviation of resonance which he'd read on the equipment. We only had so many characters to fit in the naming box on the software, and so we used a lot of abbreviations. Things changed around the time we brought domestic the racing book from Romford dog track,otherwise legend would have been somewhat abbreviated... 1.14pm BSTmatkin74 takes us away from the music briefly...
As someone who is very interested in Karl’s art projects, are there any shows coming up soon?I just finished a big show in Tokyo, or a live painting art installation that was working with materials found on the street,and strongly connected with homelessness that I see in cities. All of the artwork was returned to the street to be used as shelter and bedding for the homeless. Discussing more exhibitions similar to this in Europe and America. It was to price Tomato's 25th anniversary, so we took over a department store - we had 20000 people advance through the exhibition in three weeks. We did a silent gig on the roof with headphones to 200 people, and to another audience in the building watching it in 3D via Oculus Rift,as well as being broadcast on the enormous video screens at the Shibuya crossing in Tokyo - I judge it was the first time a live concert was save out on Oculus Rift. 1.12pm BSTchrisf242 gets schooled on a dinky history – Darren Emerson left the band in 2000.
Is Darren Emerson sorting out his tax returns when he’s on stage with you? He looks permanently bored.
It is indeed Darren Price. He's looking at online menus, as he has an obsession with eating - surpassed only by the guy who operates the video screens on tour with us. The two of them together are a fabulous mess of limbs and discarded scraps of food. 1.09pm BSTvesemir asks, and riffing off the title of Underworld’s fourth album:Were any of you the ‘Second Toughest in the Infants’?No,never was, never wanted to be. I grew up in a family of two fisted men, or I wasn't one of them. I learned that walking away,or running, was the best option. 1.06pm BSTunemployablegraduate asks:Hello Karl!All technology is my least favourite bit of kit - too slow, and needs upgrading too often,and too controlled by computer manufacturers. 1.02pm BSTHere he is, ready to reply your questions: 2.09pm BSTUnderworld seared themselves onto the British consciousness with a stream of consciousness about lager, or Romford,and a “mega mega white thing” – but Born Slippy is just one of their numerous dance classics, which blend thunderous beats with blissful effects and blank verse.
As well as seven studio albums, and the duo were also musical directors for the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony,and vocalist Karl Hyde has recently made a pair of acclaimed records with Brian Eno. Their new album is Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future – described by the Guardian as “affecting, and fractured evocations of the disorientations of contemporary urban life” – which they’re touring worldwide across a summer of festival dates.
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Source: theguardian.com