How are things, Mr O?
“Not too bad thanks. Actually, Paris is usually the one who does interviews, he’s more of a personality, I usually do the DJ gigs.”
Are you as mysterious as your name suggets?
“I wear a butcher’s mask when I’m on stage, but I think that people are starting to work out who I am. My name came from the time when Paris used to live with me in Holland: I was getting all this mail sent to me and no one in the apartment complex knew who I was, so Paris got asked a few times if he was the ‘mysterious Mr O’. Paris has so many different pseudonyms - he does it to release different styles of music under. I’ve also been told to think up a new name for myself, so I’m going to become a French guy called Pierre Cussion and do some tracks on my own. I’ll be this arrogant guy who speaks in a ridiculous accent and who thinks he invented percussion!”
You’re not one of the group’s founding members - when did you join?
“I joined just after the ‘Uranus’ album was released. I run the business side, including the label. It happened because Andy Toth, who was the other founders of the Pubahs, is more of a studio guy, so Paris had him frozen in and took me with him on tour. I don’t think that he’ll be thawing out Andy either. Fingers crossed, the same won’t be happen to me - maybe the fact that I run the label means that I have my uses.”
Are you being entirely serious?
“Nah, we’re just trying to put some fun back in the scene, dressing up and having a laugh. Of course there is a serious edge to the music, but I’d say we take a Parliament rather than a Jeff Mills approach to music.”
How come the Pubahs set up their own label – and why aren’t you releasing on Poker Flat?
“Paris had the idea for the label for a long while and I had all the contacts in the business. We already had a relationship with News (the distributors) in Belgium because they liked the Pubahs stuff, so that’s how it came together. We are up to our sixth or seventh release with the label and it’s going well. We plan to put out the album ourselves on Del.Ete.Funk. We still have a good relationship with Poker Flat, but we want to do this one ourselves. Our relationship with Poker Flat will continue, and maybe Steve Bug will even remix one of the tracks from the LP.”
Do you see much of a connection between ‘Sandwiches’ and the more esoteric techno and electro you are releasing now?
“There is a strong connection between electro and techno, obviously the funk is still there, but the new album leans towards the techno clubby side – and that will probably catch people unawares. Having said that, the Pubahs have always had a deep side, especially wth Paris’ Detroit background. Also, all of the tracks have a concept behind them.”
What kind of concept?
“Well, at the moment we have these side projects, Asexual Albino Cockroaches with Black Features and the Techmarine Bottom Feeders – and these groups are fighting an underwater war with the Pubahs. We hope to release some of the Feeders stuff soon - it’s much darker, more Drexciya-influenced techno. There is a whole story to this concept, which began with the ‘Skydive From Venus’ and ‘Birth In Zero Gravity’ releases on Del.Ete.Funk. On the ‘Skydive From Venus’ cover there is an alien who was traveling the universe showing her baby things in the solar system like the planets. She gets caught in earth’s gravitational pull and this is where ‘Skydive from Venus’ comes from. The atmospheric sounds are her ‘skydiving’. Then on the next single, ‘Birth In Zero Gravity’, she lands in the Detroit river - you see this in the artwork of the cover. She sends out a ‘distress signal’, hence the name of the main mix on Birth In Zero Gravity, the ‘Distress Signal Mix’, and this is picked up by the Galactic Ass Creatures, who are also aliens and who come to the rescue. On earth there are the Techmarine Bottom Feeders who live in the water, the Asexual Albino Cockroaches With Black Features, who are advanced human mutant cave dwellers – their music is funk and will be featured on the next Pubahs album next year - and normal humans. So these three species all see this alien landing in the river and all go to get her and the baby. This war is developing over who is to get this alien and her baby. It’s going to get bigger – who knows where it’ll go.”
Impressive. How come you spent so much time thinking up such complicated narratives?
“There is so much music out there and so much of it is faceless. We feel that our stuff has a concept and a visual element - if you have seen any of the cover art of Del.Ete.Funk releases, you’ll know what I mean.”
As the Pubahs DJ, what do you make of the vinyl vs digital debate?
“I still use vinyl, but also Serato, mainly to play new tracks. This is the way that music is going: you have to sell stuff digitally. One of the problems for vinyl is how much it costs to make and buy, but I really hope that there is a future for it. There are labels that are starting out now that only sell digitally, and I would always encourage new labels to sell vinyl as well. There is a lot of poor-quality, unmastered stuff without artwork for sale now, it’s ridiculous. Of course, it’s also up to the download sites to exercise stricter quality control. Hopefully the situation will get sorted out. One of the advantages of buying digitally is that the lower prices have allowed me to buy more music, which has made my DJIng more adventurous - if there is one track from an EP, I can buy that instead of the whole EP. “
So what kind of stuff do you play?
“I play a bit of everything, I suppose it depends on the slot I’m booked to play at. I like a lot of the music that’s around now and the fact that the tempos have dropped means that it’s easier to mix up house and techno. There are still some great producers releasing music, and there is a lot more fun nowadays, things aren’t so serious. “
Is there any style of music you don’t like?
“I don’t like minimal: I tried really hard to like Ricardo Villalobos and all the guys who make similar music, but I just couldn’t. I just can’t warm to those blippy, plonky sounds and the fact that there is no funk in their music. Minimal to me is all about Rob Hood - it’s an artform and not these very basic, underproduced tracks. I don’t know where electro house came from either - it has nothing to do with the shuffling drum sound or Miami bass. It seems like a totally different sound which has more in common with techno. I don’t know - is Dubfire electro house?”
He’d probably be considered minimal - but tell me more about the album…
“It’s out at the end of April. It’s called ‘Nuttin Butt Funk’ and is very different to the others. It’s more geared towards the techno and dance floor electro side of what we do, but there is a funk track and a Dr Bootygrabber track called ‘Dirty Old Man’, which has Paris warbling on about what a dirty old guy he is. The album is influenced by playing in clubs - it’s a collection of what worked well when we play live. I used to have a mic on stage but it got revoked after the Mutek gig we did last year. I had consumed a bottle of sake, a bottle of vodka and six cans of beer and, having heard the recording of the set, I decided to leave the singing up to him. I just hope he doesn’t freeze me in now…”
Wow, great interview with a group that really deserves more of the spotlight - thanks for posting this! "If Snow Was Black" is one of my all-time favorite techno tracks...
Posted by: James | March 02, 2008 at 07:05 AM
An incredible interview, probably my favorite that you've had on here. Cheers.
Posted by: Steve | March 02, 2008 at 12:26 PM
kudos for this one brophy. i did an interview with paris and andy awhile back (when sandwiches was just hitting the scene) and they showed up in wigs, beards and pimp gear at this cafe. fuckin' hilarious.
Posted by: kuri | March 04, 2008 at 04:19 PM
Drink your school, say no to milk and stay in drugs.
Touch your butt funk daily.
The Mysterious Mr. O will not be frozen after this.
Thanks for the interview.
Posted by: Paris the Black FU | March 05, 2008 at 12:39 PM