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Described as "electro funk punks" by Time Out, Detachments are three artists based in London who have coalesced to form a band. Turning exuberance on its head, the Detachments make what can only be described as dark music. As downcast as this might seem, things are looking promising for the trio. They already have high profile fans, including Playgroup's Trevor Jackson and DJ Andrew Weatherall.
Singer, Sebastien Marshal, answers our same six questions. |
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Working out playing the 'Guns of Narvarone' on the descant recorder, age 5.
Q2 What inspired your latest single?
The point of inspiration for 'Fear No Fear', hmm let me see... I had the bass guitar out, it was a sweltering, Saturday evening in Murder Mile, Hackney. I think I'd been listening to Andrew Weatherall's '9 O'Clock Drop' album - 'My Spine Is The Bassline' in particular - by Shriekback. Anyway, one thing lead to another. I combined the bassline with an organ riff I'd come up earlier after listening to some old hardcore rave stuff from 1991. I looped it all, hit repeat. And in of pursuit getting the right atmosphere I partly ended up going into a kind of focused trance. The initial draft of lyrics also fell out of that state too, in a kind automatic writing method - a bit like the Surrealists. What kept me inspired during the month slog it took to produce 'Fear No Fear' was a mind's eye vision of flying headlong through the depths of uncharted space. Since childhood I've always been fascinated by space.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
The voodoo power of 'Fear No Fear' killed my computer, corrupted my main HD and took 3 years worth of unbacked up work with it! There's a lot of layers in 'FNF', 100s in fact, many in the mix at a subliminal level, so my computer was starting to buckle. Something corrupted while I was attempting to save (which eventually lead to the demise of the entire system). To save the processor, I repeatedly had to to bounce results down to a single track then start again adding more layers again. There's a residue of stress captured in 'FNF' from all of the chaos that I was fire-fighting, it'll always be there a bit like low level radiation from the big bang, if you like. Anyway, processes involved in creating a track aren't normally quite as insane as that! I've since rebuilt and suped up my studio computer.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Influences. This is too big a question. I guess in my very early teens I was always working out songs by ear on the keyboard. I'd discovered Depeche Mode via the local music library - so them a lot of the time - they have some great melodies, chord structure, basslines, the lot. Then I got into backtracking The Cure, New Order and Joy Division - and later other Martin Hannett produced groups. Massive Attack's 'Mezzanine' was a big one for me. I've visited loads of places in the like, planet of music - spent time into electro, oldschool British techno, alternative hip hop, I like proper early house too, in fact I always like the sound of a form of music when it's just emerged and it's still and raw and edgy. Kraftwerk seem like demi-gods to me. Bands with a pioneering, uncompromising vision like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, too. Bowie is an all-time hero. Aphex Twin. I'm quite intrigued by dubstep right now, you never know - it might surreptitiously influence the album in some way.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Fear no fear, my child! Open your mind, take it down pure - don't try to understand it - let it it blow through and perforate you. Ha. It felt like I was hearing it for the first time when I attended the mastering session for 'Fear No Fear' and they put it through these huge, club type speakers. I couldn't believe it - it was like there was some vast, sinister, power from another dimension posessing the system. I was thinking - my God, it's taken on a life of it's own, and I'm a bit freaked out - the voice sounded alien and animate.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your single/album, and for the future?
'FNF' is a very none-compromising, it's one of our most militantly dark tracks - it's like a warning of the extremes we're capable of. It's like us planting our flag, declaring our territory. The album? When it's recorded, if we get the get the production just right... well, a Mercury nomination woud be rather nice.
published june 2008
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