Neon Neon - Interview

Albums with a concept are risky affair, especially in the context of Pop, and even more so when the subject is cocaine smuggling auto baron of the 80’s, John DeLorean. On the surface this makes it all the more surprising, but dig a little deeper and you find that unlikely pairing of Super Furry Animals front man Gruff Rhys, and left field US Hip Hop Producer, Boom Bip have created an album of almost perfect contemporary “Pop”. After blazing a trail through the SXSW festival in the US, and releasing their debut album Stainless Style to critical acclaim, they touched down in London ahead of their long awaited debut UK show at Fabric. They spent some time talking to Electronic Beats about how you make an album about a man who paid to have the perfect face.

Are you excited about the show tonight?
BRIAN: Yeah the shows have been going really great, and we are really excited about Fabric! We have the Magic Numbers coming out. It’s going to be great!

So how were the US shows?
BRIAN: We just did SXSW, stopped in LA for the record release party, which was great, a really good party. And now we are here in the UK.

So when did the two of you 1st work together?
BRIAN: Well, first of I did a remix of a song called Father Father for the Super Fury Animals, and we had, well a sort of bartering system! So in exchange for the remix I had Gruff do the vocals for a track of mine called Do’s and Don’ts, and that was our first real collaboration. We are both pretty laid back people, we just trust each others taste, and things just seemed to work out really smooth, so we decided to try and make an album together. We’ve definitely become friends over the course of things!

So how did you get from there to an album about John DeLorean?
GRUFF: We were looking to make a record that was different to any of our others, and so it was good to write about something impersonal. It guaranteed it would be outside of anything we had done before. The music demos that Brian played me were very shiny, and err... aerodynamic! I was trying to write lyrics and catchy hooks you know themes that would mirror the music. At the time we were actually looking at a lot of books about 80’s concept cars, and I ended up trying to write one song about DeLorean, but when I started researching his life, which was so eventful, there was just so much information.

A mine of information? Or I guess inspiration!?
GRUFF: Exactly! There was so much inspiration, its ridiculous. I went to write one song, and ended up just writing song after song about the different chapters of his life. It all came together, and helped tie the record together lyrically and musically.

Tell me about some of the songs on the album - the Michael Douglas song for example.
Haha, well we have taken a few liberties with his life, a few interpretations!
The scenario is that DeLorean is hanging out at some Hollywood party, and he is looking at his newly designed chin implant in Michael Douglas’ mirrored sunglasses. Then there is Belfast, about the factory which is like a Disco anthem and Neon Theme which is like piece of library or music or a film score.

On your Pitchfork media mix you include Tenebre by Goblin – was 80’s soundtrack music also an inspiration musically?
BRIAN: Yeah, well really I think our first inspiration was a lot of Italian Disco, and power pop and synth pop for the 80’s. A lot of the tracks I put together for Gruff to write to were all very much influenced by those sounds, so when we got together and starting writing lyrics, that’s when the DeLorean theme came about, and started shaping the records. That’s when the music really found a true direction.

So you weren’t clear where it was going at first?
BRIAN: Exactly, when we started we were taking music from different eras, and forms of media, and finally we found the DeLorean story.

So how did you work together? Was it a laptop affair, or did you spend a lot of time in the studio?
Well, that was one thing we made sure of. We needed to be able to be in the same room together and write and record together, we didn’t want to it by post. I have done things like that before, and that’s fine, but there is something about just sitting in the room with that person, and hanging out, vibing, and feeding of each other. I knew an entire record would be too much to do if we were doing it by post.

You have some unusual guests on the album – Spank Rock, Yo Majesty, who don’t, on paper, seem to work with a Disco and power ballad influenced sound.
Well, we wanted the music to reflect the story of his life, and to be honest there were definitely some dark, edgy moments in his life, one of those – the track with Spank Rock is the coke bust track, and we really wanted to reflect that in the music and the lyrically on the track, so he seemed like the obvious choice

Same with Yo Majesty, we wanted something harsh and grimy, but also sexy to balance out of the album, as it is very much power Pop. To add dynamics, it works to have people like Fat Lip and Yo Majesty.

So do you se this as a concept album? That is sometimes a dirty word….
Yeah, definitely, some people are scared and there have been some bad ones for sure, but it was a lot of fun for us – we enjoyed every second. We highly recommend for other bands to step outside themselves and give it a shot.

The initial idea was always to have something different to what we are used to, as soon as we grabbed on to that theme, it was just the perfect excuse for us to make a record we really enjoyed.

Stainless Style is out now.