Space beyond The Emperor Machine

The first time I heard a song by The Emperor Machine was at 8 a.m. in London’s Dalston station. I was half asleep and listening to some random stuff purchased from Bleep.com when “Lift Up Chong and See” reverberated through my headphones. To say it was a revelation would be an understatement. To call it insane would be more accurate.

Since then, I have immersed myself wholly in Andy Meecham’s idiosyncratic approach to electronic music. The Emperor Machine’s third and most accessible album, “Space beyond The Egg”, was just released by DC Recordings, and sees the group in fine fettle, fusing a live band format with their trademark sound of strained and abused synthesisers.

I caught up with Meecham at his home in Stafford to dig a little deeper.

You must have a large collection of synths. Is it difficult looking after them? Yeah there’s quite a few! The problem with them all is the dust -- if you don’t use them for a week or so the dust settles and that’s it: they’re all crackly and you’ve got to clean them up. I’ve got three in for repair at the minute, but that’s the way it goes with vintage stuff.

How many do you have? I would say about 16, so it’s not too many. Some have come and gone over the years, what with the taxman and stuff like that. Which is a shame but that’s life, isn’t it?

“Space Beyond the Egg” has a different feel than previous albums, but the same Emperor Machine sound. Did playing for the first time as a live band influence that? Yeah I think so, because quite often when I was writing I wanted it to be easier to transcribe into a live thing but also, with the energy you get from playing live, I wanted to try and capture that in some of the music and on some of the tracks. So yeah, it did have an influence, but not a huge one to be honest. I think the next album will though.

It feels like you have a more live sound with some of the drums. Are they sampled? I programmed all of the sounds in, and it’s just a collection of samples from some rock albums, mostly. I tried to spend a bit more time programming the drums than I did with the other stuff, trying to create more of a live feel. For the next album we are going to use a real drummer for the live show.

Your productions seem quite complex. How difficult is it to translate what you do in the studio into a live show? Well we use Roland sampling drum pads that trigger off 8-bar loops for a verse, or a bridge or a bass line, so we can improvise. And also tracks change anyway, because the more we play them live, the more we change them, because some of the arrangements from an album don’t necessarily work in front of an audience. On “Hairy Knuckle” for example we cut that track in half to play it live and on “Space Age Pop”, there’s a synth intro that we don’t play. So the arrangements have changed quite a lot for the live versions, but for the better I think.

I’m looking forward to hearing it… you’re doing some festivals this year right? We played in Paris on Saturday night, a festival in Manchester on Friday, and then we’re doing Lovebox. And then Glastonbury.

You must be looking forward to that! Which stage are you playing? One of the dance ones. The north one I think. Yeah, I am looking forward to that.

What prompted you to bring The Emperor Machine out as a live band? Was it something you always wanted to do? It was hassle from the record company really! They said it’s alright making this kind of music, but you have to go out there and promote it, and I’d always said no, “no I don’t want to go out there on my own, it’s boring.” My friend Dave the guitarist and Roger the drummer were too busy with work, so they couldn’t do anything. But as these things go, one night when I was drunk I asked them again to helpme out, and they said yes! I wouldn’t have done it without that pair to be honest. I didn’t just want to have a laptop on stage.

A lot of people find that pretty boring to watch. I guess from your point of view, it’s not very exciting either. For some people it works, you know, having a laptop and a controller, but for me, I just really don’t want laptops on stage. I would rather run sequences, if I had to, but I don’t even do that, because the drummer triggers them.

So your role in the band is to play all the synth parts live?
Yeah exactly, and I mix it all live on stage as well, because quite often I like to take things in out of the mix and run delays, almost remixing it live using the parts we have put in the machines.

You just mentioned there was some pressure from DC Recordings to organise a live set up. I am interested in the whole relationship with DC, as I really couldn’t imagine your music being on any other label. The thing with The Emperor Machine is that it just seems to fit in. I think that J [J. Soul Kane, head of DC Records and producer Depth Charge] has quite a bit of input -- he “yes' and no’s” a lot of things.

Musically? Yeah, if I record a track, or when I have finished a track, it will then go through about 20 changes before its ready to go. For me personally, the relationship with DC is good. It works, and especially the artwork, which I think is great. I am committed to another two albums with DC, so there is more to come yet! I guess I can’t really see where else Emperor Machine would fit! Maybe after the next two albums I’ll put it to bed and start something different, but at the moment I am really happy with DC. It’s not the biggest label in the world, but it’s nice and really communal.

How did you come to be on the label in the first place? Originally I read about someone talking about a synth – a Roland SH3A and they were basically saying it was a rubbish synth, quite poor, crap, and I read it and thought, “you don’t know what you’re talking about mate!” So I decided to write one track just on that synthesiser, just to prove that it wasn’t crap.
So I played it to J, and then did it again with another synth, a Roland Pro Mars, and it really just went from there. For me, Emperor Machine was just a side project from Chicken Lips, where I could be more creative from a synth point of view, because, err, I am quite addicted to synths. I don’t know why it took off really -- maybe the timing was right!

Definitely. Your previous albums fit into the musical landscape now, but when they came out…. there was nothing else like them. You have such a unique sound. All I do is write and play what I enjoy. Everyone is going to have an opinion, especially DC, they are renowned for being heavy on the A&R, but as long as I am happy doing what I am doing -- until the point I am fed up and feel I am repeating myself -- I‘ll keep doing it. When I am writing I just need to find this emotion in the key I am writing in, and I am happy then.

Are there certain machines you go back to, where you find it easier to access that emotion? Definitely. There are certain machines that do certain things for me personally, better than others. At the moment I am using the Poly Moog. For “Space Beyond The Egg” I used that one a lot, just because it is so monstrous sounding!

So you’re never going to start using soft synths then? Well to be fair I have tried them, and I have thought ”oh that’s pretty good” but because I was fiddling with a mouse, it got a bit boring. I like the machine hum, the noise, the switches, the kind of Doctor Who feel and stuff like that. I love that! Creating the sound from scratch and then going with it and seeing what it turns into.

Over the last couple of years, you’ve imprinted the Emperor Machine sound on quite a few remixes. Are people approaching you? Well there are a few people over the years that have bought in remixes. Quite often, people don’t think of you. There will be a record company who wants a remix and they are thinking of whom to choose, and unless there is someone shouting for you, saying, “I want an Emperor Machine remix”, you miss out. It’s good sometimes, and then other times they come through MySpace and the label. Laurent Garner and Tiga – they came straight to J at DC. So, it’s a potluck really.

Are you choosy on what you pick to remix? Well, picky and choosy regarding time really! I think you can turn most mixes around, as there is always something that you can work with. It’s just a timing issue because of the tour, Chicken Lips and other commitments. It’s not very often that I turn a mix down unless it is really not my cup of tea.

Your background in music stretches back over 20 years: first as DJ, then with Bizarre Inc, then Chicken Lips, then The Emperor Machine. Do you feel like you are now doing what you always wanted to do, musically? Er, no. I mean Dean and I (Dean Meredith - Andy’s production partner in Chicken Lips) want to move more into producing; there’s a band that we are going to produce soon – I can’t mention any names though. When I work with Dean and when I work on my own, it’s completely different; it’s a different situation. I mean Dean will come round here and we will work on the production and the music. And then he will take it off and mix it and arrange it. Where as in the old days, a lot of the mixing and arranging would be done here (Andy’s studio), but by doing it in his studio, it creates a different mix sound that is actually quite important. If we were to mix the Chicken Lips stuff here now, it would just sound too similar to Emperor Machine and so we have changed the way we work, which is good.

So you get equal satisfaction, but just in different ways? Yeah, exactly.

Your sound is rooted in the past in terms of the machines you use – but at the same time sounds very contemporary. Do you listen to new electronic music? Er, not really no. When I listen to music, it is always old music. I don’t really buy a lot of records anymore. It’s mainly David Bowie at the moment, or maybe some Can or Neu, or something that puts me in the mood! I feel quite embarrassed sometimes because people will be asking me if I have heard this or heard that, and I am like, “no, I haven’t actually, ha-ha!” The only new music I really hear is from friends who have labels, and they send me stuff that they have coming out. That’s the only time really. I just listen to things I like to listen to, things I find inspiration and get emotional feelings from.

“Space Beyond the Egg” is out now on DC Recordings; see our review here.

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Andy Meecham, Bizarre Inc., Chicken Lips, DC Recordings, Depth Charge, Glastonbury, Laurent Garnier, Lovebox, Synthesizers, The Emperor Machine, Tiga

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