Interview with Magnetic Man
Dubstep used to be just a UK concern, but I see you’ve been booked for Coachella and Sonar festival…I can’t say which ones, but we’ve actually been booked for loads more festivals, so it’s a bit like “Wow” when you look at all the places we’re going to.
You three must feel proud to hear Dubstep outside of the UK as you three pioneered the genre – is it weird to think how far it’s stretched. I do feel proud, yeah, we’re proud of how far it’s come considering the fact that it all started off in the same place, from a tiny shop in Croydon. It’s something that grew up with us.
Big Apple Records is the shop you were talking about, which has been well documented as the birthplace of Dubstep. Looking back at it now it’s closed, how do you feel, and was there nothing that could have kept it open? No, there was nothing you could do. Big Apple was a place where people came to buy vinyl, and when mp3s came along and people began sharing tracks on the internet rather than buying them, there was nothing you could do. We noticed it when the record sales started to dip, and then they dipped off a little bit more, and then it just completely went ‘BAM’. People just don’t buy records now, and it’s a shame.
We’re actually promoting local independent record shops in a new page of the magazine this month – we seem to have loads…Yeah, and there is a little flash of people buying them again, but I don’t know how long it’ll last with everything being pirated over the internet.
I read something you’d retweeted on your Twitter account from a fan who’d discovered you via piracy, but then righted the crime by buying the album – how do you feel about that? There is something that’s good about people using the internet to discover you, and if you’re good enough, then they’ll use that as a way of deciding to go and buy the album, but there aren’t many that’ll spend the money now. If you’re 17 and you’ve got £10 to spend either on going to the pub, or buying something you could get for free, you’re not going to buy it. It’s not the fault of the people downloading it, because it’s an easy choice to make, but something has to change. I don’t think people realise the effort and time and money that goes into making a record, and that’s taken away from you when they pirate it.
You recorded the album in remote Cornwall, which must’ve been a weird departure from the communal buzz that normally surrounds you in London. What was it like? It was strange. It was good for the first month; in London we never got the time together to put our minds fully to something. All of us would have something going on all the time, like “I’ve got to go do this, I’ve got to go do that”, so it was good to get away and focus purely on the album. The second month was weird though. We started to get cabin fever because it was so unlike what we were used to.
And the whole experience was fuelled by chocolate, I read. Yeah, chocolate, it was wild.
The heady side of rock ‘n’ roll! You have some awesome collaborating artists on the album, but if rhyme or reason was no object, who would you have guesting?Er, we’ve always said we’d like to work with Prince, that’d be a dream. Or if money was no object and nothing stood in your way, you’d get Stevie Wonder on the phone, wouldn’t you?
No-one naff then? Shirley Bassey? Olivia Newton John? Nah, we’ll leave those ones to you.
You have such a massive rig – I read it was a 750K set up – how much of that do you get on the NME tour? You don’t! That’s a festival set up, so the NME venues are nowhere near big enough to put all that in. We’ve actually got something new, a stripped down version of what we’ve had before.
I used to do a radio show where I got a bollocking every week for playing Dubstep at 4pm in the afternoon. Now, I don’t think you’re making radio friendly tunes, I just think the radio is ready to embrace you…Exactly. I don’t think what we’re doing has changed. It’s just it used to be linked with clubbing. The one club that Big Apple was linked to was FWD, and DJ Haptcha would play the songs we were making for him in Big Apple Records. At that time, you’d be happy if you saw 50 there, then if you got that, you’d want 100. Then 300. Now you get thousands and it’s what people want to hear on the radio.
You’re coming to the UEA this month as part of the NME Shockwaves Tour – are you looking forward to it?Yep, it’ll be a laugh.
Traditionally, the bands playing all have a game of football on the UEA green.Who plays?
Well you’d play Everything Everything and, well, I can’t imagine Crystal Castles playing…No, but we’d win. We’ve got Benga; Me and Skream wouldn’t even have to play. He could have gone professional, but decided to go into music instead.
So you can just be cheerleaders at the side, with pom poms? Yeah, we’ll just cheer him on.
What’s it like touring with your boys? It’s good. It’s really good fun. You definitely test the limits of your body; it’s easy for one night to roll into another. You see just how far your body can go with alcohol and stuff.
What are the sleeping arrangements like? Are you in a hotel? On a bus? Top to tail?Nah, nah, we’re in hotels. I don’t know about the bus this time, but generally we have separate hotel rooms and then get a bus to the venue the next day. I don’t think it’d be too bad topping and tailing with Benga anyway – his feet don’t smell.
And what about the other three bands you’re on the bill with? Yeah, they’re cool. I think it’s wicked for audiences to get to hear a range of sounds on one night, and that’s what I like about it. It opens them up to more than they’d be used to.
Emma Roberts
Magnetic Man perform as part of the electrifying Shockwaves NME Tour line-up along with Crystal Castles, Everything Everything and The Vaccines at the UEA on February 11th. To read the uncut version of this interview, go to Outlineonline.co.uk
