#simonrogers

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📖#data #journalism #factsarescared #simonrogers （在 London, United Kingdom）

TRANSCRIPT OF AN INTERVIEW CARRIED OUT BY MARTIN IN 2006  Can you tell us something about your early music career up to the time you first joined The Fall? How did you come to be at the Ballet Rambert and was your musical background wholly classical? You were a part of the “Bolivian” (Simon Ford's description) folk group Incantation, and had some chart success. What memories do you have of this part of your life? I started out playing guitar and had classical guitar lessons eventually going to the Royal College Of Music to study for 4 years. My first job on leaving was playing the banjo in the Ballet Rambert Ensemble in a piece by George Crumb (American 20th century composer). While I was there the orchestra members started Incantation which was dedicated to playing South American folk music and we had some pretty instant success which translated to instant chaos, I think Incantation actually got through more alcohol than The Fall. There were a few pissed up tours and tv shows etc but I left frustrated that it wasn't really going anywhere. With the first major cheque I bought a 16 track studio and introduced myself to production. Was scoring “The Classical”, one of The Fall’s most intricate songs, a difficult task, and why do you think the Royal Scottish Orchestra had such problems with it? It was a hopeless task in retrospect and at that time I don't think technically I was up to making a really good orchestral version. Also there was no reliable way to synch the orchestra and Mark's vox so it was doomed from the off. During conversations with Mark about "The Classical" though he asked me to come and play bass so I guess something good came out of it. When you were working with The Fall (1985 -87), you say that you learned to stay calm in the studio, thanks in part to John Leckie. What was it that was making you particularly tense about working in the studio with The Fall? This was my first production gig so I guess there was a certain amount of pressure but I wasnt particularly tense. John had a great relaxed and open minded approach when we did the previous albums and I suppose I tried to continue that vibe. We all got on well and apart from the odd alcohol induced rant the Frenz sessions were trouble free really. Do you prefer This Nation’s Saving Grace or Bend Sinister? I’m particularly interested to know what you felt about the production of the latter, as it has been criticised for its poor sound quality and there are some rumours that it was actually released at the wrong speed. I prefer Nation's Saving Grace - I just like the songs more. As for the production on Bend Sinister I cant say that it's ever bothered me and it’s certainly not the wrong speed. Did you enjoy the touring and gigging side of things? From the evidence and faulty memories I have, you often used to play with your back to the audience, especially when playing keyboards. Was this a conscious decision on your behalf or were you acting under orders? I did enjoy it especially America but the novelty does wear off. The hour on stage was fantastic but dragging yourself around for the other 23 can be tedious. No matter how late the party I was always awake early too so had even more hours to kill between the music. Thats what got to me in the end: too much arsing about and not enough music going on. As for the back to audience, that wasn't really a policy decision we just stuck the keyboard on top of the amp originally and I always played the guitar facing the audience. You (part) produced The Frenz Experiment. Was this easier to do having previously played in the band and in retrospect are you happy with the results or would you do anything differently now? It was easier because we all knew each other and my role never was the "Big I Am" producer more just a band member who had a bit more knowledge of how we could utilise stuff the studio. I thought maybe it was a bit too clean and maybe a bit bass light at the time but it sounds ok when I hear a track these days. Code: Selfish and The Infotainment Scan: what made you return to the fold, and do you go along with MES’s comment (re Code: Selfish) that he brought you back to help make the album “harder”, “more crunchy”? Is this how you would define yourself as a producer in general? Mark was quite into using machines and computers in those days, thrown into the mix rather than running the show. I'd always had machines knocking about since I first joined and was doing house and breaks at that time. Mark just wanted some of that crunchy breaks sound in there. I don't really have a production "sound" to be honest but I usually manage to include something a bit filmic/classical/ambient along with some kind of breaks. You said once that you didn't like the blandness of modern theme music for TV. What's your favourite theme music from the past? Why has there been a move towards such blandness? Is it that it is thought to be more sophisticated ? The blandness is caused by clueless gangs of producers supposedly "honing" the music to fit perfectly, torturing the composer in the process. As Philip Glass once said, "the success of a film score relies on the willingness of the director to trust the skill of the composer". That's it, if you like someone's music let them get on and do their thing. That new "Life On Mars" thing is a good example, pathetic weedy featured music massaged out of existence by "creatives". My favourite theme is probably "The Persuaders" (currently on ITV4) by John Barry, big tune and great sounds from cimbalom to Moog. You did a really funky piece of music for a chase scene on a recent episode of Dalziel and Pascoe - do you have any plans to release any of your TV scores or at least make excerpts available online for download ? It's very difficult to retain any rights over your TV music these days as the production companies insist on obtaining the rights for their own publishing interests, so probably not. I might try and adapt some of that stuff for my other projects in the future. Do you in general have positive memories of your input on the Slacker project? Do you feel that Steiger was a success? And how do you look back on your work with Ian Broudie and The Lightning Seeds? Slacker was and is still a great project which can include all the things I'm into , live playing, filmy atmospherics and a touch of techno. Steiger is ongoing but not really full time concern for me, its great to get back to it after long scoring projects though. I really enjoyed The Lightning Seeds too, thats another Fall connection btw as I met Ian when he produced Hey Luciani. We became good friends long before he got me to work on the albums, it became  bigger than any of us had expected. What future projects have you got in hand? I'm currently scoring "Rebus"from the Ian Rankin novels for ITV and my theme to "Hustle" (just aired in America) is still being used. There'll be more Slacker and Steiger stuff and I'm working with a young singer/songwriter called Georgia Seddon. Have you have much contact with other ex-Fall members since leaving the group? I’ve done a few of these email interviews and one thing which shines through is the goodwill people have towards other ex-members, even if they haven’t seen each other for ages. Does this goodwill extend towards MES, by the way? I haven't seen anyone for ages, more than ten years i think and yes it would be good to see everyone again. I always got on well with Mark and we finally fell out over some stupid studio problem so yeah it would be good to see him again too. What was the classical-looking guitar you always used? If you mean the red electric? it was Brix's Gibson 335? or 330? Did you use a Yamaha DX7 with The Fall? Any particular reason for using this? I did and the DX was still quite a novelty at that time and some of those glassy digital sounds are great through an amp. Mark liked it because it made a wide variety of noises and often joined in (as he does) on stage.This didn't stop him kicking it off the back of the stage once or twice. Did you get a lot of time to rehearse the bass line parts while covering Steve Hanley's paternity leave? You did a very good job of it! Not really, learning the notes and songs wasn't really a problem it was the style and intensity that was harder to get. These are the songs you are co-credited with while with The Fall: Would you say any of these were mainly your work (riff, melody, etc...) or were these compositions really a question of the group working together? Mark's song attributions can be quite random/surprising; but you're more likely to be included in something you didn't really write than left out of something you did. Don't Take The Pizza I don't remember this one. Gut of the Quantifier Group effort as far as I remember with a little guitar bit from me. Hit The North Based on one of the first things i came up with on an early sampling workstation including the synth, sax and basic drum pattern. I gave Mark the basic backing track and he came up with HTN (BTW-my sister in law did the video for HTN -for Victoria also) Last Nacht Bit of keyboards as in Bremen Nacht I think. League Moon Monkey Mix Basically a remix sort of contribution. Living Too Long Just played the piano (in Bury) I think . Paintwork Craig's tune really recorded basically on a cassette along to a daft drum machine in my old studio. R O D Group effort I think with plenty of Brix input. Riddler ! ditto Spoilt Victorian Child I came up with the riff ( described by MES as "daft English music") and taught it to the band, which was interesting as it's in 6/4, didn't take long though. Finally, I have been asked to ask you if you played panpipes on the Incantation single... No my main instrument in Incantation was the charango ( sort of ethnic mandolin).

Simon Rogers (Twitter) - interview, Data Journalism Course (by European Journalism Centre)