Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Ricardo Autobahn, British recording artist and hit-maker from Manchester, Britain.  He was visiting the Twin Cities to shoot a video for his Britamerican act Pop Inc., a project with local electro-pop star Brooke Aldridge.  Ricardo divulged information about the roots of Pop Inc., his homespun act The Attery Squash, and his new mainstream songwriting venture Bandito.  He was even so kind as to entertain some of my more fanciful questions as he opined about the future of the music industry and what might dazzle our ears in years to come.  This is a Borangutan exclusive.

I’d like to think that we are doing something a bit unique.  Everybody has to do something that is slightly… purely themselves these days just to stand out in the crowd and I’d like to think that our epic brand of pop is going to be something that will stand out and that people will enjoy more than, say, if we were more laid back in our approach. (Ricardo Autobahn)

(Skelly) This is Skelly from borangutan.com and it is my great pleasure today to be visiting with Ricardo Autobahn, British recording artist and member of notable electronic groups Cuban Boys and Spray.  Ricardo has come to Minneapolis in support of his latest musical project Pop Inc.  Welcome Ricardo.

(Ricardo) Thank you very much.

(Skelly) So let’s start out today, Ricardo, with a question that is about Pop Inc.  What is Pop Inc. and why has it brought you to Minneapolis?

(Ricardo) It’s a merry band of marauding artists, pop artists.  And it has brought me to Minneapolis to make the video for the forthcoming hit single “Looking for the KLF”.  The project is an evolution of the record I made two years ago with Brooke (Aldridge) called LollyPop, which we made without meeting.  We met via the internet.  Brooke recorded vocals over here (in Minneapolis), emailed them to me and I put the record together in Britain.  It was an interesting way of doing things and we made a quite unique and moderately successful  electro-pop record out of it.

(Skelly) I’m actually not very familiar with the KLF.  Maybe you could give us a little more background on exactly who the KLF were.

(Ricardo) The KLF were a dance, electronic pop group from the early 90’s.  They started in the 1980’s as a sort of underground dance act.  Two guys who had been in the music industry for some years and they went overground or mainstream in 1990 with a selection of hit records, which sounds boring, but the mythology behind the KLF is more interesting.  They had all sorts of pranks or scams that they came up with.  They made the records themselves, they produced the records themselves, and they impressed the records themselves.  They had enormous hits in Europe, and they were doing stuff that was unlike anybody else, really, it was intelligent, intellectual, witty dance music with a scheme and plot behind it.  They cared deeply about what they were doing.  It wasn’t just a throw-away pop act it was a deeper, more thought-provoking project.  In Britain at least (I don’t know how it was perceived in America), there was a lot of mythology behind it, there were strange stories that created this world of the KLF.  And it wasn’t just the records, it was the videos, it was the stories behind them, the scams they came up with, and the publicity stunts.

(Skelly) Are they still around?  Are they still producing records?

(Ricardo) They left the music industry in 1992 in a big blaze of glory, because they felt they had done all they needed to do in one album and four singles.  One of the guys, Bill Drummond, went on to become a more conceptual artist, and the other guy, Jimmy Cauty, became a mainstream artist in the visual sense.  But they’re still very interesting and experimental in what they do.  Bill Drummond has recently written a book about how he is so disillusioned with music.  He stopped listening to music, and he is trying to create a “year zero” where people have sort of forgotten about music and what would happen if music started again and how music would sound.  That’s what the KLF was all about.  It was about new things, exciting things!  Being a completely off-the-plane way of thinking, and yet still not being experimental or unlistenable, but appealing to mainstream pop culture as well, which is why they are sort of influential to us and inspirational to us.

(Skelly) It sounds to me like they are still a bit visible, (are) they still recording or producing records?

(Ricardo) It’s not so much records but they are always there, and Bill was asked to go on celebrity Big Brother in fact.  He’s still a big star in Britain, but not in the musical sense.  It is more of a performance, conceptual artist side of things, but it (the KLF) is still so well-known, and so well-loved, and so well-remembered in Britain that they haven’t ruined their mystique by reforming or making remixes of old records.  They just left it all alone, and it is this great KLF legend which is still left in tact.

(Skelly) So if Pop Inc. is looking for the KLF, I assume that means that they’re looking for the project that these gentlemen used to do, the KLF?

(Ricardo) The “Looking for the KLF” is trying to recreate that spark of brilliance and imagination, (and at that) time back in the early 90’s, I think music was more exciting.  Not necessarily better, but people were more inventive and innovative and they had ideas that they were able to realize that they perhaps couldn’t as the millennium changed and the music industry became far more corporate than ever before.  But back in the early 90’s there was this idea that you could do whatever you wanted and impress your own records and have some sort of success.  And that’s probably what “Looking for the KLF” is about, trying to recapture that spirit, the spirit of the age.

(Skelly) Speaking of “Looking for the KLF”, I understand the primary reason for coming to Minneapolis was that you are recording a video for “Looking for the KLF.”  Is that true?

(Ricardo) That’s true.  I’ve never been to Minneapolis before and I had never met Brooke (Aldridge) before this video.  We’ve made up-teen records together, but we’ve never met.  So this seemed like a perfect idea, a perfect opportunity to come to this great nation, and be a part of the project in a more hands-on way.  So I decided I would come over for the video shoot seeing as I had nothing better to do. (laughter)

(Skelly) And how did the video shoot go?  Did it go well?

(Ricardo) Very efficiently, in fact.  I have made videos in the past and it has taken hours, and hours, and hours to take a take.  Just waiting around.  But this was so quick, and it looked so brilliant, and it was so well rehearsed and planned, that I am quite taken aback with how well this is going, to be honest.  It was amazing.  We’ve done videos and we’ve gotten there at eight in the morning and I haven’t gotten in front of the camera until three in the afternoon, and then it goes on until three the next morning, and you end up with a piece of crap.  But even if this comes as a piece of crap at least it has only taken us two hours in the afternoon.  Not that it’s going to come as piece of crap.  I’m being slightly sarcastic there and I apologize.  I was getting diverted.

On scene at the shooting of "Looking for the KLF"

(Skelly) If I could change gears here just for a second (then), I’d like to discuss some of the other things that you have done outside of Pop Inc.  I visited your website and I looked at some of the things you’ve been involved in, and I found The Attery Squash.  I was hoping you could tell us a little more about your involvement in The Attery Squash and how that is going.

(Ricardo) The Attery Squash is interesting.  It’s sort of a studio project.  We (Ricardo and Rev. Diva Schematic) were trying out a few ideas in the studio back home and we came up with this song, a tribute song to Devo, the new wave band from the 80’s.  It was a nice little pop song (we impressed a few CD’s) and we sent one to Devo themselves in the studio in Hollywood expecting the best thing that could ever happen would be for them to email us back saying “we have received your CD.”  What actually happened was Devo emailed back saying “we have received your CD, we really like it, can we remix it, and can we release it ourselves”?  It was one of those things much like Simon Jones, the actor, appear(ing) on the “Looking for the KLF” record, and it reminded me that sometimes you can ask big names to do things and sometimes they’ll actually say “yes.”  So Devo remixed the song about them and released it as the B-side to their last single.  So it was really beyond exciting.  It was so far beyond exciting it didn’t really sink in.  We’ve never even seen the record, so it’s a bit weird for us to be honest.

(Skelly) How is The Attery Squash music different from Pop Inc.?  Are these connected projects or are they both uniquely you?

The Attery Squash

(Ricardo) Everything I do sounds the same.  But where Pop Inc. is electronics with guitars, The Attery Squash is guitars with electronics on it.  It’s guitar based with drum machines and synthesizers and things, whereas Pop Inc. is very elaborate, electronic productions that we’ve then mixed guitars in with the elements and little chants and things like that, making an epic in the end.  The Attery Squash is a bit more low-key (I think) sound-wise, whereas Pop Inc. is huge waterfalls of explosions and excitement.  The Attery Squash is more down-the-line, quirky pop music.

(Skelly) So I imagine a lot of people will be excited to hear this Devo remixed, Attery Squash project.  When can we expect to actually get a release of that record?

(Ricardo) The Devo version came out on a 12” in December and we are in the process of finishing our album now, but we are hoping that we will be able to at least release the Devo remix as a CD and a download within the next couple months.  We’re trying to finish the album… the problem is we could stick the Devo remix out now but then it’s not worth it.  You got to get everything together.  You got to get the whole package together and then start the process.  So we’re working on our album which is nearly finished and then once that’s done we’ll start shopping for a deal which should be fairly easy.  I’m not sure about America, but in Britain we should be able to find a label, stick it out very soon on a CD, and at the very least we’ll put it on iTunes ourselves which is probably the wave of the future.

(Skelly) Between The Attery Squash and Pop Inc. it sounds like you have your hands full right now.  Is there anything else that you’re doing right now in addition to these?

(Ricardo) In a more mainstream way (myself and my regular production partner back in Britain) we just built our own studio and we are creating a new pop act.  It’s not like Pop Inc. or The Attery Squash.  It’s a pure, down-the-line dance-pop project called Bandito.  We figured that in these times of global crisis and recession people always revert to listening to pop music.  It’s a theory of Pete Waterman, the producer, from Stock Aitken Waterman, that in times of recession people return to pop music, pure pop music.  Nothing too serious, nothing too sinister, just feel-good music.  So this is what our latest project is really all about, just making very simple, very commercial pop music.  And we’ve got deals on the table under two majors and a couple of indies back in Britain.  So it will come out very soon.  But you get too optimistic about things sometimes.  We’d sit in the studio thinking “if this is not a number one single in Britain, we might as well give up.”  We were so excited about it.  We’ve written about four albums-worth of material, editing down into one album, so that we make sure that we’ve made really commercial music.  Everything’s got to be an absolute, 100%, solid gold, smash hit.  We’ve rejected so much stuff, it’s unreal.  We’ll have four albums-worth of material ready to go should one of these things happen.

(Skelly) I’m sure that some of our readers right now are probably asking themselves the same question I am asking myself right now.  How do you juggle all of this?  Do you have any special tricks that you use to keep yourself sane, for instance, yoga?

Ricardo Autobahn on the set of "Looking for the KLF"

(Ricardo) No, no, my body is a temple, but no, I don’t exercise at all.  It’s very easy nowadays (since) I have my studio in my house so I can work whenever I want.  I can get up at nine in the morning, do an hour on something, then just go and watch the tele for an hour or something.  You don’t have to book into a studio anymore to do things.  You don’t have to think all the time.  You can just let it drift away throughout the day and you can get as much done over a period of time without stressing, really.  It’s actually very, very easy.  I should really answer this question and make it look like I do a lot of work and it’s tearing me apart, but it’s a lot easier than people make out.

(Skelly) Perhaps you could share with us some of your insights on the future direction of the music industry right now.  For instance, where do you see music heading over the next five years?  We have a situation now where the internet is making it possible for artists to reach (seemingly) infinite numbers of listeners everywhere, and at the same time, (an opportunity) for different musical genres to become as mainstream as they have ever been in the last thirty years.  What direction do you see the music going in the next five years?

(Ricardo) It’s sort of interesting.  About two or three years ago I thought everything was dead.  It was all revival tours, and nobody was releasing singles, and nobody was making records, and everybody was downloading music illegally, and there was no revenue stream anymore.  But it seems like finally… it’s happened ten years too late.  The music industry (has) caught up ten years too late.  What they seem to be understanding (is) how to change the business model.  We’ve just signed a publishing deal, and they’re less interested in us releasing singles as they are about getting songs on video games and adverts.  And you can make money from these new ways of earning money, then as long as you can keep the process going, it doesn’t matter that you’re not releasing singles on hit records.  You can still get music out there to millions of people.  You can build a fan base in a completely different and new way.  Despite the way music has gone originally, it’s actually very optimistic (the future).  You still need the infrastructure of promotion and telling people you’re out there, which you can do to a certain extent yourself on the internet.  But the actual release of a record, if you can get your music straight out there, whatever it is, there’s always an audience.  It’s a revolutionary way of doing things and I think people are finally catching up to it.

(Skelly) So bands that score deals with Guitar Hero for instance, those bands aside, what kind of music do you think will be topping the charts in 2015?

Pop Inc. stars Ricardo Autobahn and Brooke Aldridge

(Ricardo) I suspect it will be bands that we already know.  I don’t generally know if there’ll be a lot of longevity in these new acts that crop up in other places.  I’m still slightly concerned that there’ll still be people like the Rolling Stones and U2 who will be topping the charts because the music industry moves so slowly it’s like a big juggernaut.  You got to turn it around and it’s taking its time.  So they’ll still be there.  But I think a lot of the bands who are around now… I suppose there’ll be sort of a shift to the 90’s, a flash and a panic will all happen, and they’ll go into something else.  But it (the music industry) won’t die completely.  People are interested in going to new things.  It’s the short attention span of people these days.  I suspect that we will see a rush of new artists out in the next ten years or so that will then start to slowly build, and build, and build, so that we have got a new wave of rock dinosaurs in ten years time.

(Skelly) In terms of electronic music though, fitting into that new industry milieu of all these different sorts of musical styles that are going to be out there, how do you view electronic music fitting into this new future for the music industry, and more explicitly perhaps, your musical projects?

(Ricardo) I’d like to think that we are doing something a bit unique.  Everybody has to do something that is slightly… purely themselves these days just to stand out in the crowd and I’d like to think that our epic brand of pop is going to be something that will stand out and that people will enjoy more than, say, if we were more laid back in our approach.  You know, we’ve got our different viewpoints that mixes together to make something that sounds quite unique and exciting, so I think that’s how we will fit in and hopefully we’ll be the pioneers and people will try to copy us rather than us trying to copy other records.  Does that make sense?

(Skelly) Yup.

(Ricardo) Do you know what I mean by that?  Cause a lot of the times when I’m producing records I’m trying to copy other things just to have hits, whereas it’s always the people that do new things that people copy.  The biggest successes but it’s also more of a risk.  I think if we can build a big fundraiser for Pop Inc. and get people to start sounding like us, you know, “what do you sound like”?  “We sound like Pop Inc.”  That’s the way I think we can best progress.

(Skelly) Well I’d like to thank you Ricardo Autobahn for being here today.  Perhaps we could end off here by you giving us a little plug on where we can find you on the internet.

(Ricardo) There are several websites, but I think the best place to start is www.spraynet.co.uk, which tends to link to everything I’ve done, pretty much ever.  And there is free music on there as well.  Always things to download and rip off, so, I live to give.

[audio=http://www.spraynet.plus.com/Spray%20-%20Spaced%20(remix%20-%20edit).mp3]

Spaced by: Spray

Links

Ricardo Autobahn – Website / Myspace

Pop Inc. – Myspace

Spray – Website

The Attery Squash – Myspace

Bandito – Myspace

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posted March 3rd, 2009 at 9:57 am Reviews Pop Inc., Ricardo Autobahn