Defected’s Ben Lovett sits down with legendary producer, Andy Meecham, to chat about Andy’s new album under one of his many monikers – The Emperor Machine.
Long-serving Brit DJ-producer Andy Meecham strikes you as a casual, laidback kind of guy. It’s refreshing in a saturated digital industry dominated by serious, brow-furrowed kids desperately searching for the profound new sounds that will secure them – they hope - credible standout. That’s not to say Meecham isn’t evolving. It’s just that he’s doing it with a smile on his face. His latest album as The Emperor Machine more than proves that.
Like A Machine is different, Meecham will tell you, not least because of the involvement of vocalist Michelle Bee. “Emperor stands out from the other projects I’ve done because it’s a solo project. I’ve never answered to anyone else. But on this new album I’ve worked with Michelle and that’s added a new dimension. I needed to change the way I worked” he opens. “At the same time Michelle is really funny. We didn’t take ourselves too seriously and that, I think, made the end product even stronger, more organic.”
Like A Machine is machine-like only in its considerable use of Meecham’s beloved synths (more on that later), and relentless generation of feeling and surprise. Further enhanced by Bee’s involvement, the album is a rich and diverse work, offering scale and depth, subtlety and punch, acid rhythm and sweet harmony. There is soul within its psychedelic circuitry, the punky mirrorball licks of Voices and shadowy breakbeat of Let The Bombs Fall mixing heartily with sultry, super-funked guitar grooves like Pop The Lid and The Point (the latter coming on like a deliciously sludgy, glass-hearted Blondie 2.0).
“There’s a mix of new ideas and some older stuff I’ve been refining” Meecham clarifies. “I needed some rough ideas to present to Michelle in the first place, then we worked out arrangements and grooves, before I took things back to the studio to flesh them out and record them in full. It was hard to do but then trying new things always is. Working with Michelle, too, was fascinating. She’s a wordsmith. She can spew lyrics in a way I can’t. She also gets melodies that maybe I haven’t seen. I had my ideas for this record but working with Michelle helped me refine them. I’m really, really happy with the end results.”
Meecham has been in the clubland game for around 30 years now but was first bitten by the music bug as a six-year-old – his father, a hi-fi obsessive, constantly surrounding him with shiny new bits of kit to play with. Growing up in Stafford, Meecham eventually became a keyboard player and earned his major break when landing a job (through a newspaper ad) for studio ‘players’ at the locally renowned Blue Chip Studios.
Blue Chip led to Meecham’s first record deal (the contract on a single sheet of A4; the artist earning just two per cent) and, in 1989, legendary crossover house act Bizarre Inc (with fellow Blue Chip boy Dean Meredith) whose biggest hits Playing With Knives and I’m Gonna Get You have since entered the annals of dance music history as bona fide international anthems. Several years later, the pair were rocking it as Chicken Lips - six albums, countless EPs on a range of labels including Kingsize, Azuli and Tirk and an endless run of shows cementing and elevating the Lips’ status as dubby-disco dons. All the while, Meecham was exercising other aliases such as Big Two Hundred, Lordy, Randee Jean, Red Medicine, Sir Drew and, from 2003, The Emperor Machine.
But what, then, is Meecham’s motivation – aside from name-changes, what is it that has driven him through all these decades? “I don’t over-think it, I’d say it’s down to passion” he answers. “I love music and I need that wheel of writing, playing, mixing, engineering and crate digging constantly turning for me. I guess I also need to pay the bills! I’m in music because I love it but there’s also my family to think about; these things are still relevant. But, look, everything is going well, there are always things coming up.”
Planned or not, there certainly is a lot ahead. Meecham will follow the release of Like A Machine with a brand new live show. Whilst the show, currently in rehearsal, won’t feature a drummer this time round, there will be a guitarist and, of course, Bee alongside the main man and his various keys, synths and screens. Over the 11 years The Emperor Machine has so far operated (including acclaimed albums Aimee Tallulah Is Hypnotised, Vertical Tones & Horizontal Noise and 2009’s Space Beyond The Egg) there has been something of a move towards a live band mentality, and an ever more organic, off-the-cuff way of working. Does he agree?
“Yes, the live band side of things has grown” he offers. “And the experiences of being on the road tie back into the studio. It’s again about trying new things and working hard to avoid routines. Making music isn’t like an office job, no, but routines can creep in where you’re in the same room every day. I can get frustrated by my favourite pieces of equipment; the aim is to find new creative ideas in them. Never sit still.”
Does he find it difficult to embrace new synths, when already so well versed in those older, vintage models? “All of them, new or old, frustrate at one point or another” he suggests. “I still love the old gear like the [Roland] TB-303 or the Ensoniq SQ-80 [the synthesizer famously used by Adamski on Killer in 1989]. The sound palate on the analogue stuff is just so good; I can always return to it. That said I keep my hand in with plug-ins [software], and new synths like the EMS VCS3. You can’t necessarily riff on that one but new machines often provoke new reactions. Even if the reaction is to go back to an older synth and try something else on it, then that is progress.”
Meecham’s synth fetish is also responsible for the inclusion of Norwegian space cowboy Todd Terje on Like A Machine. Cosmic-disco wiz Terje collaborates on the track So.Ma.So, a majestic, noodling, cascading funk-a-thon based around the robotic System 700. “I did a blog for him a while back and we got chatting on email about our love of synths” Meecham says. “He previewed his Inspector Norse stuff to me and I suggested he check out Llama Farm when he was next in England. He visited me after a gig in Manchester a short while later and immediately jumped on my System 700. I was standing there thinking ‘shit, he’s knows how to handle himself!’ and that was it.... I pressed the record button and basically told him I was using whatever he programmed. He’s a really nice, talented guy. He was totally fine about it.”
But we’ve digressed, what about those other things Meecham has coming up? Aside from live show rehearsals for The Emperor, there are also new tracks in the bag with Erol Alkan as Future Four (three), new material (possibly an album) with Meredith as Chicken Lips, an album with Bee and a long-awaited return to DJing. Why the comeback? “I just needed a break from it, a rest. It was getting boring and tiring, and I had some trouble with tinnitus” he confesses. “But I’ve been missing it and I’m ready to return. You can’t beat an amazing club atmosphere; and when I’ve been watching Erol play...I’ve missed it.”
It has helped that the transition from long-term stable DC Recordings (run by Vinyl Solution) to Southern Fried has gone without hitch. “I was with DC for so long and then one by one we were leaving to do other things; I asked if I could go, and then just decided to do it” Meecham recalls. “It was fine, we’ve all been friends for a long time, and I knew Nathan Thursting [Southern Fried’s A&R]. The Southern guys are cool; like DC, they offer a lot of support but freedom too. I far prefer working with a few people in a small office. I’ve had deals with the majors before and that’s not my cup of tea.”
Away from the dancefloor, Meecham has been working within the mediums of TV (scoring for Channel 4 drama series Top Boy) and console gaming (a new PlayStation title, as yet undisclosed) - more shrewd reinventions for a younger generation of fan. But, true to unhurried form, he doesn’t want to over-play them. “It’s just some other stuff that has come my way” he smiles. “I’ve really enjoyed branching out between albums and would like to do more in the future. But then there is also main job. I’m so excited about making records at the moment. I’m excited about making dub versions of all the tracks on Like A Machine and I’m actually raring to go with a follow-up album.”
He continues: “I love making albums because you can get really experimental and a lot deeper with your audience. I don’t know where the future Emperor stuff will go, or any of my music for that matter, and that’s brilliant. People read too much into what artists do these days, everyone’s so self-conscious. Your music has to come first; your ideas and gut feelings – that’s key. Bill Brewster is always ribbing me that my tracks end too quickly and that he has to edit them for DJing but what does he know?” Meecham is laughing aloud: “I just do my thing....”
Words: Ben Lovett
The Emperor Machine’s new album Like A Machine is released by Southern Friend Records on 19 May.
