Electronic Renaissance – Interview With Rubens

• 19th Aug 2007

With their eagerly awaited debut album ready for consumption, Glasgow-based duo Rubens are in high spirits and ready to talk. Glasswerk Glasgow caught up with mother and father Mark Flanagan (~ism) and Gordon MacDermid (aka Gump) to discuss the conception of their first record, their deep longing to bring back Top Of The Pops and how a pair of self confessed ‘metal fiends’ evolved to create some of the most exciting electronic music around.

Don’t you think a lot of instrumental electronic, because of the fact that it has no lyrics, has to go a lot further when trying to convey ideas or emotions?
G: Maybe, it depends on how you look at it. I personally don’t think music needs lyrics to grab your attention. I think if it has lyrics then people concentrate too much on trying to work out what they are rather than just listening to the music. If there’s no lyrics then it’s more of a mystery as to what the track is about or where it is coming from and I like that.

M: There needs to be a lot more depth to the music, both in terms of sounds and in arrangement. The whole focus is on music, rather than more obvious ideas and emotions conveyed by lyrics. The key for me, when it comes to electronic music, is in capturing some element of emotion, mood or feeling without necessarily spelling it out to the listener.

Can you remember what bands or artists turned you onto music in the first place, was there a defining moment or memory, and how have your tastes evolved since then?
G: I have to say that AC/DC were my first love and then Guns and Roses but around the time of The Happy Mondays and New Order I started to make the transition to listening electronic based music and I have never looked back really. I think this is why I have such a wide taste in music.

M: Metal was my first love, then got caught up in the whole indie/brit pop thing when it came along in the ‘90s with the likes of Inspirals and Stone Roses, etc Before finally developing a love for all things electronic – very late in the day it has to be said. These days, my taste in music has certainly developed beyond all recognition. Wouldnt know how to describe it to be honest.

Slam, Boards of Canada, Christ., Dextro?…Scotland seems to have a healthy electronic pedigree, don’t you think? What do you think inspires that?
M: It’s a complicated thing. Scotland has always had a special degree of creativity when it comes to music and the spoken word. In the world of electronic music, the tools that modern musicians use are all by and large the same, so it’s important to bring something personal to the resulting music. I think it comes from the fact that the population by and large all live closely together in a relatively small area, surrounded by the wild landscape of rural Scotland…something about the relationship between a hard urban working life against the wistful nature of being Scottish comes out in the music. It’s like the ideas in Scottish music haven’t really changed all that much in hundreds of years, only the methods used to make it.

Your debut, Carnivalesque… talk about it's inception/conception.
G: It wasn’t until we did the deal with Herb that we seriously started to look at producing an album from what material we had at the time (2 or 3 tracks) and with a view to getting writing. Right from the outset, the themes that were apparent in our work, including the stuff that never made it onto the album as such, were of positivity and a sense of the upbeat about it. Which was in contrast to a lot of the music that we were both into – a lot of which was dark and often harsher stuff. It wasn’t until mid 2006 that the album came to have a name. It was actually lifted from a comment made by a good acquaintance and fellow musician (Fieldtriqp), when describing one of the tracks. I can’t remember which one now. But it all seemed to fit for us, and I think from that point on the remaining tracks came together in the sense of this funfair/carnival music idea – but always with a strong electronic ethic.

How do you see your place in the UK electronic scene, and where would you like to see yourself?
G: We are just getting going to be honest. Branching out from the studio and into the live arena. I would like to play live a lot more and hopefully be able to play a festival of some sort in the near future.

M: Want to be on Top of the Pops. With Andi Peters. If it was still about… Failing that, closing the Pyramid Stage at Glasto on the Sunday night would be something we’d be aiming for in the next 12 months. Oh, and being interviewed and/or insulted by that curly haired guy, Simon whatsisname, off Buzzcocks.

Will we see you on the front page of the sun, bowling out of an Ibiza club off your nut with a half empty bottle of Cristal?
G: No. Fortunately those days are gone for me. I have been there and done that, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it but I am happier on my couch with my slippers on these days.

M: He’s lying, the G-man is a raging Blooter McNab with a penchant for the Tonic Wine (that’s the wine.) I’m fairly burnt out these days, but just waiting for a second wind to come along. Ibiza is probably the last place on Earth you’d have me set foot in though. Hell-hole as far as I’m concerned.

Does Rubens perform live? Describe your live performance, and the degree to which the record has translated to the stage
M: For our live set we have stripped our tracks back a bit and invited a live drummer and guitarist into the fold. We brought in Ewan Mackenzie (aka Dextro) on drums and ‘The Lava Experiments’ (fellow Herb Recordings artist) on electric guitar. We gave them the freedom to play what the liked and I must say they do a sterling job and we look forward to many more live shows together.

'Carnivalesque' is released on October 8th and new single 'Puggies'/ 'Vertical Hold' is out August 27th.
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