Simon Posford probably doesn’t need too much of an introduction, unless youve been in the upper Amazon licking strange toads for the past fifteen years and even then youve probably sampled one of his tracksAs Hallucinogen and half of Shpongle, amongst his many projects, Simon has produced some of the most successful and adventurous psychedelic music of the last decade, and this year looks set to be another busy one.
I caught up with Simon, while he was buried deep in studio gadgetry, to find out about new material from Metal Sharon (with Merv Eat Static), a Younger Brother album and even the promise of a new Hallucinogen album, not to mention a big celebration of Ten Years of Twisted records at the SEOne on Fri 3rd March.
What have you been up to day?
I have been in the studio working with Benji (Prometheus) on the new Younger Brother album, which is nearly finished. This morning I had a long bath, as an excuse to read Lunar Park, by Brett Easton Ellis, which I am really enjoying, in spite of the tricks it plays with my head...
How was 2005?
High points... getting a new G5 computer, so that I can crash or freeze quicker and more powerfully than ever before... Also, seeing several of my friends get married and have kids.
Low points.... seeing several of my friends get married and have kids
A decade of Twisted Records
Obviously I had hoped for Total Global Domination by now... but we are at least still going, where others have folded...
Highs: making and releasing three Shpongle albums...
Lows: losing about 50 grand (10 years of hard work and profits) to our distributor, who went down this year.
I am not sure about a Twisted sound, but all our artists are unique and particularly non-conformist when it comes to the general generic boring sound of most trance records... this is something none of us are interested in, and we all try to challenge ourselves creatively on a daily basis...
We are currently uploading all our music to the Twisted website, to be available in various download formats... and the whole site itself will shortly be replaced with version 3. I have an mp3 player myself, but I dont have any trance on it... I think more than any other type of music it needs full bandwidth quality to be able to appreciate the sounds and production.
Musically what have you been up to?
I really enjoyed it working with Merv on Metal Sharon, our objective was always just to make each other laugh... with delight and amazement! But trying to get time to finish it off has proved extremely tricky. I am moving into a new house soon, where I will get the 3rd Hallucinogen album underway. The last few years I have enjoyed working on collaborations, but I feel an introspective phase coming on, where I will retreat into the studio on my own and get lost in the Hallucinogenic world. There are no plans to do another Shpongle album, although I would love to do a live DVD one day... but never say never! Also Raja and I will continue to work on other projects together. Younger Brother is my main focus at the moment, in fact Benji is hunched over the G5, sorting through the mess of guitars I left him to keep him occupied while I do this interview. And as Younger Brother I LOVE playing live! When you have another musician to bounce ideas off, and jam with it makes much more sense...
You'll be busy at the Twisted Party at SEOne, are you doing three sets?
I hope not! But I am not sure exactly what they have stuck me up for yet. The line-up looks really awesome. Greg Hunter was always a hero of mine and it is an honour to have Youth on board too, plus some of the newer acts like Bluetech.
Theres not many non-reggae artists that have had a dub album done any thoughts on Otts 'Hallucinogen in Dub'?
I love it. I think those psychedelic sounds lend themselves to dub remixes very well. All my favourite dub has a strong bass line and drums, with weird noises over top.
Do you listen to much music when not producing?
Sometimes I go totally off music, and prefer silence, but just now, I am loving music! The Magic Numbers album I am listening to a lot at the moment. I wake up most mornings with some part of it going through my head, so I guess that is the last thing I heard that inspired me.
Any final thoughts, comments, or rants?
Thanks for listening.
You can catch Simon at the Twisted party at SeOne on Fri 3rd March and at the Soulclipse festival in Turkey 27 March-1st April info: www.soulclipse.com
