English producer and DJ Simon Green, a.k.a. Bonobo, has long been associated with the downtempo sound popular at the turn of the millennium. On his most recent album, The North Borders, however, he decided to pick up the pace a little bit. While it’s not an album of bangers by any stretch of the imagination, this fifth release on the London-based Ninja Tune label has Bonobo exploring his house music roots in new ways.
He spoke to us while preparing for a three-stop Canadian tour taking place this month, and talked about house, the internet, soundtracks and his affection for Canada.
This is your second trip to Canada this calendar year, eh?
Third, actually, if you include Osheaga in Montreal.
What do you like so much about us?
It seems to be a mutual thing. There’s been kind of a strong connection with Canada since day one, possibly to do with Ninja Tune having a branch of their operation in Montreal. It seems like I’ve played more in Vancouver and Toronto than I have in Manchester and Liverpool.
It’s funny you mention playing more in Canada than you do in the U.K., because you’re not based there anymore.
I’ve been in Brooklyn for about three years now. I’ve always threatened to live in Barcelona or Montreal or different places, but that door is only open for a certain amount of time when you can operate from anywhere. So I just decided that this was the time to do it, and I love New York. So I chose to throw myself in a couple of crates and move over.
Has that influenced your sound at all?
I don’t think so. I get asked that a lot, but I don’t think music is as geographically specific as it used to be. I think there used to be a New York sound in the '80s, before SoundCloud and Boiler Room. But music travels immediately now. You can play a record in London and people can hear it in San Francisco at the exact same time. It used to be [Americans] would come back from the U.K. with a big bag of white labels and play London music to people who’ve never heard it before, but now everyone’s from the internet.
Do you think that lack of place or scene has a downside as well?
There might be, if you look for it, but you can look for a downside in every new progression. I think the upsides kind of outweigh the downsides, really. Especially if you look at what’s happened to U.K. music in the past few years. You had this bass culture that came out of London, then it came over to the U.S. and became this big, raging, brostep sound. Then that will turn into something else and go back across the Atlantic. There’s always this sort of pendulum of sounds going back and forth…. That’s the good thing about the globalization of music.
This record is a little bit more house music-y than some of your previous stuff. I know you were originally a house DJ. How did you get back to that sound?
As a DJ, I’ve always been playing more dancefloor-based music. I don’t think I’ve always represented that in my recorded music. So it may come across as a new direction, but that’s just not really been properly represented. At any one time, I just want to make music that excites me, and when I was making this record, I was excited by the more aggressive end of dance music. I can’t just make the same record again and again.
You’ve been on a ton of soundtracks. It feels like you’ve been on more films, TV shows and video games than almost anybody. How did this become such a big part of how you get your music out there?
It just happens. I really don’t know. I guess my music lends itself to visual interpretation … I’m sure the people at Ninja Tune are out there pitching it, but I don’t know anything about that. I say no to quite a bit of stuff, as well.
Oh yeah? What sort of things have you said no to?
Yeah. Particularly TV commercials, they seem to come up with a lot of misguided suggestions of things. There was a home improvement store in the U.K. that wanted to use my music to sell self-assembly beds, but that wasn’t something I really wanted to align myself with. When you make music, you don’t really intend for it to be used to sell self-assembly furniture. It’s not the sort of thing I’m very enthusiastic about.
Have you thought about doing any purpose-built soundtrack or score work?
I’d love to do that some time. It’s just a matter of finding the right project. I’ve had a few conversations with directors as well. It’s just a matter of finding the right thing, and the right time, as well. I need to find a time when I actually have space to work on something like that…. The great thing about soundtracks is you don’t have to provide a narrative. The music can kind of sit back a little more and be a little more abstract… I’m really interested in the idea of exploring themes.
Bonobo plays Metropolis in Montreal on Oct. 15, Toronto's Sound Academy on Oct. 16 and the Commodore in Vancouver on Oct. 22.
by Chris Dart via Electronic RSS
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