Over the past two years Rupert Taylor aka XXXY has made a name for himself with some killer remixes for Radiohead and How To Dress Well. His own productions found a home on Pollen and Ten Thousand Yen and have seen him create a unique and atmospheric sound which works on both the dancefloor and at home. Stomp caught up with Rupert while he was in Poland last week to talk about playing live, remixing and the difficulties with genre names.
You’re in Poland right now- is it for business or pleasure?
I was playing a few gigs and I’m staying with my girlfriend now. I’ve been doing a few shows around Europe- Hamburg, Warsaw and last night I was in Krakow. Warsaw was the after party for Jamie Woon’s release party so it was really busy and I had a lot of fun. I missed my flight back so I’ve decided to stay a bit longer and I’m trying to work a bit on music but I kind of need my speakers at home.
What kind of music do you play out?
It kind of varies depending on where I am but I try to play a lot of my own stuff and housey stuff and new stuff like Doc Daneeka, Pearson Sound/ Maurice Donovan, Hyetal, Addison Groove. A nice varied selection with tempo changes to keep it interesting.
The first track of yours I heard was a remix of Videotapes by Radiohead. Are you a big fan?
Yeah, I’m a really big Radiohead fan. I haven’t had the chance to get to the new album as much as I’d like to but I love everything they’ve done and I’ve been to see them a bunch of times. The remix of Videotapes just kind of came into my head and it was around the right tempo for me to work with. Normally when I’m doing remixes people approach me with an idea and if it’s something I want to do and if I like the music, I’ll do it. With the remix of Ready For The World, Tri Angle approached me and asked would I like to do something for How To Dress Well. And I said “definitely” because I love the album. And I think it turned out pretty good.
To you listen to a lot of music from the Tri Angle label?
Yeah, I really like the stuff they’re putting out. I really like OOoOO and How To Dress Well- they’ve got a lot of strange interesting sounds coming out. It’s something different and really high quality.
Would you consider yourself coming from an indie background?
Reasonably so. I was more into indie when I was younger and that changed as I got older but there’s still some stuff that stays with me. Bands like Radiohead, Mogwai and Spiritualised stuck but a lot of other stuff I got bored of because there didn’t seem to be much interesting things happening. But maybe that’s changed now.
What turned you onto electronic music?
Just going out with friends to drum ‘n bass nights. I wasn’t that into it but then I started going round to friend’s places and mixing and going to house nights and getting back and listening to mixes. I really liked a lot of the stuff on Kompact and I still do I think that’s the stuff that really stuck with me because it was a bit different. I’ve bought quite a few Kompact releases actually.
I’ve noticed on your Soundcloud you usually don’t put anything into the genre box for your tracks.
Yeah, maybe I put some stupid comment in there.
Does the over-analysis of genre titles bother you?
Yeah, I think so. A lot of people seem to miss the point. It’s easy for record shops to group stuff into genres but people get obsessed with grouping things together. Like what is this- is it dubstep or is it future-garage? Or house or whatever. It isn’t really important. As a producer you make music and people can name it whatever they want.
The name “future-garage” seems to be a pet hate of yours.
Yes, it’s a horrible name for a genre. It’s going to sound fucking stupid in a few years time. Does it mean garage had its time and place and now it’s gone? Maybe a lot of future garage should just be called dubstep. But then dubstep’s become something else now and people are trying to get away from aggressive wobble stuff.. It’s weird..
You’re based in Manchester..
At the moment, yeah. I’m in the process of moving to London for ease of working. I do a lot of gigs in London and if I’m there all the time I might as well move down. There’s not a lot happening for me in Manchester, obviously my friends are here but I think maybe it’s time to go. I think maybe Manchester panders a bit too much to students, because there are so many here, and that affects the music scene. Whereas in London it’s different- it feels like there’s more going on and music is evolving. I think there’s something like 60,000 students here so it’s really busy until the summer and when the summer comes it feels a bit dead.
Can you tell us about any upcoming releases you have planned?
I’ve just sent a load of stuff to mastering and I’ve a release on Orca coming up. I like that label a lot. They’ve had some strong releases from Hyetal and XI. So hopefully my release will build on that. I’ve been listening to a lot of old electro stuff and Drexciya related music, so there’s a bit more electro influence coming through on my new tracks. The new stuff will be a bit different; possibly a bit more dancefloor orientated than previous tunes. It still sounds like me though.
Are there any shows you’re looking forward to?
All of them really. I’m doing something in Belgium soon with Joy Orbison so that should be a lot of fun. Aside from that it’s hard to pick out any gigs- they should all be great.
