Scratching An Itch James Greenwood is the unsung talent behind one of the best electronic albums of the past five years. But ‘Drone Logic’ wasn’t his, unlike his minimal, gloomy debut LP as Ghost Culture Photogra phy: Roy J. Baron / writer: reef younis
You’ve heard James Greenwood without actually hearing much about him. Over the last few years he’s worked with, and played keyboards for, Death in Vegas, graduated from making “terrible” bedroom productions with Dan Avery to co-writing the impeccable ‘Drone Logic’, and has signed with the eclectically brilliant Phantasy Sound for his debut album as Ghost Culture. With an expertise grounded in his work as a studio engineer, it helps explain the remarkably high production values that surfaced on 2013’s ‘Mouth EP’, and that also make his self-titled LP a massively absorbing listen. It owes a lot to Greenwood’s brilliantly understated arrangements – gossamer synths, taciturn vocals, and snaking basslines all wind, pulse, and coil their way through minimal space and darkness – but, crucially, it’s the sound of a musician stepping out of the shadows with a determination to finish the unfinished. As much a triumph of technical skill as creative will, Ghost Culture is an assured statement of taking control – that he’s making the switch from the studio to centre-stage sound absolutely effortless is all the more impressive. Reef Younis: You played one of your first live shows the other night, how did it go? James Greenwood: Yeah, it was my second show, really enjoyed it. It was packed out, got a good response to every song. The reason I started making a record is because I wanted to play it live. I’ve had enough of watching people stand behind laptops but, whatever, that’s the way they want to do it – I want to do a show. I’m going to start off doing it by myself then hopefully get a band together, but it’s actually been quite difficult because I made the whole record on one synth, so it was either get six of those and six people, try and play it live, or just do it another way. It sounds completely different from the record but I think that’s a good thing. RY: Is it important for you to have a
sense of excitement and spontaneity in the live show? The sense that it could go wrong. JG: Yeah, there’s definitely that, and it definitely could. I’m trying to adapt the sound so it’ll sound better live, instead of putting it all on a backing track and trying to mimic everything on the album. I’ve got three synths and a drum machine and I’ve tuned all of them into what I think will be the best sound for each song live. There’s not a lot of stuff but there’s still the danger I could forget something or I could make mistakes, but if you can’t make a mistake, it’s not live. RY: Did you always have one eye on the live show while making the record? JG: It was definitely in mind but it was more I’d base the arrangements of the songs and keep an eye on the live elements; like I could extend one bit, or make a part shorter. I had my dream set up, and it was a bit like being a kid, really.You know, when you’re little and you want a tree house or something, and you imagine what you’d put in there? It was like that. Originally it was all a pipedream but then I ordered it and realised that I’m actually going to get all this shit! [laughs]. I made a synced-up light show out of four lamps that were in my room, which was quite homely. I wanted that part to look a little bit shit, not too overproduced, a little bit DIY. RY: I presume getting all the right gear helped make creating the album a little easier. JG: There’s always that difference between the dream and the reality. I have all these dreams about songs, and it’s going to have these elements, and it’s going to have this and this, then you actually do it, and it doesn’t. I don’t think anyone makes exactly what they intended to, and I’m very happy with the result, it’s just that I had to learn all of that. I set out with very clear ideas in my head and ended up getting really frustrated. So I just went with it and enjoyed the process of
ending up with some things that aren’t worse or better than I thought, just different. As long as I like it, and it scratches the itch of finishing something, that’s the way I see it. With live, it was more of a process, more of a job translating stuff, programming things, and working out the best way of doing it without it sounding too mechanical. RY:You’ve done a fair bit of work as a sound engineer for the likes of Daniel Avery and Richard Fearless. Was it difficult separating those more technical tendencies from your own creativity? JG: I’ve always wanted to make my own music, and always have done, but I’ve never had the focus to finish it. I deliberately limited myself with equipment for my stuff because I didn’t want to think about it in that way where I’m technically minded. Being an engineer isn’t sexy so I just wanted to focus more on the writing and the production rather than how to record it. With Dan’s [Avery] stuff, I co-wrote and co-produced it, so it’s similar in some ways but this time I was just doing it for myself; it was all my taste and my decision on finishing things. RY: So having that creative control and freedom to let things develop as you wanted was different but important. JG: Exactly. Playing around in your own time is something to be savoured and if you’re doing something with someone else, it’s very much on their time and it’s a very different dynamic. I did the same with Richard [Fearless] and helped him in the same way to make an album. That’s when I started making my stuff, because I wanted to. I’d done the engineering thing, and it’s cool, and I like it, but when I started getting creative with him, I started getting creative on my own. He had all these amazing synths, and I just wanted to get one, so instead of sitting on a computer trying to make digital stuff sound good, I got a synth, and it was the one that was used on ‘Drone
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‘I’d go on blogs and think, if I make something like James Blake I’d be really popular’