Musica Marginal ex-Magazine Interview

While you were member of :zoviet*france: you recorded as Rapoon. How was your experience in this band, and which elements of their music remain in yours?

:zoviet*france: was a big part of my life for twelve years and so naturally there are many aspects of philosophy and music that live on in Rapoon.

:zoviet*france: began with three musicians coming together from different backgrounds who set about making music with no agenda or pre-defined parameters. The starting point was to simply build up an intuitive rapport where the music created itself. There were many long hours of simply playing together and being taken to wherever the music led us.

Each member brought different ideas, talents etc., into a unifying whole. This would not have worked if empathy had not already existed between the members and an abstract concept of what we hoped to achieve.

Eventually the music that began to emerge assumed a growing identity and it became clear, without the need to discuss or explain to each other, what was and what was not :zoviet*france:.

In those early days there was much to build on and much to explore in terms of sound as music, and there was a growing repertoire of an identifiable use of sound which became integral to :zoviet*france:. We worked in isolation (I still do, to some extent) and preferred to remain out side the genres, which were defining themselves at the time. Inevitably we were pigeon-holed in various categories, but it was never a comfortable fit, and nothing that was sought. We were seen as part of the overall industrial movement in the early 80's but the similarities were superficial and tenuous.

Each new album made the industrial tag less appropriate, though for some it still seems to retain relevance.

All of this although was really outside of the evolution and shifting of musical ideas that went on within the recorded output of :z*f:.

There slowly evolved a definition, in musical terms, which out-lined :z*f: and eventually I began to feel, paradoxically, constrained within these limits.

This was a very personal perception and not really shared by the other members.

At the time I was doing most of the :z*f: records on my own and I was aware of a kind of self-censorship, tailoring the music to be in keeping with the concept of :z*f: I felt the expletory impetus had been subdued somewhere along the way and I felt the need to break free.

Hence the first Rapoon album was a fairly radical departure. I can't say that I am too happy with that album now, but it was an experiment, and it served a purpose for me in as much as it gave me a new insight into other areas I wanted to explore. I wasn't going to abandon everything that I believed in and had made manifest in :z*f:, but I wanted to take things further.

In hindsight I see :z*f: as a proving ground, a necessary experiment that built up a vocabulary of sound creation processes. In this way I think many aspects of Rapoon are drawn from methods pioneered in :z*f:

In short time [1992/95] you have released 8 albums. These records shared a musical idea or there are differences among them?

After leaving :z*f: there was a sense of freedom, suddenly all the decisions were mine; there was also trepidation and doubt. Maybe no one would like what I was doing.

Those doubts still pervade my thoughts with every new album. All I could do was trust my instinct, which is where the music originates from anyway.

The second Rapoon album (although I always think of it as the first) was Raising Earthly Spirits. I wanted to try to create something, which set an outline for Rapoon as a working project, something to build on. With each subsequent album I hope that I have managed to broaden that out-line and refine the music without closing doors to other possibilities. The last thing I want is for Rapoon to become a format.

When I am working on putting together an album there generally evolves a sort of abstract theme, a thread of ideas and emotions that carry throughout the music as a whole. I can't finish a record until I can see an overall picture of the composition from beginning to end. It usually becomes apparent what elements are needed to mould the parts into one expression of the whole.

In general terms you work alone or with other people?

Typically I work on my own although I have utilized the voices of two other singers in the past. Both have been female and both have added another dimension to the music. The first was Kuadija Mohammed, who is a Moroccan émigré and has a very beautiful voice with a specific quality to it. Kuadija sang a few Moroccan folk songs, unaccompanied, and I later took small phrases and notes and cut them up and rearranged them into different phrases. It helped greatly that I didn't understand the language and so I was only listening to the musical possibilities within the structures.

As it turned out Kuadija was very happy with what I had done and said that there remained a natural quality to the re-structuring. I hope I will be able to use Kuadija's voice again in future, I think it is so very beautiful.

I have also worked, in a similar way, with Vicki Bain who has a very different quality to her vocals, very precise and pure. It was also very invigorating to work with Vicki on producing vocal parts structured by re-assembling and re-creating from recorded material.

Vicki also improvises much of the vocal parts on The Kirghiz Light and it was very natural and emotional.

How did you get those vast atmospheres of open-spaces in Fallen Gods [Staalplaat / Soleilmoon, 1994]?

When I think of music it is almost always set against an internal landscape of open-spaces and far horizons, which comes from growing up in such an environment. I was born and grew-up in the countryside, on the flat plains and marshlands of the Solway estuary, with the mountains of Scotland to the North, the mountains of the English Lake District to the South, the tidal mud flats of the Irish Sea to the West and the rolling hills of the Apennines to the East; there was always a sense of space and of change. The landscape was always undergoing differences in appearance, mostly due to the famous English weather, which can change in moments. Also being on an estuary the sea rolled in twice a day to cover the mud flats with a shining mirror of water. I am so grateful that I was able to spend my childhood and early adulthood in this beautiful place and it has left an indelible impression within me. I will always think of that place as home and find living in a city claustrophobic. I long to return to the countryside where I lived and breathed the same cycles and patterns as the land. So, to answer your question, I suppose I just think of those open spaces and that landscape when I wish to evoke a feeling and a sense of distance and space and the rhythms of nature.

From where did you get Rapoon's name?

The answer to this one is quite simple; when my nephew was about two years old he had trouble pronouncing my name and Robin came out as Ra-poon. It sort of stuck and I was called Rapoon before I ever recorded under that name. When I had done my first CD and needed a name to go on the cover Rapoon was the natural choice. My own son Jacob, who is now nearly five years old often, provides me with titles for tracks. I just ask him what he thinks is a good word and what something should be called. One of his frequent suggestions is rubbish.

Have you collaborate in some way with O Yuki Conjugate or any other bands?

Well I know the people in O Yuki Conjugate, especially Dan (Mudford) and Pete (Woodhead), but so far we haven't collaborated together on anything; it tends to be more mutual support for each other in terms of being friends. I am really glad when I meet other people from bands and there is no sense of rivalry between us. It is not always the case and I just cannot understand some peoples attitude, which is suspicious hostility. Anyway, thankfully there was none of that when I met O Yuki Conjugate for the first time; instead there was just instant friendship, which is much, much nicer and preferable to rivalry. There has been talk of doing live shows together in some kind of special environment and I hope these will happen in the future.

I think live shows tend to be much better if the venue is somewhere suited to the music. I don't think mine, or O Yuki Conjugates' music is suited to the usual club or barroom we tend to get put into. It works much better in an environment such as a church or amphi-theatre, or a warehouse. Anywhere really except the places that are the usual venues for bands.

Our music is generally referred to as ambient but paradoxically I think you need to listen to it.

The contents of your work move away from the present at dominant culture. Were you Surprised to receive feedback from magazines of non-English spoken language, such as the Spanish Margen and ours, Música Marginal? Do you think there is cultural / alternative music worldwide?

I am always surprised and happy when I get letters from anyone, but I was especially surprised to hear from Chile. I'm not exactly sure why, I supposed there existed a pre-conception of a culture isolated from the rest of the world. Anyway I am glad to find out that, this is not true and the opportunity exists to hear music from all over the world and to exchange ideas and talk to each other.

In one sense I am very glad that people of different cultures / countries are talking to each other and finding common loves and interests and bands are forming regardless of race, creed, religion etc. this of course is a good thing and helps to break down any political barriers erected by governments.

What concerns me about global culture is the dissipation of our folk roots and cultural heritage. I am aware of the paradox in this view because I believe that essentially people are the same the world over, but the differences in terms of art, mythology etc. should be treasured for their uniqueness. However, it has become fashionable to reduce these differences to a formula, like a sort of ersatz stereotype and take away the inherent spirituality of the original.

Also I am deeply worried about the destruction and exploitation of the planet for short-term gains. I think we have to recognize the need for global management and co-operation and put aside national and governmental interests in favor of preserving natural resources and ecological balance before it is too late. I know this is idealistic but I can't help but feel that the willful destruction and pollution of the earth is the greatest crime of humanity.

I have every respect for the people who actively try and stop this happening and feel eventually there must come a global movement, which can really do something about it, instead of the pathetic, half-hearted efforts being made by the governments of the world today. I think there are a growing number of people who are fed-up and distrustful of governments and national interests and who can see further than the short-term considerations of economic growth through consumerism.

I hope there is a global alternative culture in this respect.

interview by Guillermo Escudero

Musica Marginal ex-magazine

(1997)

note: a Spanish version of this interview is available at their site