Ian Boddy - The Music Speaks

You've been releasing your music for more than 25 years now: what has changed in all this time?

The creative process is still the same: I start from an idea that comes to mind and then try to make it real. What has changed enormously, of course, is the technology. The biggest change has involved the cost and quality of the equipment I play with. In 1979, when I started out, buying electronic instruments was hugely expensive, and I used to practise using the equipment of an art foundation's studio. Today, if you have a computer you can have a multitrack recorder at home thanks to freeware software. This has made it possible for many more people to record their own music, bringing a bit of democracy to this world. Of course, that doesn't mean it's all good music - quite the opposite, often it isn't at all - but that brings me back to my initial point, which is that you need to have an idea before you can make something. And that's the point where, no matter how advanced technology gets, a true artist will always make the difference.

What were your musical influences when you started out?

Definitely the most obvious and predictable ones: Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, although I was already enjoying listening to classical composers like Bach, Debussy, Ravel and so on.

Have you ever felt part of a music scene?

Yes and no. I never felt part of the mainstream scene, obviously, but during the Eighties and early Nineties, thanks to the electronic music festivals in Britain, I did feel a bit of momentum around. A feeling that has long since evaporated...

Something Else Records and DiN are your own personal labels. Is self-releasing the only way in the music world?

It's not the only way, but if you work in a market like electronic music, it's worth controlling every aspect of what you do, and in the end you might even make a bit of money instead of losing it. You have to ask yourself why you make music in the first place: if your goal is to make a lot of money, then self-releasing definitely isn't for you. If you'd rather chase your record label's dreams, then you'll probably have to compromise your artistic vision of music and find a much more commercial way of playing.

When do you decide to play with other musicians?

I've worked with Mark Shreeve (as ARC), Andy Pickford & Ron Boots on three albums in the mid-Nineties, and I was so pleased with the results that I wanted one of DiN's aims to be a programmatic planning of these special projects. It's about meeting musicians you can spend enjoyable hours playing with, broadening your musical horizons. What's more, collaborating with musicians on individual projects means keeping the situation under control, since these encounters usually don't last forever. That way you can relax and enjoy the recording sessions, and end up with a record quite different from what it would have been if both musicians had recorded alone.

How many records do you manage to release with DiN every year?

Usually three, but in 2005 I put out five.

How did you meet Robert Rich?

It happened a few years ago, I was at the NAMM music show in Los Angeles and we were introduced while watching Paul Haslinger. I knew him by reputation, but I wasn't that familiar with his music. We got talking, each about our own music, and although we came from quite different perspectives, we found a lot of common ground. Over a pint of beer we then decided to collaborate on an album.

Do you think the way electronic music is played in Europe is very different from the way Americans play it?

Yes, I'd say so, definitely. The European sound in synth-music has obviously been dominated by the Berlin school. The American sound, on the other hand, in my view has a greater sense of space – like what you hear on records by Steve Roach and Robert Rich. Of course that's a simplification, because there's overlap between the two schools in a great many musicians, but I think this difference has to do with landscapes. North America has these vast open spaces that you don't find in Europe, and for me that's enough to explain the main difference between musicians on the two continents.

What kind of instruments do you use now?

Besides a great many synthesizers, I also play piano and electric piano, as well as modular analogue synths where the emphasis is more on sound design, which I actually consider an instrument in its own right. I usually also play various percussion.

Finally, tell us something about your latest album, “Elemental”…

My two previous works, “Aurora” and “Chiasmata”, had very stretched-out, almost ambient atmospheres. With the new album I wanted to distance myself a bit from those sounds. So I chose to play in a much more structured way, using well-built tracks composed beforehand. What came out is the most melodic record I've ever made, even though it might not seem that way at first. I was starting to get bored listening to all these musicians messing about with flavourless ambient-music mush that no longer moved me. I really wanted to put into music how I felt at that particular moment in my life. I'd gone through a few difficult years following a personal tragedy that hit me hard, and it took me a long time – almost eight years – to recover. The tracks I love most on “Elemental” are the ones that open and close the record, “Never Forever” and “Elemental”, which form a single whole musically. The first is really shaped by the sense of loss and absence I went through, but despite the melancholy mood there's also hope in it. The closing track, on the other hand, starts from that same feeling and, after a reflective beginning, explodes into a dramatic, turbulent finale that ties back to the opening track. I don't usually explain my music in this much detail in public, because I prefer to let the listener give it whatever meaning they see fit, but these are probably songs that really matter to me.

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