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Interview with John Foxx and Jori Hulkkonen...

In an exclusive interview, John Foxx and Jori Hulkkonen talk to Metamatic about their forthcoming collaboration entitled European Splendour...

Metamatic : How did European Splendour come into being?

Jori : In 2010 at the Roundhouse in London I was supporting at the John Foxx show as a DJ, and eventually ended up on stage as well playing keys for Underpass - an old dream fulfilled. After the show we briefly discussed my idea of doing something more than just one-off song collaborations, not an entire album, but perhaps an EP. The idea was to do something sonically, thematically and emotionally slightly different than our previous songs.

It took a while to get started as we both had other projects at the time, but finally we managed to finish all the tracks earlier this year.

John : Jori had some beats, tunes and chords, etc. and sent them over to see what might happen. I put songs over them.

It's an ongoing relationship - Jori knows that I'm more than happy to work on his projects. Maybe once a year, we get together and work on things.

Metamatic : What was the inspiration for this project?

John : Money, fame and lascivious nights in Berlin, Paris and Chorley.

Jori : For me it's hard to point at any specific source. We both have extensive back catalogues and there were certain elements outside of that world we already visited with Dislocated and Never Been Here Before, which I felt we had in common, and I wanted to see how it would play out. I'm sure a lot of people are expecting a more club friendly record, but I consciously wanted to steer away from what might've seemed obvious with this EP.

I guess the main drive behind doing this was our curiosity to see what the result would be.

Metamatic : Is this a pre-cursor to a larger project between you both? Are there plans to work together again?

Jori : We haven't talked about an album, but it's hard to see this being our final record together, either.

Metamatic : How were these tracks written / recorded? Did you meet up at any point, or were they worked on 'remotely'?

John : Remote, but in several stages.

Jori : In a way for me the traditional approach is working remotely; writing together in a studio is something I do surprisingly rarely. When working remotely I feel there's more room to experiment, rather than trying to impress other people in the room with you. Making music has never been a social thing for me anyways, really. I'm a lot more efficient when alone.

Metamatic : How did you find that process? How do you find it compared to a more 'traditional' approach?

John : It's good to find ways of doing your own stuff, as you want to hear it, without compromise or compromising the things you get sent.

Oddly enough, the process reminds me of the way rhyme came back to modern poetry.

After a while of having to do without it, modern poets began to appreciate a few hitherto unrecognised qualities - for instance, the seemingly simple necessity to complete a rhyme will throw up strange, unconscious associations that wouldn't necessarily happen if that stricture wasn't there.

Something like that happens when Jori sends me a track. Sure, I have to respond in a way that suits me, but he has the art of sending something open enough for me to make my own shape work in the finished thing. That way I can make something that might surprise both of us.

Working together in a studio is faster, but this way has its unforeseen qualities - plus we both get more time to consider what we're actually doing.

Metamatic : Were the songs written specifically for this project?

Both : Yes.

Metamatic : How did David Lynch become involved? Are the plans to work together with him again?

Jori : That was something Marcus, the label manager from Sugarcane (with whom I've done records before; Processory, and the first Sin Cos Tan album), managed to pull off. Apparantly it was something Lynch was really into doing.

John : He was asked to mix the track that sounded like one of his movies. By an odd coincidence, I'd written it with him in mind. I was watching Lost Highway at the time.

Also, I aways liked the Julee Cruise and Badalamenti's music on early Lynch movies. They relate to lots of eerie Joe Meek type 1950's rock songs and pre-rock soundtracks and sonic elements from B movies - one instance is a certain soundtrack - the name "Laura" being whispered over a ranging shot of laurel bushes from a 1950's black and white movie - this filled me with unexplained, unresolvable dread, as a child.

I'm sure Lynch saw the same thing and reacted in the same way, because his films have completely captured that same sensation of unexplained, inexplicable dread, using similar imagery and even names - Laura was of course a character in Twin Peaks.

At the same time, there is also a feeling of unreachable beauty and transcendent unobtainable or lost joy, always mixed with naive hope and untrammeled optimism.

It's a painful combination, one I identify with - from a childhood of watching B movies made on adult themes that I was too young to comprehend, so I had to invent my own surreal set of connections to explain them. I'm certain Lynch had that same experience.

As an afterthought, we can barely begin to imagine what succeeding generations will make from the torrent of even more inexplicable, violent, pornographic and confusing stuff they have to cope with - in all media now. It will certainly emerge.

As for the future - I'd be pleased to get involved in any Lynch project.

Metamatic : [To John] The cover artwork to both the CD and vinyl editions features sculpture produced by yourself. How long have you been sculpting, and what prompted it to be used in conjunction with this project?

John : Since I was an art student. I was lucky enough to get some classical art teaching, just as this was being abandoned for modernism.

It allowed me access to some principles and practice that have lasted all my life. I can actually draw a bit - this means you can see in a slightly different way. Plus, I can make a sculpture, too. Gets more useful with every passing year.

This particular sculpture is a twice life-size classical head. It seemed to fit the concept - a sort of affectionate reply to the idea of American Splendour.

Metamatic : What other projects are you currently working on, and when are they likely to come to fruition?

Jori : I just finished mixing the second album, Afterlife, by my band Sin Cos Tan, and it will be out in October, preceded by the first single in September. I'm also writing my new solo album, planned for spring 2014, which will be quite jazzy, ambient, and experimental; the kind of record I've been wanting to do for a long time. I'm also working on more dancefloor-oriented stuff, but right now I'm more interested in releasing singles / EPs with that material rather than albums. I'm also co-writing and producing some stuff, including new songs for the next Tiga album, naturally.

John : Oh, lots - as usual. Malins is scheduling the usual insupportable near future behind the scenes, while Benge and I are attempting to cope. It's ongoing. We have too many bright ideas between us all, and only one lifetime each. Next record label will be called Problematic.

Here's a wee list, far from complete, of likely, plausible and impossible futures:-

Diana Yukawa - violin prodigy who is curious to see how modern recording studios might align with modern virtuoso violin playing. Benge is at the controls. We're all intrigued and it seems to be working beautifully.

Electricity and Ghosts - my domestic piano recordings, with a little world attached.

Benge and I are beginning to make some more tunes and beats. Hannah's violin is plugged into Nova FX unit. Off we go.

Tiny Colour Movies is expanding, since Horizon nicked the idea.

We're also talking to lots of people - ongoing, intermittent, sporadic conversations of possibilities - including Karl Bartos, Robin Simon, Adult, Gazelle Twin, Matthew Dear, Soft Moon, Xeno and Oaklander, Lone Lady, Ghostbox, Tara Busch, Clint Mansell, Vincent Gallo, Alex Proyas, Macoto Tezka, Aphex Twin, Adam Curtis, Iain Sinclair, The Postdigital Civilization Forum, The London Reforestry Commission, All movie companies (in the hope of legitimizing repurposed movies), the ghosts of Marshall McLuhan and Cecil B. DeMille, plus President Obama's tour manager and PR advisers to somehow make it all practical.