The Drum Club Interview 1. N2301: What's the most interesting place you've visited? LOL: Tokyo, japan. I loved it being a techno fiend [not a bedroom boffin mind!!]. I loved everything, the architecture, the people, the way they embrace technology and the arts. You don't need drugs out there, I was buzzing for two weeks after we came back. Someone take us back!! 2. N2302: Does dance music need Major labels? LOL: No, I don't think it does, with major labels it's a case of Money first and the music second. They view you as nothing more than a product. I can't think of one bloody decent Major.... maybe Island!! 3. N2303: What's your favourite expression? LOL: "Lost the plot." 4. N2304: Do you think there's life on other planets? LOL: Yes I do. I think it would be very vain for us to presume that we're the only buggers throughout the entire system. 5. N2305: Why don't they reveal themselves to us? LOL: Maybe they have. 6. N2306: What books would you recommend? LOL: Anything by Robert Anton Wilson, anything by Alistair Crowley, the secret history of Donna Tartt and Acid House by Irvine Welsh. How to have a Number one record by the KLF also Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco and anything by Iain Banks. 7. N2307: What advise would you give to seeker of the truth? LOL:Don't sign to a major record label. 8. N2308:When did you discover the Cosmic significance of the number 23? LOL: During my days with Spiral Tribe 3/4 years ago. CHARLIE: I was first alerted to it when I was working with the Spiral tribe. I was asked to play in Amsterdam for them, the date was Feb 23rd, I should have known! The gig was quite chaotic and that was my fist experience of the chaos element of 23. 9. N2309:Chaos? CHARLIE: Yeah, if you look up the 23rd hexagram in the I-ching it is explained as Po/Splitting apart. "the dark lines are about to mount upwards and overthrow the last firm, light line by exerting a disintegrating influence on it. The inferior dark forces overcome what is superior and strong, not by direct means but by undermining it gradually and inperceptably, so that it finally collapses."(ARKANA/Penguin 1989). It suggest to me, and by my experience that the number 23 is a signifier of Chaos and breaking up, breaking apart. I used to see a 23 and think "hurrah here comes some fun" but experience has made me a little more wary. 1994, which as you know has digits which add up to 23, was a year of exhaustive upheaval; the criminal justice Act, The Drum Club leaving Big Life, destruction all over the world, oh loads of mad stuff, personal and on a bigger scale. All I can say is that I'm glad we're in 1995! 10. N2310: So What else? Genesis P.Orridge believed that when you saw a 23 that a moment of psychick communication was upon you which is more easy to deal with than just "Oh Fuck Here comes some Chaos" The last digits on my passport are 23E. When I was in Goa last year I was on the beach by this place called The Shore Bar, Which is to some extent , well to me anyway the centre of activity in Anjuna, the most mystic mellow area and I was looking up at the concrete beach markers that run along the entire coastline and , well i hardly need to tell you the number next to the Shore Bar....23... the whole of the Goa shoreline!! I used to live in Holborn in central London and then i moved to where I am now (where the Drum Club studio is) in Ladbroke Grove, and the week I moved they started a new bus route, yes, the 23, that runs from Holborn to Ladbroke Grove Essentially I think that 23, rather like Genesis thought is a number of contact, like a secret notice board, like he messages that tribespeople leave on trees and rocks. Something that civilised people can't see. It is the number of Life (23 pairs of chromosomes) there has to be something there. 11. N2311: Does anyone in the World Techno Tribe really get on you're wicks? LOL: A new breed of Techno musician seems to be more and more rearing his ugly head. The bedroom boffin, the Techno muso. Certified arse holes committed to spending entire evenings droning on about some analogue keyboard they've discovered. Twats in horn rimmed specs clutching the latest Warp Waxing to their hearts. The Drum Club might not sound like the Sex Pistols but We maintain the same attitude and ethics. These fuckers remind me of Prog Rockers and to you we say a big Fuck Off!! 12. N2312: Do you think TV moulds people's minds? LOL: Most television is made by arseholes for arseholes. the BBC is like some Old School Boys Network. Another arm of the Tories Media Manipulation system. Put it this way, it doesn't exactly encourage people to get up their and do their own ting. TV is an over subscribed drug. 13. N2313:What's the most exciting thing you've done? LOL:The London date at the Midi Circus at Brixton was pretty amazing. Seeing the place sell out and Orbital , Aphex, Spooky all this amazing music and fab sounds coming off one stage and Megadogs production was fucking excellent too! 14. N2314: Favourite toy as a child? LOL? LOL: My action man Oh and my red jungle Book record. 15. N2315: And Charlie? A little wooden boat my dad brought back from Italy, where he always was- not with US! 16. N2316: What signs of change have you seen over the years? LOL: This country has been moving backwards under this Tory Nazi regime. A real perverse return to Victorian values. Our civil liberties are being eroded on a basic humanitarian level. Hopefully we shall see a Labour government in two years. 17. N2317: Will you ever stop making music? LOL: No!! 18. N2318: All time favourite Album? CHARLIE: David Bowie- Low the first time I really heard electronic music and listened.) LOL: The first Orbital Album, the green one. A really important British Techno record. People who say Techno lacks emotion, feelings etc should check out Belfast, the closing track. it is one of the most beautiful pieces of music that I've ever heard in my life. 19. N2319: And at the moment? Both: Beaumont Hannant's Sculptured, at the moment the guys a genius. 20. N2320: When was the last time you lost it? LOL: In Goa a bout ten days ago. I ate tons of Space cake on my Birthday and completely lost the fucking plot. I was tripping madly and eventually lost the use of my legs....What a bloody mess!! 21. N2321: Do you believe in Conspiracy theories? LOL: Sometimes yes, call me paranoid, but it's often a case of them. I don't believe that John (the wimp) Major runs this fucked up country. Mi5, Mi6, these people are as dodgy as fuck, controlled by them on a daily Basis committed to maintain the Status Quo by whatever means possible. eg look what happened to Genesis P.Orridge. CHARLIE: If I said that I didn't believe in Conspiracy theories then would I merely have succumbed, and if I said I do am I being paranoid? I don't believe in them because I KNOW it's going on! 22. N2322: Have you ever seen a ghost? No thank God. I'd probably shit myself. 23. N2323: What's the strangest rumour you've ever heard about yourself? LOL: I'd better leave this one.