A conversation with Chris Douglas takes many twists and turns. My goal was to gain insight into the album 'Waetka' and came away with a whole lot more.
image©chrisdouglasAnna Johnston: Where does the title come from? Waekta, it sounds Russian.
Chris Douglas: It's Polish I think. I got it because, one night I was out. I went to a bar, I ended up drinking. I went home with some girl to drink more because the bar was closed, and I came to her house. Waetka was her surname and she was mental so I named my album after her.
AJ: Mental? I don't hear craziness in Waetka.
CD: No, I don't either. I think it's quite relaxing. Everyone has their opinions, I mean, it's layered and new things pop up. You hear different things in different phases of your life, of course. It was kind of spontaneous how it was mixed. It just came out, I recorded it, edited it down and made it an album. I work everyday and one day it was coming out and I combined it with other things and put it together, and it came to an album.
AJ: Do you usually work spontaneously or do you look for and work towards a goal?
CD: Well, I think sometimes, I start making tracks and working for hours or days or whatever. Some things just come up. I think that's how I've always worked. If I'm feeling something then I record it, use it as an idea and come back to it later, or sometimes I just make tracks on the spot.
AJ: Something I was wondering, Waetka seems to have beats, but really long beats...
CD: Ha ha, yeah. Someone said there was no percussion or even, no rhythm in it. I said, do you have any idea what you're talking about? It's really strange. I think there's a lot of percussion in it. It's not my fault you can't figure out the time-signatures. I think, er, what was the question?
AJ: The beats...
CD: What about them?
AJ: They're really long. I wondered whether you work it out and place them or is it stretched?
CD: I've always been in to really interesting percussion and beats and stuff. What happened is, about 10 years ago, I stopped being really beat orientated. Also, it became really fashionable to make really strange poly-rhythmic and kind of off-time beats, so I stopped. This is kind of like the last of the sabbatical album, 'cause now I want to bring my kind of dance to work again. I enjoy it. So, there's always beats underneath everything. But then, maybe it's a protest as well, that makes them so buried, instead of having them up-front. I don't know, my beats have never been that up-front either.
AJ: When an event or a sound takes place in the music it seems to be in the 'right' place, if that's the right word.
CD: Well, there is composition involved but, like I said, some things are so spontaneous that there's no real thinking, it's more of a feeling. You do something and each moment is almost pre-planned and you know exactly where it is going. Then you just follow it, like you are being led by some other source of something. If that makes any sense. [quiet uneasy laughter]
AJ: Yes, it does. Your music is layered up and down as well as back. It holds the attention with a whole 3D sound.
CD: Yes, I know what you mean. That's because the sound is in the middle. It's centred. I think I like that feeling. I like to make things like that because it makes it feels like it's, erm ...alive. It's around you and in you, everywhere, like you can't really escape it. It's pulsating around you. I really like sound like that. I think everything gets that touch. I don't feel anything without it. So many areas that are missed out and aren't being received. Receptors aren't being caught. I like it to be completely full on. Some people don't like that. They think it is too intense.
AJ: I get the impression that the sound comes from half way around the world. It is big and wide, rather than intense.
CD: I think it sounds the best loud [smiles]. Another reason I make music is because I want to hear stuff loud. I want to hear it on loud speakers because that's where the tension goes into the meaning of it. But it doesn't happen too well on bad systems, so you can't really tell. Sometimes, I think, where's the sub-frequency? And it's nowhere to be found. My music is all carefully written so it's a shame that most sound systems can't really receive what is going on. If I'm live or when I DJ, some sound systems aren't receptive to what intentions were inserted. A frequency or some other process is missing. Or like, playing on a really bad system and people coming up and saying that was really good, I can imagine what it's suppose to sound like.
AJ: I like listening to Waetka when I'm on the S-Bahn or when I'm walking around the city I often hear sounds that are in the music even when I'm not listening to it.
CD: Interesting. I hear that too sometimes in my music. I think, ah yes, I made that sound, or something, or, there's that same frequency and it sometimes sounds digital and it sounds really nice. I don't know if it's connected but if it is, that would be even more scary than I would want to know. A lot of it is not digital. A lot of it is actually recorded sound processed or looped or other things. There have been some reviews. Did you do the review on the web?
AJ: Yes
CD: 'Cause I didn't know who did it, but that's sort of how you are talking. But that is how is was intended to be. Not background, of course it's too involved. But a lot of people have weird ideas about these things. And one person was just bored by it. That's interesting but in a way it gets so personal, you know and that's my life, that's my survival it's what I have to do. For people to talk badly about other people's work, well, what benefit is that? You might be turning someone off something they might actually need to know about. And if you don't care about it then don't write about it.
AJ: You have a few different names. You have said of them: O.S.T. "structured noise", Rook "more of a beat thing" What about Dalglish?
CD: Dalglish. That's my idea of dance music. It's funny because most people don't get it as dance music, but for me it is 'cause it's more percussion based. I mean, I really do like beats but I think they've been exploited. I mean, music, electronic music has been so exploited for like, ten years. Especially this middle techno stuff. It's everywhere, everyone is doing something. It's strange to see people pop up out of nowhere and do better than you. And you are going on a 17 year career. Yeah, I'm only 34 but I have been doing this for 17 years and it's just strange to be like... I don't know I think it's so personal. I think, I'm so sensitive about these things. If people are entertained by it, that's great. I kind of want people to be entertained. I just want people to think about it. And think differently.
I think, being involved in it for so long and still doing it and still doing my own idea of... Well, me as an outside person, I'm proud of that. You know the outside person looking at me, I'm proud of this person, but is very strange how difficult it is to be, what's the word, recognized or something. The things I would do naturally and a long long time ago they were not really cared for. And ten years later, now, they are in everything. It's strange to be part of this, erm... evolution, I guess, but not have any kind of say. But I suppose I'm just trying to be.... to adhere to myself and hopefully find these people who can understand. Because its not just music. It's therapy. It's helping me to survive. It's helped my survive a lot of things. Through all the terrible things in my life, having been entirely alone. It's really hard at a young age. You have this thing, this kind of spontaneous thing that just comes naturally to do. It's comforting. It's important. So, I'm never alone as long as I'm still alive.
AJ: How is the acoustic version of 'Death Notice' going?
CD: It's not. I haven't started it yet. It is something I have been thinking about for a while but I don't know where to start. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while. I just don't know what would happen if I got a load of classical musicians in one room at the same time.
AJ: What else is around or will be soon?
CD: Quite a few things coming up in this year… Autechre have done a remix Of Ou From Seimlste which will be released with some new tracks on Mesk Records (http://www.meskrecords.com) as a limited release with gatefold 180 Gram vinyl artwork by Jorinde Voigt (http://jorindevoigt.com/). There will also be a video of the track made by Olga Mink (http://www.videology.nu). An O.S.T. remix of Shadow Huntaz also to be released on Mesk. A track on the upcoming Shitkatapult 100th release compilation, 10 inch EP on Ideal, a Dalglish EP on Record Label Records and a EP for Highpoint Lowlife which will be followed by an Album. And the first Rook Vallade EP in over 10 years to be released on Mesk.
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For more details and information about Chris Douglas see the following websites:
www.amhain.net / www.myspace.com/rougishscald
O.S.T - "Waetka" (Ideal) review on haire.
