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An Interview With
Chris Mann
of
BLUE

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The British duo Blue, consisting of
Chris Mann and Paul Darking, has recently
released their third album -- Nightwork --
on Iris Light.
Blue's electronically generated compositions
draw upon a multitude of inspirations,
ranging from classical to punk to hip-hop,
and even reaching beyond music
into the world of film.
Both Mann and Darking come from
backgrounds as percussionists,
and their music is at once very rhythmically
inspired with strong dance appeal,
while also being deeply melodic,
at times even symphonic.

Read Last Sigh's
Review of Blue's
Nightwork

Chris Mann:   Big Slow Dubby Drums and Bass with Large Dark melodies.  I don't think that we fit into any particular scene at the moment, as we have moved even further away from making what is currently classified as 'dance' music. As far as we are aware there are not many bands that are making slow dark music with melodies at the moment, although I would love to hear of some.
          Here are some of our influences, make of them what you will: King Tubby, Cabaret Voltaire, Massive Attack, Pop Group, Rip Rig and Panic, Bartok, 808 State, Public Enemy, Andrew Wetherall, Dead Can Dance, Nick Cave, Two Unlimited, the list is endless.

Last Sigh:  You have released two other albums previous to this one on the Emissions/Sabres Of Paradise label. Could you describe how you feel you have progressed musically from one release to the next?

Chris Mann:  The music has become darker over the three albums with a greater emphasis on the melodies over the beats (although the beats are still a very large part of the music).

Last Sigh:  Your most recent album Nightwork is out now on Iris Light. How is this release different and/or like your previous releases? What made you release it on Iris Light? Did the move to Iris Light affect the sound of this album?

Chris Mann:  The latest album is a continuation of the path we have been taking with the previous two.   I think that being on Iris Light has allowed us to have less emphasis on making 'dance' music, and has allowed us to make more use of our industrial influences.
          We are on Iris Light, because Beata from Szeki Kurva has been a friend for years, and she introduced us to Adam who liked what we did; we liked his attitude, and so it was!

Last Sigh:  Where did the title Nightwork come from for this album?

Chris Mann:  Paul thought of it, but I can't remember what inspired him.

Last Sigh:  Many of the tracks on Nightwork are very visual and filmic, and sometimes the individual pieces seem to have an almost "narrational" flow, as if they had in fact been composed for a film (specifically such tracks as "Remain," "Serration" and "Pistol"). What inspires these elements in your music? Have any of your music ever been used as soundtracks for film? Is this something you would like to pursue in the future?

Chris Mann:  We were going to have some music used for a film called Independence, but I think that that has now fallen through, and we have had some used in a Channel 4 documentary.  The music tends to be made by following a path and seeing where it goes, rather than by planning out what we want it to do.  I think this is what makes the music sound like a soundtrack. It would be great to do a soundtrack for the right sort of film, although I am not sure if we wouldn't find it constricting in having to make the music fit the images.

Last Sigh:  How about creating images to go along with your own music? Does any of you have a desire to work in film/TV, or some other artistic medium aside from music?

Chris Mann:  I used to paint but that dried up.  I was thinking the other day that it surprised me that I had never had a great urge to do anything with moving images.  I came to the conclusion that it was because music had always been far more important.

Last Sigh:  Do specific films ever inspire your compositions? If so, could you give an example or two?

Chris Mann:  Rarely, I'm afraid that the films that feature most in my life are The Jungle Book, and Sing along with the Telletubbies at the moment.

Last Sigh:  Could you describe how you work together? Who does what, and how do you manage to fuse your individual contributions into a given track?

Chris Mann:  We have a number of ways of creating tracks.   Either one of us will have started an idea at home by getting together some samples or tunes, and then we will both get together and add to it. Or, we will essentially do the same thing, but together.  In fact, last night we found a CD, took 7 samples from it, and then spent the evening warping the sounds as much as possible, which finally generated a new track.  We rarely think of what we want to achieve, preferring to let the music find itself.

Last Sigh:  Nightwork seems to have been structured very carefully. Could you explain a little about what decisions you made in the sequence of the tracks? Or, did you envision the overall structure before you began to actually compose the individual tracks?

Chris Mann:  All the tracks are made individually; this album has been composed over the course of about two years, during which time we have made many other tracks.  When we come to compile the album, we pick the tracks that fit together best, and then listen to them continuously, until we can work out the right sequence.

Last Sigh:  How big would you say the ratio is of tracks making it to the final album, as compared to tracks that do not?

Chris Mann:  Nightwork has got 11 ? tracks on it, and we counted another 35 that did not make it onto the album. Having said that, many of these were from what was intended as a third Emissions album that never came out.  We should be releasing a mini-LP later on in the year comprising these tracks.

Last Sigh:  Musically, the album moves across a very broad spectrum -- all the way from classical to break-beat influences. What are your musical backgrounds? What made you decide to fuse such diverse influences in your own music?

Chris Mann:  We use influences from the music that we like, and make the music that we want to hear. We both have backgrounds as drummers/percussionists in a variety of bands from Punk to Reggae to African and Folk music.  Anything we have done has always had an emphasis on rhythm.

Last Sigh:  And yet, one of the most striking presences on Nightwork are the melodics that seem very inspired by classical and/or film soundtrack music? Where do these elements come from?

Chris Mann:  It's funny, but I am not really sure where this comes from.  Bands like Psychic TV led me into listening to Bartok, Stravinsky, and some of the early On-U stuff was using Gregorian Chants, etc., and I suppose that this is where it all came from.

Last Sigh:  Do you perform live? If so, what are the challenges involved in performing your music in a live situation?

Chris Mann:  Occasionally; we have done 4 gigs in the last 3 years, most notably being the UXI festival in Iceland.  As playing live means that we have to transport most of the studio out with us, it is not very easy. Most of the gig comprises of us trying to make the equipment work.

Last Sigh:  How do you feel abut this reliance on technology in your music? What do you think about the still prevalent attitude that music created on synths/computers is somewhat less than music created on acoustic/traditional instruments?

Chris Mann:  Good music is good music no matter what is used to create it, the exact same can be said about bad music.  I am not a great believer that studying how to play an instrument for  20 years actually means that you make better music.  A great thing about the new technology is that it allows people to express themselves without having to learn how to play, or to have to pay for an orchestra etc., which would be too expensive.  It means that I can put down ideas, and actually produce a CD from my own home, and not have to wait for studio time, etc.....    On the other hand, it also means that it is easier for people with no idea to make terrible music.

Last Sigh:  How do you feel your music has been received in Britain? Internationally? What do you think (more generally) of the present music climate in Britain, and the rest of the world?

Chris Mann:  Resistance (the first album) did well in the UK and Europe, because I think that it fitted into the current scene of Slow dubby music.  Mexican church did less well, as by that time we were pursuing our own type of music, rather than trying to fit in.
          I have little opinion of the music scene in Britain at the moment, other than that there is an awfully large amount of shite about.

Last Sigh:  Haha...Are you nostalgic for any specific other period in British music, when you feel there was less 'shite' about?

Chris Mann:  The current music scene seems to be more about careers than about the music, I would not want to tie myself into specific times, but Punk and Hip-Hop were for me both times, when it seemed that something was actually happening and that music was important.

Last Sigh:  As you mentioned earlier, you have another EP coming out on Iris Light later this year. Do you have a title for it yet? And, what will it sound like compared to Nightwork? What other plans do you have for the near future?

Chris Mann:  The new EP will be tracks worked on at the same time as the Nightwork tracks, which are more beat orientated.  We are finishing this off at the moment, and then are planning to attempt a purely ambient album (although knowing us it will probably end up as heavy metal). In reality, we will continue to make tracks, and see where the music leads us.