Don’t Believe The Hype _ Interview With Giles Armstrong

Great stuff. Thanks Giles.. Actually, something that I don’t know about you is whether you make music? Do you have a musical body as well as a musical ear?

I can barely make my own bed never mind make a techno track! I suppose someday I am going to have to face my fears and try to make something that will vaguely reassemble techno, but until then I’m happy to listen to dance music which takes me away to crack den’s in Detroit or raves in Sven Vath’s bathroom instead of visualising sequencing blocks or patterns or whatever they are call them in Fruity Loops and then saying to myself well he should have the put the high hats there instead. Nah, all that stuff takes away from the magic.

If it ain’t broke, why try fixing it, eh?

Just wanted to say as well.. I know I’ve told you already, but it deserves to be enshrined in print; when subsekt began, you put a link on Facebook and about 20 something people came to the site & about 7 or 8 people registered and have become regulars. At the same time, Chris Liebing did a tweet about subsekt to around 10k people and there was no spike in visitors haha. Nothing nearly as noticeable as the reaction to yourself haha. Thanks again for that Giles. Very much appreciated. Even you registered on the forums. More than Chris did haha

My fiver is the post! and Chris is really nice guy, lovely fella actually 🙂

Hahaha, cool. He always seems in a good mood anyway, doesn’t he? I think it was very decent of him, as of course, I was totally and utterly chancing my arm.. haha

Anyway, we’re pretty much at the end now Mate. Will you tell us a little about the mix? How did you approach it?

First of all its a techno mix as subsekt is no place for deep house! I recorded it at home using two Faderfox controllers and Traktor. It’s something old, something new and a few Irish things too 🙂

What producers or labels are you into at the moment?

I really like some of Lenny Higgins & Jake Conlon’ music and the whole Trust compilation is still remarkable – I’m already ticking the days off on my Trust 2014 Advent Calendar! I’m excited to see what the next year has in store for Sunil Sharpe [who I first met on the Punish Techno Show!] Some of his releases lately have brought a tear to my eye!

J. Tijn is someone that has caught my ear but it remains to seen if he will still be catching it in a year’s time. I don’t really get the whole Blawan buzz. I have a soft spot for Karenn, but fair play to him for opening techno up to the kidzzzz & young men who shop in H&M. I am a big fan of other UK techno acts like Forward Strategy Group, Casual Violence, Deadsound, A.n.D, Makaton and of course, the British housewives favourite; Inigo Kennedy. But don’t ask me about any of those Scubikka UK Dubstep blow in’s who jumped on the good ship techno once doorstep had sailed off to T4 on the beach. Or else.

Ok.. so we’ll end it on a bit of a quickfire questions round type thing Giles. Thanks again for the chat and the mix!

Favourite show / cartoon as a kid?

Mr Benn – which I excitingly showed to Molly for the first time recently to which she replied. ‘Dad, you are weird’.

Your Bio indicates that you have assumed “something of a Don Corleone presence on Dublin’s techno scene..”. Here’s the question; who has the dubious honour of being Fredo?

Sorry but the only Fredo I know is the small chocolate frog who tastes delish 🙂

Your house is on fire. Sorry. What one inanimate object do you save?

My laptops!

Have you ever had any near death experience?

Thankfully no but i did used to break a lot of bones easily when I was younger. The kids in school used to call me ‘Fragiles’.

Has a book ever been so good you’ve got around to reading it twice?
If so what was it?

I’m lucky to finish a book once never mind twice. If the book doesn’t suck me in straight away it may forget about it.

If someone was to try to get the essence of you for an impression, what overused phrase and mannerism would they need to acquire to mimic you well?

My Eccie Face.

And your specialist subject on Mastermind would be?

Irish Water Polo 1986 -1992

What tune is going to play you out?

Just Like Heaven by The Cure

 

________

Giles is in charge of subsekt 033, which will be broadcast on Wednesday 26th June 2013 @ 2200GMT. Afterwards, it will be available on Soundcloud and later, on the archive. Join the event on Facebook or Listen Live.

https://soundcloud.com/gilesarmstrong
http://www.mixcloud.com/gilesamadeusarmstrong/
http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/gilesarmstrong
https://www.facebook.com/gilesamadeusarmstrong