Andy, Matt, welcome to the DMC world young men, a very distinctive sound coming out of your studio, who were your musical influences that led you to create your music? I’m thinking Depeche Mode, Massive Attack, The Cure, but also composers such as Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Hermann?
Matt – “For me, I would say it was The Cure and Jane’s Addiction that really set me on fire, but I hadn’t really listened to much electronic music until Music For A Jilted Generation hit my ears. That album stayed on my stereo for a good three months, blew me away.”
Andy – “The music I grew up with was the grunge and techno stuff happening in the 90’s, so that always seeps through. What inspired me to start writing with Hitchcock was how I could meld the attitude of what I listened to as a teenager with the more cinematic stuff that moves me nowadays, like Bernard Hermann, Vangelis, Thomas Newman, etc.”
So you have both have had previous journeys, Matt, you’ve produced some great bands, who has been the best to work with? Andy, you’ve sat on many an aeroplane with Apartment 26, what where the best crowds you encountered?
Matt – “I have worked with some great bands and still continue to do so. Different bands are great for different reasons and when you work for long periods of time on records, those times always become special; it’s a period where you share a creative time with someone and that always tends to also be a bonding time. I think the one band that I have worked with the most in the last 3 years is The Enemy and that has been an amazing journey. They are great musicians with an amazing energy and we have had some quite special times in the studio particularly the stuff I have done with them on the forthcoming record.”
Andy – “The best crowds were usually in the smaller venues where there’s more of an intimacy. Saying that, when you’re playing in an amphitheatre to tens of thousands of people and you have the energy of them and sub bass underneath your feet, then that can be equally as good.”
What was playing at The Gatecrasher Summer Sound System like?
Matt – “The first dance festival I have ever been to so quite an education, hahahaha! It was a great gig, very windy, we were lucky enough to be billed for the Saturday, the Sunday main stage got cancelled due to classic British summer weather, I remember waking up as our bus was leaving on the Sunday morning and looking out of the window at a very wet Summer Sound System but people were still partying. After we played I wandered around for hours just exploring and staring at people, it was a good night out.”
Andy – “It was still daylight when we came off the stage, so it was nice to spend the rest of a day as a punter and get trollied!”
‘Smackboom’ / your first single, but what happened with ‘Top Of The World’ – it never got released but great videos on both…
Matt – “We shot the video in January and worked with a director called Jae Corbett, on ‘Top Of The World’ we worked with John McCormack but the single was never released yes. Both directors were amazing and really embraced our ideas. Andy and I are very hands on with all the creative directions, we make all our visuals used in the live show and in the case of both videos we put the treatments together and John and Jae took them to a new dimension.”
And you are from Birmingham, what have been your favourite clubs over the years?
Matt – “If I’m to be honest, I haven’t really done the Birmingham club scene, saying that everyone I know is really loving Gatecrasher so I’m planning to have a night out there soon.”
Andy – “I used to go up to Gatecrasher in Sheffield quite a lot, as my Uni mates were up there. I like the idea of escapism when you go to a good club, everyone’s there to get away from their day jobs and have as good a time as physically possible.”
What is coming up next from Hitchcock in 2009?
Matt – “Single release, tour, single release, tour, tour, festivals, album release, tour, and tour. We are hoping for a busy year.”
What are your most listened to tunes on your i-pods at the moment, ten from both of you?
Matt…
“Killer – Boy Kill Boy
Kick Drum – Shy Child
Headlock – Imogen Heap
Dissolved Girl – Massive Attack
Pearls Girl – Underworld
Different – Pendulum
Muscle Museum (Soul Wax Remix) -Muse
Jericho – Prodigy
Scratch Your Name – The Noisettes
Super Bon Bon – Soul Coughing
Andy…
Say Aha – Santogold
Prelude (Day the Earth Stood Still OST) – Bernard Hermann
Pass This On – The Knife
On the Nature of Daylight – Max Richter
Alice – Tom Waits
Drive Away (Lemony Snicket’s… OST) – Thomas Newman
Little Love – Syntax
The Girl with the Plums (Perfume OST) – Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimeck & Reinhold Heil
Did you ever meet the famous Ryan pot belly pig?
Andy “Yeah, Dermot’s lost a bit of weight since then.”
What artist in the world would you most like to collaborate with?
Matt – “There are a few for me I’d love to work with Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction, his electronica projects have always really excited me, his solo album sadly went unnoticed and it’s a great record. I’ve always loved the whole Prodigy vibe and Leeroy Thornhill has just done a really cool remix of the new single, which was a tick in the ambition box for me.”
Andy – “I’d like to get some live musicians involved in the future, there’s a great percussive and melodic instrument called the hangdrum, it would be nice to get a virtuoso in the studio and cut and splice the results. Those sorts of instruments give a good foundation to the track and are inspiring to create a song out of.
What DJs out there do you rate?
Andy – “I’m into DJs like Deadmau5 and Oakenfold, and also people like Richie Hawtin and BT use the whole thing as an instrument in itself.”
How did you two meet originally?
Matt – “It was through working with Apartment 26 and our mutual love of Lemsip, Bukowski, studio gear and films.”
And a question you must have been asked a million times, your favourite Hitchcock film…
Matt – “I sway from film to film regarding my favourite but I think if I was to choose one it would have to be Frenzy”.
Andy – “At the moment it’s North by Northwest for me.”
