World exclusive! John Twelve Hawks ‘The Traveler’ springs to audio delight via electronic music
Interview : Dan Prince
John Digweed and Nick Muir’s partnership has been one of electronic music’s most fruitful pairings, leaving a body of work that’s seen them become one of the world’s most highly regarded production duos. While science fiction and electronic music have intertwined at numerous points since the emergence of the genre – from Jeff Mills to Global Communication and beyond – together with bestselling author, John Twelve Hawks, Digweed & Muir have taken the relationship into new territory and the album, ‘The Traveler’, is the result of this symbiotic connection.
John, Nick welcome back to DMCWORLD…and to celebrate and talk about an extraordinary story! October 6th sees the release of your John Digweed & Nick Muir featuring John Twelve Hawks ‘The Traveler’…basically a brand new album based on passages from this best selling book with narrative from the mysterious and legendary author himself. This is fabulous on so many levels;
1) The author lives ‘off the grid’ in secrecy due to his views on the intrusiveness on modern day society and digital society.
2) Nobody knows what he looks like, where he lives or sounds like.
3) The last book Diggers read was Harry Potter!
So the book lands on your doormat, you don’t have time to read it until you go on holiday when you are mesmerized by it…you can’t put it down! There are traces of Star Wars, The Matrix, Kill Bill and Minority Report. There are echoes of Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Joseph Campbell, Jeremy Bentham, various samurai stories and of course, The Da Vinci Code. When did the idea formulate to perhaps mix genres of literary and music…?
“Hi Dan, glad you like it. It was actually John Twelve Hawks who after we connected suggest working together in some capacity, we spoke at length on the phone bouncing ideas around and this was the one that he came up with that was most exciting.”
After hearing about the background of this album I was bowled over by the comparisons John Twelve Hawks made to how he looked at a DJ’s set – similar to what any dramatic film, novel or play does…building momentum, a mood and a climax. Basically John, taking it’s captive audience on a journey, which is something you have always maintained is the essence of your DJ sets…
“I think trying to tell a story with music is something that I have always tried to do with my DJ sets and to a certain extent with the tracks and remixes that Nick and myself work on, trying to have something that builds and evolves to me makes so much more sense than playing hours of the same sounding tracks and also more enjoyable for you and the crowd.”
Nick, what did you think of the idea when John first put it to you?
“I was excited and pleased. This is not the sort of project you get the opportunity to work on very often. John D. recommended I first read the book, which I did and realised it totally chimed with the scene we’ve been involved in all these years, (i.e. underground club music). There were so many cross-over points and it made total sense – plus, it’s a great read.”
Due to the author’s ‘off the grid’ lifestyle where he has no fixed home, no bank account or internet connection and indeed, John Twelve Hawks is not his real name…surely the first way of recording narrative was down the phone?
“Indeed Dan – and we knew we had to try it that way. We actually thought it might make sense seeing as his voice through a voice-scrambler was kind of his public persona in a way. He has given a number of interviews and communications that way so to use that system to capture his spoken passages seemed the logical thing to do. However, we were finding that we weren’t getting the audio quality we needed to ensure that his speech was really clear and fully intelligible which was vital to the project. So we plucked up the courage to ask him if he would be prepared to meet us in person for a recording session and to our surprise and relief, he agreed.”
Tell us what you can about the meeting in person…was it purely all about getting his voice recorded or did you discuss perhaps some of the author’s views on modern day living and the state? Was it under the cover of darkness?
“It was a great experience for both of us we got to hang out for a bit before the recording session which was a great way to break the ice. The recording session went really well with J12H nailing all his passages in one take which was amazing, Then we went out for a pub lunch to discuss his views our views and everything in between. He is a fascinating person with loads of insights on many thing and we could have chatted for ages.”
The album consists of 13 pieces of production, please give us a few words on each of these masterpieces and how John Twelve Hawks contributed to them…
1. First Line
“This cut is inspired by the first line of the novel. Both of us were inspired when we realized ‘We’re not just creating a musical album, we’re also going to be telling a story’. And that meant that each cut became a highly condensed chapter in that story. From the start, John Twelve Hawks encouraged us to us to use the novel as an inspiration — a starting point — for a stand-alone musical creation. You don’t have to read the novel to understand the album, but we needed its story and characters to create this music.”
2. Live Off The Grid
“One element of electronic music is that it can take you out of your world. Here we used elements from the “real” world like stacked up phone conversations to connect the music to our present reality.”
3. Am I Awake
“John Twelve Hawks is a Buddhist who has traveled extensively in Tibet and Nepal. The Traveler definitely has a dreamlike dimension in certain scenes. We’ve tried to express that in this cut.”
4. Capoeira
“Capoeria is a form of fighting that can use sylized — almost dancelike movements. One of the characters in the novel is an expert in this form of martial arts. So you have the movements of combat, but a low Tibetan like vocal note throughout the cut.”
5. Stay In The Present
“John Twelve Hawks encouraged to try different voices throughout the album. In this cut, we use a female singer and back the words with a lush drum and bass style.”
6. The Traveler
“Gabriel Corrigan is one of the main characters in the novel. When we first meet him, he’s riding a motorcycle — trying to escape his enemies and his own destiny. Halfway through this cut you hear a motorcycle sound that represents Gabriel on his bike.”
7. The Truth
“During our recording session with John Twelve Hawks, we talked about a lot about music. Some people see music as just pure entertainment. Nothing wrong with that. But John sent me an email a few weeks after we met. He wrote “…music can wake us up, soothe our anger, remind us of the past or give us hope for the future. The best music goes deeper in some profound, non-verbal way”.”
8. Battle
“There’s quite a bit of fighting in the novel. This is a rhythmic way to express those scenes.”
9. Find The Way
“Travelers see the energy within them change into points of points of light. This cut is inspired by the scene where Gabriel sees small constellations of light emerge from his body.”
10. Damned By The Flesh
“Maya is the other major character in the book. She comes from a family that has defended the Travelers for generations. “Damned by the flesh, saved by the blood” is a line that inspires these warriors. They are human and they fail sometimes. But they feel they are redeemed by their commitment to the Travelers — people who bring tolerance, compassion and new ideas into the world.”
11. 3B3
“Travelers learn how to leave their bodies and cross over to different worlds. A drug called 3B3 can trigger this reaction. We took this idea and connected it with the powerful beat of the Roland TB303 bass machine.”
12. We Are All Connected
“When I asked John Twelve Hawks if there were any restrictions on using his voice he laughed and said “turn me into a child if you want.” Which is what we ended up doing here…a child’s voice to deliver the text.”
13. Last Line
“The Traveler is the first book in the Four Realm Trilogy. The last chapter isn’t a big action film scene. It’s quieter, reflective. The characters have changed during the book and now they’re considering a new kind of future. The last line of the book ties the album together.”
Have you heard from the author since completion, has he heard the finished product?
“Yes we have been in touch and John Loves the finished product. He has not seen the final packaging yet but we are confident that he will love it.”
The album is a perfect example of how it is possible to operate within an underground culture, you must have been delighted to bring a musical perspective to his ideas?
“I think what is great about this project is that there is a story to the whole project,
1, How we first came in contact with each other.
2, The book is incredible and in the world we live in now with some much intrusion in all our lives it`s more relevant than ever before.
3, I am not sure if anyone has done a project like this before.”
The songs provide a listening experience far beyond the dancefloor…will any of the tracks be reworked in any way to provide us with anything for that market though?
“’3B3’ is the main club track from the album that gives a nod to old skool acid house and will be released as a single complete with a Robert Babicz meets Rob Acid remix and in a highly collectable picture disc vinyl. We really wanted to make the whole package very special and the physical CD looks like a book with 32 pages of incredible images that reflect the mood of the story and atmosphere of the album. We have a really loyal fan base and John Twelve Hawks fans will also appreciate the collectability of this album.”
And finally…has this project lit the touch paper for any future ideas together of this nature?
“Possibly who knows what’s round the corner for Nick and myself? John Twelve Hawks has a new book out on Oct 9th called Spark which I am looking forward to reading…”
John Digweed & Nick Muir featuring John Twelve Hawks ‘The Traveler’ is launched at Bedrock @ Electric, Brixton in London on Saturday October 4th 10pm-7am . There is a special pre-party at Plan B from 7pm-10pm when John Digweed and Nick Muir will be playing the album through a pumping Funktion One sound system! Ticket holders get priority if arriving before 8pm.
The album is available for pre-order at http://www.bedrockmusic.bigcartel.com
Further information on the likely lads…
www.facebook.com/bedrockrecords
www.facebook.com/djjohndigweed
