Acid Washed : Interview

Acid Washed are the Parisian duo of Andrew Claristidge and Richard D'Alpert, and although they have day jobs, after hearing their polished self-titled Record Makers debut album, you’d think they’d be full-time musicians. But perhaps their detached presence (and sometimes cavalier attitude!) is what makes their sound so unique: Classy electronic disco colored with hip-hop and Detroit techno influences, often geared toward the club floor but refusing BPM constraints and formulaic arrangements. The record also features a few guest vocalists such as Dakar (of Dakar & Grinser fame) and rising Berlin starlet Barbara Panther, and its panoramic sound can be partially credited to Supersoul Recordings mastermind Xaver von Treyer who co-produced and mixed. Joey Hansom sat down with Andrew and Richard before their Berlin show in April. They play in Munich on 2.6 and more dates are posted on their MySpace. 

4or The Record: Hi Richard, hi Andrew. Congrats on the excellent album and the wonderful feedback you’ve received so far. It’s the strongest dance-oriented full-length I’ve heard released so far this year. After Googling your names, I couldn’t find any past work you’ve done. What have you done prior to this album and how did you connect with your label Record Makers?

Richard: Well, in my case, if you didn’t find anything about me, it’s because I’m not famous. There’s no real reason for you to find me on there. Even though it seems like everyone can be found on Google nowadays. Richard is my real first name but I’m not showing my face in our press photos. I also work for the national film board in Paris and there are still some negative connotations with being an electronic music producer. It’s connected to nightlife, and techno is connected to drug culture. But it’s also part of techno history to remain underground. I feel comfortable with that.

Andrew: This is our first album. We’ve done music together before, but this is our first proper release. We raved, going from club to club. We like clubbing! We met the people from Record Makers in Paris in a club…

Richard: No, actually it wasn’t in a club. They don’t go out so much. But they were aware of the parties we were doing – we’ve been DJing as the Acid Washed DJ team for two years now. And a friend of ours also worked for them. The whole thing happened very fast. We brought some demos in, and they loved it from the start. Record Makers really helped us find the right direction with our music. They’re very artist-driven. It was all very human, very simple, and, well, nice. 

4TR: Alright. Well, talking more about the music, on first listen, the album could be described as disco – electronic disco influenced by the French tradition and Italo. But there are also some hip-hop influences, the cover of “The Rain” by Oran Juice Jones, a Def Jam hit from the mid-80s. And another track samples “The Big Beat” by Billy Squier, which has been sampled by everyone from Run-DMC to Dizzee Rascal to Jay-Z. So what does American hip-hop mean to a couple of French guys like you?

Richard: Well, basically, to me, it means the whole early to mid 90s. Hip-hop was very big in France, in Paris. It was a very predominant thing, even mainstream. I literally grew up with hip-hop. So there is a huge influence

Andrew: And we listen to lots of different types of music, so you know, when we produce, we don’t think about which particular style we’re going to do.

Richard: But when you’re surrounded such a predominant culture, as an artist, you’re probably going to incorporate some of it. Hip-hop is part of us. Obviously it’s going to pop up. 

4TR: So it sounds like it’s just one of your many influences that made its way onto the final album. Now from a more technical point of view, can you explain what kind of gear you are using, what’s analog versus digital, and a little bit about the process?

Andrew: Most of the things we use are analog. We started with all our old gear: drum machines, drum pads, synthesizers.

Richard: It’s a lot of playing around. Music is fun,.

Andrew: That’s also why we use analog gear. It’s fun to turn some knobs, and it’s less cool to use just software. But we used ProTools to mix and edit. But the creative part has to come from analog.

Richard: The main reason, though, is the sound. It just sounds better. More powerful.

4TR: Sure, I think it shows in the final product. There’s a noticeable wide, rich sound. 

Andrew: That’s what were looking for. A precise sound. We did sonic research. It’s important for us to get the right sound. Software sounds can be a bit awkward, and crappy.

Richard: Also, I’m fed up with this software scene. I’m probably the last generation of DJs who play vinyl. After me it’s all laptop. One guy, one laptop. That’s, to me, the unsexiest thing, it’s gross. 

4TR: So what’s your live setup like?

Richard: Well, we do have laptops, but we have four synthesizers and hardward on stage. When we can bring it, we bring whatever we can. Micro Korg and live instruments. Like, real physical instruments. A lot of percussion. Congas, bongos, flute. We are touring with Satch Hoyt, percussionist for Grace Jones. And we also play with Christophe Chassol, a great keyboardist who’s played with Phoenix and Sebestien Tellier. 

4TR: That does sound a lot sexier than a laptop. And I wanted to ask about your mention of techno culture and its association with drugs – the artwork for your album shows multicolored mouths with little heart-shaped tablets on the tongues, and I was wondering if you consider your music “psychedelic” in any sense?

Andrew: Yeah, I would say it’s really piskadelic [this is how he pronounces it -Joey]. It’s analog sequences with lots of effects and long breaks…

Richard: I do not share this opinion. The music we do is, or can be, deeply melancholic. I think “melancholy” describes our sound much better. Take the opening track “General Motors, Detroit, America”. It’s a track about the end of the world, the end of a world. The world that we knew as kids. Detroit artists are a big influence on this, Jeff Mills, Underground Resistance, Carl Craig. It’s a very melancholic music. It’s very powerful, but it’s never very joyful. It’s romantic, I would say. You can see a lot of parallels between the end of the 19th century, pre-Romantic or Romantic music and Detroit techno. If you take the Bolero from Ravel, (sings) and add a kickdrum, you nearly have “Tobacco Ties” from the Martian.

So, I would say the album is more melancholic than psychedelic. There is no drug reference meant in the music. There is a purifying, shamanic sense though – which of course could be connected to drugs, but let’s be very clear: we did not take any drugs to make this album. I don’t think you can make music with that level of precision – I know that sounds arrogant – if you are fucked up. At the same time, don’t get me wrong, we are very joyful people, and we like to drink and party. But I do not compose music that way.

4TR: Fair enough. I think it’s interesting you using the word “purifying”, because “acid washed” implies decay, or taking away a layer, or breaking down, which parallels the things you were saying about Detroit, the end of an industrialized society. I never thought of a heavy Detroit influence when I heard the album, but I’ll keep that in mind for next time. Thanks again for taking the time to talk today. Is there anything else you guys wanted to say?

Richard: Yes! Download our album for free on the internet. It’s totally fine. We’re pro-file-sharing. We’ve done that for years. It’s the best thing that could happen to the recoding industry. We’re going to enter a fantastic era of music. People are just going to do what they want, without any creative boundaries. The recording industry is dead.

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