Interviews
MEN AT QUIRK
This interview was one of my favourites. Although my particular taste in music is not in the direction that Quirk were heading, I had had a friendly relationship with Mark since shortly after moving to London and was very impressed by both him and Tim. They had apparently specifically requested to have me to do the interview for Dream Creation, which made the fact that Stu (the editor) never got me a copy of this issue (it was published after I moved to Japan) fairly reprehensible. This was one of the main reasons that I stopped writing for them. But enough of that: back to that really lovely afternoon…
The dynamic duo
Things are rarely as they appear. If one were asked to imagine what the members of a band called Quirk looked like, one might come up with something far more ludicrous than they are in real life. Mark Allen, resident DJ at Return to the Source, looking remarkably fit and healthy, is an older-brother figure whose reserved exterior can mask a most enthusiastic and curious personality; Tim Healey, despite his sleek underground look, overflows with elegant turns of phrase that reveal a deeply compassionate and balanced individual. Together, they form an even more integrated whole, one which threatens to break new ground in a scene which claims to do so, yet has actually stagnated of late.
Varying backgrounds
Tim and Mark entered the trance scene from different backgrounds at different times. Mark ended up in Goa in its hey-day at the end of a six-month spell in India. He was in the midst of solicitor's training, and on his return to London set about finding as much of the music he had heard as possible, helping start the legendary Pagan parties (he used to go clubbing with Lol and Yaz before they had their separate experiences in India). As a student in Durham, Tim had been a guitarist in an Indie rock band (with a psychedelic twist). He would come to London to go to "Goa-style parties" (as they were known then) before he was even aware of the Indian connection. He naturally ended up at Pagan, wrote tracks with Yaz for a year, and then with different people, giving some tunes to Mark ("who kindly played them," Tim adds).
Both had worked on a variety of projects before forming Quirk: Tim with The Unconscious Collective, as well as solo projects Squid and Sephalopod, releasing tracks on a half-dozen labels, Mark with (among others) Mindfield, The Green Nuns of the Revolution, Nick Taylor (as Akasha) and members of OOOD (as Rotatum). They decided that it would be wise to combine their efforts for a number of reasons - they had outlooks, skills, and equipment which were complementary, and living close to one another, it seemed logical to get to work on a long-term project, to learn more about music, their creative processes, themselves and each other.
Beginnings
The first Quirk tracks appeared on Israel's Krembo label in mid-1996, with the famous "Robotized" track with the Dalek sample appearing on Matsuri's first compilation shortly afterwards. It seems perfectly fitting that this label should be releasing the album, not because of Mark's DJing connection at Return to the Source with Matsuri's A&R rep DJ Tsuyoshi, but because of the decidedly non-Goa nature of the music. "The album has every aspect and angle covered, from trance to downtempo to crossover techno," says Tsuyoshi. Their album Machina Electrica & Fornax Chemica, released in January on Matsuri, is a different slice from the norm of electronic dance music.
"I think we both, in slightly different ways, share an urgent need to move beyond the narrowly-defined and perceived image of trance as the media likes to package it," says Mark. Both agree, adds Tim, that "there were other styles of electronic music around that were very good, and that we could draw on them for inspiration." Tim's background as a performer and Mark's as an international DJ make for a useful collaboration indeed, as both are aware of various qualities and subtleties required to get a crowd moving. Knowing just how few riffs (and what kind) can still keep the dance floor rocking is invaluable in helping them create a peculiarly particular brand of trance. ("There's something about that baseline that make you want to move in a robotic yet slightly groovy manner," Tim notes in an apt appraisal of one track.)
Aiming at a new concept
With a lot of trance albums simply a collection of full-on tunes with a short shelf life, Mark and Tim aimed to create a package that wouldn't be disposable, something from which different parts would stand out the more it got listened to. "We wanted people to find reference in it at different times over as long a period as possible, so that it's not just a throw-away as a record," says Tim. "The problem with an artist album where you have, say, nine high-quality but quite similar-sounding dance tracks one after another is that most people find their favorites ones, listen to them a few times, and then that's the end of that. With DJs, it's worse, it goes out of their record box after a couple of months." The answer to that problem was to experiment with as many possible styles within the parameters of electronic dance music that they could. And this they have done.
It therefore follows that not that all of their tracks are stompers: the album starts and ends with slower tracks, proceeding energy-wise like a bell-curve. "If you're going to listen to something that's going to last for 70 minutes, it's got to take you somewhere and leave you where you want to be comfortably left," says Mark. There is scarcely a Goa-riff in sight (in sound?), and within the framework of heavily-sampled sound, a great number of avenues get explored. Although they did not know how each track would fit in with the finished story, they were acutely aware of the various styles they wished to create. For instance, after having completed Ping, with it's broadly anthemic ending, Tim says, "we said, ‘right, we've done an anthemic one, let's not go totally in that direction again, let's try a more techno approach this time.’" One would be hard pressed to figure out which track was written after which, such is the variance of styles, resulting in a most eclectic, highly listenable album.
The creative process
Quirk's creative process draws upon extra-musical influences to a high degree, helping highlight the almost comical, mysterious nature of daily existence. Using TV jingles, something seen in the street, a water-pipe, or a ping-pong match recording from Istanbul, the artists weave a web of subtle soundwaves to create particularly striking atmospheric scenarios for their tracks. This is as much for the interest of the artists as for that of the listeners. They spend some three hundred hours ruminating over one track, removing and adding bits, refining sound quality - with such a long process involved, all of the components had to maintain THEIR interest...so it follows naturally that this focused intention should result in tracks which grab the attention of the listener, too. Of course, a great deal will never be perceived by the listener - who would guess that a lot of the percussion in Ping is sampled table tennis hits? - yet such subtleties undoubtedly contribute to the vibe, certainly on a subconscious level.
Indeed, sampling is the primary source and focus of Quirk's work, something the duo feel is the way forward musically. "It's the only tool that allows you to be completely unique," says Mark. "A lot of the sounds in trance music you can easily identify" from the equipment used. "We're both finding more and more that the analogue side, the acid noise side to our tracks, are very much the tools rather than the features...and the features are more the samples," adds Tim. "Someone else who has that keyboard can make the same sounds...What makes the sampler unique is that only YOU are going to decide today 'I want to use that sample' and only YOU are going to process it in that particular way." The number of ways that things can be tweaked and altered challenges them to change things so much that the source is often barely recognizable, thereby adding an extra layer (or many) of mystery to their tracks.
The effect that a single undoctored sample can have on a crowd was brought home at a party in Israel. Taking place on Jewish New Year, the party was halted by swarms of police, yet the 8000-strong crowd stayed put until things got underway. Quirk started up with a track which has a sample of Stephen Hawking saying "We have to find something else to account for more of the dark matter" - the crowd roared (evidently not because of the importance of quantum physics to their lives). It goes to show how even undoctored samples can provide a means to change context and understand how relevance is relative.
A unique live act
Quirk's originality extends beyond the samples and music itself into their live act, the very nature of which could revolutionize the concept of live performances of electronic dance music. Mark points out the enormous risk involved in bringing one's entire studio along when the sound is invariably inferior than tracks produced previously. How does one minimize the risk, eliminate the potential hazard of the computer crashing (when's the last live you heard when that DIDN'T happen?), yet still provide a spontaneous performance of tracks different from the originals? Play a DAT like almost everyone else? Not Quirk.
Using a CD-burner, they have printed up CDs of all of their tracks, some radically remixed, but all stripped-down to their underlying structure of bass plus drum grooves. This allows Mark to loop the basic elements of the tracks on a CD mixer, leaving Tim free to sample wildly, and giving Mark the opportunity to use his DJ skills to shift various lines with perfect subtlety in the middle of the track. The result is a completely spontaneous performance of never-to-be-repeated versions of their tracks, yet with studio sound quality and minimal technical risk.
Another dimension
In addition to their ingenious live technique, they employ their own VJ, Marcus Conrad. He has prepared videos for all their tracks, as well as additional material, thereby adding a visual component other than the dancing (and costumed) Quirksters. While they were unable to convince some promoters of their January world tour (with dates in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa) of the necessity of the VJ, they have said this is the last time they will accept live dates without him. Indeed, given the sensual, evocative nature of electronic dance music, it seems logical to provide at least one additional sense to the equation. Kudos to Quirk for getting on the case.
The future
The pair are already preparing their next album, although that won't see the light of day until the end of the year. They were polishing up a new track when I arrived, and it is a corker. They are also working on a number of different styles (big surprise), with one dub track recently released and a brilliant unclassifiable track which features a saucy German '20s cabaret-style motif and Tim's guitar playing. There's no doubt that Quirk are going in directions that are bound to push some listeners, producers, and DJs out of their comfort zones, but so be it. Any scene which claims to be about breaking barriers must explore new ground, and I find that Quirk do so without dropping everything at once, as do many Australian producers. Keep your eyes and ears - and minds - open and tuned in.
© 1998 Mark Ainley
