Clubs
THE TRIALS OF HERCULES David Pollock catches up with an exhausted Andy Butler to talk about life in Hercules & Love Affair
A ndy Butler is feeling tired and emotional, and he’s blaming his airline for it. ‘I think BA played a trick on us and didn’t turn out the cabin lights the whole transatlantic flight. “No, we just turned them on because we’re serving food,” said the stewardess. Blah blah blah.’ When The List speaks to him he’s only just arrived at his Madrid hotel ahead of a bunch of European dates, and he sounds dog tired already. Yet sleep will only come after he’s spoken to us and dined out with the band and their entourage, because his excellent second album Blue Songs demands promotion.
‘We’re an international band,’ explains the New
York-based group’s Denver-bred founder. ‘Aerea Negrot lives in Berlin, she makes techno music on her own with [Ellen Allien’s] BPitch Control Records. Shaun Wright is from Chicago, he brings a house influence and he’s an R&B singer. Mark Pistel’s an amazing change, just because I’m a huge fan of Meat Beat Manifesto and Consolidated.’ The line-up’s rounded out by long- time H&LA singer Kim Ann Foxman, with an array of guest singers past and present on record.
‘You know, I think Kele was in Glasgow last week,’ says Butler of his friend and sometime Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke, who guests on the new album’s ‘Step Up’. ‘I don’t know why he was there, I think it was for a DJ gig but it could have been romance, who knows?’ How did they come to work together? ‘He was tired of London and he wanted a change, so he decided to move to Manhattan. I told him I’d help him find a place, and while he was staying in a hotel 50 THE LIST 3–31 March 2011
‘DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH FOR “BLIND” NUMBER TWO’
and looking, we’d go for lunch and write the song. It took about three days, and he got a really nice place in Chelsea in the end.’
Butler’s also still close to Antony Hegarty of Antony & the Johnsons fame, with whom he wrote the irresistible club hit ‘Blind’ from H&LA’s eponymous 2008 debut album. ‘Yeah, I spoke to him last night and he’s homebound with an ear infection,’ he says. ‘For him that’s like a Greek tragedy, a curse from the gods.’ Did Butler feel any pressure to follow up ‘Blind’ when he came to write the new tracks? ‘Well my honest answer is I’m never going to write ‘Blind’ number fucking two, so don’t hold your breath. That was written in a really special moment between Antony and I, when I had an affinity for a certain sort of disco. Maybe the new record needs a catchy tune, but it would just sound shit if I tried to write the same song again. I meant to ask, do you like the album?’
The List approves intensely of Blue Songs and its utterly authentic mix of NY disco, classic house and retro techno. ‘Well, that’s sweet of you to say. There was a time after it I thought, I don’t wanna hear that record, then a little later I was overwhelmed by the strength of the collaborations on it. I feel that when we come off stage too. Proud of this band and impressed by them all at once.’ It’s a wearying life in H&LA, it seems, but the rewards are worth it in the end. Hercules & Love Affair play Death Disco at the Arches, Glasgow, Sat 19 Mar.
HOUSE HEAVY GOSSIP Medina, Edinburgh, Fri 11 Mar
When it comes to house you know you’re in safe hands with residents Craig Smith and Nick Yuill, two DJs who have carved out a reputation for their taste in disco house and deep funky electronica. Now their Heavy Gossip night is set to celebrate its first birthday – an important milestone for any club. And to mark the occasion they are joined by the minimalist sounds and ‘slow motion’ house of Cottam. It’s how Cottam has released his
music that has made him an enigma, with untitled vinyl-only releases with no marketing. ‘I don’t think I avoid the limelight, I think it was just people didn’t know who I was,’ explains Cottam (aka Paul Cottam). ‘I never kept my identity secret or anything – if people asked me I’d tell them. I’ve been playing music in clubs on and off for years, it’s only over the past year and a half people have started to show an interest. Self promotion has always been a weak point of mine as well. I don’t like to force things.’ And the unnamed tracks? ‘Just a
lack of faith in any of the titles I come up with,’ he laughs. ‘I always think they sound a bit daft.’ Even with his lack of self promotion, the quality of his output has caught many a DJs eye (including Mr Scruff, The Revenge and Kris Wasabi, see page 49), deep deep beats influenced by a love of techno and soul.
An early convert to techno, he
started DJing with the likes of Surgeon and Regis in the 90s. ‘I don't know what it was but when I heard dance music for the first time I was hooked, blown away by how different it was to anything I'd heard before,’ he says. He took a break from DJing only to brew up his mysterious tracks in his living room before securing distribution with Rub-A-Dub.
He’s also itching to get up to Scotland, especially the prospect of manning the decks at Heavy Gossip. ‘It’ll be my first trip to Edinburgh so I’m really excited. I’ve been told it’s a beautiful city and that the nightlife is great. Getting to play with Craig Smith is special as well; he’s a fantastic DJ and his productions are right up my street. He’s been a bit of a hero of mine since rediscovering house music.’ (Henry Northmore)