William Orbit on Madonna./MDNA

[groovyguy 63,861]

http://www.hungertv.com/feature/interview-william-orbit/

THE INTERVIEW: WILLIAM ORBIT

British musician and record producer William Orbit is well known for bringing a Ray Of Light in Madonna’s career back in 1998 and more recently for creating an Alien on Britney Spears’ latest album Britney Jean.What often goes unsaid is the influence he had in establishing progressive house and ambient music as a genre that could embrace the pop world and, at the same time, be as emotional as a symphony.

William made his latest album, Strange Cargo 5, available on SoundCloud and it features singer-songwriter Beth Orton and longtime friend/collaborator Laurie Mayer, who encouraged him to build the first of his many Guerilla Studios. It was within those walls that William started remixing The Cure, Peter Gabriel, Prince and Depeche Mode before venturing on countless collaborations including U2, Blur, Beck, All Saints and Pink. A recording studio is for William Orbit a longing, a place to call home and a laboratory, where molecules of sound are accurately created and filtered through his witty personality and gentle sensibility. After all, only an experienced musical chemist like him could have arranged Pieces in a Modern Style, an album where classical pieces by Beethoven, Vivaldi and Handel are given a good dose of electronica.

As he enjoys a cup of coffee in LA, Hunger TV chats with the talented musician about his 35 year-long career, the ups and downs of success and the only collaboration that can equal the ones with Queen of Pop: a Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury unreleased track.

HELLO WILLIAM, IT’S GOOD TO HAVE YOU ON HUNGER TV!
Hi there! It’s a pleasure, I like Hunger’s “visually and culturally hungry†thing and I love Rankin; he’s such a character and a unique man. One of the last times I saw him, he was taking photos of me. He had me emerging from some sort of chest-of-drawers with a plastic dog on my head or something like that. The very last time, was at a party that I threw for Madonna at China White. My girlfriend had obtained a beautiful beaded xxx Jean Paul Gaultier kilt and M said that if I wore it that night, she’d give me all the royalties for the song we were working on that day. Well I didn’t hold her to her bet, bless her, but wore the kilt with pride. I noticed that I was constantly being goosed by the girls… and Rankin! We need to cherish people like him.

YOU RECENTLY RELEASED STRANGE CARGO 5 ON SOUNDCLOUD. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO RELEASE AN ALBUM DIGITALLY AND SHARE YOUR MUSIC IN THIS WAY?
First of all, well done for spotting it! Yes, I’ve put it out in the lowest possible profile. Music business is changing so fast that I decided to just do my own thing; you’ll drive yourself mad otherwise, unless you are an adventure capitalist but it’s creativity that we are talking about. You do what you do, hoping that people will come around to it eventually. I’m really good at making music but I’m really bad at selling it; I just cannot do that. It has been such a disappointment in the past, marketing and press wise, so why going through the indignity? What I do is to leave it to the fans; if you read through the lines of what they’re saying about your music, you’ll find out whether you’ve done a decent track or not. They’ll let you know in a way that is impossible to challenge. I’m going to be living somehow, I’m perfectly capable and of course producing artists pays more than selling downloads.

THE ALBUM HAS BEEN RECORDED ALL OVER THE WORLD; WAS THIS INTENTIONAL OR IS IT JUST YOUR MODUS OPERANDI?
Going around the world is my life, I’m a nomadic and I have so many studios. As a result of that, I constantly travel and make music from pieces with no identity yet. Somehow I always feel at home whenever I’m in a studio and to me it’s like collecting memories. When you finish an album, months go by as you master it, and as you listen to it, all of the sounds from the recordings come back to you, like reminders of those places. You don’t listen to it as music but as a scrapbook of all those experiences. I wouldn’t be able to make this album without my longtime friend and collaborator Laurie Mayer. I was actually in a quite difficult place and she basically got me healthy and feeling inspired again. There’s also Rico Conning who has been developing this musical robot that we’re planning to use on stage in London in the Autumn. I’m also writing a book but I’m keeping this to myself at the moment; it’s more of a social commentary. As for music I’m working with Queen on an unreleased Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury track. Brian May added more guitars on it and I enjoyed the whole process. They were such incredible singers and when you work on a track with a vocalist, you really start to get inside of his or her soul.

I GUESS THE VOICE IS A PECULIAR ELEMENT WHEN YOU DECIDE TO START A COLLABORATION OR PRODUCTION…
Absolutely, I get so into it. It’s the best thing in the world and, probably, the first thing human beings ever did that you could call music, had to do with either the voice or banging a stick to a wall. It’s a fundamental core to music creativity. Bono, Madonna, Britney, Michael Jackson or Freddie Mercury  didn’t get so big just because they put on great shows; they got to be that way because their voices are unique: you hear two words and you know who is singing. This is fascinating to me because you get so much emotional information just from that. When I have the voice and melody in place, I’m the happiest person in the world! On the other hand, I can’t stand the marketing bullshit. I don’t disdain it and it works if you are someone like Katy Perry. This is why I really love doing the  Facebook  page and SoundCloud and everytime I put something out on there, I feel a sort of fear of failure and hunger for excellence at the same time.

I PAINT WHAT I SEE IS A TRACK AS BEAUTIFUL AS BETH ORTON’S VOCALS. I KNOW YOU LIKE DRAWING, WORKING ON CARTOONS AND PHOTOGRAPHY. WHAT DOES INSPIRE YOUR MUSIC VISUALLY?
Light. The way it plays on things. This is how I see music, it’s totally visual. The context informs the music like a candle in a painting; the way it is placed and what the light reflects. I often start with a visual image in my head and music forms around that. In my mind they are the same.

THE TRACK MY FRIEND MORPHEUS IS ADAPTED FROM THE ARIA “AH! NON CREDEA MIRARTI†CONTAINED IN VINCENZO BELLINI’S OPERA LA SONNAMBULA. IT MEANS “I DID NOT BELIEVE YOU WOULD FADE SO SOON, OH FLOWER!†AND IT IS INSCRIBED ON BELLINI’S GRAVE. WHAT WOULD YOU WRITE ON YOURS?

Oh gosh! I hope I won’t be forgotten but let me think… It would probably be “I Am Still Hereâ€

YOUR MUSIC IS HIGHLY EMOTIONAL AND CINEMATIC. HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED COMPOSING A SOUNDTRACK?
People use my music for movies sometimes but creating an entire score is a different story. You have to be a certain kind of person with the ability to be very quick and on your feet in order to change ideas; it’s something I don’t think I posses. I think I’m better as a producer because you put yourself at the service of the artist. I’m an artist myself but when it comes to producing someone, I literally take my hat off and I become somebody who is at the service of the artist’s vision. Don’t get me wrong I’m a movie buff! I also watch movies about directors and therefore I’m aware that I’d probably disappoint somebody if I’d compose a score! I usually don’t get asked much about my own emotions during interviews and it’s good that you did. I guess it’s because I’m not a singer but I can assure you that every sound I create is extremely tied up within myself. Music is so impressionable and difficult to write about. Asked about the siege of St. Petersburg, Shostakovich would later say that music itself inspired him to write the music! A visual artist will deliver paragraphs of exposition but musician can’t do that, it’s not in our DNA. The reason why I admire film composer and I collect all the records is because a lot of the most exciting music comes from them. Alberto Iglesias and Yann  Tiersen  for example, anyone who is not Hans Zimmer or Howard Shore!

YOUR PRODUCTIONS ALWAYS PRESENT THE POPSTARS WE KNOW SO WELL UNDER A DIFFERENT LIGHT…
What’s interesting is to identify something within the artist that hasn’t necessarily flown free before. You can do this brilliantly and it can be surprising but you have to trust. In the music industry everybody’s got their own individuality and this makes it hard to work sometimes. People are hesitant to give you a chance to at least try something out and I find it a bit exhausting. I went through a period where I convinced myself that I was rich because I was lucky with Ray  Of  Light and its big success but then I spent all of that money and success tore me apart to be honest. You can’t be rich and do the music that you want. Once you become one with that choice, you realize how fortunate and blessed you are to be able to make music. You can’t have everything; I’m in my fifties and it took me decades to get to this point and most of the people I work with professionally are half my age…

ARTISTS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR SOMETHING NEW AND DIFFERENT. HOW DO YOU BALANCE IT WITH YOUR ARTISTIC INTEGRITY?
Well, it is not your record, it’s their record. I can get frustrated with artists when they have a pure and passionate vision for something unique at the beginning which then becomes watered down by commercial pressure or trendiness. You should never go down that road because you will end up sounding and looking dated. It’s like torturing yourself. People are suspicious recently, they thought I was messing up with All Saints and then it went on top of the charts. I see the look in their eyes, they think I am mad but I always say “what are we doing here? Do you want a record that will last forever or what?â€

PEOPLE GOT SO EXCITED WHEN THEY KNEW YOU WERE INVOLVED IN MADONNA’S MDNA. HOW DIFFERENT WAS IT TO COLLABORATE WITH HER ON THESE TWO DIFFERENT PROJECTS?
I knew people were excited, they ask me about a new Ray Of  Light every minute of the day. Think of it this way: it came about very spontaneously. We were in this studio in a rather unfashionable part of LA where nobody came. I do remember M telling to a guy from the record company “This is art. This is how we are doing it.†It was a very pure experience; it was all about making that record and nothing else. She’s an amazing person, producer and it was a true collaboration. It’s important to get this across; I don’t like it when people assume that I was the clever one doing the whole job. I’d feel mortified if I was her because she didn’t put her name on the production out of vanity, she was fucking in there with me. We didn’t have a plan and though she’s good at driving things along, I didn’t expect to see her nervous during the first listening party for people at Warner. She never shows it and I mean, that woman has never lost money even on a bad year but still, we were biting our nails! As for MDNA it’s important to say that I jumped on the project later on. She also had lots of projects going on at the same time, I honestly don’t know how any human being could cope with everything that comes with just being her! She’s such an incredible time manager. I would have mixed it myself if I could, or only together with Madonna because she’s a great mixer. We have spirited debates about things but we both always end up in the same direction. I would have also dropped three of the six tracks produced by the other guys, they were not good enough in my opinion; too puerile. As for the remaining three I would have suggested to put more depth and make them more special. I had the best team and other brilliant songs, this is why I am still a bit puzzled to these days but what’s done is done so I don’t ever give it a second thought.

ALIEN, THE TRACK YOU PRODUCED FOR BRITNEY, OPENS HER LATEST ALBUM AND IT SETS A WONDERFUL VIBE. DON’T YOU THINK THAT THE REST OF IT IS A BIT OF A LET DOWN?
For some reasons, nobody can really understand these things; she just has that special ‘thing’. If you listen to the remix of Alien I recently uploaded, it’s more indie pop and I did it for fun but hey, listen to that voice! It’s special. I wish I had the chance to do what I can do for her, she deserves to be given a chance. My specialty with artists is to make it seem like we’re not working. I try to let me understand that if I’m smiling, it means I’m happy with what we’ve just recorded; it means they touched my soul. When artists unconsciously bring this out, I’m the happiest man in the world. I’m slow to make a record, you probably wouldn’t hire me if you had to have something done by tomorrow but when it comes to be in the studio and recording vocals, everything runs quickly and  it’s  fun. I know what I  want technically and what I can work on later, so there is no point for the artist to do it over and over. I’m not talking about auto-tune but rather about spontaneity; that something great and special.

WHAT ARE YOU HUNGRY FOR?
Knowledge. I’m brought up that way. I’m addicted to knowledge and I’m starving for it. I always need to know more, particularly things of a scientific nature, or philosophical. If I had all the time in the world and music would completely cease to exist, I would definitely take a degree course in philosophy. I have no education and I left school at a very young age so I would just spend all my time reading the classics and messing around with inks and paints. I don’t mean to sound like a beauty pageant contestant whose aim is to make the world a better place but I’d love to have more knowledge and make things better. Greed is something I really loathe. It’s all about money and people do terrible things for it. They think they always need more money in the bank and more influence than they have.

[Fighter 28,803]

PEOPLE GOT SO EXCITED WHEN THEY KNEW YOU WERE INVOLVED IN MADONNA’S MDNA. HOW DIFFERENT WAS IT TO COLLABORATE WITH HER ON THESE TWO DIFFERENT PROJECTS?

I knew people were excited, they ask me about a new Ray Of  Light every minute of the day. Think of it this way: it came about very spontaneously. We were in this studio in a rather unfashionable part of LA where nobody came. I do remember M telling to a guy from the record company “This is art. This is how we are doing it.” It was a very pure experience; it was all about making that record and nothing else. She’s an amazing person, producer and it was a true collaboration. It’s important to get this across; I don’t like it when people assume that I was the clever one doing the whole job. I’d feel mortified if I was her because she didn’t put her name on the production out of vanity, she was fucking in there with me. We didn’t have a plan and though she’s good at driving things along, I didn’t expect to see her nervous during the first listening party for people at Warner. She never shows it and I mean, that woman has never lost money even on a bad year but still, we were biting our nails! As for MDNA it’s important to say that I jumped on the project later on. She also had lots of projects going on at the same time, I honestly don’t know how any human being could cope with everything that comes with just being her! She’s such an incredible time manager. I would have mixed it myself if I could, or only together with Madonna because she’s a great mixer. We have spirited debates about things but we both always end up in the same direction. I would have also dropped three of the six tracks produced by the other guys, they were not good enough in my opinion; too puerile. As for the remaining three I would have suggested to put more depth and make them more special. I had the best team and other brilliant songs, this is why I am still a bit puzzled to these days but what’s done is done so I don’t ever give it a second thought.

 

FULL INTERVIEW: http://www.hungertv.com/feature/interview-william-orbit/

 

 

I love this man and I wholeheartedly agree, I'm glad he's not afraid to speak his mind so M doesn't make the same mistakes again. 

[Fighter 28,803]

thanks liam for joining the topics groovy and i posted at the same time woops. but i think only the MDNA part is relevant

[Guest]

thanks liam for joining the topics groovy and i posted at the same time woops. but i think only the MDNA part is relevant

Agreed. And I had thought that I put your post first, but I guess I didn't merge it like I thought. That said, some may enjoy the full article as well. ;)

[Voguerista 11,905]

Thanks for posting!!

 

She also had lots of projects going on at the same time, I honestly don’t know how any human being could cope with everything that comes with just being her! She’s such an incredible time manager.

 

 

I was always wonder and marvel at this too. How does one cope with being "Madonna"? Seriously, the woman is a Saint alone for how she can multi-task and do so many things at once and be an incredible parent at the same time. 

 

 

I would have mixed it myself if I could, or only together with Madonna because she’s a great mixer. We have spirited debates about things but we both always end up in the same direction. I would have also dropped three of the six tracks produced by the other guys, they were not good enough in my opinion; too puerile. As for the remaining three I would have suggested to put more depth and make them more special. I had the best team and other brilliant songs, this is why I am still a bit puzzled to these days but what’s done is done so I don’t ever give it a second thought.

 

 

I'm really curious on the three songs he mentioned and if they had put more into them like he suggested. Out of all of her collaborators, he's one I trust the most. I also hope that the other songs he mentions see the light of day at some point. 

[groovyguy 63,861]

http://drownedmadonna.com/madonna-swim-influenced-by-gianni-versace-murder/20140622

Madonna Swim influenced by Gianni Versace murder, that’s what William Orbit confirmed in a recent interview to Marco Pantella. When they were recording Swim, Donatella Versace called Madonna to inform her about Gianni.

 

"The day we were recording Swim in the studio,Madonna got a call from her friend Donatella, informing her about that terrible thing that happened to her brother. We kept on recording and of course it had some effects on the song." ~ William Orbit

[Guest]

Oh that's a cool tidbit. It's one of my favs from RAY OF LIGHT, so it's nice to get a better idea where her head was at the time when recording it. The lyrics are timeless and pretty much fits society today.

[Voguerista 11,905]

I love Swim!! Fascinating info! Thanks!

[Halex 1,610]

Am I the only one to find odd that Orbit always gives his opinion on Madonna's post-ROL/Music work ?

[Fighter 28,803]

Am I the only one to find odd that Orbit always gives his opinion on Madonna's post-ROL/Music work ?

Ive only ever read about mdne but i guess i wasnt payin attention before

[Guest]

Am I the only one to find odd that Orbit always gives his opinion on Madonna's post-ROL/Music work ?

Hmmm? Other than his involvement with MDNA and his claims of hearing some of the new stuff. It's usually relevant.