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 ask squarepusher! - page five
page 5 of 5 The Past.4. Marov1723 asks: What has been your favourite achievement - musical or non-musical - to date? Squarepusher: Do people really have "favourite achievements"? It is not something that I have heard anyone I know talk about. Quite possibly it would be a personal matter as to what this would be for any given person and hence not a matter for conversation. In my view, it sounds like some sort of terminology from neo-educational rhetoric. It seems characteristic of the way in which a teacher might try to engage unwilling students in education, by focussing on their strengths etc. As I'm confident in what I'm doing I don't see any need to define a hierarchy of my own achievements. That is a problem that is instead undertaken with relish by my audience (who refreshingly enough don't seem to come to any sort of consensus!). 19. The greatgabbo asks: I have a few questions. Firstly, out of the hundreds of tracks that you've made over the years, which one is your favourite? Which track have you put the most time into, and was it worth it? Squarepusher: I don't really have a favourite piece - in truth I hardly ever listen to my old music. Usually it takes a good three or four years for me to want to hear something again after I've spent the time making it. Quite often I prefer the tracks that were just made as a joke, or made in a really throwaway manner. Out of the pieces that I have released, I think the most time-consuming was 50 Cycles on Ultravisitor. Roughly speaking it took a month to make. This was the last piece to be completed on Ultravisitor, which contains several other pieces that also took unprecedentedly long to complete. This manner of working really started to test my patience, as in the main I have worked very quickly on my music. It is rare for me to deliberate for long on any sort of musical decision - indeed, my decision-making process was not changed in this period but rather the ambition for the scope of the pieces which entailed a massive amount of decisions. After completing these pieces I decided to abandon these grandiose ambitions. Instead, I applied an arbitrary time-limit according to which I would spend no more than a week on a piece, much more in keeping with my older mode of working. Some of the pieces made according to this concept are gathered together on Hello Everything.  Miscellaneous. 20 Marcusmixx asks: It has been rumoured that in the past you tended to get nervous before live performances. Is this true? And if so, do you still get nervous before going on stage? Squarepusher: Absolutely. I have been playing gigs for nearly 20 years and I still get very nervous. I have got better at dealing with the nerves, but never have I got rid of them. Some say that a good performance depends on a certain amount of trepidation. I say that is rubbish, nerves just get in the way. I used to be really unhappy with how I played on stage compared with how I played at home, as the nervousness would sometimes upset my presence of mind. I know how to deal with nerves now, but I would happily get rid of them. 21 Abrowncrayon asks: Which radio stations do you listen to? Any favourite programmes? Squarepusher: As far as radio goes, scanning through the shortwave bands is my favourite. There are some fascinating sounds to be heard on the shortwave band, much of which is information transfer, although I have yet to decipher any of this. I listen to any radio station with non-English presenters. Anything in English I find an imposition. The shipping forecast is good. Anyone familiar with both this and ‘88 Chicago acid will find the term “Tyree” pretty funny. 22 Thechildecho asks: What sort of things do you worry about? Squarepusher: Retaining commitment to the absurd task of publicising my music. 23 Clr 400 asks: Do you prefer red or green apples? Squarepusher: As a child I was obssessed with Golden Delicious apples, which are bright green with not a hint of red. There is an almost synthetic edge to these apples in their uniformity of flavour and texture. Often red apples can be rather “mealy” and woolly in texture which really doesn't ap-peal… groan.  24 Kingfft asks: Would you mind shedding some light on the lyrics in Do You Know Squarepusher and My Red Hot Car? Squarepusher: The lyrics to these pieces are simply devices through which to involve a human voice in composition; the lyrics are completely crass on purpose so that attention is not deflected away from sound texture to questions of semantics. One could suggest using do-dee-do-type vocal sounds, but I hate the sound of people singing do-dee-do. It makes me want to throw the record player out of the window. It would be misleading to tell you these lyrics because they have no intentional meaning. It could be argued that the author is not the sole progenitor of meaning in a text and that a recipient is just as privileged in terms of deciding the meaning of a text. To which I would reply that post-structuralism itself only makes any sense if your attention is sufficiently diverted by an atmosphere incorporating more than 547 ppm Gitane smoke. If this was the case when you asked the question, you will now presumably be more concerned by the onset of various respiratory ailments and hence not be reading this increasingly unfunny answer. 25 Dog_belch asks: Cocktails, do you have a favourite? Have you made some of your own? Or would you just drink whatever was to hand? Or just a tea, thanks very much? Squarepusher: I'm really no sort of an expert in the cocktails department, but I cannot recall not enjoying a cocktail. I'm interested to further my knowledge in this department, but as I live in a tiny Essex village with one pub that struggles to serve a decent pint of beer, my day-to-day chances of achieving this seem slim. White Russian seems to be a good one, although I've never liked milk. Sorry this answer is a load of crap. Is Dog Belch a cocktail?  page fourback to page one comments
Read members' comments related to this music.
comment by discoschlock
Feb 3, 2008
Well, it sounds to me more like the kinds of answers you would get from a music teacher, had you asked them a lot of questions about whether they use pianos with ivory keys or whether they eschew the ivory keys in favor of some sort of polymer, because it makes the sound "brighter".I had a question - maybe someone here knows the answer. How _old_ is squarepusher? I read that he was 21 in a different interview written in '99. That would make him 30 now. I'm doing an informal survey of the best of my generation. I'm really looking forward to being the crustiest old idm-reminiscing bastard at the party.
comment by jackfell
Oct 26, 2006
This is some of most incredibly arrogant and pretentious writing I have read since I last visited the Garth Marenghi website... Is it genuine, or intended ironically?My personal favourites: 'Is it possible to have an opinion of one's “fundamental project”? (Borrowed from Sartre.) Is it not the “fundamental project” that determines opinion? It would be like having an opinion of your hands, or comparing your mind to your face.' -wow, he reads french philosophical writing 'I do have a "bash"(?) at various other things in addition to music. Just because I don't thrust it into the public sphere doesn't mean that it doesn't occur.' -is he not familiar with the colloquialism 'to have a bash (at something)'? 'Thechildecho asks: What sort of things do you worry about? Squarepusher: Retaining commitment to the absurd task of publicising my music.' -I know, it's a hard life, trying to remain committed to publicising one's music to the great unwashed. In his interview with the culture show the other day, he came across as a pleasant, slightly shy person. However, these answers show a similar degree of self-indulgence as the lengthy, pointless bass solos that punctuate his albums. Anyway, I forgive him all of this simply on the strength of tundra 4, or any one of his many other excellent tracks. But, in the words of the man himself: 'because someone is a good musician, it doesn't mean their half-arsed fiction is worth reading.'
comment by DigitalVince
Oct 20, 2006
comment by Sialoha
Oct 20, 2006
Now there are some thoughtful answers. An interview that leaves you feeling more stupid than the musician, rather than (more commonly) the other way round.
comment by Dr B
Oct 20, 2006
As a child I was obssessed with Golden Delicious apples, which are bright green with not a hint of red. There is an almost synthetic edge to these apples in their uniformity of flavour and texture. Yoinks !!
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