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 the juan maclean interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.From Sub Pop to body-pop. Until now it’s been possible to spend a lifetime in dance music without ever once dwelling on the Sub Pop label. Symbolized by unkempt hair, lumberjack shirts and Seattle, grunge’s flagship imprint couldn’t have been further removed from the patrons of sweaty house clubs, no matter how many of them had Nevermind as their token rock album.But lurking at the back of the label that brought forth Nirvana, Mudhoney and Soundgarden were Six Finger Satellite, fashioning an electro-rock punk-funk prototype that fitted Sub Pop’s profile hand-in-shoe. “We were their only East Coast signing and it was a great time because nobody was doing that kind of thing,” says Juan Maclean, now reborn as solo artist (with added definite article). “I really enjoyed being on the outside of the music scene and the kind of hostility that inspired in people. House music was going into its progressive phase, a lot of its raw elements had disappeared.”  SFS fell apart amid uncontrolled drug abuse (Juan himself was a smack-addicted 16-year-old), with a cleaned-up Juan fleeing New York for New Hampshire, only to be partially coaxed back (his time is now split between the two) by his old roadie, James Murphy, two years later. “James was as disillusioned by the indie rock scene as I was, and he met Tim Goldsworthy who was completely disillusioned with dance. They started bouncing ideas off each other and identified a way to make music exciting again. They called me in New Hampshire, and it took them a long time to talk me into doing it.” The wonderfully named By The Time I Get To Venus was Maclean’s debut release on the fledgling DFA label, since when Maclean has quit his job teaching English and music at a juvenile detention facility (“The most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life, something I’ll definitely go back to.”) to launch part two of his music career. The next chapter of that is the LP, Less Than Human, a blend of melodic electro and tough grooves, more bedroom-bound than dancefloor-shaking. “It’s not funky at all,” he exaggerates. “It’s got that kinda rigid, Kraftwerk, early techno, mechanized thing. Even in SFS we used to sit there and wonder how we could make the drums sound like drum machines.” Displaying Maclean’s love of analogue synths, 70s sci-fi (Dr Who is his favourite TV show) and cult novelist Philip K Dick - whom he cites as “the biggest influence in my entire life” - Less Than Human feels like one of the warmest, most rounded electronic albums in eons.
Steve Yates
The Juan Maclean – Less Than Human, released 04 July 05 on DFA/EMI.
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