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Chris Coco at Sonar 2002
Updated 14 June 2002
 Day 2 of Sonar, and Chris Coco kicked off the music at midday in the SonarLab, with a ninety minute chilled-out set for those wanting to sit about in deckchairs and recover from the night before. At Sonar to bring you the first live festival broadcast of The Blue Room, we chatted to Chris about playing in Barcelona, who he's seen here, and how he's getting on hanging out with John Peel...
 Watch the video interview
Watch part of Chris Coco's set
You played in the SonarLab at midday today - how did that go?
It was really good. It was the first set of the day, so it was a bit of a hangover recovery session for the people there, and for me as well! I played soothing records to try and ease people into the day, and it went really well. I just brought a bag of records and made it up as I went along. I played quite a lot of things from my album that I've got coming out, a bit of Isan, stuff from The Leaf Label, a real mixture of stuff.
 Tell us more about your album.
I've got an artist album coming out in August, which I've been working on for a year and a half, called 'Next Wave', so I'm just trying out some of the tracks again, making sure they still work. It reflects what I play in a chill-out set. It's very relaxed electronic music. It's got people like Nick Cave singing a song on it, and Iain Banks, the author, reading something from one of his books, and Patrick Bergin, the actor, doing some actorial-type things!
Is this you first time at Sonar?
No, I've been here a few times. I did a similar kind of set two or three years ago, and I've been here a couple of times as a journalist. I think it's my favourite festival, to be honest. I really like the way that the daytime's quite serious in a way, and you discover all these things that you just wouldn't normally go and look at. Like a guy playing a turntable with two arms on it, with a 12", a 7" and a CD on it - just sort of really weird noise in the day, and then at night it's just like a big party. It's a really good combination, I think.
"There was this Japanese guy yesterday, who basically records the sound of CDs jumping onto CD, and then plays the CDs and makes them jump!"
Do you think the UK could ever do a similar kind of festival?
We were talking about this the other day, and we were trying to figure out whether people would actually go. I think you'd have to take over the whole of The Barbican in London, or something like that, but it does help the fact that it's in the summer and it's hot here - it makes you a little bit more forgiving of the more out-there things. I think it should happen in the UK. The British club scene needs something like this, to broaden itself out and stop it being so insular.
 Have you heard any good new music since you've been here?
The things that stick in mind are usually the really weird ones, but I can't remember the guys names! There was this Japanese guy yesterday, who basically records the sound of CDs jumping onto CD, and then plays the CDs and makes them jump! It's great to see stuff like that, because you wouldn't actually pay ten pounds and travel for an hour to go to a concert by this guy, but to actually walk into a room where he's performing and just be amazed, and stand there with your mouth open for ten minutes is really wonderful.
I was disappointed by Bonobo. They did the classic thing that you shouldn't do - which a lot of people do here - which is one bloke with a laptop, you open it up, press 'Go' and that's about it. The good things are when people are a bit more experimental, and they try and bring live elements into it - like the guys from Morr Music are going to do this afternoon, where they're actually taking their records, which are krafted with computers, and playing them live again. I think that's going to be really good.
 This is the first live outing for The Blue Room - can you tell us a bit about the show?
The show is not just electronic music, it's a variety of chilled sounds, so a bit of electronica, some people with acoustic guitars - we had Lambchop in session recently, just piano and guitar, which was beautiful - some mellow rock music, it's a really broad range, but the thing that links it together is that it's chilled out, late night emotional music basically. We're doing Sonar, and we're going to do Glastonbury - hopefully it's going to be nice weather, and we can do a lovely sunrise set. If not, it's going to be a maudlin rain-soaked song-type thing! Then we're doing Ibiza in August, but we're not doing the normal San Antonio things. I think we're going to Salinas beach to do some stuff there, so again, it'll be more of a chilled-out-by-the-sea-on-the-sand experience, which should be really good.
"I've been trying to become one of the John Peel family, but I need to work at it for a bit longer, I think!"
As you're here with Radio 1 at Sonar - have you been hanging out with John Peel?
Yes, I had breakfast with John Peel the other day, which was quite fantastic, so I've been trying to become one of the John Peel family, but I need to work at it for a bit longer, I think! It's been great, because like most people, I grew up listening to his shows, and taping bits of them, so to actually spend some time with him is quite amazing really.
Chris Coco on John Peel
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