Tim Deluxe Interview

British producer, Tim Deluxe, will release his highly awaited new album, ‘The Radicle’ on 30th October – but it’s probably not what you’d expect. The man behind summer party smash hits like ‘It Just Won’t Do’ and ‘Less Talk More Action’ has been absent for quite a few years, and during this time, has swapped house for jazz. To explain more, we had a chat with him about why he’s taken such a musical shift, working with live musicians and trading hangovers for marathon training on Sundays.

Hi Tim, how have you been?
I’ve been good. Soaked, but I’m all right.

We are in a soaking wet London, today! Your highly anticipated album is out at the end of next month. How did the title, ‘The Radicle’, come around, and what was the main inspiration behind it?
The whole inspiration behind it was taking a break from music, believe it or not! Studying jazz, blues, piano, and wanting to connect directly with the music as opposed to hanging out of nightclubs at silly o’clock. I just got a little burnt out around 2008-09, and decided to take a break and that was the beginning of ‘The Radicle’ so it’s been a long process.

How long has the process been?
About five years of learning, running marathons, not really going out to nightclubs, and a radical life shift. The way it’s spelt with ‘le’ means the first seeds of an embryo, and once I got the music together, I wanted something rootsy and that fitted with the vibe. There are no synths – it’s all humans playing instruments – so I felt that was a good title. It’s almost like version 2.0 – it’s a good place to start from.

How did your change have an influence on what you listen to at home and the direction you wanted the album to go?
Things did change musically; I was just bored and it was that shift around 2006-08 where real minimal techno came into play. Everyone seemed to be doing ketamine, and the music got very dark and heavy, and music with soul took a backseat. Off the back of that, there was the rise of EDM culture. I stood back and it was a good time for a break because there wasn’t much music inspiring me. Even on a technology level, everyone was playing vinyl, then CDs came along, and then computers, so setting up was a nightmare! From technology to music, it was an unsettling period.

But then you created something positive out of it.
It gives you space to evaluate what you want to do, and for me, I felt disconnected, so I was even thinking about breaking out of music. But it was really powerful going back to records; I was always pulled back to jazz, blues and soul, so I started doing piano. I went on the Internet and found a teacher called Cherry Muckle! Her way of teaching is really interesting because she gets the students together twice a year to do concerts and it was quite inspiring because you had to learn pieces to perform in church. It was really nerve-wracking because you’re naked and exposed, but it’s good because you don’t want to be that person making mistakes! Out of that came the first demos for the record; around 2011 I made a record called ‘Transformation’ and that was the beginning of it all.

With the sound you created, did you have pen to paper for a while? Did you know the sound you wanted to gain?
In the beginning, there was a bit of improvising because I was messing about trying to get ideas for new music. But I got a few ideas together quickly, and I was starting to get an album. Once I’d committed to it that was it. Production was the last stage, whereas when I’ve made music before, it was always starting with beats and drums and getting grooves and it evolves from there. This was literally sitting down, playing and recording, leaving them and coming back to them. When you’re working on a piece, you’re zoomed in, and the only way to evaluate it is to put the space and time in. Sometimes 24 or 48 hours isn’t enough, so I’d leave things on the hard drive for six months and then come back, and if they were still exciting on that first listen, then that stands the test of time. That was part of the aim as well: to make something timeless. I don’t want to use loads of electronic software and production because that will date really quickly, and when things shift again it will just sound old. I was talking to Adrian Sherwood maybe about 5-6 six years ago, and he said that you’ll always find, with people playing real instruments, the record will have a longer time or feeling about it and outlive things that are here and now. The next step was to evaluate whether to have singers and I ended up just using loads of spoken words and sourcing out loads of old vocals that I felt said something.

The opening track with Barbara Ann Teer’s vocals; did those lyrics resonate with you? They’re so nice to listen to, you almost don’t even have to listen to what she’s saying.
Yeah, of course! That’s the other thing: you want to find the marriage between the right tones. You try with singers sometimes and the tone isn’t quite right for the production of the tracks. I was really happy with the tones; they’re really warm and honest and it fits with the instrumentation of the record. The phrases that I chose come from a 22-minute interview, and I would be listening to it and a phrase or word would pop out, so I’d collage it, so what you’re listening to on the record is re-contextualised. There are some phrases that are as they are, but if you source the original recording and listen to it, it won’t make sense. The beginning was my mission statement, and that’s from five different parts!

When you listen to ‘Feelings’, and it’s got that balance of house and jazz, was that a jigsaw? Was it quite hard to get a balance?
Yeah, massively. Because I had started to study and play piano, and got the amazing jazz pianist, John Donaldson, to play the parts, the initial recordings were really untreated and really jazzy, it was almost like a jazz record. When I played it to friends they said, “You’re crazy. It’s cool, but you’re not a jazz musician.” Even with the production, they were just like, “Bring it back and do what you would do.” What I probably didn’t realise was that it was new and fresh enough, but I wanted more because I’d just been listening to ‘60s jazz records.

You were working with so many musicians and listening to so much music, were there any tracks in particular that you felt overwhelmed with too much or that seemed to take forever?
‘Feelings’ was like that. The bonus track, ‘Spirals’, is a mad track – I didn’t know where it fitted in. There was a lot of toing and froing, I was trying to get everyone to play the riff, but it’s not really designed to be played on a trumpet! I was fighting with ‘Captain Captain’ because I’ve got an outtake of John doing a whole piano solo over it, and it sounds amazing, but it’s full-on jazz, so maybe I’ll use that for an unreleased club mix or an experiment. For the album, it was pretty wild.

With this record, you were listening and playing rather than going out…
Yeah, I wasn’t going out at all. Maybe a couple of nights in that time span, but I was running a lot so Sundays were all about marathon training for 18 miles, so you need to be well rested and fed! It’s funny because I live near Fabric and I’d be running past Fabric and people would be on the pavements. My life has gone 180.

You haven’t been out out in London much, but has there been a standout moment for you in the last couple of years?
There have been a couple of things; Terry Riley and Talvin Singh at Kings Place was really powerful. Cinematic Orchestra were doing shows scoring to silent French black and white movies, and that was amazing. There have been some amazing jazz gigs at The Haggerston on Kingsland Road on a Sunday. But I haven’t listened to any DJs in a club for a long time!

So are you leaning towards live shows?
Yeah, that’s the plan for the record. And they’re amazing musicians so it’d be really cool to galvanise that altogether and work out how to do it. We’ve also got the big back catalogue to jump into and maybe rework into the style of the album, so it’s quite an exciting, nerve-wracking prospect for me! It’s new and stimulating. I mean no disrespect – DJing’s amazing – but I still feel like I want a challenge. I think it’s good to fly by the seat of your pants a little bit!

Tim Deluxe ‘The Radicle’ is out 30th October 2015 (2LP, CD and digital) on Strictly Rhythm. Pre-order now from store.defected.com or iTunes

Catch Tim Deluxe and loads more Defected and Strictly Rhythm DJs at We Are WHSE in London on 17th October. Click here for more info >>>

Watch the full interview by Frankie Salt, recorded at Tim Deluxe’s London Studio