A few days ago, we spent some time catching up with Andy Gardiner (who many of you might remember as DJ/producer, Vicarious Bliss) who was excited to tell us all about his recent work. Known for his previous releases on Ed Banger Records and more, the talented musician has most recently taken the reigns of a new label, Splinter, along with guiding new acts in the modern-day music scene.
Tune in below for the full interview with Vicarious Bliss.
French Shuffle: Vicarious Bliss – you’ve had quite an epic music career, thus far. You’ve worked with Ed Banger Records, co-produced with The Bloody Beetroots, written tracks for I Love UFO and much more. How did you initially get into music production? Any particular inspirations?
Vicarious Bliss: Epically varied, yeah! I started out on fanzines (I helped run the French ‘The Cure’ zine as a teenager – still one of my fav bands ever…) and got into music journalism for a couple of years, whilst trying to figure out how to become a ‘proper’ musician.
The nepotism kind of worked and I got signed as a writer/producer with Rondor/Universal France. Spent the following couple of years writing for rubbish girl bands, french pop people and getting the odd co-write with something half-decent. Did some film music, notably getting a track on to Brian De Palma’s Femme Fatale movie.
This got me thinking about doing my own project, as it was the first time I was making music (professionally speaking) that wasn’t for someone else’s artistic career. Was invited to a songwriting bootcamp organized by Sting/Police manager, Miles Copeland (brother of Stewart), in his 12th century chateau in the Dordogne and wrote what would become Theme From Vicarious Bliss late one night over some very good bordeaux.
Not long after, met Pedro who had just set Ed Banger up a few months before and that was that, I suppose. I was now “an artist” as opposed to a writer operating in the shadows. The credibility stakes were upped as things started to roll, so I started to get approached to hook up on cool(er) production projects.
Also, I think doing so many different remixes for people helped in many respects. I’ve always considered remixing as mini production projects and definitely co-writes. Much to many an A&R man’s woe, I would invariably only keep a snare drum or just two words of vocals from the original track and then go off into my own private cosmic la-la-land in the studio!
I should add that traveling so much as a DJ was a real bonus, as you meet and become fast friends with many of the people that you end up collaborating with on cool stuff. As far as inspiration goes, if I had to list even a tenth of it, I’d be classified as insane (yet again!).
French Shuffle: That’s a pretty amazing journey, especially where you’ve gotten to today. It makes us think that a lot of producers may have started out in a similar fashion, producing for other acts before starting their own projects.
The travel, collaborations and remix work must keep you fairly pressed for time though. What keeps you busiest these days? We know you’ve been working with disco band, Patawawa, as of recent.
Vicarious Bliss: I launched Splinter early last year – a 100% digital label that I set up in conjunction with Believe Digital.
The idea behind Splinter is to release as much fresh music as quickly as possible by building solid ties with all the various partners in today’s digital marketplace. I was getting really fed up with the traditional 4-month PR roll outs that always end up with a 24-hour premiere on the web and then it’s already on to the next thing, etc.
People are permanently bombarded with music from absolutely everywhere, so it is essential to keep momentum across releases and all the activities that go hand-in-hand (touring/events/branding etc). We can develop artists by simply letting the music drive the project, if we are able to continually release fresh stuff without all the old hindrances.
To have a shot and provoke your own luck as an artist today, you need to be up to speed on so many levels – as a community manager, your own PR, production technique and so on. When an artist has a good hold on all of this, they are well in with a chance and we can come in to support them at the next level.
Patawawa gave us our first release last February with the track, Diversion.
Things moved very fast across the board – #newmusicfridays and great play – listing from all platforms, viral charts and loads of Hype Machine blog action. Within 2 weeks, it was game on.
We have consistently put out multiple releases from Patawawa, even licensing them to friends at other labels (Cookie, Kraak & Smaak…) if the timing and project requires it. Whilst it’s essential to have break-through artists that drive the label onwards and upwards, it’s important to remain focused on releasing all sorts of quality music from all over.
I get a real kick out of knowing that a 15-year old Patawawa fan may possibly have heard the ethereal beauty of ambient duo, A Transient State, or the dry tech beats of Texture Droite because he or she trusts the quality control and artistic direction of the label.
French Shuffle: That’s great to hear about the Splinter launch – we’re extremely excited to see where it goes. We’ve been watching Patawawa since 2015/16 and they have some serious talent!
It sound like Splinter gives artists, like Patawawa, a chance to drive the creative bus too. Seriously, great work on this – can’t wait to see how it fits in the grand scheme of things, especially with musical tastes switching so often.
With this new wave of producers coming in, the current state of music is obviously changing. Where do you see disco acts, like Patawawa, and disco generally fitting in? And, what about other genres?
What’s cool about modern music is this constant intermingling of sounds, but the electronic music scene seems a bit saturated at this point.
Vicarious Bliss: I think it’s dangerous to over-analyze the “how and why” of a band who are beginning to enjoy success. Without stating the obvious, I still (and always will!) think that simply having great songs is the key. And yes, Patawawa have them in spades, ahahha.
There’s obviously a timeframe that you can’t really invent or provoke that means that an artist is of “their time.” But, once through the doors, if they can keep it fresh and real, then they should hopefully be able to build a career and maintain longevity.
It’s sometimes actually more to do with the sociological aspects of things, rather than the music per se, though again, without the songs, it’s not even worth trying. And, if you start to over-think it all, you risk madness!
With all due respect to electronic artists around right now (and, there is some amazing stuff of course!), I kind of agree with your point. I’ve always been a bit of a gear head, and so, I really don’t know what they could invent next that could widen the palate of sound generated and recorded with electricity and the processes used.
Anyone with a laptop now has an orchestra (or 10!) under the bonnet which is great! A lot of stuff sounds quite cyclical – i.e. 2018 techno is not too far removed from 1988 techno, just better produced (depending on your viewpoint!).
Having lived through the Ed Banger explosion (and the blog haus movement – ahhh, Myspace! – and so on), there was the aforementioned “moment in time” for us all where everything crossed over, blurred and went bat-shit crazy.
Rock kids started clubbing and clubbers got into moshing and stage-diving. Everybody from that generation, be it Ed Banger, the Soulwax crew, Erol & Trash, Boys Noize, etc. – all the indie/pop bands like Klaxons, CSS and so on, and not forgetting producers like Mehdi and A-Trak who were shifting gears between hip hop & electro and back again – basically 2003 – 2011 was just one huge crazy messy crossover that nowadays has just become the normality.
I’m not really sure where things can progress to now, but is it actually of any importance to need to classify things into genres? Possibly not. And, this maybe gives individual artists and their songs the chance to shine more easily today without having to be pigeon-holed in some movement.
People are also quite disillusioned by stuff like EDM as the dollar-dominating future of electronic music? Get over it! Okay, so 90% of America actually thinks that EDM is an electronic genre. Let them, they’ll soon get bored of it, ahahhah.
Okay, it’s easy to spit on this stuff of which 99% of is absolutely worse than dire. But, it’s not about the music, it’s just about 10,000 people in some festival waiting for “the drop” so they can go mental like at a football match.
It could be Steve Aoki up there or your Granny’s dentist, it would make absolutely NO difference whatsoever – it’s just 10,000 people paying to go bananas 1 or 2 times during each formulaic track when it goes loud/quiet and back to loud again. Until they are tired, hungry or the drugs have worn off and they have to go home.
And, just as Noel Gallagher quite (possibly) rightly argues that there could never be a rock band as big as Oasis again, pre-internet etc., with 25 million sales of 1 LP alone and all the accompanying seismic cultural shifts they provoked in the UK, for example, I think it’s probably the same through all music now, especially electronic.
The acid house/rave scene happened over a quarter of a century ago! Culture has moved on. It’s no big deal, really. Just make sure the tracks are great and there’ll always be an audience somewhere if you’re making quality stuff.
I’m actually more than optimistic about the state of the music industry and its future. There are so many different ways of promoting great stuff and getting it heard. Yes, there are problems that need to be addressed, especially where revenue streams are concerned, but there are a zillion possibilities for generating income from quality music today that we just didn’t have access to even just 5 years ago.
And these opportunities are growing by the day.
French Shuffle: Interesting that you’d say that – we’d have to agree. And, you make a great point. Success can’t really be predicted, but it really can be nurtured with the right support, quality music and timing as well.
There are definitely distinct types of music fans – those there for the music and those that are (for lack of better words) just there. Regarding the blog haus era, it was a fantastic time and we have faith that periods like that come in cycles. Just thinking 80s synthpop, french house, bloghaus and now where we’re at today.
Any songs you really love listening to right now? Give us your top five.
Vicarious Bliss: Without shamelessly plugging my own back yard, I’m really excited for the forthcoming EP from Patawawa that they recorded in Paris last month and that is currently being co-produced by a 23 year old wunderkind who you will be hearing much more about soon enough.
Anybody who hasn’t heard Oli Hannaford, a 22 year old artist/producer from London, should do so immediately too!
French Shuffle: We’ll definitely have a listen! And, there’s no shame in plugging good music. Listeners – be on the lookout for the new release.
So, given that you mentioned the bloghaus era, let’s rewind a few years. Your single, Limousine, was one of our favorites.
It has this indie rock-meets-electronica vibe and we love it. It is peculiarly similar to Justice’s release, New Lands, though.
Did they resample it?
VB: I don’t think Xavier and Gaspard needed to resort to sampling me or any other previous release from their own label! The opening riff is kind of similar, I suppose (I had never noticed until just playing it 5 minutes ago!), but 20 seconds in and you’ve got a well-crafted pop song that could have been recorded any time in the last 50 years and possibly the 50 to come, like most of Justice’s recent stuff.
For the anecdote – on Limousine, I totally ripped off The Damned’s I Just Can’t be Happy Today for my keyboard riff and the main snare drum loop came from some Moby remix that was lying around, if I remember correctly?! There, can’t be more honest than that.
French Shuffle: Haha, just curious, that’s all. Didn’t even realize the nod to The Damned’s single!
Speaking of other artists you’ve worked with, tell us a little more about your production process with The Bloody Beetroots and I Love UFO. How did those collaborations start? And, was there anything that surprised you about working with them?
Also, feel free to send us a photo of Bob Rifo’s face, because we’re still wondering what he looks like.
Vicarious Bliss: All projects work differently – with the Beetroots, we did it over distance on the net. I’d do stuff in my studio and push it over to Bob who would chop and change it around, and add stuff until he was happy in his.
I love the track, Little Stars, that we did together because it’s my son Arthur, aged 6, that sings on it – a really good souvenir for both of us!
I Love UFO was really intense and hands-on, with quite a lengthy production process all together here in Paris. Lots of “band sleeping on the studio floor all week” and eating endless bowls of pasta to keep going.
French Shuffle: Ah, that’s cool! Well, now we’re looking forward to productions from the next generation Vicarious Bliss.
Haha alright, final question. Can we expect another Vicarious Bliss release soon? And, when?
Vicarious Bliss: That’s the definitive “If I had a dollar for every time someone asks me that?” question! With running the label and looking after Patawawa at this crucial time for them, it’s not on the cards at the moment.
I put the odd thing out on Splinter occasionally. We released a pop track last June that I co-wrote years ago with Kim Appleby of Mel & Kim, after I went back to it in the studio a few months ago, just for fun.
I also have an on/off project with Asia Argento called Verdade. We dropped a track on the label last year too, but with all the fuss & frenzy of Asia’s current situation (that I am not qualified to comment on, nor would I wish to), I have no idea if we’ll ever get to release any more stuff.
Of course, I’ll always make music for and by myself, or with others. Will it be under the “Vicarious Bliss” moniker or something else? We’ll just have to wait and see!
French Shuffle: Well, that’s it listeners. We hope you enjoyed our chat with Vicarious Bliss! Be sure to send some love and show your support by following via the links below.