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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Losers
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 14 September 2010
Losers, aka DJ, producer, radio presenter and CMU columnist Eddy Temple-Morris and former Cooper Temple Clause man Tom Bellamy, originally made their mark on the music world with bold remixes of Rage Against The Machine and Candi Staton. But this year they’ve become increasingly known for their original works, thanks in no small part to the astonishing video for their debut single, ‘Flush’, which has now been passed around the world wide web several times.
With the duo’s debut album, ‘Beautiful Losers’, out this week via Gung Ho! Recordings, we caught up with Eddy to find out more.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I went to a ‘cattle-market’ audition a long time ago. My friend Nigel Templeman drove me there, like a dad driving his son to school for the first time. We’d found out that two of my childhood heroes (I’d just left school at this point) were looking for a bass player. They were Aki and Buzz from Southern Death Cult (later The Cult) and at the time they were called Getting The Fear and signed to RCA. I got the job and that’s when the business of making music professionally started. At this point it would be ten years before I saw my first radio studio. And an odd coincidence that I found myself, aged nineteen, in a band signed to the same label that my Loser-husband, Tom would, at the about same age, be signed to about a decade later.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
First and foremost, we wanted to make an album that was timeless. I hated the idea that someone could listen to our record and be able to pinpoint the exact time that it was made. I remember us resisting the temptation to make it sound like the really cool things around at the time: The bass scrunches of early dubstep or the wowowowow of a Hervé or Jack Beats tune. So many artists fell into that trap and their work sounds so dated as a result. We wanted to make something that sounded classic and epic. Both Tom and I discovered dance in the 90s, and it’s that glorious 90s sound, when producers really started to push the sonic envelope, to experiment and to throw out the purist-dance rulebook, that influenced us the most.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
For the first half of the album, the pattern was that I’d come up with a guitar riff, or keyboard hook, or even an entire track, and Tom would get it recorded and improve it with his ideas and expertise in the studio. I’d go to Bleak House, the old Cooper Temple Clause studio in Berkshire, and we’d work for a day, then I’d leave the track with Tom and he’d add a layer of pixie dust to it and make it shine brighter. That was so much fun, discovering our ‘sound’.
Then after we’d made about half a dozen tracks, Tom started bringing his own songs to the table and the roles we’re reversed somewhat. Tom would bring one of his instrumental tracks, usually pretty heavy, aggressive electro, and I’d help soften it, rearrange it, perhaps give it a hook or help with a vocal idea (that’s how ‘Flush’ came about). Tom had an innate understanding of how to make electronica that rocked so we made a formidable team.
The Jane’s Addiction cover was easy. I always wanted to do an electronic version of ‘Summertime Rolls’, and Tom not knowing the track gave us an advantage, as it was fresh for him and he could help tackle it without any baggage.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
This first Losers album was (personally speaking) directly or indirectly influenced by Liam Howlett, Jagz Kooner, Killing Joke, The Cocteau Twins, Mansun, Leftfield, Massive Attack, Robert Miles, Kris Menace, Alex Metric, Adam Freeland, Justice, SebastiAn, Underworld, Jane’s Addiction, Super Furry Animals, and Steph and Dave Deweale from Soulwax.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Listen to the whole album, from start to finish. It is an album, in the old skool sense, not a collection of songs randomly put together. ‘Three Colours’ was written as the start of the album. ‘Azan’ was written as the middle track, to give you a break from all the bangers. ‘Summertime Rolls’ was covered to let you down gently at the end.
Turn your stereo up. Turn your phone and computer off. Let yourself get lost in the layers of sound, and if you like it, make sure you come see us play live. You need to see Tom in his element, don’t forget he was the most brilliant member of the most underrated band of the noughties.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Our label boss, Matt from Gung Ho!, loves this record so much it’s overwhelming. He just wants it out there, so people can discover it for themselves and cuddle it and grow to love it. It’s a loveable record.
Ambitions wise, while we have realistic expectations, it’d be nice to emulate the success of our label-mates, and Matt’s protégés, The Japanese Popstars. Personally, I’d like to see the record come out in places like Japan, Australia/NZ and America, and to take the live show over there. That would be the next dream realised: I’ve been on UK Tour with The Prodigy and Pendulum, but if we got a gig in Japan, I’d be able to die happy.
Tom, of course, has played all over the world already. On his birthday, girls in Japan make a cake in the shape of his face!
MORE>> www.facebook.com/losersuk, plus read Eddy’s CMU column online at www.theCMUwebsite.com/eddysays
