RS: What other music videos have you done on an official basis?
Graham Daniels (of Addictive TV): We did a remix for Warren Suicide, the German band,
but that wasn't just a video, that was the audio as well. They're a
punk rock band and we did a dance remix, doing the audio and the
video. Outside of that, not a huge amount. Directing promos isn't
something we really pursue or run after. It's only if we're asked.
RS: What kind of stuff, that you play live, gets the biggest response?
Graham Daniels: A complete mixture. We did a remix of the film City
of God, and that's always gone down really, really, really well,
particularly in Brazil. We did a kind of breakbeat ska remix of Laurel
and Hardy singing the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and that's
always gone down really, really well, particularly at big sound music
festivals. We did an AC/DC track, and that always goes down really
well. It's kind of a mixture, really. We were commissioned to do a
remix of Willie Nelson, that went down really well, especially when we
did it in Dallas, because that's not far from his hometown.
RS: How is the dance music establishment embracing you as video artists?
Graham Daniels: I think a lot in the dance establishment are
actually still unaware of a lot of this kind of thing going on. And a
lot of the time when we've played in clubs, people would have a DJ,
and they'd just say, 'Wow, I didn't realize anybody was doing this.' I
think a lot of DJs in the dance establishment realize people are DJing
with DVD turntables now. They know they exist and a lot of people are
DJing with music videos, but that's not quite what we're doing. And I
think that people see a lot of dance music producers and DJs, (but
when they) see what we're doing, they've never seen anything quite
like that before. It's one thing, taking some voice samples and
keeping with the video and just putting it over some music, some beats
– that's one thing which quite a lot of people are doing, but that's
not what we're doing. When you actually start making the music out of
the actual sounds that you see, it's something completely different,
and it's a lot more complicated to do and a lot more time-consuming to
actually produce and make, but the results can be fantastic. And I
think when people see that, particularly from within the dance world,
they haven't seen a lot of that before and I think it shocks them, in
the sense that they didn't realize people are actually doing it.
RS: And so Addictive TV, how many people are Addictive TV?
Graham Daniels: There's four of us. Two of us perform – me (Graham
Daniels) and Tolly. There are two other producers as well, Nick Clarke
and Francoise Lamy. Francoise is a boy's name, with an 'se' at the
end, Francoise. She's a curator and producer. She and Nick Clark, they
were behind the festival, Optronica, that we did. They also organize a
lot of events and they've often organized bits of tours and things
that we've done. Whereas producing the content, that's all me and
Tolly.
RS: Have you explored any of the other MIDI controllers out
there, like the Vestax VCI-100 or Numark Total Control.
Graham Daniels: No, we haven't. I think we do (explore), but there's
actually very, very little equipment on the market. It's great that
there's slowly, slowly more and more coming out, and people like New
Mark now deciding to make audio video kits. We tested a mixer for
them. It was okay, but not as good as a DJ kind of mixer and our
upgraded Roland V4 mixer, which takes audio, so we stick with what
we've got. But it's great to see people like that, and Korg and other
people who are starting to make audio video kits.
RS: Since you're so far ahead of the curve right now, what do
you see coming next?
Graham Daniels: Well, first I think that a lot of clubs and others
need to start looking at more artists. There need to be more artists,
and they are slowly, slowly coming up, and more people are beginning
to work in this field. But after that, I guess it probably will be
mobile devices, or live performances broadcast to different venues,
and that kind of thing. It's difficult to say. I think there's huge
clearance hurdles to get over as well. I think that'll be the next
thing – a lot of people sitting on back catalogues. It's kind of like
in the music industry. At first, they didn't like the whole idea of
sampling, and they tried to stop a lot of the early hip-hop artists.
Obviously they now embrace it, and everybody gets things remixed and
everybody samples everything. I think the next big hurdle to get over
will be the same kind of thing within film and television. Sooner or
later, they'll realize that they are sitting on archives, and they can
actually use them and license them out to artists, and get people to
remix them, audiovisually.
RS: What would you like to say to all your fans out there?
Graham Daniels: It's great that they all support us, it's great that
they turn up in gigs. We just really appreciate it when people
understand what it is we do. Because I think when you're making stuff,
when you perform and often people don't quite understand what it is,
that can be quite frustrating, as an artist, if people don't quite get
it. I think this is one of those things that, like in the early days
of dance music, people either got it or they didn't, they either loved
it or they hated it. And I think AV is going through that same kind of
thing. People either get it and just go, 'wow this is great,' and they
really love AV, where what you see is what you hear. But other people,
they just go, 'I don't get this, and it's really annoying.' I think
it's great that there are people out there that love it, and I say
thanks to everybody who does.
