In the midst of a surprisingly flawless PR roll-out for Aphex Twin's first album in 13 years, Syro (which is due out September 26 on Warp), the usually quiet and secretive Richard D. James has found himself a bit more in the limelight in the last week. He recently sat down for interviews with both Fader and Pitchfork, and while neither publication has yet published their full conversations yet, both confirmed one big thing: Aphex Twin is, and has been, up to a ton of shit, and he has a lot of stories to tell about it.
There's a ton of things to touch on, but one of the most amusing is that Richard D. James, like many a celebrity before him, has a Kanye story of his own. More than a few trained ears, myself included, immediately picked out "Avril 14th" (from Aphex Twin's Drukqs album) as the hook to Kanye West's "Blame Game" upon hearing it for the first time, but as is the case with most samples anymore, it was complicated:
"Is it a sample? I actually don’t know what it ended up being in the end, I’m so slack," James said in the interview with Pitchfork. "I know that he tried to fucking rip me off and claim that he’d written it, and they tried to get away with not paying. I was really helpful, and when they first sent it to me, I was like, “Oh, I can re-do that for you, if you like,” because they’d sampled it really badly and time-stretched it and there was loads of artifacts. I was like, “I’ll just replay it for you at that speed if you want.” And they totally didn’t even say “hello” or “thanks,” they just replied with, “It’s not yours, it’s ours, and we’re not even asking you any more. [laughs]"
For those of you who scratch your heads and wonder if everyone has to work with assholes sometimes or if it's just you, rest easy knowing Aphex Twin probably relates. In fact, Fader went out of their way to note that the secretive artist is surprisingly amicable, going so far as to laugh at bad jokes and call back when the line cut out. While many might roll their eyes at that, when you've had a long day and that big interview piece all of a sudden goes south - an understanding person on the other end makes a world of difference, and is oddly heartwarming.
Among the other teaser info from Fader and Pitchfork:
- Pronunciation of the album title (it's Sigh-ro)
- Syro will not be the last Aphex Twin album and he's working on several other albums concurrently, with Syro being the "most accessible."
- He denies being behind any of the supposed Syro leaks as seen on YouTube.
- He's been DJing anonymously, mostly at smaller gigs and "just for fun."
- The limited edition of Syro will include a bonus track printed in ink on heavy cardstock, in case you forgot which crazy experimental musician is making the album you're buying.
- And a real kicker: James' five-year-old son has already learned how to use a music program that he downloaded himself (!), from BitTorrent (!!), and has even uploaded tracks to Bandcamp (!!!). Guess that prodigy gene runs in the family.
Who knows what the full interviews will say and what other news will surface in the month and a day that separates the world from Syro? As ever, we'll keep our robot ears to the ground for you.
