MSTRKRFT


MSTRKRFT is about to unleash their first album, The Looks, worldwide. They've already remixed everyone from Bloc Party to Juliette and The Licks, and the video for Easy Love, their first single, has already been added into heavy-rotation in Europe. On the eve of a can't-miss-them, world takeover, truth.explosion,magazine got a chance to sit down with the boys from East York and chat about...Japanese rasta's of course.

You've never been to Japan? Are you excited to go?

ALP: Whenever Fuji Rocks is, in the summer.

JFK: Yeah in the summer.

What do you think is the main difference between Japanese crowds or foreign crowds and American?

JFK: Crowds are similar everywhere. Oh no, what a horrible answer.

In Japan, the crowd's eyes are generally more slanted (laughs). In Japan, a lot of kids define themselves more by what they're in to. So you have serious rock people who maybe don't have the most diverse music collection. But that being said, I've also played some of the most diverse shows ever in Japan.

Do you find the crowd's more interested in the music, than the other crap that American's are interested in—like what you're doing, where you're going, who you're seeing?

JFK: Japanese are a culture of collectors, and they're really into purchasing things. Purchasing identities as well. Like, Steve McQueen drove this car, had this jacket and these pants and smoked these cigarettes, so all you have to do is go buy that car, smoke those cigarettes and cut your hair like that and you'll be like Steve McQueen. And that's totally cool.

There are a lot of dudes with dreads in Japan. Why do you have dreads? It costs $4000 to get your hair done like that...I've asked. And they have to have it permed, and they have to have their roots re-permed as it grows in. I was with an actual Jamaican, with dreads and we were in this reggae bar in Tokyo. And I asked this girl, don't you see that this style is just letting your hair be natural. It's like anti-styling, anti-fashion, being completely natural. But it doesn't matter, they don't' seem to care. It's like, I'm a dread now, I paid for them.

There's a lot of talk about everyone that you've remixed, but is there any dream person you'd like to work with.

JFK: Michael Jackson.

ALP: For the past year, I've really wanted to do a track with Kylie Minogue.

JFK: Michael Jackson would be awesome. When was the last time Michael Jackson had a cool song?

Uh, Dirty Diana?

JFK: Yeah, but even Dirty Diana isn't that cool; it's not still getting play.

Is there anybody that you've worked with that you'd really love to work with again?

ALP: So far, the extent of us working with people is just getting files from a computer—we hardly ever interact with anyone we work with. We hardly ever see them, so it's hard to say who we've enjoyed working with.

Is there anyone who's gotten in touch with you to do a song and you've been like, ah no.

JFK: That happens all the time, but now we pay someone to say no on our behalf...Sometimes they call and ask, but we say everyone can just wait, we're busy right now.

How close are you to releasing The Looks?

JFK: We're not even gonna be done it until the end of February and then it will come out in April or May.

Have you traveled anywhere? (To ALP)

ALP: The only place outside of North America that I've ever been to is Australia.

So are you excited to go to the UK, since they are traditionally more electronic and open to electronic music?

ALP: I think it will be fun, I think it will be really fun to DJ there. And I'm also looking forward to staying in hotels and stuff.

What are you looking forward to in 2006?

JFK: Our goals are to get record deals in every continent, and then tour all those places. I'm looking forward to doing Winter Music Conference in Miami. And going fishing for Marlin. And, so looking forward to going to Japan. We'll do Fuji Rocks, but we'll be there for maybe a week or more. I'd like to see if we can go to Hong Kong while we're there. Once we're in that part of the world, we might as well go to all possible places there. Going back to Australia, although I might get killed.

By Australians in general, or an Australian in particular?

JKF: (laughs) By one or two Australians.

Maybe Al's got some Australian hookups and can help you out there.

JFK: It's not friends.

JFK: We're gonna do a couple weeks in Ibiza and Barcelona, and I'm really looking forward to that. I'm really looking forward to going to places in the world that I haven't got to go to before. The rock and roll scene and the dance music scene are really different, and separated. And I really enjoy dancing and that music and the culture of it seems so much more interactive between everybody.

Do you think rock music is on the way out, and dance music's on the way back in?

JFK: I think hard lines between genres are on the way out. A more of a musical mix is on the way in, and I don't mean "Rap Metal". I think that we're coming into a period in music where music is going to be less masturbation, and less introspectiveness. I think people are going to have less of an easy time having their career based around their petty personal problems when we're in such a crazy time in the world. I'm not even a real political person, but I can't justify being upset about anything in my life while there's so much crazy shit happening.

Do you think it could be possible that things will just get more polarized?

JFK: Someone pointed out to me recently that the year Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band came out in America, it sold 4 million copies, and that month Herb Albert's Whipped Cream and Other Delights came out and sold 12 million copies. The world has never been that interested in good music at any point anyway, it's never been on the forefront, it's always been understood afterwards.

What is the truth of MSTRKRFT?

JFK: The truth is that everything with us is sort of by happy accident. How it works is...we throw a pop can in the air and start shooting at it and maybe we're gonna get it before it hits the ground and fails, and so far we've been able to pick them all off. It's kinda chance, there's some skill involved but there's also a lot of chance.

As I handed the mic to ALP...it cut out. And much like Silent Bob in all of Kevin Smith's movies, in that moment he delivered a prolific speech that perfectly summed up not just the interview, but MSTRKRFT's current and future success as a whole.

Wish I could remember how it went; all that comes to me now is the memory of my jaw hitting the floor.

Get used to it, if MSTRKRFT has it's way with you, the two will be getting pretty cozy in 2006.

(Interview date: February 10th 2006)

 



 

block3