TLOBF Interview // Gold Panda

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Answer the phone, transcribe the recording, write an intro, and interview done. Send it off to the editors, wait for it to be posted online. But what if I did this differently? What if I took my transcript and cut it up. I swapped vowels and sentences, avoided any punctuation. What if I took Gold Panda’s words and morphed, italicised, and F*^K them beyond human recognition. Then I might have something that resembled Lucky Shiner, the stunning debut record from the London producer.

The only difference is, my article would be a stupid mess, pointless and illegible. But what Gold Panda has created is something original, coherent, and beautiful from the scraps of other people’s thoughts.

How’s it all going with the album?

It’s going good. We’ve just got the copies in the office and they look great. Got a 12” out as well, the Snow & Taxis single with the remixes on on clear vinyl. Looks pretty good.

Who did the artwork for the album?

The album was kind of me. It was my idea and I did a mock version of it and then we gave it to a proper design company to come up with the final version but it’s basically because I was on tour at the time and I didn’t have time to do it myself. It’s all made up of old record sleeves, pretty much like the album is made up from old vinyl.

Are you pleased with the way it’s been received?

Yeah. Well, it’s a bit scary, and some stuff people have said is a bit over the top, I bought DJ Magazine and in there it was, like 9 out of 10, which is ridiculous.

Did you really pick the tracks for the album from something like 200 other tracks that you’d made? Or over 200 tracks I read somewhere.

This is the thing with press, the number keeps going up. It started off as 50, then it was 100, and now it’s 200. I made about 40 tracks. Like you say that, but then some of them are just like, little sketches that you render to iTunes and then you never touch again.

Basically it’s because I have to make tracks really quick. I’ll wake up in the morning, I’ll make a track, and then I’ll go ‘Oh no, it’s not very good’ and then I’ll make another one, and then I’ll go back to the old one. I guess tracks are usually made in a day. Maybe, if it sounds good in the evening I’ll go to bed and wake up in the morning and finish it off.

Why do you have to do it so quick?

Because I’ve got a really short attention span and if I spend ages on something it ends up becoming awful and too contrived. I love that stuff that’s a bit messy and when I sit down to write a track it never works. If I just go ‘Oh, I’ll just turn this on and fuck around’… It’s almost like I’m trying to make tracks all day and then I just give up and then I’ll watch a film or something and then later I’ll just fuck around and that one will turn into the track and the others will just not get used.

I like that.

Technically, it’s quite difficult because then you finish the track and go ‘Ahhh, should have recorded that a bit better’ you know, when I was sampling something, but because you were doing it so quick and there was no thought going into the actual quality of stuff, then you can’t really go back and do it again because then you’ll lose that kind of magic bit that happened and it’ll sound false again. So that’s why I decided to mix it with someone, with James from Simian. And then he could put it all through his fancy equipment and make even the worst recording sound really good.

How do you go about making those noises? Did I read somewhere that you use floppy discs?

Yeah. Well, there is actually like a zip disc at the very start of the album, which is what I used to make all my tracks, and it’s basically old discs that you can get about 100MB on and so every morning the first thing I would hear was the sound of me putting a disc in and turning it on and that’s at the start of the album. I just thought it was a good way to start it, a familiar sound. But yeah, most stuff’s made with a laptop and a drum machine. There’s no studio.

Do you work from home then?

I’ve got some old keyboards, like Casio’s and a Yamaha and I’ve got two drum machines that I really love and a laptop and that’s it. And it’s just set up in the bedroom on top of a desk and a wardrobe kind of thing.

Is it difficult working from home? Whenever I work from home I just end up eating a lot, really.

Yeah. No, because I can’t do it anywhere else. I’ve tried twice in studios and I can’t do it. I just sit in this cold, dark room and I’m not inspired. But when I’m at home and I’ve got all my stuff with me and I’ll put the television on subtitles, well, I haven’t got a TV at the moment but when I do have one I’ll put it on silent, put the subtitles on, make a cup of tea, chocolate, make toast and fuck around.

I tend to spend a lot of time, like, I’ll make a loop and then I’ll walk around for ages, listen to it and think about what I would do… and then nothing ever happens and move on to the next one. So I don’t spend a lot of time procrastinating, but you can’t really do that in a studio because there’s nothing else to do which forces you to do other stuff which may be unnecessary. I’m much happier at home.

I always find working at home, the days lose any structure and you stop eating meals and you just start snacking and then it’s four o’clock in the morning and then you can concentrate on doing stuff. That’s what I’ve always found.

I’m kind of a morning person, so I get stuff done in the mornings. So I’ll wake up seven or eight o’clock. Turn this stuff on, turn the telly on, make a cup of tea, and start mucking around. And in the evening I tend to get really rubbish and get really tired and go to bed. Yeah, you do lose structure and you can’t do anything else. Like, if I’ve got something else to do that day like go to the bank, it’ll just be ruined. Well, you know, I’m a bloke so I can’t really multitask. That’s why I couldn’t have a job now. I just have to do this. I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to make any songs.

What was the last job you had?

A sex shop in Soho. It was the only job I could get, really. It was pretty good because I’d do all my hours at the weekend and then I’d have the whole week to do nothing. So I did like, fifteen hour shifts on the Saturdays and Sundays and that’d be a thirty-hour week.

And I suppose you don’t have to have sex with anyone, you just sell stuff.

Yeah, you just sell vibrators and stuff.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

The worst job I ever had. It was working for Stansted Airport on the pick up point where the buses take everyone to the long-stay car park. I’ve never had so much abuse in my life. It was like I was responsible for the buses being there on time and it’s nothing to do with me.

My job was to put people in queues and then get them onto the bus safely. And people just call you, like ‘You fucking cunt. Where’s the bus? I’ve been waiting here for twenty minutes.’

That’s the only job I’ve been in tears. I thought I was fairly tough but I’ve never been abused so much in my life, and actually scared for my life. Like thinking someone was going to hit me, and I did it with my sister, 4am to 10 and it was just ridiculous. It was abuse like I’d killed their son or something. Or raped a child. That bad.

So I guess now when you go on tour you’re pretty nice to the airport staff?

Yeah, totally. Well, I’m usually nice to most people in jobs because I’ve been there. Even when someone’s rude to me, clearly they’re not enjoying this job and I wouldn’t either, so. I very rarely get pissed off at people in shops.

How was your tour in the States? Were you treated nicely there?

Yeah, the States has got a customer service culture because they rely on tips. It’s quite different so yeah, they have to be nice to you.

Was it better than Japan?

No.

Its such a huge country the tour there just kills me. It’s so long. It was like three weeks and I’m a person who doesn’t really like going out. It would be great if I was like, a band, and I had my mates with me, I think that would make a big difference. But because it’s just me and I’ve just got into a new relationship and then I’ve gone away for a month and it’s just me on my own, it’s a bit depressing.

You can only get drunk with yourself or the people who come to your show. It’s like, making friends with people in the crowd and buying them a beer.

And what about in Japan? Is it true you sold your record collection to study a diploma in Japanese?

Yeah, I was really into hip-hop and I sold it all to study Japanese for a year. The course was so expensive but it was totally worth it. I got to like, upper intermediate level in a year.

So what records did you use to make them album then. Have you had to restock your collection?

Well, those records that I made the album with aren’t really worth anything; cheap charity shop finds and sale bin stuff from record shops. I don’t really buy stuff to sample, I only sample stuff that’s made before the 80s and 70s and is quite obscure and world music based.

Do you just pull out whatever looks the most exciting?

Yeah, there’s always some weird Russian record or something. You end up with a lot of stuff by James Last, these really cheap orchestral covers composers who cover everything like Simon & Garfunkel and Olivia Newton John, and then they do Hawaiian songs in the same way.

But there’s always one good sound, and now, technology is so good it doesn’t really matter what you sample, you can make it sound completely different.

Do you declare all your samples or will no one ever know?

Nah. I mean, the earlier stuff, maybe Quitters Raga someone’s gonna spot, people have spotted it already. But that’s why I wanted to move away from when you sample a big sample, unless I want to make a huge pop project, then I’ll clear all the samples and sample whatever I want, but I’m really into sampling very small bits and making melodies out of them and I’d be very surprised if anyone spots a sample on that album.

That’s like a challenge, isn’t it?

Yeah. I challenge anyone to spot a sample.

OK.

The last track will be the easiest.

Answers in the comments section of this interview then.

Yeah, totally.