Exclusive Interview: Ewan Pearson

Here is yet another Home exclusive, an interview with Ewan Pearson! Ewan is one of the most in-demand programmers, remixers, DJ’s, producers out right now and he was kind enough to share some of his thoughts with us here at Home.

What was it that attracted you to making music? Also, do you grow up studying music or was it something you taught yourself?

I grew up with music all around me; my parents are both big music fans and my dad has played guitar as a hobby all his life. I did have some piano and cello lessons as a child. But in terms of using synths and computers, and making records, and mixing and so forth I have no training whatsoever. It’s just been many years of doing it and learning as you go.

What brought you to making electronic music?

I remember a friend of my dad’s bringing round a Yamaha synth that he’d bought and that we borrowed for a bit; some old monophonic thing and I thought it was fascinating. My dad bought an early drum machine too and an electric piano and other bits and bobs. I remember a delay pedal that he had that you could use as a primitive one-shot sampler. I think that character Bruno off the Kids from Fame TV show might have had something to do with it as well. And Howard Jones. Oh dear… I wish I could say it was Kraftwerk or something cool, but there you go. Anyway I was getting piano lessons and continued down the keyboard route; bought a Casio CZ101 synth and so on and so on. Despite having a dad who could have taught me guitar and all my friends being indie kids who were into The Smiths and the like I had pretty much decided the route I was going to take. I was listening to Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode and New Order at this stage, and liked the Italo and Hi-NRG influenced dance stuff I heard at that time too.

Do you enjoy remixing or would you rather make your own music? Also, how did programming for artists as diverse as Goldfrapp, Ladytron, or Gwen Stefani come about?

This is a question I get asked a great deal, and people always assume that I must somehow be very frustrated remixing and working for other people. But the thing people forget is that I started out making my own records – an album and a dozen singles at least and so I feel like I did that already. As I get older I’m more interested in the notion of craft I guess; helping to make the well-made thing, rather than in art – than in self-expression. My ego is sated enough by what I do. I get enormous creative satisfaction helping to shape other people’s stuff and I’m really enjoying the collaborative process more and more. I am still making the odd single myself too, but I’m enjoying my working life more than I ever have.

The programming thing came out of remixing – people at record companies started thinking about bringing me in earlier in the process I guess. But that’s now expanded into production proper; I’ve just produced most of the new Rapture album with Paul Epworth and I’m just finishing off 7 tracks for Tracey Thorn’s (Everything But The Girl) new solo record. I always wanted to be a record producer rather than an artist, even when I was at school and in a band; I made my own records because that was the only way I was going to learn how to do it.

What do you think of Depeche Mode’s music and are you much of a fan?

I love their music and would definitely consider myself a fan. The trinity of New Order, Pet Shop Boys and DM were my favourites as a teenager and I love them all still.

Was remixing one of their biggest hits like “Enjoy The Silence” pretty intimidating?

It was a bit; “Enjoy The Silence” was my very favourite single of theirs and I had a battered 7-inch copy that had been played to death. I loved the clear house influence in the drum part especially, which is something they hadn’t done before – in fact I still think the production on that record is incredible.

Also what should have given me pause is that I had always said I would never do a remix of something so great. I remember writing a really rude DJ reaction to a DJ Hell remix of (the Pet Shop Boy’s) “West End Girls” that I didn’t like and saying one shouldn’t mess with the classics. So I am a hypocrite as it took me about 5 seconds to say yes when Mute asked me. I didn’t hesitate. It helped that I had just under a week to deliver a 90% finished version, so I didn’t have time to worry about it too much. I just had to get straight to work.

How did you decide on what direction you wanted to take the remix in? Was there other ideas you tried that didn’t work out at all?

I only had time for one go really (see above). The idea I had was that it would be an “old-fashioned” extended mix, would use as much of the original as possible and I tried to make it sound like something that could have been made at the time the original record was released. Hence the addition of the TB-303 acid section. It was an attempt at kind of a lost new beat/acid mix.

Looking back, do you like what you did with the remix? Did you hear the other new remixes that were made for “Enjoy The Silence” and what did you think of them?

I’m really proud of it, actually. So many people have told me how much they think it keeps what was great about the song, and I really enjoyed finishing my DJ sets with it at the time and everybody having a big sing-a-long! A few people asked where the brass melody which comes in during the play out of the original went, but it wasn’t on the multi-track parts I got sent so I’ve no idea what happened to it.

Lots of the remixes were great on the record; because they picked some people who really understood or loved Depeche Mode. The Black Strobe remix of “Something To Do” is a track that I played a lot, for example.

Even though this mix was commissioned for a single off of a remix project, some people feel remixing a classic like “Enjoy The Silence” can only be done to either make money or the band has run out of ideas. Do you think that is fair line of thinking or do you think there are certain songs that are such classics that they warrant updated mixes?

I think for a band like Depeche Mode who have always commissioned remixes of their records, and what’s more, worked with some really great producers as a result, this project is completely artistically valid and it’s a nonsense to dismiss it as demonstrating a lack of ideas. It was an interesting hybrid of historical document – an archive of lots of the best of their old remixes – and new interpretations. And the new versions “Enjoy The Silence” – from the Mike Shinoda version to Timo Maas to mine were really something special I think, all coming from different places but all demonstrating a real love and respect for the band and for that song. Hardly a cheap exercise in exploitation.

Did you get a chance to see them on their current tour at all?

No; the only time I’ve seen them live (apart from repeat viewings of “101”)is on the Violator tour at the Birmingham NEC in 1990.

How did you hook up with Trevor Jackson to produce Playgroup’s cover of “Behind The Wheel”? Are you pleased with how well it was received by the Depeche Mode fans that can pretty critical of cover versions?

Trevor is a friend of mine, and I used to have a studio up the hall from the offices of his record label Output. He really liked the mixes I had done for this likes of Freeform 5 and for Black Strobe and his own Playgroup project. Then he told me about the DJ Kicks album he was doing and this version of “Behind The Wheel” he had demo’ed and if I would help him finish it.

The cover actually came about because he wanted to license the Shep Pettibone remix from when the original single came out but the band apparently didn’t like it and had embargoed it from being used or coming out again. So Trevor in his delightfully bloody-minded way decided to do his own cover version, in a similar style. He brought his demo, complete with vocals over to my studio and over the next few days I finished it off and mixed it. We kept pretty close to the Shep Pettibone model and just updated a few bits and bobs. Again I was happy that people liked it and could tell it was done out of a real love for the original. And Trevor actually sounds really great singing it too. Although I think we got the lyric wrong at one point.

The cover was a big hit with the Electroclash explosion of the early 2000’s, but it doesn’t date itself to that period. Was that a conscious decision or do you think staying pretty true to the original keep you away from that?

Well, as I’ve said above it was a conscious decision to follow the original 12″ template quite closely. The Shep Pettibone mix has aged really well and still sounds great in a club today – in fact it’s probably the finest club version of any of their records from that period which makes it a shame that the band haven’t let it come out again and that it wasn’t on the remix compilation.

And also it was a decision by myself and Trevor to make it sound raw and lean and not cheese it up at all. A lot of records got lumped together around that time under the name “Electroclash” but as far as people like me and Black Strobe and our peers were concerned we were just making underground electronic house records – but ones that made reference to EBM and new beat and Italo and things that had been neglected for a while. We all hated a great deal of what was labelled “Electroclash” and the label too – lots of it was made by people with no understanding of the club context or what makes a great disco record, which for us was a cardinal sin. When Trevor sardonically called our “Behind The Wheel” cover the “Electroca$h” mix he was definitely joking.

Aside from producing work on the new album from The Rapture, what can we look forward to from Ewan Pearson? Any new remixes to look out for?

Well, apart from The Rapture I’ve produced 7 tracks on the new album from Tracey Thorn, plus I’ve recently remixed Pet Shop Boys and a great new band form the UK called Fields. And there’s plenty more stuff lined up.

For more information on Ewan Pearson, please visit:

www.ewanpearson.com

Interview by Glen. (C) Home. Do not steal this article without giving full credit and a link! Photo appears courtesy of Ewan Pearson