INTERVIEW: Fake Blood

If you haven't heard already, British DJ, musician and music producer, Theo Keating, has released his album for his debut record Cells, under his alias FAKE BLOOD. He's streamed the album for free on the net, and has received much respect and praise due to the release.

We caught up with Keating for a quick interview and had a chat about the new release, remixes and other things interesting!

You've just released your debut album, "Cells". How has the response been so far?

It's been great. So many tweets and Facebook messages. I had played some of the tracks out in DJ sets leading up the release (and often tweaked the tunes accordingly afterwards), so I had already gauged a rough early reaction to those. But there are tunes on there that aren't solely designed to be heard that way. So it's been interesting (and happy) to see people's reactions to all the aspects of the album, not just the clubbier tracks.

You've said in the past that full length records are a format that don't necessarily lend themselves to dance music as people nowadays have the opportunity to cherry pick what they want from most releases. What made you come around?

I think earlier on I wanted to give people tracks in smaller numbers - 2's and 3's - to give them a chance to get to know me and not overload them with tunes that might get overshadowed by A-sides or whatever. But then later it felt right to present a wider picture of what I was about. Various DJ mixes I had done had shown other sounds I was into, but as far as my production, I wanted to open it out a bit; to shine a light into some darker corners! An album is a great opportunity to experiment and try ideas out that might not be appropriate to an EP.

You've described this album as being "made with a lot of heart". Describe the process you went through in creating it.

I just put a lot of work into it. And thought. I didn't really plan it or have any sort of over-arching theme or brief, though. It was really just whatever music came out of me within that time. Whatever felt right. I don't make tracks from start to finish in a linear way. I make batches of tunes concurrently. So in that way tracks can bounce off or feed into each other. One track can be a reaction to frustration while making another! But I didn't try and overthink any of it. I knew some of the tunes might seem odd, but that's what I wanted to make and it felt more honest that way.

We're loving the new remix for Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. Is re-imagining other people's work something you see as essential to what you do? How does the experience differ from writing your own music.

I've always enjoyed doing remixes, as it gives me a chance to try out ideas and sounds. It's a great outlet for ideas that may not be right for the tracks I'm making for myself at that point. Plus you're given a set of components right from the start, rather like being given ingredients and then told to cook whatever you like with them. There are many possible outcomes, but having those building blocks from the original song is what can start the creative process flying off in one direction or another. Whereas with one's own tunes, you have a completely blank page to fill. Both are enjoyable and challenging, and I think both are great exercises in learning how to produce and advance. One hand washes the other!

You've mentioned the track "London" as your 'homage to the city that made you'. How has the city affected the music you make, and which local artists would you say most influence your sound?

Growing up in London meant I had access to all the best new music from around the world. The club scene here has always been incredibly strong, with decades of history and variety. And that led to amazing pirate radio, record shops, parties, and even distilled down eventually to an awareness in more mainstream media and nightlife - to a point where straight-up, proven club tracks were getting to number 1 on the pop charts, and going to clubs is part of the fabric (no pun intended) of the place. So the city is very much steeped in dance / club music of every type, and was a very rich place to grow up and get into production and Djing.

My track "London" is meant to have suggestions of some of the music forms that have risen up here, but is also meant to invoke (in my mind at least!) the place itself - a city where the ancient and the futuristic rub shoulders. An intense modern city that still has dark corners that feel as they would have 200 years ago. Glass and steel shards that still have the faint smell of powdered wigs and clay pipes. And blood!

You decided to stream your entire album publicly in the lead-up to it's release, this is something that we're seeing a lot of artists doing nowadays. How has the process of marketing music changed for you since the start of your career? Have you noticed a difference?

Oof - big question. The obvious answer is that the artists is now more in control of, and responsible for, their own publicity and profile. This can make things more "direct from the artist's mouth", which people usually prefer to being fed comments and pictures have been filtered through a public-relations net. But it can also lead to a slapshot effect, where everyone is just posting any old shit, hour after hour, in a bid to maintain things like "engagement" and "reach". So pictures of your breakfast become some sort of marketing commodity. But having gone this far without any PR or management, I have a pretty ambivalent attitude about all this stuff!

With all the social media outlets that exist today, there is a lot of room for shameless self-promotion. You however, made your name without any of it (in fact no-one but Boy 8-Bit knew who you were for quite some time), this to me seems like some sort of genius. Any tips for young up and comers?

Well firstly I'd say don't use me as an example! I had no management, no PR, no label, nothing. It was just me and the tracks I had made. But the thing blew up incredibly fast, and all without any engineering by myself. I avoided all questions, photos, attention, and let people fill that void themselves - hence the weird blogs and sites where people speculated on who I was etc. I just sat back and enjoyed watching it happen. But I don't know that it would work a second time for anyone else. It was a very specific set of circumstances, at a particular time. However it taught me that you don't always NEED all the media and contrived hype. If you have the music, then it can work naturally, by people finding out themselves, and making up their own minds. Many people buy this kind of coverage, and it works, but to me it always smacks of desperation. There's a fine line between letting people know you're out there and have good music, and begging them - or even worse haranguing them - to listen to it.

All of this is probably diametrically opposed to the advice most managers and PRs would give you, however haha. I'm a bit odd in this respect, and this is a conversation that we could take all night over.

Words by Chevy Long content shared with WAX WAVES BLOG

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