ireallylovemusic vs stephen hilton (free association/flykkiller)
hello stephen.
going back to the first time i became aware of your presence in my record collection.
just how did you manage to infiltrate david holmes inner circle and coerce him into setting up the whole
free association thang ?
he called me one day out of the blue to meet up as he was just about to do oceans 11 and needed someone to work with on the electronics and programming - at that point i had done a couple of james bond movies with
david arnold and was in the middle of baz lurmans moulin rouge doing beats so we actually met through him calling his la agent to ask about collaborators - his agent knew me, the rest is history (!!)
after all, checking over davids albums/credits up to that point, he always worked with a select few across all his music, and then out of nowhere came the first
free association album, come and get it, with the ‘made to order tracks’ slipped in between the lost soul-n-funk classics, released on 13
amp.
were you happy the ‘band’ was being projected as a david holmes project seeing as you seemed to share equal billing in the credits ?
yes, i think we all realised it would be good for the initial exposure if we pushed the famous one to the front!!!
when it came to setting up the live band to tour with, how did you happen to decide upon
sean revron to drop his psycho funk all over the grooves, and petra to provide the calm. was it like some mad version of
x-factor, and if so, who played the simon cowell hard-ass role?
it all fell together very organically actually, although a mad x factor is something i’m definitely gonna do from now on, that sounds like a lot of fun
from an outsiders viewpoint, the band had a lot of success, good reviews, near crossover hits, glastonbury, all surrounded with some excellent artwork. so, what was the reasoning behind the second version of the album - subtle remixing on a few tracks, a revised track list – was this purely at the behest of the people who had bought 13 amp to try and make the album more ‘commerical’?
it was the suggestion of mercury at the time but in many ways i think what we ended up doing was less commercial! - especially the reworked
wooden heart - they gave us they money to have a dream recording session making
sugarman though - we hand picked these most incredible studios and beatles affiliated engineers to help us with that track just coz we could! so that was really really fun - not perhaps the smartest thing in the world though when you realise how much money you ended up spending recording (all in new york too)!! i love working with orchestras too and jump at that opportunity whenever i can, so we got a proper old school nyc section on that too
didn’t anyone flinch when they heard the lyrical content for sugarman? i have to say, when i heard the track on radio i was quite amazed it got the all clear !
so were we! no one said anything at all
with the single being a relative success, why do you think that particular phase of the project was so short lived, was it simply a cost issue, or more indicative of the pressures that surfaced when 13 amp was taken over by mercury (eg the protracted issues with joy zippers album) ?
i think a combination of those two really - very well spotted!!!
or, was the intention always to just have a full 12 months living the dream with the touring band, and then move on ?
i think its safe to say that we were all pretty fried and emotional by the end of that insane run, i personally
wouldn't do things in that exact same way again - i don't drink anymore at all so i think
i'm better equipped to endure that this time round, it's the booze and the groundhog day-ness of that situation that can do your head in i think - killer combination
with all the madness that surrounded free association, what was your own project
children all about?
children was a project a started around the same time as the free ass with pati yang, and that project i guess was very much the forerunner for what is now
flykkiller - i think it was me and pati finding our voice musically - very interesting studio antics on children but it
wasn't really fully formed yet - i think we got signed a bit early
as someone who followed the 13 amp story quite closely, other than the children remix of a free association track, i don’t recall there being any other official children releases ?
no, we never really finished the album, we ended up going on all these different sonic adventures and i think coz of finding ourselves on a major we ended up second guessing ourselves a bit too much and it kind of disintegrated.
are there children tracks hidden away in the archives awaiting to be given a new lease of life ?
possibly but probably not, or maybe, wait - no.
this was followed by the very quiet release of the electronic/ambient soundtrack to
'code 46'. you chose to use the free association name for the album, yet musically, there style wise, was no connection at all between albums. surely this was a strange choice as opposed to just releasing it under a different moniker?
when me and david work, that's the free association as far as we're concerned, meaning when we write
together - that's just the name we use for our collaborations, and we tend to be quite eclectic musically
did you get any kickback from free association fans wanting more of the psycho funk styled music, or was code 46 so unpromoted that very few people ever made the connection ?
code 46 was really well received in its own way too and id actually say that it has been more enduring - people often really tell us how much they love that score quite unexpectedly
then you made a solo album with pati, with you naturally being at the forefront in the credits from what i can tell. do you think this will ever get a domestic uk release?
well it has just recently been put on itunes here - its called silent treatment. there was no uk release though
i have scoured various sites, and despite it being supposedly released on emi in poland, i am having real trouble tracking it down. was it officially released ?
it was released in patis native poland where it had considerable success - a number one single too - lots of piracy in poland though so that doesn’t translate into shed loads of sales
did making an album together put pressures on your working relationship, and more specifically, do you argue over a specific production trick while doing the washing up, or, is the shop talk left out of the home life?
we constantly talk music actually it's quite mad i think a lot of people think it must do our heads in but it
doesn't really - pati also works as a visual artist and art director on her own art projects so sometimes
she's doing that and i'm doing some composing or a a remix or something so were not constantly working together
do you have a studio at home, so the album came together while enjoying domesticated bliss, or, were you strict in a daily routine regime in a proper recording studio ?
i have my own studio in a proper recording studio so it's the best of both worlds really
you have in recent years been involved with several very successful film scores alongside david, but have now branched out again on your own with pati, under the
flykkiller name. why flykkiller, as opposed to just continuing with the
children name ?
i think children was something we wanted to draw a line under a little bit, psychologically its good to move on sometimes
is there a marked difference in making music to order for a specific mood/scene for a film, as opposed to making an album like
flykkiller, or, do you apply the same principles and give yourself a certain framework to work within.
the main thing to remember when you're scoring a movie is its not your show, you are part of a big collaborative process so you kinda have to put your own ego to one side and work very much with a director to help
achieve their vision, that's why its so great when you work with a great director -
i've been very lucky to have worked with loads of amazing directors up till now and they can range from the quite hands-off
(steven soderburgh) to the very hands on (luc besson) - it's all a massive learning curve too
how did it feel to be free of the restrictions of film music when you decided to make
flykkiller?
well flykkiller developed without much of plan - it was originally going to be my solo record so i started making some really twisted instrumental tracks, some of which remained (get all puled out, music for twelve sounds) then, as can so often happen the project started to develop its own life
why the dipping into the area of dark gothic electro?
i guess that's just where my head was at!!
were you always a secret industrial fan before discovering the joys of funk and soundtracks?
funnily enough no, not at all - it wasn't until half way through making flykkiller that pati introduced me to some industrail bands - ministry, revolting cocks, and funnilly enough i didnt really get into it - apart from
nine inch nails who i love!
like with your previous work, there seems to be a visual thread running through the
flykkiller music. it’s as if your history within music for films means that to make music you have to have a visual spark to make the things work.
that's an interesting question because i dont consciously think visually when i make music although i do respond very well to movies when they're in front of me -
that's just the way i'm put together i suppose. on a conscious level it always feels like the visual side comes along of its own
accord, for which i'm very grateful. actually just thinking abut it there, one of my earliest and strongest influences were the likes of
bowie and grace jones and they were very visual artists, weren't
they? so maybe the visual side is very deep seated
in my unconscious
for flykkiller, which came first the concept of the x-files/area 51 style visuals that are added as an extra to the cd, or the love of dark electro music?
the music came first and they idea of a mechanical fly being captured in a forest came in a dream. they really seemed to work together to me
i found out about flykkiller via your work with siouxsie, how did that association come about?
she was looking for interesting collaborators and my name came up - we met for a bit of lunch and she dug what i was doing - all very exciting though - i love the creatures and the banshees so have to admit to being a bit star struck (but i think i covered it well)
you have a songwriting credit on her solo album, and a remix of the new single, but you weren't involved in the production at all. was it weird to write a song, and not have any input in the production process of the track?
unfortunately i was in la doing oceans 13 while they were making the record over here so i couldn’t have much to do with the production side, they stayed super faithful to the demo though musically so there were no nasty surprises - i think they did a great job
in 2007 there has been a lot of discussion re record labels and the hardships they are having to endure in this world of p2p, yet you have set up your own label to get this album out. did you approach any labels with the
flykkiller album, or was it always a desire to have your own label?
no we didn’t approach any labels, although so far we've turned down 3 record deals co they just didn’t feel right for us at this exact moment - i always wanted to put it a record out myself
too (ever since i was about 15!) i’ve done it now - interesting to say the least, what a roller coaster that was!!
given the troubles that 13 amp had, do you intend the label to be purely about
flykkiller, or are you scouting for talent to expand the portfolio of the label?
i’m pretty much undecided at the moment, when i told everyone i was gonna do this myself they all said "you are mad" and sometimes i think they’re right, but on the other hand id love to help nuture some talent – i’m thinking of putting out an amazing amazing record by the novelist - a total and utter nutjob (under the
radar) if someone interesting comes along, the rules change there and then!
if a major label came along now, and asked to licence the album, and give it the big promo push that’s required to get an album noticed, would you be interested, or is
flykkiller all about personal control, and not commercial success ?
i have no aesthetic problem with majors really i don't have this worthy-fight-against-the-mainstream ideology that some indies do - i like to work with anyone who "gets it". i love great pop music and i was brought up on pop so to me, the widest possible audience is always the best - the question these days is more "is a major better equipped than a smart indie?" sometimes i really don’t know if they are. having said that, putting out a record at the moment seems to be as expensive as making a gigantic ocean liner out of pure gold and getting the live side together is like encrusting the fucking thing with diamonds - i guess i’m trying to say it’s all a very very costly exercise, so i ain’t above someone chucking some funding behind us at all
now that the album is out in shops, tell us the plans going forward, how will the
flykkiller project fulfill your dreams, or is it like free
association, another time restricted project before you go back to the day job within film scores/david holmes?
movie scoring is something i love so ill always keep doing that - i also work a
lot with david arnold and just recently worked on hot fuzz which was really fun.
in terms of the flykkiller band, this is definitely an ongoing thig - we've written the next album already and its shaping up really really well - im very excited. i have long-term plans where
flykkiller is concerned, we have laid the foundations for something very interesting here i believe very much intend to develop and develop - the live band is absolutely firing at the moment and taking it live is very much the next step - we did v festival and the isle of white festival this year was our first gig ever!! so the only way from there is up, right?
the album, experiments in violent light, is out now.
it's great.
more detail : here