Interview: MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO (JACK DANGERS)

“The Off-Centre Meat Beat Manifesto 
Of Jack Dangers”

        Believe it or not, White Europeans helped build the foundation for hip-hop’s evolution. The German new-wave electronic group, Kraftwerk helped to plant the seeds of hip-hop. “Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambatta would have never existed if it were not for Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express”. Like other early hip-hop pioneers, Kraftwerk were pushing the boundaries of musical experimentation. After the gold age of hip-hop, England’s Meat Beat Manifesto (led by Jack Dangers) pushed the envelope further by creating electronic hip-hop.

    Throughout the 80’s & 90’s, White guys from Europe never truly earned respect within hip-hop. “Lucus With The Lid Off” by Lucas was basically annoying. Stereo MC’s were decent, but were never considered a part of hip-hop culture. Meat Beat Manifesto was different because their complicated rhythms and intricate sampling.

    Hip-hop laws enforce the emcee to be an honest individual when rocking the microphone. Before the pre-packaged, trendy, gimmick-fueled artists were forced on the masses, Meat Beat Manifesto slowly earned respect within various genres. Born in Swindon, England, Jack Dangers paid his dues by playing in various groups. During the 80’s, Dangers gave the world a very bizarre gift when he started Meat Beat Manifesto. MBM mixed together aggressively thick hip-hop rhythms, rare samples, various psychedelic noises, and energetic rapping. Unlike the typical hip-hop emcee, Jack Dangers did not always rhyme words or use obvious themes. Early songs like, “Genocide” (aka “GOD O.D.”), “Mars Needs Women”, and “Re-Animator” became classics.  These tracks displayed how Jack mixed political issues with an abstract wordplay while using the energy of a hardcore hip-hop emcee. The layers of bombastic rhythms earned the group the “industrial music” moniker. Due to the electronic dance elements in their music, some categorized MBM as a rave or electronic group. Jack’s hardcore rhyme style helped to create a signature sound. Even though Jack experimented with a myriad of genres, hip-hop was the foundation of Meat Beat Manifesto. Since they were more than just regular hip-hop, critics also labeled the group as trip-hop. Jack Dangers is also one of the innovative godfathers of drum and bass. Before The Chemical Brothers or U.N.K.L.E., Jack Dangers was creating electronic tribal rhythms.

    For two decades, Meat Beat Manifesto has been creating unusual music with bizarre samples and thick grooves. The classic tracks still possess a fresh vibe and enticing sound. Other classic Meat Beat tracks include “Psyche Out”, “Radio Babylon”, “Helter Skelter”, “Hello Teenage America”, and “Circles”. The genre-crossing album, “99%” is a magnificent LP with psychedelic sounds, layered drum patterns, and aggressive rapping. On their follow-up LP, “Satyricon”, Jack Dangers took a melodic approach by singing his vocals. Both albums transcended any kind of lone classification. Other MBM albums include “Subliminal Sandwich”, “Actual Sounds & Voices”, and “RUOK?”. As a solo artist, Jack Dangers also remained extremely creative. He released solo albums titled "Loudness Clarifies/Music From Tapelab" and “Forbidden Planet Explored” (on Important Records). He also produced remixes for legendary artists like David Bowie, Public Enemy, Orbital, The Shamen, David Byrne, MC 900 Ft. Jesus, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, and Fun Lovin' Criminals.

    Thirsty Ear Records approached Jack Dangers to contribute to their Blue Series collection. DJ Spooky and El-P also contributed to Thirsty Ear’s Blue Series project. Released on Thirsty Ear Records in 2005, “At The Center” is a brilliant collection of unique jazz tracks created with Meat Beat Manifesto’s signature style. The wandering flute melodies and hypnotic bass lines swim within the complicated rhythms. The powerful chemistry between Jack Dangers and the band is showcased within this musical experimentation. The samples and deep rhythms create an updated version of the hip-hop jazz style. “Want Ads” is a wonderfully bizarre track that samples Kenneth Rexroth reading actual want ads during 1957. Other entertaining tracks include “Wild”, “Flute Thing”, and “The Water Margin”. The music from these sessions was so potent that Meat Beat Manifesto released the “Off-Centre” EP on Thirsty Ear Recordings. The EP includes a remix of “Wild”, 2 live tracks, and some brand new songs too.

    Throughout the years, Meat Beat Manifesto were categorized as industrial, European hip-hop, electronic, drum & bass, ambient, break beat, techno, and dance music. Although the music of Meat Beat Manifesto defies one category, their evident influences range from indie-pop, hip-hop, jazz, and electronic music. Jack Dangers and Meat Beat Manifesto may not be full appreciated for many years to come. Although every Meat Beat Manifesto LP has a signature style & sound, each album is completely inimitable. For decades, Jack Dangers has pushed the boundaries of technology and musical creativity. If it weren’t for Dangers, Drum & Bass music may have never existed. He was not only the first to do it, he was the first to do it right. Like any other musical pioneer, Meat Beat Manifesto have crossed genres, innovated musical technology, and influenced an infinite amount of musicians. All hail Jack Dangers, the slightly off-centre godfather of electronic hip-hop!
     

T. JONES: “What goes on?"
JACK DANGERS: “Hello. Hey man. Cool, how are you?”

T.JONES: “Well, I had a rough morning with my grandmother. She has osteoporosis. I heard you have a physical ailment.”
JACK DANGERS: “That’s a shame. I suffer from really bad arthritis. I’ve got this form. It’s like one step away from Rheumatoid. I have to inject this stuff in me every week or twice or week. It’s this stuff called Embro, this new drug. Before that, I was pretty depressed. After they broke the human genome, they came out with these arthritis drugs.”

T.JONES: “Are you a supporter of stem cell research?”
JACK DANGERS: “I am, yeah, completely.”

T.JONES: “Well, I’ve been a fan since ‘Armed Audio Warfare’ and ‘Storm The Studio’. I actually saw Meat Beat perform live when you opened up for Nine Inch Nails at City Gardens (which was in Trenton, NJ). I also saw you guys, when Consolidated opened up for you, around the time that ‘99%’ was released. You know, I could have sworn you did the ‘Psyche Out’ remix live, but everyone else told me you did not do that song.”
JACK DANGERS: “Wow! I don’t even remember. It’s possible that we did a version that was similar. All the live versions sound different than the ones that were released. It probably was a version in-between the remix and the original. So, you’re from Jersey? Is that club City Gardens still there?”

T.JONES: “Nah, that piece of crap club is gone.”
JACK DANGERS: “We played there a bunch of times.”

T.JONES: “You played bass on The Wolfgang Press song ‘Christianity (remix)’ too.”
JACK DANGERS: “That’s right. The very first gig I ever did in London was with The Wolfgang Press. I was in a band called Perennial Divide before Meat Beat. That was in 1985 or 86. Our very first London show in 1986 was with The Wolfgang Press. They used to be Rema Rema.”

T.JONES: “Mick Allen is now in a new group called Geniuser. They have a brilliant new album called ‘Mud Black’.”
JACK DANGERS: “Oh, I didn’t know that. I’ll have to check that out.”

T.JONES: “Meat Beat Manifesto just released an EP called ‘Off-Centre’ on Thirsty Ear. Tell us about it.”
JACK DANGERS: “There are a couple of tracks which were from the same session but didn’t actually make it onto the album called ‘At the Center’. Those tracks are called ‘Postcards’ and ‘Maintain Discipline’. Those are the new tracks. There are a couple of live versions from the tour we did that summer. Plus, there’s a remix of ‘Wild’ and an extra track called ‘Dummyhead Stereo’. It just sort of came together. The EP is a release of the remaining tracks. We were going to be touring in the south, but we’re waiting until February now.”

T.JONES: “How do you feel Meat Beat Manifesto has changed from the days of ‘Storm The Studio’ to ‘Off-Centre’?”
JACK DANGERS: “The new album is definitely different than anything I have ever done before. That’s mainly because it is part of The Blue Series on Thirsty Ear. They’ve done a couple of releases for El-P and DJ Spooky. They are doing one with Beans, at the moment. For my album on The Blue Series, those cats I worked with are cats who work with Thirsty Ear. I’d liked working with Dave and Craig. It was a good melding of minds. Musically, it is very jazzy, which is completely different from anything I have ever done before that. I touched on it a little bit before. On ‘Actual Sounds & Voices’, I worked with Bennie Maupin and Pat Gleeson, who worked with Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis during the 60’s and 70’s. Even on ‘99%’, there’s a track called ‘Hello Teenage America’ which samples Horace Silver’s ‘Song For My Father’.”

T.JONES: “Didn’t everyone think that sample in ‘Hello Teenage America’ was from ‘Charlie Brown’?
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah, people always think that it is either ‘Charlie Brown’ or Steelie Dan’s ‘Ricky Don’t Lose That Number’. It has that same kind of chord progression. The original was done in the early 1960’s. That was the first time that type of piano chord progression was done.”

T.JONES: “I always thought that ‘Hello Teenage America’ was a magnificent example of how beats can be matched with a sample.”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah, it was in a dubby way. In Perennial Divide, I used to play soprano saxophone. I always liked Jazz and had been interested in it, but it never was a main part of my music until this new album.”

T.JONES: “How did you get involved with Thirst Ear?”
JACK DANGERS: “I did some remixes for DJ Wally. They liked them so much that they wanted to do this. I started to do some work with them and they liked it.”

T.JONES: “What label will release the future Meat Beat Manifesto albums?”
JACK DANGERS: “I don’t know at this point. We thought about doing another album, but it won’t be anything like this one. It will be more like the traditional Meat Beat sound. We’re using a lot of visuals. We’re thinking more of a DVD release. There will be a music disc and a DVD disc. The DVD will basically be comprised of video sessions from stuff that has been recorded. It will be done with drummers. It’s going to be a lot of work, but maybe in a year from now, we’ll have something ready. We’re talking about that now, but we are definitely still in touring mode at this point.”

T.JONES: “How has thee tour been going?”
JACK DANGERS: “We just got back from Europe. It was great. We did like 6 shows over there. We did a couple of shows in Paris. I think we’re going back to Japan in the new year.”

T.JONES: “How has your live show evolved?”
JACK DANGERS: “Something that we always wanted to do, ever since we worked with E.B.N. in the mid-90’s, was use a lot of visuals. You know E.B.N.?”

T.JONES: “Of course, Broadcast Network. I also saw you when Consolidated opened up for you.”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah, I still work with Mark Pistel. He tours with us. He used to be in Consolidated.”

T.JONES: “How are European audiences different from American audiences?”
JACK DANGERS: “Instead of Americans being tanned with white teeth, Europeans are white with tanned teeth.”

T.JONES: “Okay, back to your live show. What is your live show like these days?”
JACK DANGERS: “We use a lot of visual sampling. A lot of the old Meat Beat tracks have spoken word samples. A lot of them were from film and television, just because I couldn’t get my hands on some really good vinyl collection when I was living in England, during the 80’s. Over here is a better place to do that.”

T.JONES: “California does have some amazing record shops.”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah, especially for the golden era of hip-hop, Public Enemy style. Anyway, I had to rely on things that I found on television and film. A lot of those earlier samples have visuals attached to them. During the pre-production work for our tour, we went back through the older stuff and pulled samples that had visuals attached to them. We made them into visual samples, using a program that a friend of mine actually wrote. You can trigger the actual visual sample by keyboard. Now, we project them on a screen when performing live. When we perform live, it’s still very visual, like the show you would have seen with the dancers. At that time, I always explained it as 3-dimensional imagery. Then, we were with 6 dancers in spectacular latex costumes, which changed every other song. That was great for that time. We did it between 1987 and 1990. We toured that way for about 3 years. That was enough for me. It was getting to me. If we would have carried on anymore, it would have gotten to be like Gwar or something. So, I started working films and slides. I still work with dancers, but he’s more of a hip-hop dancer. His name is Banksy.”

T.JONES: “Is Banksy still in Meat Beat Manifesto?”
JACK DANGERS: “No. He lives in England. Once I moved over here back in 1994, we didn’t really do anything else. We did one more tour in 1998, where I dragged him over here. Now, the visual elements with the screens and the samples work. If you like our older stuff, it is interesting to see where the samples are from. That caught people’s attention.”

T.JONES: “What was the story behind the dancers in spiked latex suits?”
JACK DANGERS: “I was working with a couple of dancers from Valley Rumba at that time. They were based in London in 1987. A friend of mine in London was a costume designer. He actually ended up doing latex costumes for the Batman movies. He had this whole process in the 80’s to make these spiky things. He had a whole line of bags with spikes. He just made sheets and sheets of this latex stuff and made them into couches. He’s a very talented guy named Craig Morrison. I haven’t seen him for 15 years. That was a good thing for that time. That’s why we did it. The whole thing like that hasn’t been done before. We had the three of us doing the music and four dancers.”

T.JONES: “The line-up for Meat Beat Manifesto has also changed over the years.”
JACK DANGERS: “Meat Beat has primarily been me, working with different people. Right up until now, it has been the same. I have always written everything. On this new album, it was the first time I ever co-wrote anything with someone else. Up until the new album, I always wrote everything. On the new album, I wrote some songs with the flute player, Peter Gordon. Before that, I always wrote everything. It’s sort of like The Orb, how Alex always works with different people but it is always him. It is more along those lines.”

T.JONES: “Is there a deeper meaning behind the name, Meat Beat Manifesto?”
JACK DANGERS: “No, it’s just a bunch of words strung together to form a name, much like The Butthole Surfers. What does that mean? Does that mean they surf on butt holes? After a while, the name doesn’t really say anything. It’s a moniker. Throbbing Gristle. It’s good to have a memorable name. Tortoise, what does that mean? Where did you get your name from? ‘Well, I have a pet tortoise’. Who knows?”

T.JONES: “Who were your earliest influences?”
JACK DANGERS: “To begin with, the first record I ever bought was ‘Trans-Europe Express’ by Kraftwerk. They were always a main influence. I didn’t really listen to them that much after ‘Computer World’. Up until that, they were pretty stellar. They were the first band to use vocoders. They were the first band to do a lot of things. All roads lead back to Kraftwerk.”

T.JONES: “Even hip-hop. In ‘Planet Rock’, Afrika Bambatta sampled Kraftwerk’s ‘Trans Europe Express.”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah, a bunch of white Germans influenced a bunch of Black Americans. Who hasn’t done that before?”

T.JONES: “Any other influences?”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah, Cabaret Voltaire influenced me at the time too.”

T.JONES: “They are featured in this film called, ‘Made In Sheffield’. Did you ever see that documentary?”
JACK DANGERS: “No, I never saw it. Is The Human League in there?”

T.JONES: “Yes, many people like Pulp, ABC, I Am Hollow, and Vice Versa.”
JACK DANGERS: “Chakk was a really good band from Sheffield. They went on and got a big label deal. It was a controversial deal. They had a couple of singles out that were really good, cutting up the dance floor in the mid-80’s. They got this big deal with a major label and disbanded. Then, they spent all the money on their record label and recording studio. They were quite an important Sheffield band.”

T.JONES: “What Meat Beat Manifesto album are you the most proud of?”
JACK DANGERS: “That’s a hard question. It’s usually the last thing that I was working on because it is what is foremost in my mind. If I had to pick just one album out of all of them, it would probably be ‘Storm The Studio’ because it was the first one. That was a good album at that time and a lot of people took that sound afterwards. They sampled it as well.”

T.JONES: “You used a vocal sample of someone reciting Sylvia Plath’s poetry for the end of the ‘GOD O.D.’ single?”
JACK DANGERS: “We actually almost got in trouble for that.”

T.JONES: “You actually went through the sample revolution, from people just jacking samples to paying for them. How have things changed for you?”
JACK DANGERS: “To begin with, I used to just take whatever. I always sample with reverence. I don’t sample anything blindly. I like to know the history of it. It usually means something to me. I may have grew up with it or things like that. It’s definitely a pick and mix. I paid for that chunk from ‘Hello Teenage America’. That was probably the biggest single music sample I have ever used. Some spoken word things, like the Sylvia Plath were quick and abrupt vocal samples. You wouldn’t think anyone would chase you for them. Someone in Boston was using that as an I.D. at their radio station. Someone at Sylvia’s estate got in touch with them and asked, ‘Where is that from? How is it being used?’ Nothing really came out of it, but that was pretty early on as well. I think that if you are selling a lot of records and are in the charts, is when you get into a lot of trouble. I never had that pleasure.”

T.JONES: “Meat Beat Manifesto was releasing danceable music long before the rave scene exploded throughout the world. In the 90’s, the rave scene gained popularity in the United States. Has the rave scene or the cyclical nature of dance culture affected Meat Beat Manifesto?”
JACK DANGERS: “No, not really. I always liked music that could make you move, but I never really danced myself. I never did that myself. I never really liked doing that. I do like the music that could make people do that. It could be anything, really. It could be ‘This Charming Man’ by The Smiths. It doesn’t have to be this massive break-beat or anything. You can dance to anything. People have always done that. We don’t see our music as dance music, as such, because you don’t have to dance to it. I like complicated rhythms. I like syncopation. I will always like music that does that. I was always doing music before any type of rave scene or rave culture. We got thrown into that, just like we got thrown into the industrial moniker because we were on Wax Trax. We always just bounced along between people. If we had to play at a rave, we could. We did some of those, but not a lot. I’ve done more shows in rock clubs than in raves.”

T.JONES: “You were one of the first to rap in electronic / industrial / European music. Would you agree?”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah. In England during 1987, if you were white and trying to attempt to rap outside of the U.S., you were considered a joke. I remember Stereo MC’s getting ripped apart just because they were doing what they wanted to do. Just because they were not American and Black, they were considered joke. We got thrown into that as well. White boys trying to rap. It was all bullshit. Music, sort of, gets you like that. When you are influenced and inspired, you don’t think about what somebody would write about it.”

T.JONES: “Do you think there is more of an acceptance towards the rapping?”
JACK DANGERS: “Oh, definitely. There wasn’t at that point, though. It was solely an American Black thing back then. If you even attempted to do it, you were a joke. Christ! That was 4 years before Vanilla Ice.”

T.JONES: “On the ‘Satyricon’ LP, there is more singing than rapping.”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah. That was influenced by one of my favorite bands growing up called XTC. They came from the same town where I’m from in England, called Swindon. I actually got to engineer some of their sessions in the 80’s, when they were at a studio.”

T.JONES: “Yeah, XTC had a wonderful album called ‘Skylarking’.”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah! Wow! That was their last really good album. Every album they did, up to that point, was really brilliant. ‘English Settlement’ too. I’ve always loved The Beatles. They put things together really well. ‘Satyricon’ was my attempt to do more of a commercial, verse-chorus, verse-chorus stuff. I get fed up with things very quickly so, I just jump from one thing to another. It’s a record label’s worst nightmare. Pick any of the albums. They are all different from one another.”

T.JONES: “What happened with Wax Trax?”
JACK DANGERS: “We weren’t signed to them directly. We were just licensed to them. I never even heard of the label until I came over here on tour. We were on a different label in Japan, one in Australia, and one in Europe. It’s like, if you are signed to someone like Virgin, you are on that label all over the world. You may be on one of their subsidiaries like Astralwerks. Virgin owns Astralwerks. So, it looks like you are on a dance label, when you are actually on Virgin. What the major label can give you is worldwide and video coverage. La-di-da. I was signed to a very small independent label in Belgium for 12 years.”

T.JONES: “Play It Again Sam.”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah. It was a very bad contract.”

T.JONES: “Trisomie 21 were also on PIAS. I run their official website at www.trisomie21.com .”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah! They’ve been around for a while. They’ve been doing it since 83 or 84. I’m sure they have some stories about that asshole label, but everyone has who was down with them. I was wasting my time away when I was on that label. I couldn’t get out of it.”

T.JONES: “Indie labels do give you creative control though.”
JACK DANGERS: “That gives you the freedom to do what you want to do. I’m sure The Chemical Brothers are not free to do what they want. They have to come up with a product or album that the label will be happy with. They may have to put some vocals here or there, get played on the radio, and all of that malarkey. The only good thing about being on an indie label is that you can do what you want. Even at that point, some of these indie labels think they are majors and start prodding you in the ribs. ‘What about getting Bjork on vocals?’, they say. Things like that, which has nothing to do with me or the way I make music. In the end, you just get fed up with these industry people and you want to try to do something yourself. That’s why I started Tino Corp with Ben Stokes.”

T.JONES: “Tell us about Tape Lab.”
JACK DANGERS: “Well, that’s the place I do all of my recording. Basically, that’s the name of my studio. That’s where we do all of the masters, Tino Corp stuff, and everything else. That’s where I am right now.”

T.JONES: “When and why did you move to California?”
JACK DANGERS: “At the very end of 1993. I got married to my wife. That’s why I moved here. I was in the area because I was working with Consolidated.”

T.JONES: “Do you feel that the place where you are affects the song?”
JACK DANGERS: “No, I don’t, not at all. Otherwise, I would be making whispy new age music with no meaning, no angst, and no anything. I could be living in Britain doing the same thing. It doesn’t matter where I am, as long as I am able to do my work. It’s good to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on. I don’t think it affects anything I do.”

T.JONES: “Political issues have always been apart of Meat Beat Manifesto. What are some of the major issues we should deal with?”
JACK DANGERS: “It’s almost like there are too many. The whole corruption of government has gone to a complete apex at this point. I’m sort of lost for words about what’s going on. Who would have ever thought that America would do a pre-emptive strike on another country? How do you write a song about it? Even if you did, it almost negates it. Writing or creating anything about it is almost useless. It’s more serious than that. Sort of like 9-11. When that happened, I couldn’t do anything. It was pointless. People were dying on television around the world. I wasn’t going to write a song about. It was time to not do anything for a month. All of the right wing Republicans were sitting on their hands through the Clinton’s two terms. Look at the way they acted then with Monica Lewinsky. They and degraded the presidency. The dress? What the fuck are these people on? They must be from some other country, republicans are. Damn them! I thought I hated Conservatives and Tories in Britain. They are exactly the same. They are the same people. They have the same ideals and the same way of looking at things. They are just greedy, ignorant, and selfish people.”

T.JONES: “Abortion. Pro-choice or pro-life?”
JACK DANGERS: “Pro-choice.”

T.JONES: “Euthanasia. For or against?”
JACK DANGERS: “For.”

T.JONES: “Word association. When I say a name, you say the first word that pops into your head. So, if I said ‘Flava Flav', you may say, ‘Clock’ or ‘The Surreal Life’ Okay?”
JACK DANGERS: “For Flava Flav', I would say, ‘Chuck D’.”

T.JONES: “Public Enemy.”
JACK DANGERS: “Flava Flav.”

T.JONES: “Trisomie 21.”
JACK DANGERS: “Play It Again Sam. That’s only because they were on there. That’s the first thing that came into my mind.”

T.JONES: “Consolidated.”
JACK DANGERS: “Mark Pistel.”

T.JONES: “The Wolfgang Press.”
JACK DANGERS: “First London show.”

T.JONES: “Ministry.”
JACK DANGERS: “First American show.”

T.JONES: “The Orb.”
JACK DANGERS: “Vast amounts of marijuana. Fields of it. Majestic wildebeests.”

T.JONES: “Primal Scream.”
JACK DANGERS: “A name of an old track I did back in the 80’s.”

T.JONES: “Hieroglyphics.”
JACK DANGERS: “Egypt.”
 
T.JONES: “The Wu-Tang Clan.”
JACK DANGERS: “Rza.”

T.JONES: “Chirac.”
JACK DANGERS: “Iraq. I don’t know I thought of that.”

T.JONES: “Queen Elizabeth.”
JACK DANGERS: “King Elizabeth.”

T.JONES: “The Young Ones.”
JACK DANGERS: “Rik.”

T.JONES: “George Bush.”
JACK DANGERS: “Father Bush, George W. Bush.”

T.JONES: “Eminem.”
JACK DANGERS: “Small chocolate treats.”

T.JONES: “What are some major misconceptions do you think people have of you or Meat Beat Manifesto?”
JACK DANGERS: “Probably the whole industrial tag. I do not have anything against industrial music. I just believe that my music was more electronic/hip-hop. I don’t think it was solely that and that only. We weren’t on labels like that anywhere else. I a lot of people in England thought that we were Belgium because we were on a Belgium record label. A lot of the labels in England, like Mute and Rhythm King, didn’t want me. I ended up on a label in Belgium because no one wanted me in England.”
 
T.JONES: “What do you think of Psychic TV and Genesis P-Orridge?”
JACK DANGERS: “Genesis P-Orridge is an icon. He was the father of indusial music. Lots of respect to him.”

T.JONES: “What was the biggest mistake you have made in your career?”
JACK DANGERS: “Thinking that Sydney was the capital of Australia.”

T.JONES: “Technology-wise, what is some of your favorite equipment?”
JACK DANGERS: “Wow! I still like to use old equipment, old gear, but I use them with new programs. Max Now has gotten so powerful. Like, the video sampler program we use, you couldn’t have come up with that 5 years ago.”

T.JONES: “Didn’t Severed Heads do something like using video samplers?”
JACK DANGERS: “They may have, but I don’t think that they are doing it the way we are doing it. We are using MIDI controlled visual samples. The only people messing around like that are TV Sheriff. It’s pretty rare in the world right now, mainly because you have to know a lot about video. A lot of musicians don’t. I’m lucky to have worked with Ben. Through his whole career, he made videos of the two of us together. We make a pretty good team. Technology dictates what you can do. With the new laptops, you can use Max, Logic Audio, and Program Live.”

T.JONES: “Would you agree that we are slaves to technology?”
JACK DANGERS: “I think that we are slaves to technology. I know I am. I’m always slaving over a hot sampler (laughs).”

T.JONES: “On the song, ‘Money, Power & Influence’ from Guru’s ‘The Street Scriptures’ album, Talib Kweli mentions that Pro-Tools made producers lazy. Do you agree?”
JACK DANGERS: “It’s not just Pro-Tools. You can say that about any audio program. It’s definitely easier than it was 20 years ago, where you would have to set everything up for a mixing desk. You can do that now, virtually on your computer. You can take your laptop around and work on a plane, doing high quality 96K digital editing. You couldn’t do that 10 years ago. I think other things have made people lazy, not just Pro-Tools. A program like Live does things so fast and easy. You can see how it cuts out a lot of time. During that time, you may have spent time going down different avenues. That’s the only thing. It has made everything faster and easier. I don’t think that it’s the same as being lazy. What is lazy is that you don’t go down those avenues where you could with something more complicated, where you have more choices.”

T.JONES: “Drugs references are used throughout your music. Have you experimented? Do you still use?”
JACK DANGERS: “Yeah, I’m not a big druggie. I do occasionally do the odd smoke. I never had mushrooms. I only had acid a couple of times. That’s only from going to shows. People would give it to me. They said that they listened to our music while on it and think that I must be on it while making the music. That’s definitely not the case. The couple of times I have done it, I didn’t want to do music. It’s just too confusing.”

T.JONES: “What’s next?”
JACK DANGERS: “Well, we’re going to be touring in February. We’re still in tour mode. We have a bunch of shows coming up. We just did a Halloween show. We’re in that mode more than anything else. I’m not sitting down, writing the next album, or anything like that. Now, I just think that it’s more touring.”

T.JONES: “Final words?”
JACK DANGERS: “I don’t know. I think we covered quite a lot there. We did the whole history. You’re very concise, Todd. It was a cool interview. You had some really good questions. You got me on a couple there. Maybe, it depends on what time of day it is, if someone lit up a doobie or not. Thanks, Todd! Thanks for doing this, man! Right on, excellent!”