Interview Time: Archive
Archive Who are Archive?
Dan: It's chopped and changed over the years really, there were initially four of us with the first album then we changed again but it's always been me and Darius since 1994. So for about 10/11 years it's always been me and him. Other people have come and gone really and now it's back down to just me and him again.
Darius: Basically we just sort of form bands and then after an album or two they usually go wrong and it ends up being me and Dan again and we have to go and find new singers and stuff.
So where are you both from?
We're both from South London .
How long have you been together?
Darius: We've been working together as Archive for 11 years really but me and Dan have worked together for 15 years.
Dan: We used to be involved with an outfit called Genaside II around 1991 which was hardcore bass stuff. Drum and Bass was how we met.
Are you full time musicians?
Yeah we are, but we're always skint.
How do you spend your time then?
Dan: We're usually working if we can. We've been doing a lot of touring in the last year. We've done quite a bit this year but not that much.
Darius: We're either recording or touring.
Dan: Most of our touring is in Europe.
What would you say is the best country to perform in?
Dan: That's really hard. All audiences are really different. We were in Italy not long ago, and that is quite a new territory for us. But we really liked the crowd there, they were amazing.
Darius: Italians were wicked, Greeks were great, and the French and Belgian are always very attentive. The Swiss are attentive too.
Dan: The Germans are nutters. They're just crazy. (they both laugh). It's great fun.
What is the age range of your audience?
Dan: It's a real mixture, it's amazing. It goes from literally 17-18 up to around 60. One of our oldest fans in Berlin is 60 plus. She always turns up with her Archive t-shirt at the front of the stage. We've got a real varied mixture. I've never seen anything quite like it.
What music do you play now? What's your style?
Darius: It's very eclectic really. A lot of electronic bass but we use guitars as well so it's down tempo melancholy but can be quite aggressive.
We use lots of orchestral stuff; it's very much a mixture. It doesn't really fit into guitar or electronic we use all those kind of influences.
It's quite unique in that way really, I suppose Massive Attack are quite close to what we do.
Dan: We've done shows with them before because we work well; we're the same sort of genre. It's sort of progressive music.
Who has influenced you?
Dan: There's a real range of artists, from Isaac Hayes to Pink Floyd to The Who and A Tribe Called Quest. It comes from everywhere, you know, House music, Old Skool House. I think we grew up in very lucky time, you know in the late 80's when the House music scene was kicking in and the great hip hop was kicking in. This is when it came from such great music from the past. It came nearer when people started to remix music because before it was just guitar and bass and pop music. When Hip Hop happened a lot of things started to cross over. They started to bring that into guitar music and that was a very important time for us. Hip Hop was very important. The first album was very Hip Hop orientated.
What do you think of music today then?
Dan: I'm not as impressed with Hip Hop anymore. I'm a massive Soul man but I'm not into any new R&B stuff, it doesn't have the same soul for me.
There are a few bits and pieces. There's some good French House music out there.
Darius: There are loads of bands that we like.
Dan: There are a lot of 'The' bands. The Killers, The Hives, The Strokes. They all seem to have appeared out of nowhere. I haven't actually seen anyone that's blown me away for a long time though.
Is there anyone around at the moment that you'd like to work with?
Darius: We need to find some time really. We always get in this rut of doing an album and before you know it you have to do another one. We do an album and then we tour for a year and then suddenly the record company want another album. We always talk about working with other people but it always ends up with me and Dan back in the studio working on another Archive album. In France we've been offered a couple of big French artists because we're big in France. We sort of talked about it but we always end up just doing Archive. But that's the most creative project you can get because it's all our creation. We have no sort of boundaries.
So you're big in France? Do you ever get mobbed by fans in the streets?
Darius: No, no. We get asked for our autographs but that's always after gigs and things. We do keep ourselves behind the scenes so we're quite lucky like that. It's quite nice though, because places like Greece are brilliant. If we do go out and anyone finds that we're Archive we never have to pay for a drink again. It's wonderful, I love it.
How many albums do you have and are you releasing any material soon?
Dan: This is our fourth proper studio album. We're working on a new album to get released next year. Altogether this will be the 8th album we've actually released but as a studio album it will be the 5th coming up. We did a soundtrack the year before last which was great.
Where can UK fans catch you playing?
Darius: We're really praying that we're going to be doing a couple of live shows this year. We're planning on, if all goes well, maybe a mini tour in November, this will be the first we played in the UK for3 and a half years. We've played loads of shows in Europe. With any luck we'll surprise loads of people.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Darius: There's been quite a few really. I think Rock and Sin, a huge festival that we headlined in France. That was amazing and Muse were there as well. Working with Terry Hall was amazing from The Specials. We did a version of Gangsters with him. That was an incredible moment. We've had some amazing times in general. We've been really fortunate.
If you weren't doing music, is there anything else you could see yourself doing?
Dan: I don't know. I think I'd probably be off farming llamas in South America or something. I probably wouldn't be in England. I've never done anything else to be honest with you. I've thought about it before and it scares the hell out of me. I couldn't do an office job.