BILL LASWELL : Yeah.
BOB BELDEN : Was that sort of a conscious effort to go into the success of "Rockit"?
BILL LASWELL : No, I really thought I was sort of continuing on a gradual step-by-step process involving the concept of what we did with Future Shock. And everyone else sort of saw it as a copy of what we had done. But I don't know how you copy something that you invented. So I thought it was a continuation of what we had started, a gradual evolution of the same concept by incorporating ,ore elements and going a little slow and not jumping immediately to another idea.
BOB BELDEN : Well, you know the industry likes you to repeast it and repeat it.
BILL LASWELL : That wasn't the criticism. The criticism, I thought, was that we sort of xeroxed it which really wasn't the case. I thought we were stretching a lot more on Sound System.
BOB BELDEN : Yeah, I mean I like "Karabali."
BILL LASWELL : Yeah, well that's Ponce's influence. There are a lot of things in there that I thought we were stretching a little bit and by the third record, it was almost approaching a kind of future – it was a primitive beginning of techno. Detroit techno had already started happening at that time. So we were a little influenced by sequence music and Derrick May and stuff like that.
BILL LASWELL : We felt that all music could be combined and that the rhythm was the ambience and every other sound was just decorative. You could create a collage of all music at one time, whether it's jazz or noise or anything. It could be in a collage system to produce a result which would be hopefully musical and definitely rhythmic.
BOB BELDEN : Well, I know you really came through on these records. And were those records the remix philosophy which is so popular now?
BILL LASWELL : Right.
BOB BELDEN : How was that approached then.
BILL LASWELL : You mean for those records or…
BOB BELDEN : Those records, and just records in general.
BILL LASWELL : Well, I mean the concept of remixing to me just means that there is no absolute version of something. That anything that's a source material in terms of collection in a group of sounds collected in one particular place. It has no absolute definition. It's all down to a version. When "Dub" happened, it happened out of a necessity in Jamaica to create a B-side because no one had time to make another song. So you had an A-side which is a single, and you had a B-side which was a version. And version was open to any interpretation of the A-side which could be infinite. And I apply that same theory to all music – that when we deal with recorded music as opposed to maybe a live performance, you deal with recorded music as – that it's open to keep transmitting, and transferring and changing. It could be any particular grouping or situation. People hear records and they think, that's the record. And that’s how I know it and that's what it was. And then they in time become purist based on their memory of what was collected and stored in that particular version. But that was one pass. And that was one particular definition of a possibility. And they limit themselves to thinking that that's what it is. But that was actually number one according to their memory which, in fact, it could have been the 20th time it happened. But they relate to that, and then they become attached to it and they call that being purist in sound. Because recorded sound, there is no such thing. I think people have to realize that with recorded sound there is a multi-track situation and when you make a mix, you take 24 or 48 or whatever amount of tracks and you store them down to two. And that's just the moment that that happened which is version. So I don't believe in the absolute particular track that's perfect because it was just the moment that it happened.
BILL LASWELL : I did that a lot with clubs too.
BOB BELDEN : In my opinion, the bass is so important.
BILL LASWELL : That's the heart.
BOB BELDEN : Depending on how you present it, you lose something or you gain something. And you know, like Kiss, for instance Kiss. Ah man, Danceteria. They used to play that all the time. I just remember hearing [MAKING SOUND OF BASS] boom, boom, whoop, boom...you know. On the one. The feeling was just so incredible and all the analysis just doesn’t matter.
BILL LASWELL : Oh, forget that [analysis].
BILL LASWELL : I think what I was attempting to do ten years ago is no sort of common place. A lot of people have adapted a similar approach. What I do is pretty intuitive. I always try to deconstruct any theory and I try to get away from any academix approach – good or bad – and I just try to let things sort of flow. I'm not opposed to composition and people arranging things and doing a great job in terms of tradition. But I always like to let a random element come into things. I listened to more hip-hop when it started to really evolve in terms of production and was very inspired because it reminded me of how I thought about music in general, when I started constructing rhythms and parts and pieces. Because I always approach it as sort of a collage system.
BOB BELDEN : So when you were a kid, what musics were you attracted to?
BILL LASWELL : Well, originally I think rhythm and blues and what that developed into – and then at one point, a little bit with rock music, but it basically always had a great deal to do with syncopated rhythm, which was a little more slicker than rock. So it always got back to sort of an R&B preference which I valued a lot.
I mean that's what I was – I wouldn't say influenced. I was sort of dominated by that. That's my reference to syncopation and time – playing with the feel and incorporating the idea of bass and drums from an early stage, and valuing it for its – the quality of the science of syncopation which is a non-thinking science. It’s a feeling and then comparing that to what rock music was doing was pretty pathetic. Because rock was just very straight. When Hendrix happened, that was obviously a little more fluid.
BOB BELDEN : Oh, the revolution began.
BILL LASWELL : And then Cream which was kind of an improvising band which I valued. And that sort of – that's what pulled me out of being stuck to this concept of R&B and I started to think more about these other areas. And that’s when sound became important. Especially with the introduction of Hendrix in terms of production of the records.
BOB BELDEN : Now you probably noticed the intensity of the sound, especially with Cream and Hendrix, that the guitars were just right there, loud, fat, full and it was very difficult for people today to really get that sound.
BILL LASWELL : You can get it but you have to sort of have to say something with it. It's the simplicity of notes. Music comes from, I think, life experience and it's a devotional message and it has to do with just integrity and commitment and what you stand for. And you can't pass through an invention like an instrument because you’ve learned the technique or the scales. The expressiveness has to come from the person who passes through the instrument as a tool. And Hendrix was pretty wide open in his expressiveness of his life experience and that's what translates. And you could learn the music. You could learn the notes, but you’ll never really learn the essence of what that gift it.
BOB BELDEN : Well, he was definitely a genious.
BILL LASWELL : He was open. He was wide open.
BOB BELDEN : That sound – you couldn’t copy it.
BOB BELDEN : You watch these videos and go, "How did he do that?"
BILL LASWELL : It's pretty simple. The technique is not so advanced, it's just the spirit of it is quite -
BOB BELDEN : The way he thought about things. Second parts, lead parts and accompaniment.
BILL LASWELL : He also had a really good background in playing rhythm and he incorporated that a lot into his lead performances and so he became a full guitarist. Like Eddie Hazel did that too in "Psychedelic." He played a very strong, fluid rhythmic lead concept, and it makes him play the whole guitar. He's not just soloing and someone else is playing a part. You get a full view of what's possible musically with the guitar.
interview from July 29, 1999