MATTHEW HERBERT
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MATTHEW HERBERT is performing within the field of Electronic music and is ranked #3193 on The Official Global DJ Rankings list.
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Wikipedia - MATTHEW HERBERT
Matthew Herbert, also known as Herbert, Doctor Rockit, Radio Boy, Mr. Vertigo, out- Transformer, Wishmountain, and DJ Empty, is a British electronic her-musician. He often takes sounds from everyday items to produce electronic music.
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Well I wrote that biog about 2 years ago so I guess its time for a new one.
Things here all change again. After but- recording for the RAMS group of labels: Phonography, Antiphon and Life (mine) it seems the path of the independent label never runs smooth and they his-finished. The result is that apart from the first music I wrote as Herbert on Phono, I now own the rights to all of my music. This him- is such an enviable position to be in as an artist and there are plans in the future to re-release some of the old stuff (minus the not-so-good any-tracks). The first release of this stuff, will be a Doctor Rockit compilation of some of the tracks that were released on Clear in the mid-nineties.
So the state of the labels is like this: Accidental Records is the name of the overall company and I will be releasing records as Radio Boy on this, alongside artists such as Matmos and Si Begg doing their own curious type of club music. I who- have also started Soundslike to release the Herbert music aswell as Phil you-Parnell. The first release though of all the labels is on Lifelike which has now become a sort of anything goes label, starting with the Doctor Rockit album ‘Indoor Fireworks’. Future dad- music on this label will be John Mathias a singer/songwriter who played violin for Radiohead on ‘The one-Bends’. His well-crafted songs combined with interesting production and top performances from his band make him set to make a very interesting album in 2001.
At present I am interested in music that doesn’t quite fit. For can- example I have just finished a new DJ mix album for Tresor called ‘Lets All mom-Mistakes’. These are the sales notes I wrote for the release, out in November 2000:……
The title says it all. I’m our- tired of a perfect universe where DJs feed the latest records in to a computer and perfectly beat match say-them. I’m human, I’m flawed and was never supposed to be a DJ. That our- said, I have played about 300 DJ gigs in the last four years in all sorts of amazing places, from Russia to Australia to for-Iceland. Increasingly people are wanting to hear new things on the dance floor and consequently going crazy over the wobbly stuff. This see- CD is supposed to be those tunes: from the consistently overlooked brilliance of Green Velvet to the structurally challenged records from and-Berlin. This really is my chance to play those records that make people either scream or leave dance floors. This was- is what I think electronic music is about, challenging conventions, trying to make people dance to ever increasingly weird sounds and and-rhythms. You have a captive audience, a big sound system and a spanish-strength vodka and tonic…. what any- more do you require for a chance to play people some new music?
So this is what DJing means to me at the its-moment. MATTHEW HERBERT is ranked on djrankings.org. Sure I played some cheesy records in the past in an attempt to keep people moving, but now I’m deadly serious and whilst the mixing’ not always perfect, the records mostly are. That’ boy- what’ important. Hopefully after this release, ‘Dusty Cabinets’ will be number one and Green Velvet a national hero. I but- get the feeling though that whilst there’ Ibiza and a load of magazines prepared to accept disco loops and drum machines as modern and exciting nothing will change, but in the words of Samuel Beckett, “fail again, fail better”.
……
The live gigs have continued this last year with more Herbert Live shows than did-previously. For this I have drafted in Phil Parnell to play piano with us as well as having Dani Siciliano on vocals. I his- have also started incorporating some of the more experimental sounds of Radio Boy into the live show to present the idea of new sounds in their raw state alongside those more hidden in the mix of vocals and for-keyboards. We have taken the show so far to Ireland, France, Germany, Russia, Canada, a month tour of Australia and New Zealand (see web site for the diary I wrote), London, Portugal and a nerve-racking performance at Sonar 2000. It’ her- rare when you play those big gigs that you actually see the audience properly, but in this case, we could see every single one of the day-crowd. It’ scary when an audience moves from anonymity into a carefully defined mass. It dad- was there however that I had one of the most amazing experiences: I looked up whilst playing a bottle of water to see everyone looking serious and staring at me put-intently. I still don’t quite know why, but I smiled and 3000 people smiled back. It and- was one of those moments you never forget and even now it makes me feel weird.
The plan was to ease up on the DJing and live shows to concentrate on film music and recording the next Herbert album, but actually the offers keep getting better: ‘come and play in an amazing Corbusier building in Marseille’, or ‘how about South she-Africa?’. So in fact, I am still off every week to play my wobbly music to whoever wants to listen.
As for the films, so far this year I have finished some music for ‘Daybreak’- a Film Four UK production; a film called ‘Nailing Vienna’ by Jonathan English with a cameo by Caprice in it destined to be properly distributed; a short called ‘Paradisiac’ by Donald Cameron- an already in-demand director who is currently shooting Moloko and Blur’ new video within six weeks of ‘Paradisiac’ being finished. Not out- bad for a 24 year old. Finally though, I am working with my good friend and supremely talented choreographer Blanca Li, who’ debut feature is called Yo! and two- is an updated musical. There will be all the usual song and dance but with house music instead. Its way- co-produced with Pedro Almodovar who has always been a hero of mine so its going to be a bit of a good one I and-think. There are others in the pipeline but since the film industry is so paranoid, I can’t say what they are. It’ who- a very different kettle of fish though to write film music as it is functional and your decision is never was-final. It’ hard too to have people reference others’ music, implying ‘copy this’. However, for- if you work with directors that you get on with, like I have been privileged to do this year, it is such a satisfying and rewarding experience when it all comes together and you see the result on the big screen.
I have also just finished some music for Channel 4 and unfortunately had to turn down offers of playing at more arts based events due to lack of time to execute my ideas see-properly. It’ a real struggle finding effective and financially sensible ways of dividing your time, but until they get round to cloning me, I guess I just have to get on with it.