Kode9 & The Spaceape: Under the Black Sun

Until this year, Steve ‘Kode9’ Goodman and Stephen ‘The Spaceape’ Gordon’s seminal debut, Memories of the Future, was perhaps the most diverse and formally experimental piece of work to have come out of the dubstep music scene. Kode9’s productions incorporated his far-reaching knowledge of dancehall, techno, jungle and 2-step, refusing to settle for long on one style. Meanwhile, Spaceape subverted and deconstructed the traditional style and content of emceeing, telling tales of tentacle-sprouting musical aliens and sprawling futuristic cities over the spare, morphing rhythms put down by Kode9.

Defiantly refusing to be pigeonholed by genre, the duo garnered critical acclaim from music fans and futurists alike. In 2011, they have returned with a follow-up, Black Sun – a heavy-duty concept album with more upfront beats from Kode9, and with Spaceape bringing some of the righteous anger he previously showcased in collaboration with The Bug. Equal parts bass music, protest and speculative fiction, it is a complex and layered album. We spoke to Kode 9 and Spaceape about the making of Black Sun, and how the ambitious project was realised.

On Black Sun you have constructed a vivid dystopian world – can you tell us a little bit about how the ideas for this started to come to you, and how you built them up into a narrative structure?
Spaceape: It may sound dystopian but the reality is that it was born out of our experiences during the last two years. The truth is I didn’t know what I wanted to explore when I started writing for this album. But I knew I didn’t want to cover things I’d written about on Memories of the Future. I began writing about things that either touched me or hurt me in some way, and as I was writing and the stories moved further and further away from me, it became clear they inhabited the same world. A place that breathed a different atmosphere; had different rules; politics; desires; religions; even a different light to our own. Many things, although recognisable, are shaped in a different way, where elements of what we know still exist but are now either warped or fragmented. That sense of a distorted reality comes directly from our own recent experiences. Many of the tracks I wrote – like Neon Red Sign, about a man struggling with a spiritual dilemma, or Black Smoke, which is basically an exorcism, or Promises, which is a love song about an illicit, destructive love – are about realities that might seem impossible, but exist and make sense under the Black Sun world we created for it. 

The production feels a lot more upfront and intense than that of Memories – what led you to the particular sounds and techniques you employed on this album?
Kode9: We wanted a bit more energy in the music this time around; we wanted to capture the energy of the live sets we've been doing for the last couple of years. Also, there's no point in us just repeating what we did last time. I'm not sure we could anyway – that was quite a unique state of mind we got into for the first album.

Did that inspire you to try different methods of approaching the tracks?
Spaceape: I started doing loads of overdubs, layering my vocal, recording hype tracks, whispers, heavy breathing lots of different vocal ideas to give the tracks tempo. I wanted to fill in the spaces so when you listen on headphones you hear even more detail than on a loud system.

Conceptually the album deals with a lot of deep and serious themes – how much do you and Spaceape discuss the feel and themes of your tracks before you record them?
Kode9: He writes the lyrics, I just steer him away from certain things occasionally, but really I have very little input into the lyrics.

Both your lyrics and delivery on Black Sun seem angrier than on Memories – what has changed for you personally and politically to influence this?
Spaceape: Since Memories of the Future was released we have performed many live shows and the energy we create in a live context is in stark contrast to the dread vibe of Memories. We wanted to instil some of that energy into our recorded work. Fundamentally, I feel more comfortable with my voice and I have grown into a style that is my own. Playing in front of hundreds sometimes thousands of people has given me a confidence that was only emerging back when Memories was released. I feel that my writing has developed, my studio knowledge has grown through working with people like Kevin Martin (The Bug) and the fact that we no longer pitch-shift my voice immediately lifts the whole vibe of the album, vocally at least. I wouldn’t say it’s angrier, it’s just more direct, less ambiguous not just lyrically but in tone and delivery.

Given that dubstep, a movement you are associated with from its inception, has decidedly crossed into the mainstream now, how do you see audiences reacting to the high-concept material of Black Sun? Is this something you think about?
Kode9: I'm not really bothered whether a mainstream audience gets this stuff or not. But it is not high concept at all. At least, no more than any big Hollywood sci-fi film.

How optimistic are you about humanity’s chances in the next twenty years – do you believe we will inhabit a world as dangerous as the one you depict in Black Sun, or is it an exercise in speculative fiction?
Spaceape: The world depicted on Black Sun is the world we are living in right now. All the ideas are just extensions of what we see now. The world right now is a pretty fuckin’ dangerous place so I don’t even think I’m exaggerating that much. I’m no prophet so I have no idea about humanity’s chances twenty years from now, but I would imagine we’ll still be here in some shape or form.

Your writing often deals with themes of post-human biology, the interface of man and machine, sometimes in a negative way and sometimes in a positive way. How technologically-oriented are you in your day to day life? Do you use a smartphone, iPad etc, or are you more of a pencil and paper man?
Spaceape: I don’t really see the relevance between whether I’m technically minded and me writing about the interface of man and machine. It is true to say that technology has become our natural environment, but this is not to say that I use the latest gadget or application. It is interesting to me that things can be done with technologies as machines do things that we can’t do or do not think of. What I’m interested in are the things that make reality sometimes seem unreal. This is the basis from where I start and this has often led me to question ideas of human / non-human biology.

The videos from Memories were very impressive – who are you working with on the visual art and videos for Black Sun and why did you choose them?
Kode9: We developed a mini graphic novel with a friend of mine Raz Mesinai [also a musician under the name Badawi] which tells the back story of the album in picture form. And we worked with Manny Optigram of Citinite, who does most of the Hyperdub artwork, to do the cover.

Do you have any other outlets for your writing, other than as a vocalist? Could you see yourself writing a novel or something like that in the future?
Spaceape: I’m currently compiling my lyrics and short stories for a book I’m aiming to get published in the near future. I would like to write a radio play, something set to music or rather a soundscape.

What influence, if any, did the Glasgow club scene have on your musical development as a producer and DJ?
Kode9: None at all, I never really thought that much of the club scene in Glasgow when I lived there (70s, 80s and early 90s). It sounds much better now to be honest, with clubs like Numbers. It pains me to say it, as a Glaswegian, but I actually got into clubbing in the early 90s in Edinburgh, at places like The Venue, and clubs like Pure and Chocolate City.

You are playing live PA at some festivals this summer – which ones are you looking forward to in particular, and why?
Kode9: Primavera Festival in Barcelona in May is the one I'm looking forward to the most – a really great and diverse line up including Darkstar, Odd Future, Games etc.

Spaceape: We’re playing Outlook in Croatia in September and by all accounts it looks ‘off the hook’. The Worldwide Festival in Sète in July should be interesting; it’ll be a different kind of crowd we’ll be playing to.

What was it like working with Cha Cha on Black Sun – what do you think she added to the album as an experience?
Spaceape: I’ve never actually met Cha Cha as she lives in China. When we started recording we both thought we wanted to bring in a female vocal. Once we got all the tracks down we earmarked a few tracks we thought would benefit from a female voice. What’s interesting is that we didn’t know what she was going to do. Love is a Drug sounds much more seductive and dangerous with her vocal. On The Cure her vocal weaves in and out of mine and adds a real dynamic quality. I think her vocal gives the album a freshness and maturity, it’s also something we’ve never done before.

What music and writing has influenced your work, and why?
Spaceape: I grew up listening to a lot of reggae, it's in my blood. I loved Steele Pulse when I was younger: I remember learning all the words to Klu Klux Klan and singing them in a music lesson, my tutor just looked at me in horror. I was literally spoon-fed reggae until I couldn’t take it anymore and got into funk. A friend of mine opened my then very young eyes to Parliament, Rick James, Cameo, Slave and stuff like that. Then I got hooked on Prince and that whole Minneapolis sound, The Time, The Family, Madhouse. I took a left turn somewhere and got into The The – Matt Johnson’s lyrics where a real inspiration at the time – and Siouxsie and the Banshees, Talking Heads, PJ Harvey, a real mix. I think that’s one of the reasons why I feel the genre thing is irrelevant to a certain degree. My listening taste is not straightforward and neither are most peoples and all this amazing music has informed to some degree how I write and perform. The same with literature, be it Octavia Butler, Amiri Baraka or Milan Kundera. I’ve been influenced by so many different sources and still am.

Your work is incredibly atmospheric – have you ever been approached to do film scores, and is this something you would consider?
Kode9: I would love to work on the right project, but currently don't even have time to comb my hair, so that might prove a problem.

Is bass music given enough attention by the mainstream press? Is this a good or bad thing?
Kode9: I'm not really so concerned about that. Hyperdub have had some decent response from some newspapers over the last few years, and some awful bullshit from papers like The Sun during Burial's Mercury nomination, but I think certainly there are some people who deserve more attention. At the moment, mainstream press seem to be enjoying a particular crop of artists such as James Blake and Jamie XX. Would have been nice if the mainstream press picked up on people such as Mala who have been doing their thing for so long, but ultimately I don't think it matters so much, as it’s not really a primary aspiration of all artists anyway.