From Simian to Simian Mobile Disco, James Ford and Jas Shaw have trailblazed a sound and aesthetic that has seen the dance, indie and indie/dance camps try and claim them as their own. They should realize, however, that a mobile disco needs to roam and that these guys have a sound all of their own.

I meet the boys from Simian Mobile Disco at their studio in The Premises in Hackney. A warm, receptive kind of place that reminds one of suburban youth centres. The studio that they’re using at the moment is tiny in comparison to the wealth of equipment that’s strewn around the room. “Sorry” says James Ford, a chap of medium height with a mass of curly hair strangely punctuated by his brilliant light blue eyes. The kind that one would imagine mad scientists would own. “We’re in the middle of sorting out equipment. We have to do a Björk remix in a day.” Jas then turns up, the bespectacled member of the duo. Jas is a lean, intellectual looking character with a gait that reminds one of young charismatic art lecturers. Simultaneously carrying and folding his foldable Brompton bike he says “Bikes are the way forward. Bromptons rock. Especially in a space like this.” He says pointing the stacks of synths, preamps, cables and computers. “Plus” pipes James “neither of us drive.” Fair dues.


Simian Mobile Disco are the result of the interesting, though slightly forgettable indie band of the early noughties, Simian. The band consisted of singer Simon William Lord, bassist Alex MacNaughten, James and Jas. The band formed during their respective spells at Manchester University with James Ford studying Biology, Jas grappling with concepts of the analytic and continental variety on his philosophy course (“It was a lot of fun”) whilst Simon was in the prettier climes of Bristol apparently ‘getting philosophical’, writing songs and living the life of a student troubadour, albeit a polite one.

Fast forward a few years and the band’s second album ‘We Are Your Friends’, a rougher and dirtier beast, born and bred in Hackney, a far cry from their debut ‘Chemistry Is What We Are’, a wispier soundscape born from Simon’s time surrounded by the rolling hills of Bristol, saw the band tour extensively whilst making a name for themselves. It was also during this time that Simian Mobile Disco was born. “We were essentially the backing band” says Jas whilst we make our way to the café below the studio for an Earl Grey, coffee and a seat “and that wasn’t what James and I ever really wanted to do. But it was cool, whenever we were touring, we used to play records at parties wherever we were. It was quite organic.” “Yeah” adds James “It’s all really been like that. All of the gigs came mainly from people asking us to play. We’d DJ somewhere and one or two people would come and invite us to play another two parties. The same with the production work. A friend of ours at I’m A Cliché asked us to do a track, and the same with Kitsuné. We never really pushed anything.”


Ideal really. The reputation of the band and their associated Mobile Disco grew, as did their tour schedule culminating in long tours in the UK, Europe and the US. It was during one of these long tours in the Midwest of the US that the band finally broke up. “Well, the thing is, we just didn’t really get on as people” Says James “Alex and I got on really well when we saw each other at university, but being together for such a prolonged period of time didn’t work. But now, after some time apart, it’s all good.”


It seemed, however, that the split of the band was the real making of the members of Simian Mobile Disco. James Ford, already with reputable production credits to his name after producing Fingathing’s ‘2 Player’ and ‘Just Practice’ EPs in early 2000, went on to produce for most of the hippest and most influential bands of the past half decade. His ability to fuse a raw spiky energy spliced with an electronic edge didn’t go un-noticed, nor did the bands he worked with. He worked his magic behind the boards for the likes of Clor, the ever rambunctious Test Icicles not to mention the indie MySpace monstrosities The Artic Monkeys and the flouro baiting trailblazers The Klaxons.
Jas Shaw, however, decided to return to university, enrolling onto a computer programming course “to be able to get behind and inside the programs and keyboards.” An excited Jas says “It’s great to know what’s going on behind the scenes.”


So it’s fair to say that James and Jas have done the best out of the group that was once Simian. “No” says James emphatically “Everyone is doing really well including us. Simon has a few different bands going at the moment and Alex is working with Vice at the moment.” “Yeah” adds Jas “I think he’s booking the bands for the Tales Of The Jackalope festival. We’re not on the list though.” This could suggest that there may still be feelings of ill will between the group, however I’m assured that this isn’t the case. Simon has been enlisted to sing on single ‘I Believe’ from the album and Jas and James have been in contact with Alex a fair bit since the split. 
Jas and James, whilst producing for other artists and studying respectively, were still DJing extensively, playing gigs from the NME tour to Fabric, bringing a little ghetto-tech to the indie kids and some rave to the housecats. No wonder some have placed them in the pigeon hole of indie dance “Well we’re not exactly happy with being pigeon holed like that” says a suddenly serious James. It seems to be a point that he’s pondered previously. “Yet we understand why it happens. I’ve produced bands and we make music to dance to.” “The way we make music is different to the music made in both of the other camps though” adds Jas “I don’t really think we fit in either.” 


For such an educated band, one would expect that their debut album ‘Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release’, could be a rather labored affair. “Well no, not really. We only actually thought about doing the album at the beginning of this year” says James “And I don’t think it’s what we do. We try not to labour over tracks.” Jas adds “We’ve got to the point now where we can start something, and if it doesn’t sound right, we’ll just throw it away and start again. You know, if we spend three weeks on a track tinkering away, it may sound a bit shinier, but it probably won’t be any better.” James adds “We find that the best things are the things that we do quickly. We don’t make German techno and it’s not all about the technical aspect.” To keep the spontaneity to the music, they mainly used analogue equipment such as analogue synths as opposed to plug-ins “Not only because we like the sound, but we like the dynamic that we can both be doing something.” Says James “It’s almost as if we’re producing each other.” Jas adds “It’s good to be able to work with the wires and cords, something tactile. It also means that whilst one person is doing something with synths or whatnot, the other can say ‘Yeah, that’s good’ or ‘no, that’s shit’. If you’re bogged down with just getting the right individual sound, it’s hard to look at the larger picture.” 


Spontaneity is key to the duo’s sound. They’ve just started taking the album on tour as a live act, hot keying the sequencers so that they have the choice to stick to the sound of the album or deviate from it at will. “We don’t have to be running around processing sounds, so if we want to, we can change direction” says James “We’ve even made sure there are gaps of nothing in the set list so that we can just create something new on the spare of the moment” adds Jas “Sometimes something great comes out of it. Other times” Jas chuckles “nothing happens.” One thing that one notices when listening to the album, is that there are a few of the 12s missing from the tracklisting. One of their first releases as Simian Mobile Disco, ‘Clik’, the b-side to ‘Hustler’ (“the vocals were the product of Char’ freestyling for 45mins. Could have gone on forever, we just cut it down so that it made sense”). It’s rather surprising that ‘Clik’ failed to make the cut, especially due to the sheer amount of dancefloor damage it created when it was released. One may even go as far as to say ‘Clik’ typified Simian Mobile Disco’s ability to traverse genres. The track was on heavy rotation from electro disco party du jour, And Did We Mention Our Disco? to indie-esque legend Trash and even rumoured to have been played by techno stalwart Sven Vath. “Well what happened with ‘Clik’” laughs James “Is that we lost the file. I was in Scotland having to produce a band out there and the computer crashed. We basically lost a few tracks from that.” “It’s funny” said Jas “There are a few tunes that neither of us had. So we had to download it from a site to get them.” 


And what about the track that made Simian a household name. The Justice remixed ‘Never Be Alone’, a track with such an anthemic popularity it hung in the air of clubs, bars, living rooms, cafes and house parties for the better part of four years. Not to mention being re-released three times due to popular demand. “Well it was never our track anyway” says Jas “It was a remix. Plus it no longer feels like we had anything to do with it. It’s just out there, like a separate entity.” “It would have been really weird to have put it on.” adds James. It just seems that they’re having as much fun as possible making music to dance to (“you know, if there are little mistakes in the tracks, we tend to leave them there. It’s not about being perfect”). It also seems that they didn’t really try too hard with getting ‘names’ to collaborate on the album, but mates that just happened to be around at the time. “Completely” says Jas “We just used people that we liked and liked working with.” “Also, we didn’t want it to become about which big names and artists feature on the album” interjects James with a tone of importance. It’s not about making a hip hop album. “You know, the thing about music is that if one works on it for too long, it’s no longer fun, it’s work. And that’s not what this was or is meant to be. That’s why we do things quickly and decided to use analogue” says Jas “Not that we’re pure analogue purists either” says James. “We use computers also, just not in the creative process.”


The near horizon looks great for the guys seeing them tour the new album for dance festivals and indie festivals alike (“I think it’ll be interesting to see what happens when we play inbetween two bands”) as well as them working on producing another artist’s album together (“we don’t really want to say who at the minute, but it’s exciting”). Though if spontaneity is key, one never knows what will happen around the corner. Let’s just hope they don’t go the same way as Simian. Though, honestly, I think they’re having too much fun for that to happen. As the interview concludes, I leave the Premises, unlockmy bike and head off. Bikes, just like SMD, rock.

J Saintil, One Week to Live, June 2007