Interview with Coldcut’s Matt Black

The Energy Union Tour: Interview with Coldcut’s Matt Black

The Energy Union Tour, promoting the sensible use of energy and sustainable energy production, kicks-off on July 18th with the flagship event in Munich. The interactive audiovisual tour with Coldcut – audiovisual artists, musicians, inventors of the audiovisual cutup, and founders of the independent and pioneering British record label Ninja Tune – will travel by train through Austria, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia this summer, taking the tour’s message to the people, and working in partnership with local Friends of the Earth groups to promote the Big Ask and call for legally binding emissions cuts.

Sam Fleet, from Friends of the Earth Europe, partners of the tour, caught up with Coldcut’s audiovisual veteran Matt Black, to talk about the tour, Coldcut’s music, intelligent energy, and why it’s time...

Questions:

The launch of the Energy Union tour is approaching, you must be incredibly busy; how is it all going?

Yes, it’s quite intense, but it’s good; we have a good team of people working on it, tugging it together and it’s quite exciting. It’s like making a film: we’re all having a go at being film directors, composers and cameramen.

Could you tell us a little about the tour, and what people can expect?

Coldcut have been working hard to make a show for the tour, titled Energy Union, and it’s a show about intelligent energy and self-empowerment. Over the years we’ve moved from just putting music together, to putting music, sound and lights together – audiovisual composition. Pieces like Timber became well known for that, and we’ve been evolving more techniques, and trying to become more expert at this sort of thing, and over the years I’ve realised there’s a name for it: film.

Just like with making music, we started off as DJs using DJ-ing techniques for the real-time manipulation of sound samples. Then, we got into the studio and used those skills and techniques to make records. We’ve done the same thing with film, we started off VJ-ing, coming from the DJ aesthetic, and applied those techniques and ideas to make films in a different way to the framework model. That’s what we’ve been using to make this show.

You say you’re work is continuously evolving; where did the idea and motivation for the Energy Union tour come from? It’s quite focused on environmental issues...

We often get asked: “Why are Coldcut so political?” The answer is that politics is the air that you breathe and the train that you wait for. Everything in your life is about your engagement with society, or this balance between being engaged and being a passive sheep. As an artist I want my work to be about something and politics is a good subject because it’s directly connected to my life and experience, and I think everyone who works with us shares those values. We have always been using that as a theme in our work, from People hold on, Stop this crazy thing, Timber, Atomic Moog and Boot the system. We’re no strangers to that “go political consciousness” as a substrate, as a fuel, for our work. And, this is the culmination of that; the most ambitious thing that we’ve done so far, and it’s been germinating over the years.

Do you believe music and interactive-arts are a good way to influence society’s attitudes about climate change?

Well, it remains to be seen! We should be candid about it. There’s a problem: that a lot of people don’t seem to give a f*%& about what’s happening. Either they’re too busy or not paying attention enough, or just don’t think about it. I mean, damn, we’re all interested in having a good time and getting on with our lives. I suppose some of us are like the early warning system in a tribe: we want to shout and make some noise and attract the other members of the tribe to the fact that there’s a danger that can damage us all. And we’re working out what kind of noise will be the most effective in attracting the peoples’ attention.

Is that what you hope to achieve with the Energy Union tour?

Yes. I try to avoid talking about raising awareness, because words come into use and become cliché pretty quickly – everyone is talking about raising awareness. I just hope we’re making some noise to attract peoples’ attention to the fact that “er! Excuse me, there’s an extremely dangerous fire here that might burn us all up very soon”; to wake people up. In terms of music and visuals: music is a huge part of peoples’ lives. I think there’s a good reason for that: it’s a fundamental part of being human. I’m sure some people don’t like music, but most of us have it built in. I don’t think anyone can really define what it is, but I think it’s a core thing; a thing we respond to. I think it’s a good way to put some information into some noise and get people to notice. We’re very visually orientated as well, and that’s also an effective way to get into peoples’ consciousness.

You’ll be touring in a specially converted train...

Yeh, I love going by train. Most of the circuses used to go around Europe by train, and I like to think of us as an electronic circus; although we’re in the UK so it’s not so great over here. The train’s quite exciting: I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t say too much about it, but it sounds really good and I’d happily go everywhere by train if I could because it’s great.

Do you think this could revolutionise how musicians tour in the future?

I’d like to think so. It makes a lot of sense as the roads get more and more clogged and we gas ourselves more and more efficiently; perhaps it’s time for the rebirth of the train. It’s particularly bad in the UK, so it’s a sore point for us; in Europe trains are better, more on time and less expensive, so I think it’s a case of the UK catching up a bit on this. But definitely bring it on.

So let’s talk about the solutions proposed by the show: intelligent energy is the most prominent. Could you tell us a little about intelligent energy and the solar-age, and the role you see it playing in reducing emissions throughout Europe?

To me intelligent energy has two complimentary meanings: they’re about the individual and the community. In terms of the individual it means being intelligent about your own energy use. Even from a selfish point of view it’s better not to waste energy: you save yourself money and the community money by saving resources; which helps you as well. It makes sense not to waste stuff because it is more intelligent not to be wasteful. And, it’s possible to make choices in your life which benefit you and society. If I decide to take the train to work rather than a car it’s good for everyone – so that’s intelligent. If I have a house that’s kitted out with geothermal heating and solar cells: that’s going to save me money and that’s intelligent as well. If I turn the lights off when I’m not there, that’s intelligent as well.

I think the key thing which we’ve thought about is that people, including ourselves, don’t want to give up our comfortable and energy-rich lifestyles. Intelligent energy doesn’t mean being energy-poor, it’s about not wasting energy. It’s not about giving stuff up, it’s about getting more of what’s good and cutting down on what doesn’t work and what’s wasteful. There is plenty of energy. There is no energy shortage on this planet, only an energy-consciousness shortage. We get 15,000 times the energy we use directly from the sun all the time. That’s just one source of energy of which we’re energy-rich. That realisation is intelligent, and once one’s realised that we ask, “well, what are we footling around for with these old poisons; let’s get on and sort it out by taking advantage of the abundance we’ve got.”

On a macro level, intelligent energy is about humans functioning as a group to get it right to ensure our own welfare, by which I mean the whole planet, realising that we ourselves are part of a super-organism called Gaia. It just is true; it’s a useful perspective. There are ways in which we are an individual, and ways in which we are part of a large organism, and it’s good to work for the health of that for the survival of ourselves. It’s intelligent on the macro level to make choices which ensure our health.

Old power: the dinosaur organisms/corporations which peddle oil, coal and nuclear are not intelligent. They’re like dinosaurs and won’t make it evolutionarily speaking. They’re hanging on for dear-life but it’s important to stand at a safe distance, make fun of them, and not get squashed when they fall down. In the meantime, we should get on with evolving and building the next generation of stuff that works, energy-wise.

There needs to be a war between ideas, practices and behaviours. Interests come together and form groups which compete with each other, and that’s how I see the corporations and big oil companies for example. If they want to survive they either need to evolve and get more conscious, so their behaviour is more intelligent, or they need to die off.

In this battle do you see a role for public mobilisation?

Yes! Corporations were invented to benefit the public but, at some point, they mutated off and started benefitting themselves, with disastrous consequences. But, they’re not really important. Humans form societies and we live together; we should be the ones in control, we should be the ones running things, it’s our lives. Corporations don’t really exist. And, that’s a realisation as well that we have to grasp, and say that, “well actually things should be this way because it benefits me and it benefits everybody else, and I’ll take whatever action is needed to change things so that it is this way”. That’s intelligent as well. Adopting intelligent energy and forcing it through so that we stop poisoning ourselves, and start using the free abundance that we’ve got... we need to stand up and do that. I remember a nice cartoon with a bunch of little fish being chased by a big shark. They swim away and form an even bigger fish and chase the shark away. Unity is strength. Get mobilised and get it on. It’s fun, it’s intelligent and it’s what’s happening.

During the tour the Big Ask/FoEE will be campaigning for the governments of countries you visit to commit to legally-binding annual emissions cuts – do you see this as important in securing intelligent energy?

Yes, initially the main thing that attracted me to this project was the success of the Big Ask in the UK. I thought it was really cool that there was a very focused goal – legislation to reduce emissions year on year – and that this came up from a grassroots activist movement, who just forced it through. People were saying: “it never happens, you can’t change things”, but this was evidence that this approach totally can work. It’s not easy, and the battle never ceases, but it shows that it can actually work. We proved that in the UK, and taking that successful and winning idea and exporting it to Europe totally makes sense. That was a big motivation, to want to be part of that, and help spread that winning idea.

Looking ahead to the future: what are your thoughts surrounding the UNFCCC talks in Copenhagen in December; do you hope the tour will influence the decisions there?

I’m not so focused on that, I think generally, if we’re doing our bit to put something positive, inspiring and useful out there then we’re doing our bit – and that’s how consciousness change happens. You can never tell what the seed crystal will be that makes things actually change; the trigger event. It could be that, or it could be something totally different. The intention of intelligent energy is to build momentum, and that will succeed sooner or later; hopefully sooner.

So are you optimistic about the future?

I think we have no option but to be optimistic. Being pessimistic is a losing strategy. I don’t want to lose; I want to continue existing. I’m enjoying my life and so I’m optimistic about it. But, optimism is not an excuse for inaction: we can’t just say, “Oh well, it’ll be ok enough not to do anything”, optimism is motivating that actually we can do this, and it’s fun. And, we totally can do it. So yes, I try not to be pessimistic. Like everyone I get up and down about it, think it’s all messed up and we’ve all gone too far. But there’s not really any point in giving that energy, because it’s just a losing strategy.

Any final message or thoughts for those attending the tour?

The youth of the world have got the most to lose and to gain from sorting this out, don’t expect the parents to do it, because they’ll be dead fairly soon. It’s down to you. It’s fun, it’s sexy and it’s happening. And, it’s got to succeed.