Electronic musician Tom Jenkinson, aka Squarepusher, made his name with records such as 1997’s Big Loada EP, offering a tweaked take on drum ‘n’ bass that invited comparisons to his Warp labelmate Aphex Twin. Then in 1998 he released Music Is Rotted One Note, a sharp stylistic turn into jazz fusion that gave him the chance to show off his virtuoso electric-bass chops. Over the course of nine successive LPs he bounced between electronic and electroacoustic sounds before making a return to full-fledged EDM with this year’s strictly sequencer-based Ufabulum. Unexpectedly Jenkinson is now dabbling in dubstep, which may offend some of his snobbier fans, but considering the style’s indebtedness to the same kind of twitchy drum ‘n’ bass with which he began his career, his move also creates the satisfying sense of a long loop closing.
Some of those things were available, but really not much. Not at all, no. When I was starting out using computers I had a Commodore VIC-20, which I programmed as some kind of drum machine—my self-estimate of what I thought a drum machine might be like. But really I just scrabbled together whatever I could, without any real kind of governing criteria. The only condition was that it was to do with music. So, you know, anything—whatever I could find, whatever I could afford, or whatever I could blag, whatever I could borrow . . . could “long-term borrow.” Some people call it stealing. There weren’t manuals telling you particularly what to do with these pieces of equipment. When I say “what to do,” I mean what to do artistically, you know, like how to whip all this garbage into shape. And that situation of working with an extremely limited range of equipment just conditioned a mind-set which prevails to this day for me.
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I read in an old interview where you said in regard to [working with Andre 3000] that you didn’t want to serve as a production vehicle—like basically you didn’t want to be a rap producer and send in something to work on. Have you spoken to him more about it?
In my experience. For me actually the only thing that makes this project continue is keeping my enthusiasm alive, and consequently I base my decisions primarily on the effect they’ll have on my enthusiasm. Because without that there’s nothing. There’s no music happening. Without enthusiasm there’s just no—and I might well have a studio, but I just don’t want to go in it. So who the fuck cares? In the end, actually, there is some concession that has to be made to the crowd, because I wouldn’t be up there onstage unless I had some desire to bring an experience to people. I’m not shut off from the crowd, I’m not hiding, although sometimes I do want to.
What bassists have you admired along the way? Are there any new names in addition to your classics?
He’s got something quite special going on, and I put him ahead of a lot of other people though he’s not nominally more technically proficient. I think he’s a much more interesting—I don’t like the word “holistic” because it’s got some weird connotations, but he’s got a much more “whole” approach to music. He’s got technique, but he’s doing what music ought to do, which is basically stimulating and moving people and giving people an emotionally engaging experience, which I think is what these real technical nutcases tend to lack.
Squarepusher, Mount Kimbie Sat 11/3, 10 PM, Metro, $25, 18+
