The13th AÑO: 5 | NÚMERO 45
UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA
RODNEY CROMWELL I MAKE UNCOMPLICATED MUSIC
[ Interview With Adam Cresswell from Rodney Cromwell by BenjamÃn York. ]
I MAKE UNCOMPLICATED MUSIC
3 We were first introduced to Rodney Cromwell some time ago – he has participated at some point in our magazine and we have reviewed his previous EPs. Finally, we have gotten in touch with him to interview him and get to know him a bit. He just released a new single called "Comrades" and will soon release his new EP “Rodney’s English Disco”. Rodney Cromwell is his stage name. His real name is Adam Cresswell, so let’s meet him. Hi Adam!Thanks for chatting with us today. To start with, I’d like to ask you when you began to take on your new alter-ego Rodney Cromwell and what inspired your choice of pseudonym? Hi Benjamin. Nice to meet you and thanks to Revista The 13thfor all the support. To answer your question, I started Rodney Cromwell a long time ago when I was in the band Saloon. I’d written my first solo track and Matt our guitarist came up with the pseudonym ‘Rodney Cromwell’ – the joke was it sounded like someone getting my real name wrong. I couldn’t think of anything better so I just went with it. The first song that appears on your Bandcamp is "Radagast the Brown" (2002), a tribute to the Spectrum computer game of "The Lord of the Rings", recorded with a Korg MS10 and Casio MT-30. Would this be your debut as a solo artist? Absolutely. Saloon were asked by Alan from Bearos Records to do a track for his ‘The Lord of the Rings’ inspired compilation album – none of Saloon wanted to do it as they all thought Lord of The Rings was too geeky – but I love it. I’ve read it three times,infact I even read the incredibly difficult Silmarillion on the beach on my honeymoon. Well I was not going to miss the opportunity to contribute something. I was living above a pub with my girlfriend and her family at the time and I had no space at all. I remember setting up the Korgand the Casio on her Granddad’s bed while he was out at the football and I wrote and recorded the song in 90 minutes and that became my solo debut.
Can you tell us about your involvement in Saloon and Arthur & Martha prior to this new adventure? What is your connection with John Peel? I was in Saloon for 5 and half years, we recorded countless singles, three albums, including one we mixed in New York. We gigged constantly including several tours in Europe. John Peel played every record we put out from our debut all the way through to the final album, we recorded 3 Peel sessions and had 4 songs in his Festive 50 including a ‘controversial’ number-one back in 2002. There is no denying the fact that our Festive 50 success was due to mobilizing our fanbase via our mailing list – we were effectively web 2.0 pioneers – but a lot of people didn’t like it at the time, hence the so called ‘controversy’.Of course everyone does stuff like that these days. But at the time we felt we got an unfair kicking and it definitely contributed to the band splitting. Arthur & Martha was the band I put together after the Saloon split. We did one great album ‘Navigation’ but we got mucked about by labels and had the LP stuck in the can for two years. We then missed the whole electro wave when bands like Little Boots and La Roux were happening. That whole project had a lot of bad luck – in fact we’re going to be finally releasing the Arthur & Martha remix album on our label Happy Robots later this year as catalogue number 13 in recognition of all that bad luck. Your first album "Age of Anxiety" (2015) is a compilation of sonorities we see as strongly connected with the principles of synth pop of the early 80's. How do you see that album to-
day, three years after its release? I still really like it. I’d had a lot of the tracks knocking about for several years, and I genuinely thought ‘Age of Anxiety’ would be a bookend on my career, but a lot of people liked it and here I am three years later still talking about it. Had I know it would be such a success I would have given myself a cooler name than Rodney Cromwell. Then came your two EPs "Black Dog" (2015) and "Fax Message Breakup" (2016). Do you still believe in album concept or are you now making a shift towards EPs and singles? I’m still a massive fan of albumsand I still buy a lot of LP’s. ‘Rodney’s English Disco’ happened as an EP because I wanted to get something out before people forgot about me and I’m a slow writer. Also, these songs are very much inspired by current social and political tribulations (post-truth pop as I call it). And although thematically it works as a 4 track ‘concept’ EP, I don’t think these are subjects that I would want to explore as a whole album – it would be just too damn depressing. Ha. How and when did you first become fascina-
tion with electronics (whether they are software or keyboards? I found a box of records at our local dump in the 90’s, I watched an elderly couple lower them into the bin and as soon as they turned their back I hauled the lot out. There was a bunch of real gemsby artists and composers like John Keating, Claude Denjean and Jean-Jacques Perrey. Those guys were working back in the late 60’s and 70’s,often recording cinematic sweeping covers of pop hits by the likes of The Beatles or Simon & Garfunkel,but using massive analogue synthesizers alongside funky rhythms and full orchestras. I just fell in love with that stuff and became fascinated with synths from that point on. What's your feeling when you are presented with other artists’ remixes of your songs? Who has remixed you to date? I love to hear what other artists do to my material – there are often times when the remixers outdo my own mixes. For example the brilliant French indietronica act Rémi Parson remixedmy new track ‘Barbed Wire’ before I’d even mixed it myself. When I heard his mix it blew me away,
so I had to really go out my way to make sure my own final mix could do justice to the remix. As Rodney Cromwell I’ve been re-mixed now by Pattern Language, Hologram Teen,The Leaf Library, AUW, Vieon, Alice Hubble as well asRémiThere are four remixes on the new EP and they are all brilliant. I never ask someone to remix me just because they have a big name or following, I only ask people whose music I really like. Music first, is the rule. Have you remixed anybody too? Not enough people really. I’ve done a remix for the brilliant electronica band Vieon, which is out now on their new remix album. I was supposed to do a remixes for The Leaf Library and Lilies of Mars – two bands I really love - but I never finished either. Next year I will try harder. On the new ‘Comrades’ single, you delve deeper into something that you had already revealed on previous EPs – namely, influences of 1970’s electronics similar toGiorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, and Jean Michel Jarre. How has this sound influenced your reality? Well ‘I Feel Love’ is the greatest piece of popular music ever produced, so everything I do is in the shadow of that. I don’t regard stuff like Moroder or Kraftwerk as an influence though, their songs are hard-wired into my DNA. It’s not about influence, it’s force of nature. Your new EP "Rodney's English Disco" is coming. Please tell us about it. It’s four new tunes with four remixes. It takes the sound of ‘Age of Anxiety’ and just pushes it a bit further. The songs are still me rallying against the crazy world we are living in right now, but done in a way that’s still melodic and poppy. It’s a little darker than the album but there is a lot of humor in it. Whether anyone will like it is another question. Why do you think there is so much look towards the past in the present? And the question is not any criticism or anything like that. It's just that I'm surprised by the fascina-
tion with history when technology has advanced so much. I’m not surprised at all. We live in a super-complex world – our technology is super complex, our politics are super-complex, even the way we relate to one another as people has completely changed because of social media. It’s no surprise we’ve seen an explosion in mindfulness and meditation in the last few years that help us reconnect with our inner selves or even the election of Donald Trump because he presents a simple black and white version of our super complex and multi-faceted world. People crave simplicity because ultimately we’re still glorified monkeys. A lot of people like my music because there is little use of computers, there is no pitch correction and the songs have simple melodies and relatable themes. I make uncomplicated music that reminds people of less complicated times How do you see the current electronic scene? There are good bands, there are poor bands. Like any scene, at any time, really. I have made a lot of good friends on the UK synth scene, and I have only positive things to say. I’m touring at the moment with three cool scene bands in Vieon, Nature of Wires and The Frixion. My favouritesynth band right now is probably Knight$ as I enjoyed them immensely at the last Artefaktor Radio live celebration – but there are a lot of bands to choose from. It’s all good. What are your plans beyond this EP? A more gigs over the next year and then if I’m inspired, I’ll start writing a new album. Nothing massively unexpected. I also run the record label Happy Robots Records and I’ve got loads of releases in the pipeline with Happy Robots that will keep me busy. Finally, we’re down to the final two questions. Is there something you would like to share with our readers? If you like music and if you have any disposable income, please keep showing your support by bu-
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ying records and t-shirts and keep coming out to gigs. It’s the hardest I’ve ever known it for bands and indie labels right now – streaming has ruined any income from record sales, production costs have gone up massively – particularly in the UK – and underground bands are competing against so many heritage acts these days it’s hard to be heard above the noise, let alone make any money. I’m sure I don’t need to say any of this to Revista the 13th readers though! Thanks for the possibility you give us to talk
to you today. Where can our readers listen to your music and follow you? I’ve finally set up a Facebook pageso any likes on there would be great. Also sign up to the mailing list on the label website over at www.happyrobots.co.uk where you can buy all the record too. And of course can hear Rodney Cromwell on Spotify, iMusic, Deezer and all the other major platforms. Thank you for your time!!! Thanks back. It has been a pleasure. .
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