INTERVIEW: HAFLER TRIO

Wider Oceans : and intimate interview with (sir) Andrew M. McKenzie

[interview August 2005]  [edited January 2006]

text: TJ Norris

             

Since 1982, Reykjavík-based The Hafler Trio(one Andrew M. McKenzie) has delivered a broad scape of sensory aural work that is as immediate as it is distant. In the last three decades, by creating the equivalent of either a building implosion or Millenium-turning fireworks, he’s shape-shifted sound compositions like a virtuoso of tantric atmospherics. His “wallet” packaged series, which includes The Sea Org (1987), Ignotum Per Ignotius (1986) and A Thirsty Fish (all re-issued from the archives by Korm Plastics), stand noteworthy among his long history of production.  The elements of this series each include a CD and co-conspiratorial booklet of texts and images that package and confuse, thus allowing certain dialogue with its audience and intrinsic constituents.  The Hafler Trio is virtually and primarily a solo project but has incorporated a variety of other collaborators from time to time to present live shows that are as exhilarating and obtuse as anything from the history of Dada, Fluxus, etc.  McKenzie has formulated a sabotage-styled class of verse that is simultaneously circular and self-defined and run-on and nebulous.  While the Hafler Trio might seem to produce work contrary to popular culture, the foundations for and components of it stand ready before our eyes and ears.  But what, you are correct to ask, is it exactly that this mysterious “trio” does?

By asking, you would perhaps situate yourself right where McKenzie wants you. The art of the Hafler Trio is partially self-referential -- partially lost in translation, but always a thinking-man’s sound (though nothing anyone particularly thought of, save McKenzie himself) -- idiosyncratic and giving voice to the process of thought rather than the end itself.  It’s heavily (and heavenly) conceptually based, yet the sights and sounds that follow McKenzie wherever he travels are both high-art and prolifically native in a material sense.  Often his themes are gutsy, conveying both a sense of organic, earthly elements alongside texts that conceptually attempt to question senses assumed empirical (and often succeed in this quixotic quest, demanding a joust with wind itself).   Throughout the evolution of his discography, McKenzie often uses layers of atonal ambient signatures that combine field recordings with studio and live experiments.  Most of his work on The Grey Area/Touch, Important Records and Die Stadt employ oscillators, white noise, and other processes to exhibit the general vibrance of the sonic form. 

The Hafler Trio is a quintessential pasture of mysteries.  The composite band has incredibly become even more fervently prolific in recent years despite McKenzie’s struggle with major illness and battle through the density of an unbalanced health care system not meeting his needs at times, the increasing proclivity and the new dominance of the MP3 format and its sub-standard sonic nature in the world of hi-fidelity, and the effects of (maybe even purposely) being misunderstood while being caught between subcultures.  These new works (on the aforementioned labels, and others) all pay an incredible testament to his voluminous artistic perseverance and sense of self-responsibility.  With little obvious commercial potential outside of the indoctrinated “underground”, a man who dedicates his life to his vocation is well worth his weight in soil, or gold as may be the case.  Tunneling uphill, McKenzie has become one of the more timeless voices in experimental contemporary art.  Effectively, The Hafler Trio skate the razor's edge of noise (with a touch of Florentine elegance).  In its most visceral state the aural atmosphere is both psychedelically hypnotic and stunting.  In many ways you might say that the Hafler Trio have concocted a recipe of “noise personified”, building a straw specter from hue and cry and dressing him up in order to mix with and up the population.  McKenzie and his associates convey something deeply mystical.  Even if that mysticalation is random or unintentional by way of the listener, it comes off through the flow of sounds, scripts, and in the artwork that packages everything so pertly -- ornate calligraphy and all.   Accompanying texts might, at first, read like the ramblings of a madman, but with time -- like most great art -- his thoughts meander strikingly like wild poetry in the ora of cummings or Baudelaire – not quite what the typical WYSIWYG culture offers these days.  The noise itself appears ambient, yet the shattering and clattering transpose something solid, even if transparent.  The materials never cease to cleave dichotomy.

As a collaborator, true innovator, and something of a sound art alchemist, McKenzie has brought a steady stream of vibrancy to an otherwise murky underground ethos of grey areas.  After speaking to some of his key collaborators, who richly identify with his distinctive vision, I began to see the layers of respect for what this man does for the masses, especially for those who have yet to catch up with him. Blake Edwards of C.I.P. summed up the appeal of Hafler Trio perfectly, “one of the reasons I have such a great admiration for the work of Hafler Trio is the underlying aesthetic: the pieces -- the aural, the visual, the textual -- come from a commingling of vast research (studies or ideologies might be a better word, or “schools of thought”) and good, old-fashioned work. Hafler Trio has, for my mind, always been driven to present information. This information, however, is never simply handed over on a platter”. 

I had the opportunity to reach him at his studio in Iceland….

TJ Norris/ Repellent: Greetings from the wooded and rough Pacific Northwest!  I heard that you "almost" came out to tour here in September and I know this was not your first attempt to do so.  It's a pleasure to have the chance to talk with you.  Tell me, have you played live ever in the U.S.?

Andrew M. McKenzie/The Hafler Trio:  Surely.  Did a tour, as a last-minute addition to a tour by some Swedish people during the last part of 1990.  Practically nobody knew who we were.  I was asked while playing in Boston when the "interval music" would be over.  This was a typical response.  A bootleg video of some of this happening in Dallas was released, claiming that I was doing all the things the Swedes were.

TN:  (chuckles) "interval music", huh?  That’s SO Boston (sorry, but that’s where I grew up).  Well, I guess if you get between the cracks you can shake the foundations.  Speaking of point of origin, I understand you work with a collaborator named Anjey.  I'm curious…who is Anjey?

AM: Anjey is Andrei Bakhmin, who looks after the H30 website at Brainwashed.

TN:  He’s done a superb job!  He’s created a lovely site on Joe Whitney’s Brainwashed.com, which has quite a lovely design and an intuitively creative interface.  How did you come upon making links with Brainwashed in the first place?  How do you feel about your presence on the web in general?

AM:  I had no contact with Mr. Whitney prior to the website being set up, which is almost 100% the work of Mr. Bakhmin.  He has done an amazing, sympathetic, sensitive and highly intelligent job of rendering the spirit of the releases as well as possibly can be done in the highly dubious medium of "the internet".  I doff my cap in his general direction very often.

TN: In 1992 you released FUCK. Pow, what a concept, live sex caught on tape!  Can you talk about the conceptual/performative aspects of that release, and maybe a word about its cover art?

AM:  It was simply the male counterpart to the previously released Masturbatorium.  The last part "I love you” has yet to find an outlet for release. I have nothing to say about the cover art except it was altered without my consent from my original design.

TN: Since it is related, several years ago I got to meet and act as spotlight man (which I heard you had done yourself!) for former porn superstar cum sex educator/artist Annie Sprinkle during one of her performance/screenings.  I found her to be so down-to-earth for a former porn queen.  Is there anything special you could say about her personally, having worked with her and the related recordings?

AM: I was (her) technician, part-time boyfriend, bodyguard, and many other things.

As many have said, and I concur wholeheartedly, "she's the real thing". Possibly this explains why so many people are threatened by her.  A fantasy object is easy to shelve and dismiss.  But in my experience, Annie always manages to scupper expectations - sometimes by design, and sometimes because she simply cannot help it.  At any rate, I owe her a profound debt of gratitude for all that she is and helped me to realize. The forthcoming last part of "the sexual trilogy" will, I hope, attest to that in an appropriate manner.

TN: She’s such a beautiful person.  She told me that every time you played your piece “Masturbatorium” it sent her into a “deep, ecstatic trance every time”.  Talk about multiple orgasms!  When was the last time you two made contact?

AM: We have contact sporadically, and electronically, with the occasional phone call in between.

TN: If I only had a phone scanner!    So, would you consider yourself a spiritual, magik sort of man?

AM: There is an inherent problem with applying these words to oneself unless the definition of them is well understood by all concerned. So, maybe. It all depends what you understand by the terms you use in the question.

TN: So, I take it you don’t go to church on Sunday, or speak to the trees?

AM: I've spoken to all plants for as long as I can remember. As to church; well, there are different types of churches...

TN: What are you currently listening to, reading or, say, even eating....?

AM:  Listening: nothing. Reading: mostly various foreign language courses. Eating: whatever is affordable in Iceland- there is not exactly much choice.

TN: What foreign language courses?

AM: Lithuanian, Russian, Latvian, Estonian … some others are being dipped into.

TN: Can you speak in multiple languages?  How’s your Icelandic?

AM: Sure, quite a few. My Icelandic is serviceable, but I very, VERY, rarely get to speak it, as I know very few people in Iceland. Added to this, there is a huge resistance to foreigners speaking the language. This is due to a variety of reasons, some reasonable, and some most definitely not.  I was once explaining (in Icelandic) to an Icelandic person that one of the biggest problems with speaking the language to a native is that they are always correcting you.  I was corrected in the middle of the sentence.

TN:  (laughing) I know what you mean, it was very difficult trying to order vegetarian when I walked into a big pub-like restaurant.  I once heard somewhere that “language is a virus”…..

As someone fascinated in the hybrids between the arts and sciences, your associations to what you have termed “psychoacoustics and sonic research” have always intrigued me.  Could you explain, to the common folk what it all means plainly?

AM: Erm, well, I think you'll have to be more specific about what the "it" is in your question.  Much of what would be 'explanation' is there in the releases quite naked and actually requires no explanation whatsoever. Most of this information is readily available. But you would have to know where to look, or look in all the "wrong" places for a very long time. Both ways work.

TN: When you are birthing an idea for a composition, can you describe the process?  Is it purely improvised, experientially-based or other?

AM: Almost every time is more or less completely different. Improvisation, however, plays a very small part in the proceedings. Almost negligible.

TN:  In numerous reviews and articles there are links and associations between your work and that of Steven Stapleton as Nurse with Wound.  I know you have collaborated, but what was/is/will be the overriding artistic connection and relationship between you?

   

AM: I have recently resumed relations with both Mr. Stapleton and Mr. Late Tibet, and I really can't say at this juncture what might or might not happen. I have my hopes.  The relationships are not so clear, but it has more to do with 'spirit' than 'form', I think it's fair to say.

TN:  I'm happy to hear this, it's great when a fusion of thought is crafted, or even grafted.  For me, your work (like some of theirs) is deftly associated with the five (or more) elements.  Do you care to comment on any such connection?

AM: I am spearheading a campaign to have the word "elements" replaced by the word "elephants".  Try it for a day, and see how you get on.  It always makes wonderful sense and creates delightful surrealist visions.  Plus, if you use it, nobody can actually believe you really used the word, and so they just blot it out and think they misheard, thus demonstrating The Roosevelt Effect before your very eyes. Hell, I keep forgetting to google that…ill hyperlink something when i post

Of course, what I do is necessarily a product of the Elephants. How could it be otherwise? I've referred to them and utilized various aspects and ways of working with them many times.  Again, these are pretty obvious and I don't think they need any further comment from me.

TN: (laughter) Maybe ob(li)vious to me, though after watching ostrich and deer this past weekend I feel more akin with the animal kingdom, so I may wake up and completely understand word for word.  … OK, I do not want to rattle any cages, though I am interested (as a former customer myself), as many probably are, by the odd debacle with the Phonometography label.  It seems the owner has decided to run to the bank with any profits from your own recordings and those on which you collaborated with Autechre, for which he is selling limited editions for significant price tags.  If it just reddens your skin you may plead the fifth, though, if you have anything you wish to say that hasn't already been stated in your eloquent statement online, you are welcome to speak your piece.

AM:  His actions speak for themselves. Anyone buying from him can be assured that the money will not come my way.  Not even near my way.  We move on, and the packaging of those releases has been improved upon quite obviously with recent releases that are the further development of the series begun with the "P" releases.  It doesn't redden my skin. It's not the first time it's happened, and I'm sure it won't be the last.  My situation means that I cannot actually be as discriminating as I would like about the people I have to deal with - many of those that I do are old, trusted friends.  And some are not.  I have to work with the materials I have.  No silk purses from sow's ears.

TN:  Hear, hear!  Speaking of old friends, I have been a writer for Frans de Waard's Vital Weekly for several years, as well as a regular devotee and correspondent.  It was so great to hear that his Korm Plastics would be re-issuing many of your seminal works.  Knowing the scarcity of some of these titles, how did the evolution and rights get so graciously passed on to him, and how will this very sought-after series develop further from the originals? The ones I have seen look amazing visually, and I heard there was also an upgrade to the previously deteriorating CD version.  Is that true?

AM: As far as possible, all the titles in the series will be remastered from the original tapes, cleaned if necessary, and embellished with relevant material from the same period, where appropriate - be it sonic or visual or written material. Frans was the only person willing to undertake such an enterprise, and I have known him for many years, through many different situations.  And I knew he'd do a good job.

TN: The texts associated with your many releases are often times very open ended, some would even say splendidly obtuse or deeply theoretical.  Do you consider yourself a poet? 

AM: No, I don't consider myself a poet.

TN: Well, neither did Bob Dylan or Frank Zappa for that matter.

AM:  I see no connection with either of these two people.

TN: Well, I guess it's just that these two have written music, are in the public eye, and were at some point a bit on the fringe of popularity.  I know it may be somewhere outside your window, but are there other artists to whom you relate to?  If so, give me an example of whom and why?

AM: I don't consider myself a musician, nor in the public eye (quite the reverse), and am nowhere even vaguely near popularity of any kind whatsoever. I don't find that I relate to any artists at all.

TN: Any comments on the untimely passing of John Balance? Had you ever worked with Coil?

AM: There were plans to do something together shortly after the release of the LAYLAH compilation "The Fight is On", on which we both appeared, but nothing came back from this from their side.

TN: Of your many recordings which was the most complex to piece together and why?

AM: You might think it a terrible answer, but it's impossible to go back and see that - the complexity is something that disappears after the stuff is done, and the complexity is often in different parts and different "ways" in each process...

TN: I see nothing terrible in keeping in the moment, or Henri Cartier-Bresson once strived for the “perfect moment” – a romantic and impossible ideal (but he tried, probably got pretty damn close).  Who has been your most inspirational collaborator?

AM: I don't think I can qualify and measure this. I also have grave misgivings about the word "collaborator".

TN: Iceland is mysterious and all about light, the seasons, the wind and air.  I will never forget the sunrise and the quaint fishing village of downtown Reykjavík.  In many ways the city is poised in the past, though is one of the most outrageously artistic and futuristically conceptual places on the planet.  There seems to be so much important music of our time driven out of this small homogeneous country.  As I think of Quentin Crisp 's "An Englishman in New York" I can't help but ask how you landed there and what keeps you energized about making a creative life in a foreign country.

AM: I have little to do with any cultural or indeed social life in Iceland. I'm largely ignored. I know very few people indeed, most of those now spending more and more time in other countries anyway, as the country gets more and more expensive, racist, and Americanized. I came here to do a project years ago, in 1991, and as a result of meeting someone at that point, was asked to take over a guest teaching job at a college here.  After that, having had just about all I could stand of the "European Subsidy Circuit", I came here, which at that point has nothing to do with any of that.  To give an example: when I first came here, it was impossible to pick up a telephone and order a pizza. Now, it seems like people here think they're in some big city in the US, and think, dress, act and speak accordingly. As to what is produced here, I am completely out-of-touch, so I can't really comment intelligently about that at all.

TN:  Hmmmm.  I fear this Frappuccino-frenzy has hit the planet like an asteroid, taking with it precious culture while sharply carving the mindset of speed culture in two.  Though, there are still the final frontiers free of billboards.

Do you have much to say about playing live?  Are large grants necessary to present your work as an "event"?   

AM: Grants would be useful, but I have no idea how you get them, and nobody I know is working to arrange anything like this on my behalf.  The "live" situation can be interesting, but unfortunately, at the present time, very, very, few people are prepared to meet me even half way to present something "special".  The only way that the people in the situations you describe will "get" the "message" is if they put at least as much effort into listening/experiencing it as was involved in making it.

TN: Well, often associations with non-profits in your area help, though some of the leaders in the field of performance and sound art seem to be the Chinati Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Goethe Institute and the Phaedrus Foundation. These groups sometimes offer technical or travel type grants, some base grants on emerging or mid-career status.

AM: I don't have any contacts with any of these organizations. In my experience, it's very much a case of “Who You Know”, and the processes of entering that world are by and large repellent to me.

TN: Sometimes the process is discouraging (I have a huge stack of rejection letters) and seemingly pointless because of this, I agree.  But with perseverance, and the proper grant writer on your side ... you may just have untapped opportunities.

AM: Well, I don't have any such possibility.

TN:  (with tongue-in-cheek, maybe speaking in tongues…) So, in terms of playing to a live audience, as opposed to the overall listening experience (home stereos, pocket computers, in mass transit, elevators) do you feel that your sound communicates (subliminally or otherwise) something you could explain in a few words?

AM:  The sound in itself communicates nothing, except incidentally. The experience that "happens" "inside" of its existence does. Well, that's the hope.

TN: Fill in the blank.  "When you’re alone and life is making you lonely you can always go _______"

AM:  Mad.   Or you can use it to crack some other nuts.

TN:  You had a health scare a while back, and many came to the calling and purchased works, made donations and even a few benefits were thrown on your behalf.  Do you want to talk about how you are doing physically and your reaction to this philanthropy in the name of your art?   

AM: I am still physically very ill.  I can still not afford regular medical treatment. I am doing all that I can with options that are open to me, but this doesn't go as far as it should.  It is a constant struggle.  Don't know what else I can say about this, except to repeat that what would solve the problem would be a regular, boring, nine to five job.  I have had no single serious offer in five years.

TN: Left to your own devices...what would you consider your vices?

AM: I'm never left to my own devices.

TN: Does that mean someone else pulls the strings?

AM: If there were strings, that might help...

TN: Speaking of “strings”…..how about serious interpersonal relationships?  Are you currently in a relationship with anyone at the moment?

AM: Once again, that word is a rather slippery one.  It could potentially be the most interesting question you have asked, but you need to lay out your suppositions by the use of the word before I can go further with it ...this still doesn't clear up the intent behind your question for me ...what, for you, is "relationship"?

TN: OK, slippery slope aside, I realize that you were once married, do you have a soul mate, a life partner, someone focal you make love to regularly, are you dating…does this matter?

AM: I've been married three times. I have four children, none of whom I see. I don't have a "life partner”, as I understand the term. "Dating", no, again; not in the way I understand the use of the word.

TN: Four children! I had no idea.

AM:  I had.

TN: I'm interested in your upcoming collaborations with Bruce Gilbert and Michael Gira.  These sound like something different for you - can you tell me how these have developed? 

AM: Both ongoing. Nothing really to report at present. Apart from the fact that they will both be excellent. A section from the work with Mr. Gira was included on the recent double 10" release on Small Voices in Italy.

TN: Speaking of new releases, if I were to open the No One Remains box (Crouton Music) what’s inside?

AM:  As far as I'm concerned, the correct question (which is also your answer) is "what does it make?". And that's not something I can give out here.

TN: Can you say some about the innate power and magic in limiting releases to so few copies?

AM: Largely destroyed by the internet, really.  Sometimes it helps in terms of focus, sometimes it's simply an effective way of utilizing the circumstances. But, today the whole idea has been devalued to  a large extent.  For me, that's a bit of a shame.

TN: I totally agree with you, it makes me cringe to a certain extent, and right now is a meaningful issue.  Could you expand your feelings around this topic in terms of this loss of authenticity, pride in production, value in the non-virtual, handmade, crafted sensory world?

AM: It's another symptom of the increasing distance that "technology" makes between people, and completely confuses their received notions of what "is" something and what "is not". We are "talking" to each other, but of course we're not. Of course, the technology feeds the notions of people, and that gets fed back into the loop.  This was the original intention, and naturally it goes around so quickly that nobody can see the "in" and "out" points. What I am doing and have done, in part, in the past, is to try to put some of this ground back under feet that wish to tread it.  But I know this is ultimately futile, except for perhaps the idea that maybe it might spur even one person on to examine the situation and their place in it somewhat objectively. It is a hope, or perhaps, to provide a momentary opportunity for a different way of interacting with the situation.

TN: If you could have three wishes what would they be?

AM: The same wish three times, but on three different levels.

TN: I think you have a few cocked ears.  Well, it’s been anything but about face.  But it’s been something of a head-trip chatting with you, reading between the lines, and outside of them.  You have the right to speak the last word here…would you leave us with a quote, something in the here and now?...

AM: "Allt er gott sem endar vel."

Editor's Note:  Since conducting this interview Mr. McKenzie has relocated to Estonia

Comments

[Aimee]

Good evening. In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.
I am from Great and , too, and now am writing in English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Cabin preference, children, country of residence."

Best regards :D, Aimee.

[jw]

"I was asked while playing in Boston when the "interval music" would be over."
How amusing-I saw this happen. I was thouroughly enjoying and deeply engrossed Andrew's mix, and happened to glance over at him behind the mixing board. Someone approached him and said something, and the look on his face said it all. I assumed someone had asked 'where's chris watson?' or 'where's dr. moolenbeek?'.

[bb]

TJ Norris collected a number of extended quotes on Mr. McKenzie. They are posted below. -- ed

"Andrew made some very magical, special music for me, when I did my ‘Legend of the Sacred Prostitute’ performance, which I presented over five years in theaters worldwide. Andrew's music "Masturbatorium" sent me into a deep, ecstatic trance every time. We had a fantastic time recording our sex sounds for "Fuck". Very HOT! Oh, and I'll never forget the night we were on stage together and he stabbed himself in his thigh with a switch blade, and no one, including me, knew if all the blood was real or not. He finished the show, then we took him to the emergency room. The blood was real. I can't wait for our next project. Andrew makes the world a far sexier place."
- Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D., Prostitute/porn star turned Artist/Sexologist

"The Hafler Trio is not a musical group, and are not artists, it's more of an iceberg floating somewhere in the cold seas hidden mostly below waters. A door to many things. It's not abstract, because it's not torn from practical matters. It's not vague, because it's based on a concrete structure. The Hafler Trio is everywhere and nowhere."
- Andrei Bakhmin

“Andrew McKenzie is one of the true sound geniuses of our time for me. I never get tired listening to his works as they have a depth which I rarely find elsewhere.”
- Jochen Schwarz, Die Stadt

“As an artist, Andrew is full of surprises which is one of the reasons why The Hafler Trio continues to be so interesting.”
– John O'Brien, Important Records

“One of the reasons I have such a great admiration for the work of Hafler Trio is the underlying aesthetic: the pieces—the aural, the visual, the textual—come from a commingling of vast research (studies or ideologies might be a better word, or “schools of thought”) and good, old-fashioned work. Hafler Trio has, for my mind, always been driven to present information. This information, however, is never simply handed over on a platter. And why should it be? A great deal of process and person goes into what becomes a “finished” piece, so if your curiosity is piqued (as a listener, etc), there’s no reason not to have an obligation to do some work. As “lofty” as it may sound, Hafler Trio work invites you to be another person in the dialogue, to start clicking pieces together, and, most importantly, engage.”
– Blake Edwards, C.I.P.

"The Hafler Trio are about controversy. Controversy? We need controversy"
– Frans de Waard, Korm Plastics/Vital Weekly

"I've listened to Andrew's work since 1988 and it is absolutely wonderful how he has developed to the present. His approach is something more people should take note of. It's an all encompassing experience communicating things which we don't even know, and that's the pleasure of admiring what he does."
- Jon Mueller, Crouton Music

“We worked with Andrew Mackenzie on a project at The Horse Hospital called 'The Nearness of Doings That Be Things', which was primarily organized by Ian Fenton - now living in Finland. I had wanted to work with the Hafler Trio for quite sometime and jumped at the opportunity - one of my primary gig experiences was seeing - or rather hearing - them perform at a place called The Vox in Brixton, early to mid 90s I guess. I wandered out into an installation/sound event by The Hafler Trio, and literally saw cubes of bass forming and reforming themselves in the air. Up until that point I'd never thought of sound in terms of geometrical patterning, let alone cubism, and it remains a seminal event in my sound development. At the Horse Hospital, the occurrences consisted of a specially designed installation for the space - it literally ate it - which was mutated into an almost dada panto for three evening performances. During the first one the room became a maze around which you could walk, with Andrew giving absurdist and magical proclamations sporadically. For me, he managed to slow down the audience's pace to that of gay men cruising, and I noted how fantastic it was that he'd turned a gallery into what felt like a fuck club...I admired the fact they'd taken my curatorial words to heart - and the amount of dedication he put into an event that was very, very wry in its final form.

I told Andrew this upon meeting him. He remembered the gig, and how EVERYONE in the place was totally off it that night - and also pointed out that someone died at the venue - either that night or very soon after - from overheating, and it was closed down. My main memory of that week working with them was playing Andrew a piece I was working on at the time - a funk version of 'Just Like A Cunt' by Whitehouse - and him roaring with laughter - his laughter is fantastic - and saying how he'd always wanted to do a barbershop quintet, singing Whitehouse songs. For me that sums up Andrew, he made me laugh very, very hard….it made me admire him, not only as an artist, but as a human being too, which is rare, y'know?”
- James Hollands, The Horse Hospital