The remix masters

Chemical Brothers incorporate old technology and new in their musical alchemy

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 26, 2007 at midnight

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Right place, right time. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, known as the dance-music duo the Chemical Brothers, hit Manchester just as the British dance scene experienced a huge '80s revival. They were the best at adapting to the mainstream, becoming renowned musicians, producers and remixers. Their 1997 album Dig Your Own Hole was an instant classic, and 2004's Push the Button pushed them even higher worldwide. The new album We Are the Night finds the Chemical Brothers all over the map. Sitting in his car in London, Rowlands talked via phone recently with Rocky popular music writer Mark Brown about the changes in the music and the way the band performs and plays DJ in Denver fairly often, considering how little it tours. "We've been to Denver a few times, which in the scale of things is like playing there every week, I suppose."

You just did a huge free show at Trafalgar Square. After Sept. 11, we don't see those things here so much anymore. How was it?

"It was an incredible thing. . . . It was amazing to play in such a historic part of London. That's where people have celebrated winning World Cups and winning wars. It's the first time we've done something like that in England, where in Italy, Spain or France you play in a town square at 2 in the morning and music will be loud. People go, 'Oh well, it's Saturday night, just get on with it and have fun.' That's an important part of life as well. People don't have time to have fun and do something different . . . The idea that people can let themselves be free every so often. In the states it has been gotten rid of. It's sad, really. They happen in Spain, which is under direct terrorist threat all the time. It's about how you approach life, isn't it? (Laughs) Getting kind of deep here!"

What do you make of the reviews for the new album?

"It's so confusing when you read people's reviews. The different things I've read about all our records, whether it's a back-to-basics return to dance floor, abandoning the dance floor, why isn't there enough dance on this record, why are there so much vocals? Our records move around. That's what we like about the album we just made - there's a lot of contrast on it. It's an album that has The Salmon Dance on it, with dancing, talking fish, and then has The Pills Won't Help You Now, a song about death in an old people's home. That's an album I want to be part of! If we have an idea and we like it, we'll go with it."

I can understand how traditional songwriters sit down with a guitar and make a song, but how do you guys come up with them?

"We start in all different ways. Some start sitting in front of the television with your guitar in your lap working out some chords. You take that into the studio and say: 'Well, how is this going to be different? What's going to make this special?' Other times it's all about following a sound. We make a sound on the synthesizer and we treat it this way, put it back through this effect, put it through a microphone in a dustbin and rerecord that. It's a sound, it's an experiment, it's the alchemy of making sounds and arranging it so it makes sense. We're happy both ways."

Technology is killing some songs, but does it help you with your work?

"It doesn't become easier to write a book with a word processor; there's still the idea that's difficult. It's the same with music. When we started making electronic music, there were certain restrictions that were good. They narrowed what you can do. Now when you sit down to make music you're bewildered with the amount of things you can do. You're doing one thing and you find yourself buying something you don't need on the Internet. You find yourself stuck down avenues of misadventure. Before, you'd be more focused. With the technology we use to make records, we like to combine old technology because it really focuses you. We combine that with the capabilities and new things the computer does. I don't think it's becoming easier to make music. Having an idea is as difficult as it ever was."

You were in Manchester at a great, weren't you?

"It was exciting. I'd gone to the University of Manchester because I'd been to the Hacienda Club the year before in the summer. It was like, 'Wow, I want to study in this town so I can do this every Friday night.' That was 1988. So many things happening. Manchester is a city, but it feels small. If you go out and go to clubs you meet the same people. You meet people making amazing records, where in London you needed a special key to get entrance to the creative world. There, people just got up and did things. Just hanging out in the record shops in Manchester every week, there'd be a new record that blew your mind. Then you'd find out the guy who made the record was standing next to you in the store."

You've made amazing videos for The Salmon Dance and Do It Again. Are they still important?

"It's an interesting thing. The record companies are cutting the budgets because they sell less records. The idea of buying music is going out of fashion. The concept of paying for music - they'll pay for a ring tone on the phone, but they'd never dream of paying for that song. What would you do that for? It's out there for free! But (video) is still important with YouTube or MySpace. People see them more than when they were on video channels. Record companies now just think everything can be made cheaply."

Are the Arab-looking characters dancing in the Do It Again video a political statement, or is it just that any video with Arab-looking characters seems like a political statement?

"No, there wasn't anything. It's just a different country. The guy who made it lives in a house in Morocco. He just wanted to film it there. There was no subtext or political leaning. That's interesting, isn't it? I've been asked that question before.

The Chemical Brothers

• When and where: 8 p.m. today, Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 Clarkson St.

• Cost: $32

• Information: 303-830-8497, ticketmaster.com

Brownm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2674

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