Interview: Simian Mobile Disco

We caught up briefly with Simian Mobile Disco, We Love Space residents for 2010.

Spotlight: You’ve been relatively quiet the past year, what have you been up to?

SMD: We've been DJing all over the world, setting up our own Delicatessen partes, producing for various artists, and working on tracks for our Delicacies label. Hasn't seemed that quiet to us!

You’ve previously worked with massive names including Florence and the Machine, Klaxons and Arctic Monkeys, are there any more collaborations in the pipeline?

We haven't actually collaborated with any of those artists for SMD material. James has produced for them, but that's quite different to SMD stuff. We'll have some collaborations on our next album, I'm sure.

Is there anybody you’d love to work with but just haven’t had the chance yet?

Lots of people... you'll have to wait and see what we end up doing.

On your latest 12” release, all the tracks are named after delicacies from around the world including Casu Marzu, a Sicilian delicacy involving maggots; what made you chose to use this topic as a theme?

Delicacies are things that are enjoyed by only a handful of enthusiasts, usually. That's the idea behind these singles, they're a bit unusual and weird and not everyone will like them.

What’s the most disgusting delicacy you’ve ever eaten?

Jas ate brains and knee ligaments for breakfast in Indonesia. It was... interesting.

Delicacies is much more techno-based than Temporary Pleasure, what made you go for a less commercial sound?

I think that we just wanted a bit of change of pace, and to produce longer club tracks. Most of the stuff on Temporary Pleasure started of as long club tracks but contracted to go with the vocals.

You’re playing loads of dates for We Love Space in Ibiza, what can we expect from your sets?

Techno, mostly.

Where else are you playing in Ibiza, and the rest of the world, this summer?

We've done most of our festival dates now, we have more European and UK DJ dates, and a couple more Ibiza shows too.

Simian Mobile Disco, Live in Berlin, April 2010

Many other DJs and producers have got a radio show or a podcast, is this something which you’ve looked at doing, or would consider doing in the future?

Maybe. if we had time. With our individual production commitments and working on SMD stuff we're pretty busy...

You said in an interview with online magazine Dummy, that had you known how big Simian Mobile Disco was to become, you’d have changed your name. Any ideas on what you would have called yourselves?

Hah... well we've never had to think about it. Probably something minimal and austere. Doepfer maybe.

Have you always wanted to be musicians, or were there any other bizarre career paths you nearly went down?

Jas thought about being a competitive hot dog eater at one point.