Andy Butler and his Project Hercules and Love Affair found themselfs in Vienna - recording music, analyzing the city a little bit and putting disco into the cellar of the 2nd district. A very welcome...
I´ve heard that you were in vienna since a few weeks. Also for making a video with marfloW and aswell recording stuff in the studio of Patrick Pulsinger. How did it came to this collaboration?
Andy Butler: Actually Wolfram Eckert (marfloW) is the fellow who brought me to Vienna and suggested I´ve sort working with Patrick Pulsinger in the studio. And I was ready to take the work I´d been doing. I spent about a year for recording new material and I needed to bring it somewhere to sort of put the final touches on it, finesse the music and mix the record. So Patrick was the one to do it.
Yeah, and Wolfram also asked me to be in his video, so I was in his video. It´s one of his new songs and I think one of the guys from Holy Ghost (DFA) is singing on it.
Enough time to make you a picture, how the people are, how the clubscene is, the mentality, etc...?
How would you describe Vienna for somebody in a few words?
A.B.: I Love Vienna, because the clima is perfect. I am getting older and so that´s why the clima becomes more important for me than ever (lauging). It´s a beautiful city and the people are sweet. But I hadn´t done that much clubbing. Of everyone, I have probably been here the most, I deejayed at Pratersauna which was fun.
Hm, yeah, the food is good, the people are good looking……
H & L A is a bunch of people who are gay, lesbian or transgender. What do you think about the issue of homosexuality in Vienna. Did you have time for impressions of this scene here. I mean, a girlfriend of mine was here for several weeks and searched for a connection, but the only thing she said was, that it feels like to many people thinking homosexuality is a hype, that´s why it feels sort of strange and unreal here. In Barcelona for example it feels more natural, more filled with love, more authentic. What do you think?
A.B.: Hmm. I mean dont really know the gayscene here in vienna. I hadn´t gone out to gay clubs or such like this but it was prevalent when staying on the Naschmarkt. I recognized that this area is quite gay friendly, I saw a lot of rainbowflags and I´ve heard about some gay clubs. It seems like a welcoming community and nice city for a gay lifestyle. But I dont know much about it, I hadn´t really done much gaystuff here.
Which clubs would you recommend me if I would go to NYC or San Francisco?
Shaun: I like Santos Partyhouse in NYC. Hmmm, in San Francisco…
A.B.:...Honey Soundsystem...
Shaun: Yeah, Honey Soundsystem is great.
Daniella: In Berlin we have the Berghain. After Alexanderplatz it´s the most remarakable monument in Berlin. We had all been there, it´s like school
Yeah, I know the Berghain, it´s great. I was there two or three years ago and saw Andy deejaying there. It was sort of luck, because a few weeks before, I´d heard about H & L A for the first time, so it was a cool impression.
A.B.: And do you think I did a good job?
Yes, absolutely. Haha!
Is there a connection between Berlin and NYC for you, in various styles?
A.B.: Yes, there is, I mean in a way. Directly some people connected me to Berlin. Musicproducers for example. Someone who is sort of a mentor in a way to me, named Daniel Wang, who lives in Berlin now. He used to live in NYC and he was very instructive and pushed me, encouraged me as an artist and in writting disco music and stuff. He moved to Berlin, years ago, so I always knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to go and see what´s going on there, because someone who had admired so much had moved there.
And I also meet Daniella years ago in Berlin, like five years ago maybe, so in the back of my mind aswell I was always like „I wanna see this girl again, wanna work with that girl!“
So, could you imagine to live in Berlin for a while? But, you moved from NYC to San Francisco before a while, right?
A.B.: I was in San Francisco but I actually moved to a small town in the middle of America called Denver (laughing).
But that´s your hometown!?
A.B.: Yeah, but I like a quiet life, I like the mountaintowns, climate kind of like Vienna. It´s good for me. I couldn´t live in Berlin, I don´t think. It´s maybe too busy, I am a little bit of a homebuddy actually. What about you, you live in Barcelona? (at Kim Ann asking)
Kim Ann: Yeah, I am now in Barcelona. I mean, I think everyone that lives in NYC, a lot of them moved to Berlin. I don´t know if I could live there, but I really like to visit, I love Berlin.
So, how long did you live in Barcelona?
K.A.: I live there since one year.
Oh, you actually live there. Cool. I saw H & L A there at Espacio Móvistar, but I didn´t like the location. It was sort of too much artificial, too steril. For me, H & L A always needs a location with a lot of sex appeal, which is sort of sleazy.
H & L A: Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
Do you have the possibility to demand like „Hey, we like to play this club or this venue“ when booking the tour, going to a city?
A.B.: We don´t usually call the shots like that. I mean, the truth is that, when we play in a more intimate setting or in a place that has a good energy to it, it makes all the difference. So, I mean, I wish we could play only cool places, but sometimes we have to play like in Mexico…..
Shaun: Oh yeah, it was in Guadalajara. It was amazing.
A.B.: Yeah, but it was in like something that was like a caféteria…
Daniella: Some kind of a town bar, with leather sofas..
Shaun: ...and linoleum floors...
K.A.: ...kinky peoples...haha
A.B.: The venue is always super important. Hopefully tonight will be great at Fluc.
K.A.: Yesssss…
What are the conditions for doing a remix of someones track? For sure you get a lot of stuff, no?
A.B.: Generally there has to be a really strong melody somewhere in the music, or it has to be really aestheticly strong, you know, ruded in some very specific style. So I like it if there is a good vocal, obviously I am surrounded by vocalists, so I like a good vocal, a good melody or a really good aesthetic, good style.
Kim Ann, you´re a Dj aswell. Which one was the first record y´d bought with your own money?
K.A.: The first record I´d ever bought with my own money was actually „Supersonic“ when I was eleven years old.
"Supersonic"? I am not sure if I know this track?
K.A.: What?!! J.J.Fad (making the beat with the mouth)
Andy, I saw you have a comic tattoo on your left arm. Are comics important for you?
A.B.: Actually it comes from a record, so records are important to me. It comes from an old punkrock record.
I have a few more questions. Can you tell me a lie about H & L A!
K.A.: Ohhh, that´s fun!
A.B.: Let´s see, who´s the best liar in the group…??
(all discussing and laughing – but eventually Shaun´s the one)
Shaun: They are terrible to work with. Andy is a tyrant and he´s actually 45.
A.B.: Don´t spread lies about me girl!!! (to Shaun)
Daniella: His real haircolor is black.
Shaun: Haha, he´s a natural brunette.
So, how is it right now for you. For the first album, you had plenty much time, you started for fun. Right now you have the pressure of making an album within a year or something. Do you find the time to write new stuff, how do you manage it till the final end of a song.
A.B.: It´s been challenging, you know. We spent of almost a year with touring, so I had to start learning how to write music on the road, which I did. I kind of found myself with drawing and writing music. So some of the music is actually also older, again. It´s old sketches that were from before the first record. So some of the old music has developed and become what it is now and then new music has been written. I still really try to find time to write music, but it´s hard, because before I didn´t have a timeline or any pressure. I just kind of did it for fun. But I have to keep it fun, I can´t put the pressure so much on me. I think the new songs are good songs, we´ll gonna play a bunch of them tonight. The new collaboraters have brought so much to the music and stuff, so I think it´s gonna be a good record.
Will Antony (Hegarty) and Nomi appear on the new record aswell?
A.B.: No. Both were guestvocalists the first time around, both kind of were soloartists and have their carrer in motion. It´s very exciting to me to work with new people, and in the back of my mind as I said I wanted to work with Daniella for a long time so when that opportunity arose I was like „Oh my god!!“. And Shawn was just somehow we met up and it seemd to work really well. I would like to work with new vocalist and new musicans as well. A lot of the musicans that played on the first record don´t appear on this new record. And there is a new co-producer as well. So it´s a pretty new cast of characters all together.
You talked in an interview about a project which would be more extreme than H&LA. For sure it was not the Sidetracked LP. Do you already work on this project?
A.B.:(innocent watching) I would like to make probably like a very extreme heavy metal projekt with my younger brother. This is a dream of mine(laughing)
A few words at the end: What´s Sidetracked for you?
A.B.: Sidetracked was kind of a opportunity to show my deejaying. Just to play the aesthetic.
Thanks!
H & L A: Thanks.....for the sweets, hehe!
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