Interview from The Noise Research Program (August 2001)

I met Jimmy by mistake. He sent a tape (a genuine analogue cassette) from his musical project TGWIF to a friend of mine. A Ben Harper promo perverted with TippEx correcting fluid and scotch adhesive tape. This friend of mine's got no such antique as an analog cassette player. I have. I think it all started listening to his three-fingers-tunes (with tiny-but-real pieces of rhythm inside).

Not only does Jimmy Possession make wonderful melodies with his tracker (music you'd expect to get out from the tiny speaker of a mutant gameboy color high on radioactive corn flakes), but he runs a radio show, one of the most creative webzines I know (I mean *really* creative, not one of those javascripted voids you can see everywhere on the web) Robots and Electronic Brains -and there's a paper version, too- and makes great reviews for other zines.

First of all, I'd like to know what it's like to be the one who answers questions (ie : the villain) instead of being the one who asks them (ie : the policeman)

I like it. When I ask the questions, I've got a sense of anticipation about the answers but I've usually asked about something for a reason, so I've got expectations about the answer. When you're answering the questions, the sense of anticipation is much greater: what is ddn going to ask next? what will my answer say to people reading this?

Could you tell me why you started R+EB and the short (or long) story behind it ?

I'll give you the short answer. I started Robots.. because I couldn't find a zine that I wanted to read. A long time ago I used to read Organ fanzine (which is still running: www.organart.demon.co.uk, I think) and one or two others, and what I loved about Organ in particular was the fact that it just covered music that Sean Organ liked. It was stuffed to the gills and it was messy and jumbled and you sometimes couldn't read it easily and it was full of typing errors and frequently rambled on about nothing or shot off at a tangent in the middle of a review, but there was always the sensethat the next page would produce the band you were waiting for.

When I started Robots.. I wanted the same feeling of potential discovery, the same intensity and surprise that Organ had. And I didn't want any bullshit. Too many reviews just don't say anything, so I wanted to write reviews that were exactly as long as they needed to be. I wanted to get full value out of every word. And wanted the zine to be totally about the music. Organ was sometimes about Sean, most other zines were totally about their editors - how many bands they'd hung out with, how the singer from some long-forgotten indie outfit had given them a t-shirt, blah blah blah - and so much of the mainstream press was the same. I decided that there would be no editorial in Robots.. and that interviews would not be the sycophantic affairs that many zines seemed (and still seem) to trot out, but would be governed by randomness, so that I would have no input at all. The interview would be totally about the band's reaction to random questions, the same questions from band to band.

So I built an interview machine from a child's toy called The Magic Robot. The bands chose questions at random using the robot and answered them. I took no part beyond starting and stopping the tape recorder. At the end of each interview, the band could add another question to the set of questions for future bands.

It was a nice idea, and it still appeals to me now but ultimately it was too constraining because I conduct few enough interviews, and only with bands that I really want to talk to, that I was cutting off my nose to spite my face.

The editorial thing has stuck since the beginning, though, and Robots.. is still packed with reviews, there's still with the chance that you'll find something new and unexpected. Quite a few of my readers have said that they re-read Robots.. and find new things in it each time, and that makes me very happy.

Why is R+EB linked on Digital Hardcore Recordings website, though your latest reviews of kid606 and such weren't that nice ?

They asked if they could link to me. I said they could. I have a great deal of time for DHR, even if - as I know well - you don't. I think they've got a bit of a problem, as the kid606 review and previous ATR reviews have pointed out, but they're also prepared to take a chance on stuff that might not get such a high-profile release any other way. The Fidel Villeneuve record I liked a great deal, the last Lolita Storm EP was great, and they both got good reviews in Robots..

Why are the html interfaces you make so simple ?

Because for a long time I used shit computer equipment to access the internet from university and I know how tedious it is to go to sites where you can't actually read anything because your browser isn't good enough. The primary motive of Robots.. is the content. Why would I try to prevent people seeing that content by putting a huge Flash animation in front of it?

Could you give me three words about your music and three words about yourself ?

Music: keep it simple
Me: keep it honest

You seem to keep using trackers as the only tool to make music (like darky or pimmon do) : why ?

When I started doing music all I had was an old Amiga 500, a copy of Soundtracker from some public domain disk or other and 3 discs of samples. I liked working within the really tight restrictions because it forced me to (try to) be creative rather than rely on powerful software to be creative for me. I didn't like the fact that I only had floppy disks and no hard drive, though, and that's the reason that I eventually left the Amiga behind and moved to the PC. Most of the I Didn't Get Where I Am Today ep was recorded on the Amiga before the disk drive finally packed up.

When I moved to the PC I was looking around for another tracker because that was what I knew. I did try more complicated software, but I'm happy with the way of making music that I have so I didn't feel the need to change it. My grandad used to say "open the bonnet and let the devil in" by which he meant if it's not broke, don't try to fix it.

Could you describe what TGWIF is all about ? (by the way : does the name come from the Shellac song ?)

The name does come from the Shellac song, yes. It's on the Rude Gesture 7". I love the way that Steve Albini records bands, and everyone should own the At Action Park album just to hear the incredible clarity and simplicity. I chose it because I wanted a name that didn’t sound like it belonged to any genre of music. I don't make just one sort of music and I don’t listen to or write about any one sort of music and I wanted the name to reflect that.

What is any music "all about"? Guy Fire is an enjoyable side-project. I don't spend hours composing tracks. I doubt if any track I've ever done has taken more than a couple of hours. Usually, if something's not good enough by then, I throw it away. I want spontaneity and spirit not perfection. I suppose I moan a lot about other bands (making music that sounds so much like something else, never knowing when to end their tracks, I could go on) so maybe Guy Fire is a way of saying, you know, if I can do it, I'm sure YOU can.