The amazing musician, songwriter, composer, producer, and engineer Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins answers Three Qs.
As co-founder of Cocteau Twins—one of the most influential and revered acts in alternative music history—Robin helped pioneer the 1980s alternative subgenre of dream pop and helped define what would become shoegaze.
Their 1986 album with Harold Budd, The Moon and the Melodies, has been recently reissued on vinyl for the first time in almost forty years–remastered, from the original tapes, by Robin Guthrie himself. Pick up a copy here.
As part of Issue Four.
Without further ado...
Synth History: Can you recount one of your favorite memories from performing live or recording in the studio?
Robin: For me, there is a critical moment towards the end of mixing a song, when I enter a state not unlike one that I’ve witnessed my dog doing when she sees a deer or a rabbit or something. It’s like a sharpening of the senses, a clarity, the shutting out of the distractions around me and a focus—a focus, it should be noted, that I seem completely incapable of while trying to remember where I left my car keys. It seems like at that moment I’m inside the music, I am inside the sound and I’m aware of my mix being objectively correct. The discipline involved to finish at that point comes with experience. It’s all too easy to do ‘just one more adjustment’, at which point the delicate equilibrium thus far created, fades like a mirage and the moment gets lost. You see, inside the mix any change will have its influence and something else will soon appear ‘wrong’.
And so it goes. I’ve never been a ‘that’ll do’ person. These are my favourite memories of recording, indeed, the very reason I continue to make music. It’s about the journey having equal importance as the destination. I guess it’s always been an area of my life that I have allowed my inner control freak to dominate and all I can say is, thank goodness .
Synth History: What is one album you think everyone should listen to at least once in their lifetime, apart from your own, and why?
Robin: I am the least qualified to pick other people’s music as if I am some arbiter of taste,
knowledgeable or even interested in such matters, so it’s a difficult question for me to answer
definitively.
However, The Köln Concert—the live recording made in 1975 by Keith Jarrett—is this morning’s choice and, as it happens, the reasons for choosing this illustrate the irony of my answer to the previous question. My moments, described above, happen in a studio where I take the time to mould everything that I have at my fingertips; sounds, performances, inspiration—toward an end that I feel worthy of immortalizing in my mix. The moments that Mr. Jarrett appears to be having during The Köln Concert are, well, all the above but happening in real time.
I mean that’s just so fucking awesome to me. How can someone even do that? The idea that all these years spent learning an instrument, mastering performance and improvisation techniques—classes that I clearly missed—could pay off in such a startling way and make such a profound connection with the audience is all rather brilliant. And he can do this night after night. It is just simply so very, very different to my understanding or experience of creativity. It’s vibrant and imperfect in so many ways, ways which would normally induce a panic attack in me were it my own creation, and that’s why I chose it today. Also, and as I suspect Mr. Jarrett may have been aware, another benefit of learning to play the piano—and this counts for singing as well—is that you are seldom troubled with having to fanny around on your knees all evening trying to get your effects pedals to work nor with having to carry amplifiers, drumkits and the like.
Synth History: What is one tip for approaching a new instrument?
Robin: I would generally try not to get too hung up about what the instrument is meant to sound like or the context or genre it was designed for. I think of unfamiliar instruments as input devices, albeit ones that I am unaccustomed to, which can often lead to originality although in a rather unpredictable way. However, for most things technical I’d say, RTFM. Even if you don’t understand what the technology is capable of, there are often little nuggets of information hidden away in the manual which may come in useful later. I like manuals, always have.
Synth History Exclusive.
Interview Conducted by Danz.