AJT: Speaking of films and world-building, I know you’re a big sci-fi fan – can you talk me through some of your favourite sci-fi movies?
RH: [laughs] Of course. Wow this is going to be a really bad one maybe, but I was in the studio last night actually working on a piece for Prada and I was thinking, “Oh it could be really interesting to play with a voice.” Then I did a quick YouTube search for Flash Gordon. Looking back it’s so dated and cheesy [laughs], but the soundtrack was done by Queen and there are some parts in this movie where the soundtrack and the visuals… Actually when you look at it you think, “Oh it’s so cheesy,” but then if you close your eyes and hear the soundtrack, it actually makes the movie better than it looks. It’s so futuristic and sci-fi, and quite campy. It’s not my favourite [laughs] but somehow that resonated with me. I love really early movies, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet, these proto- typical 60s, 70s sci-fi shows where they use some really early synthesisers. I loved those movies before I became a sound artist, so I think it was those unworldly sounds and frequencies I heard while watching those films that really grabbed me. One of my all-time favourites, which I have the poster for here, is Logan’s Run. Where are you?

AJT: I’m in London.
RH: OK, I grew up in Oxfordshire until I was nine years old and I remember as a kid watching this Logan’s Run TV show, which was also kind of camp, but then I saw the movie later on. The movie really resonated with me, the idea of sanctuary and people trying to escape a future that had been built. I actually used it for quite a few samples with my early F.U.S.E. work. Again, it’s that fascination with a future that, even when it’s dystopian, there’s still some kind of positive element in there you can grab onto.

AJT: Have you seen The Prisoner? What you’re saying reminds me of its unsettling architecture.
RH: [laughs] Yeah, I used to watch that too, it’s really good.

AJT: I also read that some of your early inspirations were Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd. What I found interesting about those groups is they all create incredibly layered, textured worlds that evoke a sense of 3D movement around you.
RH: I went through my dad’s records when I was a kid and I found those, then when I was a teenager I finally realised, “OK, that weird painting on the back of my parents’ bedroom was The Dark Side of the Moon cover.” There were all these sounds on even when I wasn’t listening because my dad would have his stereo on, so I was kind of tuned, or retuned into the sound of electronic instrumentation, even when I wasn’t aware of it. Talking about those types of albums, what’s very important is what you said there, there’s layers, momentum, storytelling, narrative. It’s like navigation, like taking a journey. Intentionally or unintentionally that’s what I’m always searching for in a piece of music I make, and especially in my albums. I don’t really like albums that are just a collection of tracks, if you use that format I want to be taken to a place that I couldn’t get to through a three-to-five-minute single. Music is very much about those ups and downs, upheaval, a pulling and tugging within you. In my work especially, which is very subtractive and minimalistic, it’s those small fluctuations that grab people’s attention, they kind of massage them to keep them with you while still feeling like there’s room to breathe.

AJT: I agree, my favourite point of an LP is the end of Side A and beginning of Side B, it’s always fascinating to see how musicians connect the two.
RH: Absolutely. I remember when I was working on my first two albums, the first F.U.S.E. album was kind of a collection of singles that I did for Warp Records and I tried to make it feel as cohesive as possible, but I was still a bit let down by that album. Right after that, I went straight into the studio to create what would be the first Plastikman album, Sheet One, which was pivotal to my success, but that’s because it was really what I trying to do. A single for a club is a single, it makes sense, that’s the format. But to actually go deep into an album, you’ve got to give someone more and take them from beginning to end. If you do it right, grab the listener and take them on that journey, then it’s incredibly rewarding for both sides.

Interview originally published in HERO 25.

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