You thought we were on holiday - and we are! But we still had time to catch up with one of
Black Lantern Music's
most popular artists,
METATRON, known to many as
The Niallist, one of the three creative forces behind Glasgow's
Little Rock Records. He gives us a nice intro to the world of Metatron, reflects on his time in the trenches of the Glasgow club scene, and tells us what's next for Metatron, The Niallist and Little Rock.
Here is a Metatron playlist, for those who haven't encountered his spacious, minimal electronica before.
You are a man of many aliases... what does the Metatron alias mean to you, and where did it originate?
The name
Metatron refers to one of the arch-angels from the Talmud who people are known to meditate too. I don't know much more about it though, I just think it's a great name that popped up in conversation once. I should look into it more. At times I feel like music is a spiritual journey I am being led on, but that's a personal thing. I still profess that music is the closest we as a species have come to real magic.
As a project
Metatron is driven by my desire to make non-house/disco/electro music, music that doesn't fit into any of the categories I am better known for producing. It initially came about after listening to lots of
Skull Disco and old school hardcore/rave and wanting to do something a bit like that. I enjoy the freedom it gives me, and that relates to the free release structure on
Black Lantern too - it's about getting music out there with a minimum of fuss.
'Journeys' is a bit of a departure from 'Creation Myths' - was it your intention to create a very different sound on this EP?
Not really. As a project Metatron is much more free flowing than my other work. I generally do start with an idea of what I want but it tends to mutate wildly - which is a good thing, I don't have many pre-conceptions with this stuff. There are loose categories or elements I like to work in, like 'industiral' or 'dubstep,' but it's more about creating a work freely, and then trying to decipher it after the fact.
As The Niallist you've played legendary nights like Optimo, and are remembered fondly for Discopia. what is your favourite memory as a performer / DJ?
Some of the parties we threw at the Chateau were amazing, looking back on it. We were paying fuck all rent for this huge, delapidated building in the Gorbals, so we could really do whatever we wanted, with no hassle from the police or the locals (mostly). The basement party we held there Hogmanay 2006/2007 was amazing, as was the Miami party and loads more happenings. In terms of legal events though, the first time I played at Optimo was incredible, the best gig I have played yet. The crowd are second to none, they're really responsive and appreciate a good show.
Having said all that, we just held a party with Menergy and Che Camille in their new space in the Barras center, a vogue ball with lots of drag queens and young models walking off against each other on a runway. I don't think Glasgow has seen anything like it before. It was chaotic but beautiful - party of the year!
You run Little Rock Records with Dalai Dahmer and Kid Ritalin. tell us about the Little Rock philosophy - why and how do you do what you do?
Little Rock was actually supposed to start as a physical label in 2005, the Prince's Trust were behind it but the maths just did not work out. The inspiration for the digital model came from
Jahtari.org. I was turned onto them and their site by
Mungo's Hi-Fi, and thought: "I could do that." They were the first people I saw freely giving away their music from their website, but both the music and the website had an easily accessible ethos. It seemed the natural solution for people who produce music that does not fit into the mainstream, or even the 'alternative' mainstream. It's driven by necessity really.
Ideologically it's influenced by some of the labels form the early 80s who put out some really forward thinking music, labels like Factory and 99 Records. We mostly deal in alternative electronica, experimental rock, and occasionally straight up dancefloor shit, like those labels mentioned. We started out releasing my music, but over the years the label has expanded to release music by the other people involved, and also some other great bands from our vicinity, and we have also expanded from being just download releases to vinyl and CD too.
You recently moved to manchester - how does the club scene there compare to Glasgow?
It's similar but different - it has a much more strongly defined scene here with a deeply entrenched sense of history - and that can work both for and against it. So there is an epic musical legacy, but that can hinder new things from flourishing. Glasgow feels a bit more like people don't care, so you have the freedom to do whatever you want, there is no over-arching scene that could strangle anything new, but at the same time people can be uneccessarily jaded.
Moving away from Glasgow you realise just how much of a bubble that town exists in - again this is both good and bad, as it means things have time to develop on their own terms, but also it means Glasgow is missing out on the influence of different cultures available elsewhere. So for instance I don't think
Numb3rs would have made the same headway in Manchester had it started here, because there are already promoters doing that type of thing. That's not a knock on Numb3rs, I'm just pointing it out. But Manchester and Glasgow are similar in that the people are very friendly, very open to talking to strangers, and the arts and music scenes in both are very fertile, no matter how hard we bitch!
What are your plans for Metatron in the future? will we ever see a Metatron live show?
I have actually been thinking about a Metatron live show, though if I do it I think it will be much more drone-orientated and soundscapey, a bit like
Demdike Stare who I caught a few weeks ago and loved. They obviously come from a techno background, and they can tease you with beats and basslines, but they are more interested in tripping you up and spacing you out when they play live.
What electronic artists do you rate most highly in today's scene?
To be honest, the people I take greatest inspiration from are the people who have stayed afloat and relevant in the music industry rather than anyone in particular from any one modern scene. So while I greatly respect producers like Shackleton, Ramadanman, Hud Mo, Linkwood, Magnus International, Fox Gut Daata, Ben Butler & Mousepad, Ali Renault, Space Dimension Controller, Ariel Pink, Gold Blood, John Maus, Mark Pritchard, and loads more, what I am personally aiming for is the longevity and cross genre appeal of true artists like Bjork, Andrew Weatherhall, David Bowie, the RZA, Todd Rundgren, Prince, Nile Rodgers, and people like that. It's a tall order I know, but you gotta aim high!
Is there any significance to the religious overtones of the name 'Metatron'? are you a reigious person?
I would say I am a spiritual person rather than religious. I can be very critical of organised religion, as it has brought the world a whole lot of bad, but at the same time I know a lot of people in different orders and they are not bad people, they are genuinely trying to make the world a better place. But at the same time 'religion' has become just a set of boxes to be ticked to gain entry to an afterlife that possibly might not exist, not with making the world here and now a better place. I would say to people to find your own relationship with God, or whatever spiritual being you like. Why should you rely on an organisation to do that for you? Your big brother may be able to give you some tips on how best to approach it, but if you want to borrow your dad's car for the night you'll have to ask him yourself.
If you could destroy the entire viewing audience of just one TV show, which would you choose?
Ooh, that's a good question... The mass entertainment shows like X Factor, Big Brother, soap operas, etc, draw in such huge audiences that there are a multitude of reasons for watching them, so you get some very highly educated people watching for very different reasons. Wiping out that audience from an aesthetic standpoint would seem counter-productive. Maybe wiping out the contestants and the judges would be better. Some of the arts reviews shows like Newsnight Review are just so smug and narrowly focussed that they really annoy me - but then again wiping out their audience would not solve the problem. I guess it might be doing the whole world a favour to wipe out the audience of Fox News?
What is next for The Niallist and Metatron?
Well, I will be working on another EP for
Black Lantern called 'City of Industry,' inspired by my impressions of Manchester and again following a more industrial/noise path, but as I said before I can't be sure how this will end up!
There's lots on the horizon for the Niallist. My next single 'I Came (ft Ms Mac D)' is out next week on Little Rock, and will be followed up in the new year by what I hope is the future pop classic '(I'm In Love With The Singer From The) Pet Shop Boys.' I've also just finished setting up my new personal blog (
www.niallism.com) where I will be posting all my news, and occassionally some features too. AND we are in the course of organising a Vogue Ball here in Manchester which is very exciting. Good times!
