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 UK techno star Ade Fenton is more than happy to describe himself as a card carrying, former Numanoid, which is one reason why he’s turned out to be the perfect choice to co-produce Gary Numan’s long awaited new album Jagged. To a large extent, ditching the electro legend’s more recent dalliances towards rock and industrial, Fenton’s looked for inspiration to Gary’s early 80’s electro synth pop roots, in the process serving up an album that’s both accessible though equally dark.
“My overall brief for the whole album was to make it as big sounding as possible; as aggressive as possible,” says Ade, “Words like ‘epic’ were mentioned.”
Renowned for producing similarly punishing noir-ish techno, Ade, nevertheless ditched his 140bpm hard as nails beats, to emphasise Gary’s melancholic though powerful melodies and words,
“I think the highest bpm on the album is 100bpm and one of the tracks is 70bpm, Ade admits, “I could probably double it in speed, but no, I definitely couldn’t use these tracks for DJing.” The result is an album that stands up easily to with Gary’s original synth pop peers Depeche Mode, as well as being a quality album in its own right.
Skrufff: starting with Jagged, is it a Gary and Ade Fenton joint album?
Ade Fenton: “No not at all, it’s a Gary Numan album; his first one in six years. I’ve known Gary for a long time anyway and it really just came about because he heard some of my new album tracks, which are nothing to do with techno at all, but are more industrial in style. He really liked them so in August last year he gave me one track and said ‘Look, do you want to have a go at producing it?’ Of course I immediately said yes. So I did that track, Gary liked the direction I was going in and asked me if I wanted to do the rest of the album. And of course I was like ‘Yes please’. That’s really how it all came about.”
Skrufff: How did the process work, was he giving you pretty much finished songs that you had to effectively polish?
Ade Fenton: “Not really, he would give me a demo of a song and also me a brief. My overall brief for the whole album was to make it as big sounding as possible; as aggressive as possible. Words like ‘epic’ were mentioned. The songs were obviously written with a general direction but he also gave me quite a blank check to do whatever I wanted, whether that meant changing the arrangements, chord progressions or anything else I liked. So I I took every song apart, then reconstructed them keeping fairly close to Gary’s original sound and vision then giving him back my version of all eleven tracks, showing him everything I’d taken out. He’d then take out anything of mine he didn’t like and we went from there. The whole album has been done in a relatively short space of time compared to the way most albums are produced, we only really started working on it at the beginning of August and we’d finished it just before Christmas. I’m extremely happy with it.”
Skrufff: Are you a proper studio boffin and totally technically capable?
Ade Fenton: “I guess I am now, though if you’d have asked me that question in August when I started I’d probably have said no. I think when you are challenged to do something, and for this was a huge deal, my first major producing job, you actually surprise yourself with how well you can work and how quickly you learn. I feel like even from song one through to song eleven I was constantly evolving, and by tracks ten and eleven, I just felt, I’d reached as high as I was going to get. I actually felt like that by track seven, the project became much easier because I felt happy with everything I was doing. There comes a moment when you know you can do it, you understand you’ve got a good idea in your head and you can immediately turn that idea into something good. Though technically I’m still not a geek or anything like that, by any means.”
Skrufff: And none of the tracks are for DJing?
Ade Fenton: “Not in a techno set, no. I think the highest bpm is 100bpm, one of the tracks is 70bpm, I could probably double it in speed, but no, definitely not.”
Skrufff: How does doing a project like this affect your view towards DJing and techno?
Ade Fenton: “I’ve heard one or two things and I’ve seen one or two things about this on the internet one saying I’ve given up techno and I don’t like techno, which is absolute rubbish. That’s not true at all; I still love DJing. I haven’t made any techno for about six months, but that’s because I’ve been concentrating on other things. When somebody like Gary Numan asks you to co-produce an album, you haven’t really got time to do techno, but because of that people automatically assume that either I don’t like it or that I’ve retired or whatever, which is just rubbish. Does this album with Gary doesn’t affect my views at all. I still consider techno and DJing to be another half of what I do for a living, and now with this producing thing that I have enjoyed so much I want to do both. I certainly don’t intend to stop doing either.”
Skrufff: Does Gary ever come to see you DJing or go clubbing with you?
Ade Fenton: “No no. Lets just say he’s not a big fan of dance music. I don’t think he’d feel that comfortable in a techno club, to be honest.”
Skrufff: Are you going to be involved in touring with Gary?
Ade Fenton: “I don’t know yet. Everything has just been so mental with getting the artwork done and getting the album mastered and everything else that I don’t think we’ve even had time to sit down, let alone think about that sort of thing. He’s in the middle of moving house as well and there’s a new baby, so….”
Skrufff: I visualise you like a Public Enemy DJ, standing at the back
Ade Fenton: “I would love to do that, but I don’t know, it’s up to the boss,”
Skrufff: I came across a press release on Gary’s site in which he talks about having people willing to travel anywhere to see him. Have you met any obsessive Gary Numan fans or had any encounters?
Ade Fenton: “I used to be one. Not obsessive but certainly in my earlier days I was what you’d call a Numanoid. That’s why this album means so much to me, besides the fact that I’m a very good friend. You can imagine what it’s like when somebody that you’ve admired for a very long time, musically, asks you to do something like this, it’s a real big thing. No, so far I haven’t really come across any obsessive fans though. I don’t think any of them would know who I was, at the moment perhaps in a couple of months I might be able to tackle that problem.”
Skrufff: Why do you think Gary attracts such extreme reactions?
Ade Fenton: “That’s a really good question. Perhaps it all stems from the fact that he doesn’t fit into what most people would call the norm. He’s quite an unusual person to like and to look at and I guess people still think that. Some people have a go at me because I wear make-up and it’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. Elvis wore make up in the fifties. It’s just ridiculous. I don’t understand. On several of the techno forums there have been men-in-make up posts and threads and my name always comes up in them. I just wear it because I think look better in it and girls love it, so what are you going to do? Criticism about make-up used to bother me a little bit and I used to feel quite self conscious about it, but I really don’t give a fuck anymore. I wear it pretty much everyday and I don’t even really think about it.”
Skrufff: You wear it walking round Nottingham?
Ade Fenton: “Yeah, why not?”
Skrufff: According to the tabloids, Nottingham is practically the UK’s crime capital….
Ade Fenton: “That’s probably why I don’t go out in Nottingham very often.”
Skrufff: Do you live outside the centre?
Ade Fenton: “Yeah pretty much. I’m not particularly a Friday night down at the pub sort of person anyway. I prefer to go to much cooler places than that. If me and my best mate go to a bar we make sure we choose where we aren’t going to get the shit kicked out of because we look a bit different, when all of the others in there are wearing exactly the same shirt.”
Jagged is out on March 13
http://www.adefenton.com
http://www.numan.co.uk
Article by Jonty Skrufff (JontySkrufff.com)
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