WEBVTT - QLS Classic: The Avalanches 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:08.360 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Hey What's 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:08.760 up y'all? 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.440 Back in twenty twenty one, Fante Sugar Steve and I 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.560 sat down with the Avalanches, and, as I say in 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.520 the intro, this Australian duolet a fuse for me as 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.720 a producer with their visionary approach to sampling and make music. 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.000 Since this classic QLs interview, Robbie and Tony have put 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:31.280 out some recent singles, including collaborations with Jamie Xx. This 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:33.680 conversation was a lot of fun for me, and you'll 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:37.080 hear why. Quest Love Supreme classic with the Avalanches. 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:46.680 All right, enjoy, ladies and gentlemen. 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.080 Welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme. 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.760 I'm your host Quest Love with Us. We have fragmented Supremers. 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:57.160 We got fan ticket in the house. What's up, brother, 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:57.920 I'm still here? 0:00:57.960 --> 0:00:58.440 Man up? 0:00:58.440 --> 0:00:58.680 What up? 0:00:58.720 --> 0:00:59.480 What up? We're here? 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:00.320 Sugar Steve? 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:02.960 Yep, I'm not fragmented that I've never missed a show 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:04.840 except the ones you told me not to attend. 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.800 Wait when did I ban youse that. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:10.880 That purple roundtable joint? 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.960 Oh you're holding that against me? Yes, but let's talk 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:16.360 a lot. 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:23.440 That's fired in the introut ladies and gentlemen. I will 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:30.440 say that probably our guests have single handedly at least 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.240 changed And I'm making this introduction person, I'm making it 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:34.959 about me, not about you or the audience. 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:36.640 I'll say that our guest. 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.559 Today have single handedly probably changed my trajectory or changed 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:45.360 my perspective on how to deliver music. And that's pretty 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:50.280 much all I can say. I heard their Taput album 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.800 and it just cracked my skull, cracked all of our 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.760 sculls open, uh in a way that really hasn't uh 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.600 really hasn't done that, probably since the days of Prime 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.800 Bomb Squad productions of like Public Enemy and Ice Cube, 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.120 or even the three feet hind rising in Daylight Soul's 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.960 Dead albums of the early nineties. I'll say that Rick 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:19.359 Rubin has taught us on the show that editing is 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:24.120 necessary for smart pop music making, and you know, the 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:29.160 ability to leave the basic necessities for you know, for 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:31.280 the most part of that theory, you know, with self 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.880 editing has worked miracles for pop music in the last 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.560 seven years. But our guests have done the opposite of that, 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:43.120 and they've left no stone unturned as far as a 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:48.560 sonic landscape Therefore, ever classic debut album, now twenty twenty 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.680 years old, called Since I Left You is probably personally 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.840 one of my top ten favorite albums of all times, 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.120 with over one thousand mind staggering amples and soundbites. 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:03.600 We all got to investigate how this was made. 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:05.640 When we found out that they wanted to come on 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:10.359 the show, it was an instant yes on my part, saying, yeah, 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.200 I'm just honored they're here to share their story with us, 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.280 because I don't even know if I can properly explain 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:21.200 to you how important there art is. But ladies and gentlemen, 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:25.080 please welcome the Quest of Supreme the Avalanches. We have 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:34.720 Robbie and Tony. Robbie, what's your last name? Robbie Taita. Welcome, Robbia. 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.760 Where are you right now? How is it over there 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:43.360 right now? 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.040 Yeah, it's pretty good. We had we had like a 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.800 really hard lockdown last year, but we're coming out of 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:52.560 it now. It's really good. We just played our first 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:59.720 live show in three years on Friday. It was incredible. 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.520 It was it was so amazing, you know, just to 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:08.000 be with the people again, and you know, I don't know, 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:09.760 it just it just felt like at the start it 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.400 felt really strange, like, you know, it was a little 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.720 bit rusty, but then you kind of get into it 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:16.960 for twenty minutes and you're like, I remember what it's like. 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:21.440 Instead of being scared, it's like this joyous experience and yeah, 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:23.480 I mean, we just missed it so much. 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:24.440 So it was so good. 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.919 So it's hard like working your muscle memory for what 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.839 the show was when you well with this particular show, 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.880 was it was it crafted from scratch or was it 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.880 the show that you were developing around the time when 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:39.520 covid first hit us. 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:42.760 No, it was from scratch, So it was a lot. 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.240 It was like our hometown first show back, brand new show. 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:49.919 All the equipment too, has been like in storage and 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.720 all covered in dust, and you know, it's like it 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:53.160 was like. 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:59.400 Family and friends. Yeah. Yeah, we had a few technical 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.279 issues that that we were that seems like every like 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:04.559 whenever there's a first show, there's always a few things 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.120 that go down or go wrong. But in the end 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:09.560 it was it was really incredible and we've got so 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:10.800 much love from the audience. 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:16.880 And I would imagine that the amount of research that 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.680 you have to put into your product as far as 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:25.200 your creativity is concerned, that I mean, was this time 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.720 off with Covid. Was it a total time off for 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:31.760 you guys, or was it just like, okay, let's go 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.080 back to woodshedd and create new product or did you 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:39.920 just stop period and just you know, kind of see 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:41.800 what happens until the world opens. 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:44.960 It was tough. I mean, we went we were finishing 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:49.160 an album as COVID hit, and we kind of got 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:51.640 that done and got that, got that ready to go. 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:53.960 But like Melbourne's Lockdown, we're in it for like two 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.039 hundred days. It was one of the hardest lockdowns in 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.640 the world. And you couldn't You could only leave your 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.000 house for an hour a day. There was a curfew 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:03.559 in the evenings. 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:07.520 Eight pm to five am. You couldn't go outside your house. 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:08.760 Will you guys get it right? 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.160 You actually did it right, and you know the world 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.040 would have actually caught up to you guys. And yeah, 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:18.720 because after some point, once we saw your numbers go down, 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.440 and then like a whole bunch of movie productions and 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.280 a lot of my friends in the industry, we're going 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:26.920 to melt, you know, going over over there to Australia, 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:31.200 to New Zealand. Over Zealand, you guys are just doing 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:35.680 it right. So but yeah, you had to be strict 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:35.920 with it. 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:38.039 We had to be strict. I mean the payoff was 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:39.560 like we got to do a show, you know, like 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:42.280 now you know and things are opening up. But at 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.479 the time it was hard and we thought, well, we've 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:47.360 got all this free time, will be creative. But it 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.719 was pretty intense and the city was, you know, a 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.840 ghost town. And really it made me learn how much 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:56.960 that we rely on the collective energy and other people 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.839 to feed our creativity. So even though we had this 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.040 fair time, like we didn't write a lot last year 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.880 because it was just kind of getting through day by day, 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:06.040 you know, the lockdown was. 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:09.200 I'm very uninspiring. 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.880 Yeah, well both of you were DJs for starters, Like 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:15.160 what got you interested in DJ culture? 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:17.520 Like how did it hit you over there? 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:22.120 We actually, uh, well, we grew up in different suburbs 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:24.440 of Melbourne and then both ended up in the same 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.080 country town during high school and that's where we met 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.040 and became friends. And we weren't DJs initially. We were 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.480 like bad punk musicians and punk musicians. 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:38.960 We say punk because we were so bad. 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:42.720 It was noise noise. 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.800 It's kind of like the Beastie Boys story like Boys. Yeah, yeah, 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:47.520 they started off. 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.760 Punk and then you know, that's right, and we so 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:52.920 we were just I mean, I had no money or whatever, 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.920 so we were buying old guitars and broken guitars and 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.000 organs in junk stores and then we started to find 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:01.160 all these old records and it sort of grew from there. 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:06.960 I was doing a court a film school course at university, 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.040 and they had a big studio for all the film scores, 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.400 and of course everybody doing that course wanted to be 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.400 like a famous director, so nobody wanted to do the soundtrack. 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:18.800 So I just had the studio to myself for like 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.120 three years, and there was an old end sonic sampler 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:24.400 in there that I learned how to use and started 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.000 sampling all these junk store records and it just grew 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:27.720 from there. Really. 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.120 Yeah, So how were you when you made the transition 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:36.559 to DJ oriented music, like away from punk and more 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:38.640 into what we now know is DJ culture. 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.319 I guess it was like a gradual process between the 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.600 ages of like sixteen and twenty. 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.600 Okay, okay, was there a particular record that just spoke 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.640 to you that said, like, Okay, this is the direction 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:55.240 I want to go personally for both of you. 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.600 Was there like one particular album that wash for me? 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.880 I reckon It was like some of Prince Paul's productions, 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:04.560 the Bomb Squad, the things you mentioned. 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.760 Yeah, yeah, so prince Ville he just remixed Since I 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:09.040 left you. That was excellent. 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.560 Yeah, And because you know, like the records were finding 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.199 in junk stores were just strange, weird records. They weren't 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.800 like sort of cool, like a lot of the beautiful 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:22.880 funk and soul records from the States never made it 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.240 out here, you know, so we were they were junk 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:31.280 store records of exotic and strange stuff like that. And 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.440 Prince Paul, I think, showed us that, you know, you 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.120 can use anything and you can make music with humor 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.960 from from all these different bits and pieces, and we 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.640 were like, we can do that, you know. And also 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.839 we love like the Beach Boys and seventies rock and stuff, 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.640 so we thought, would imagine if we like take his 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.200 sort of approach but like try and make like pop 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.280 songs with it, And that's how the whole idea began. 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.319 So how did you two meet each other at high school? 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.400 We met in high school. I was from Melbourne and 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:07.360 at eighteen went and moved to this country town where 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:08.960 I met Robbie, and it was it was a very 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.200 very for the for the early nineties, very backward kind 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:17.520 of place like country Victoria and sorry. It was just 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.000 like a lot of football players and they were all 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.360 the cool people and stuff like that, and like so 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.719 the music people who are into music kind of gravitated 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.559 to each other. So so we kind of started hanging out. 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.720 And the first thing I remember, Robbie was like, I 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:34.520 was into all types of music, but he played me 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:38.000 My Bloody Valentine and that just kind of broke my 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.480 brain of like what the hell is this? And I 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:43.800 was like, all right, this is this is really cool. 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.800 I think I like this guy. I think I like 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.079 his taste in music. And so so from then then 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:51.800 on we kind of, you know, just had a few 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.679 other little small bands that we were in, and then 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.240 we both moved back down to Melbourne and started you know, 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:02.600 doing the punk thing just in our landro and really badly, 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:04.480 and it just kind of grew from there. 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.280 Did y'all were y'all any of y'all folks involved in 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.120 music in any way? Or what did your parents do? 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:16.600 No? I mean my father would my mom was a teacher, 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.120 but I did. I do remember being fascinated with my 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.640 father's record collection when I was a little kid, and 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.840 when he would let me, like, you know, handle the records. 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.600 I was obsessed with the line of notes and you 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.120 know he had he was like into like the band 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:33.720 and Bob Gil and the Neil Young and and all. 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:35.720 That stuff, single songwriter stuff. 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:36.560 That's right. 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.920 I know that because you guys developed early. I guess 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.760 what ninety three ninety four is when you guys first 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:50.040 started so without sort of like culture colonialism, well not 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:53.320 culture colonialism, but just the the idea of like you know, 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.840 now with the Internet, someone could release something and the 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.360 entire world get it at the same time. Where you know, 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:06.280 really before in nineteen ninety seven, like just it was regionalism, 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:08.920 like certain parts of the world had certain types of 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:12.760 music or whatnot. Now I know for Australia kind of 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.000 the inside joke. And again this is before like the 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.400 really the age of the internet spreading becoming law. 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:21.600 Like a lot of groups. 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:26.880 That were wildly popular from America from that were wildly 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:27.400 popular in. 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:29.800 Australia really weren't that big in America. 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:32.840 And I always wanted to know I never got to 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:37.680 talk to anyone like specifically from Australia or New Zealand 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.840 to find out why. Like I'll say that there was 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:45.120 a point where like the Jurassic Five pre Fergie, Black 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:49.520 Eye Peas, Ben Harper, like those acts could damn near 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:53.920 sell out stadiums and we'd hear about the United States like, yo, man, 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:55.959 do you know the Black Eyed Peas could sell out 0:12:55.960 --> 0:13:01.000 a stadium in Australia Like this is again back when 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.280 they were just like a club act, like a bar. 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:07.000 You know that that's ayah, But what what? What is it? 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.880 I noticed with Australia especially for their their embracing of 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.120 like soul music, Like you guys have that big giant 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.240 soul festival down there where you know, you guys have 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.920 this this this festival for soul music that's sort of 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:24.880 like Coachella, but it's just like all Neil soul artists 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:29.920 and even now everybody from Kim Like and again I've 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.280 my friends have told me that, you know, New Zealand 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:39.079 and Australia like we tend to lump just that entire 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.480 area one thing. But you know, I see right, and 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.600 you guys are like we're not the same but but 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:49.640 there's so many like minded, cool artists from down there 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.520 that were like influenced by a certain type of soul 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.920 music that's very niche to us here, Like what what 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.720 was the what's the radio like there? Like what is 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.440 it that that turned people onto that particular type of 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:06.560 soul music? Whereas now years later, like a lot of 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:11.120 these acts are coming out better, like really incredible, like Hiatus. 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:11.360 Coyote and. 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.319 A Theme a Billion, But yeah, what is it about? 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:17.840 What was the music atmosphere? 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.480 Like it's a rock culture, I would say, like when 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:23.840 we were starting out, So it's like there's the pub venues. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.560 You know, there's a very heavy drinking culture in Australia. 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.240 There's the pub venues and all the bands that we 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:31.280 grew up with came through this pub scene. It's like 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.120 hard rock and roll, like ACDC and this kind of theme. 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.000 I guess there's the Bad Seeds. You came in the 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:39.440 Bad Seeds as well, or the Birthday Party came out 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:43.520 of that sort of dark pub scene as well in Melbourne. 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.680 But then something started to change in the nineties exactly 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:48.560 like you're talking about. And I think it was just 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.880 it was pre internet, but people just just this passion 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:56.600 for music that wasn't like that, and something just started 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.040 beautiful to started to grow. I don't know how it happened, 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:02.720 but it was very very like when we started playing. 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.160 You know, every band we played with was just two guitars, 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.240 bass player, drums, and so we rock up with a 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.680 sampler and the sound people were like, what's this? 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.280 What do we do? And no one knew what it was. 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:17.440 So I was like in the in that way we 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:19.960 were kind of breaking ground in this country as far 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:24.160 as like every little festival we do, it's like every 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.880 band was the same guitar, drums, everything like that, and 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.440 then we just have you know, s nine hundred sampler 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.760 and some shitty organs that work sometimes and didn't and 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.160 so so yeah, to your question, it was a very 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.600 rock and roll culture back then in Australia. 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:44.840 So the it was that the nine hundred was that 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:45.680 did your your weapon? 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:48.040 That was the jam? 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.400 Yeah, yeah, because. 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:53.200 Then they came with the nine fifty. The nine fifty 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.680 I think that was the one that the nine. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:16:00.320 Fifty Oh we were loading. We were loading off songs 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.440 off floppy disc. When we've played live, every song was 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:03.600 on a different flopping. 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.160 So we'd stop a song and then have to load 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.760 for forty five seconds and just sit there in silence, 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.960 or just try and make up some stupid banter in between. 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:19.800 Again again. 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.760 You guys and DiAngelo, Okay, that's good. To this day, 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:28.480 D'Angelo still uses floppy disk I didn't even know that. 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.560 Oh wow, that that can that still and you know 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:36.520 they still made them. Yeah, you know, drive Really. 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.240 We had to search the internet to find floppy discs. 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:41.160 You finish, we just did. 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.320 Yeah. Wait, so to this day you still use it. 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:45.120 That's your weapon. 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.119 When we were bringing to pull out the old samplers 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:49.920 for this show that we just did so we wanted 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.160 to bring back and really show how we made the music. 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:57.560 But we couldn't find floppy discs anyway. Tiny had to 0:16:57.640 --> 0:16:59.720 order them online and they arrived like two days before 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:00.880 the show, just in time. 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.360 So wow, Really. 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:06.919 We're not using that. We're kind of using computers and 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:10.080 now as our main backing tracks, so we're not relying 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.280 on the forty five second loads anymore. But we used 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.240 the sample it's just a trigger samples during the show 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:18.280 because that's the way we used to do it. I mean, 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:22.520 and it's such a fun you know, right, what was. 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.920 The period of which you guys discovered like breakbea culture. 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.720 And as far as like, at least I would like 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.080 to think that you guys, you know, had to put 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.600 a lot of time in researching like all the sounds 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:40.760 and for you know, for your arsenal of sounds, your drums, 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:42.320 your samples and whatnot. 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:43.920 So at what point. 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.240 Did you guys discover or at least like do away 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:51.840 with kind of your rock backdrop and get to what 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:53.280 we know is like breakbe culture. 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.840 I think it was like a gradual process, and all 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:01.240 of a sudden we realized, like I think we had, 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.560 you know, all these big sounds and big dreams in 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:06.919 our heads, but you know, no money, and then you 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.680 start sampling an old orchestral record because a lot of 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:11.959 the records that we were finding junk stores were like 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.840 schmaltzy kind of like junk like Fifth Andres, Galanti, strings 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.560 and games all that stuff. But but we were we 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.280 could find beautiful little bits and then realized we can 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:27.520 create these you know, big sounds with you know, for 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.800 for two from a two dollars record, And we gradually realized, look, 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:34.600 we're not great musicians, that are, and we can't sing, 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:38.600 but maybe we can invent our own little world if 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:40.840 we don't, if we just use samples, and it sort 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.119 of grew from there, and then you know, a whole 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.840 bunch of records were coming out, Like the Gust Brothers 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:53.119 produced the record, and you know, there were early Chemical 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:55.399 Brothers records, and all these records had breakbeats. 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.240 There was Yeah. 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.160 Day La Soul, and even like the Far Side records 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:07.119 and all these kind of early hip hop records, and 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.520 we kind of in our you know, it's because we're 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:14.800 so geographically removed from the rest of the world. You know, 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.840 we would just get strange little influences coming through before 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:22.119 the Internet. So in some way we'd way like a 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:23.960 bit of Prince Paul, a bit of the Bomb Squad, 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:25.320 a bit of the Beach Boys, a bit of My 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:29.040 Bloody Valentine. All kind of made sense to us, and 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.000 we just kind of started developing our own sound from there. 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:38.520 When you formed the group, was it instantaneous that you 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:42.560 called yourself the Avalanches, or were you just like you know, 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.119 DJ Robbie, DJ Tony. 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.520 We had a few we had a few name incarnations 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.280 before we came up with the Avalanches. 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.240 The Avalanche's name was actually on. It was a surf 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:03.280 rock group from the fifties, one of these bands we 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:05.320 sampled and then and we used to change our name 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.280 every time we played, and that that one just stuck. 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.400 It just stuck. Yeah, Oh, just randomly. 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.720 Maybe we had a good, a good gig the day 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.479 that we called ourselves the Avalanches, and we went, this 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.600 is an open We'll stick with this name because I 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.719 think we had a few gigs where we were different names. 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:31.000 So what was the first product that you guys worked 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.800 on when you decided to form the Avalanches. 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.960 It was like, I think it was a mixtape we 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.920 made in the studio. I was talking about it the 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.480 film school studio that was made to send around to 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.080 various promoters to try and get a gig, try and 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.360 get shows. And then I think they pulled a couple 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:54.000 of tracks off that and our friend pulled it out 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.200 as our first seven inch that was called rock City. Yeah. 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.040 I think that was the first release we have, Yeah, seven. 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:06.359 Inch Yeah, even then, Like was your theory? What was 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:11.280 the theory based on how to create the music? I 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.040 know a lot of times, especially with where we are 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:19.360 today with hip hop culture in America, you know, and 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:23.840 I won't say that flipping samples. Of course, you know, 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.720 flipping is a way of survival to at least avoid 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.600 you know, lawsuits are getting caught out there. But I mean, 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:36.560 there's there's definitely a slew of producers that flip just 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.120 for the sport of it, you know, especially like these 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:42.560 post J Dilla times where he could take something make 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:44.600 it so unrecognizable that you don't know it. 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.639 So but for you guys, like, were you. 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:53.120 Guys even aware of kind of sample cultured almost being 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:57.359 endangered species in the mid to late nineties to the 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:00.640 point where you know, now a lot of the backdrop 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:03.000 from America is far from that. 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:05.919