Audio Supply (Interview)

by Michelle Torgerson on 10.07.10


Meet Audio Supply: Two guys from Manchester who will enter your soul via your ears.

Keef P has been drumming in bands for 12 years. You might recognize him from the popular local band Humanizer, who he played with a couple of years back. Audio Supply’s other half, Johnny, also played with these guys albeit for not very long, as he explaines-, “I was technically in it for 30 seconds. It didn’t work out and from that we created another band; Antic Headway, which also didn’t work out…”

Keef and Johnny seized the chance after this to get together and work toward a new musical direction. Audio Supply was a deliberate move away from guitar based music to an electronic based sound.

Keef: “I’ve always been into dance music and always wanted to make dance music, so it was a perfect opportunity when Antic Headway split up to do something with Johnny. After all we weren’t doing anything else were we [looking at Johnny]?”
“No. We had nothing else to do”, Johnny laughs.

The first year of Audio Supply was spent writing and recording. “We wrote a lot of crap for about 12 months then it started to come together”, says Johnny, “The early stuff I thought was a bit pants.” But they persevered and by bringing a bag of their musical influences along for the ride, they knew where they wanted their rhythmic fusing to take them. As Keef explains, “We knew which direction we wanted to go just from our influences. But it did end up darker than we imagined I think. We didn’t have any intentions for it to go dark it just sort of happened.”

With a heavy electronic based sound it is no surprise they would cite The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and the Warp Records sound among their influences.
Keef says, “I’m heavily influenced by Warp stuff and the darkness of some of that Autechre, Aphex Twin and the like”, but is quick to add, “We’re not trying to sound like them.”

Indeed, it’s not just about exploring their influences and mashing them all up on their laptop. Their sound is in the vein of ‘intelligent’ dance music as Johnny explains, “It’s more about fusing energy with real life rather than just pumping out a humanless beats over a big bass-line. I feel it’s more about production in dance music than it is about song writing. So we’re trying to work a bit of both song-writing and production at the same time.”

Their music delivers an epic sound with cinematic qualities over pinning the whole performance. This is no coincidence as Johnny describes his music making experience in terms of ‘cinematic scores’: “It’s more about emotion in films than happy-clubby-melodies and that’s what makes it darker, I think. Trying to evoke more emotions adds a bit more substance to it.”

April 2009 at the Castle in Oldham was there first proper gig. Although they had more gigs before, they felt this was needed to fully learn this new craft. Johnny and Keef can be found sharing a stage with drums, synths and a laptop. Only too aware that some electronic-based dance acts can look a little too avant-garde up on stage, Audio Supply likes to mix it up, “I’m a keyboard player by trade”, says Johnny, “but I’ll pick up a guitar which makes it a bit more interesting switching instruments, than being cemented in one position all the time.” Likewise, Keef will come out from hiding behind his drum set to play keys on a couple of tracks.

Keef’s brother can sometimes be found playing bass guitar too. Johnny says, “The more people you get involved in a live show, the better it looks and the better it sounds. Ideally, it would be amazing if we could get the whole thing done live. But if you look at it and break it down its just absolutely insane and impossible; you’re gonna be looking at 7 keyboard players which logistically isn’t gonna happen.”

Johnny: “I’m a massive fan of 65 Days of Static which funnily enough was played at Night and Day Café by their sound engineer, Cat [Finnk], just before we went on stage.” To anyone who has heard Audio Supply the decision to play this as intro music was clearly no accident and it is one they very much appreciated.

Audio Supply have created about 9 tracks, which can be sampled at: www.myspace.com/audiosupply. When they have four or five more we should expect to see an album. The lads discuss their plans to add vocals on some tracks. “We’ve been in touch with some rappers for the more hip-hop style tracks”, says Keef, “We’ll see what happens with that. We are gonna end up with vocals on tracks.” “But its pinning people down.” adds Johnny, “It’s a nightmare” he admits. It is still early days for the band, but they are passionate as to where their rhythmic ventures can take them, “There’s an abundance of talent to tap into” says Johnny, “Why stick to one?” he adds with an admiring nod toward the likes of Massive Attack and The Prodigy for their ability to constantly shake it up and transcend boundaries. It is this eclecticism that Audio Supply is about, says Keef, “We’re not into one genre so we can take it anywhere really.”
So keep an eye out and soon you might see them joined on stage by a female vocalist or even a rapper or two, although you will need to be quick when you do, because these lads don’t believe in filling up their calendars with gig dates:

“I think it’s important to pick and choose and not just play anywhere.” They say only too aware that their lack of guitars is enough to make a typical Mancunian music fan confused and unsettled. Audio Supply believe in “Quality, not quantity” and with that in mind we were very honored to have them play along side Shmoo and Suzuki Method at 4Q Magazines Fresh Meat Live at Night & Day Café in April 2010.

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