Mr BC is someone I actually know, so this makes him unusual as far as subjects for interview go on these pages. We haven't bumped into each other in person for a long time though since he relocated from Cambridge. Anyway, imagine my surprise when he turned out to be an artist of some repute, and making music that's good too! Having stayed in touch with him through the miracle that is social media, I thought that the release of his debut album marked the ideal occasion to get him to spill the beans a bit on everything in general and nothing in particular. Cheers for doing it Bob!
Could you introduce yourself and explain the reasons behind the name “Mr BC”?
Hello! I’m Bob Salmond, currently a resident of Leeds having moved here five years ago from Edinburgh. In “real life” I’m an immunologist at the University of Leeds. The name Mr BC is a silly name I gave myself when setting up a soundcloud account about 8 or 9 years ago and, unfortunately, it’s now too late to change.
How did the partnership with tici taci begin?
I’ve been a long-time fan of the label and met Duncan (Gray) through friends about 5 years ago or so. He did a remix for one of my early EPs and over the last few years, I’d done a couple of remixes for the label and chatted to him quite a bit, mainly online, sharing ideas for bits of music and so on. I’d send him unfinished tracks and we worked on some ideas together. Round about the start of “lockdown 1” last year, he suggested I released something with Tici Taci.
You’ve just released your debut album. How would you describe it?
This is a strangely difficult question for me to answer! I suppose it’s instrumental acid house, with hints of disco, techno and indie thrown into the mix. Or something like that. Basically, it’s the 10 best tracks I could come up with last year, sequenced in a way that’s, hopefully, coherent.
The tracks cover a range of different bases. Which were the most enjoyable to work on and do some sounds come easier than others?
There was no deliberate plan to be “eclectic” or anything like that but it’s true the tracks do cover a few sounds/styles. I find it a bit boring to make the same track over and over so try a few different things to keep myself amused as much as anything. On the second point, I don’t persevere very long if I’m not enjoying the process or getting nowhere with a track. That said, I probably enjoyed making the tracks that were mostly based around live instruments more, particularly Invisible College and Sleeping Demon. As a not-very-good player, getting a guitar or bass part down that sounds OK is more of a challenge and so a bigger personal achievement to me than programming midi on a laptop plugin. Not that there’s anything inherently superior about one approach above another I hasten to add. Many of my tracks are mainly programmed-midi-on-a-laptop-plugin!
Do the ideas in your head have any similarity to what you produce?
Sometimes! I’ll generally start with a vague idea of what I want to do at that particularly moment. Maybe an acid track or a more disco thing or just because I heard something on the radio that gave me an idea; but that’s not always what ends up coming out. For example, the original idea for Yen Again came from me youtube-surfing and watching some videos of Brazilian samba drummers. So, the rhythm track is very vaguely samba-influenced but the music is pretty far removed from samba! Plus, I’ll often leave projects and forget about them for months or even years. The keys part in “Chutzpah” I found in an old file from 2015, with no recollection of it whatsoever. Other times the idea for a whole track comes together in minutes. It’s all a bit mysterious, really.
How did the pandemic determine the creative process?
For me, I’m not sure it did to be honest. I’ve been working from home since March last year and have had home-schooling with my kids and so on, but I don’t think that’s either impeded or enabled me to make music. I guess I might’ve put a bit more time into it, because, in lockdown, entertainment options have been a bit more limited than usual. I definitely made more music in 2020 than at some other points, but in the first few months of 2021, under the same conditions, I’ve done very little so far. So not much of a personal effect, but I totally understand that some people have really struggled whilst others have been freed up in terms of having more time to devote to music or other creative outlets.
Have you always made music that is close to the tici taci aesthetic?
Apart from mucking about with guitars with friends as a teenager, I only started trying to make music about 8 or 9 years ago. My initial attempts at electronic music were in a fairly derivative acid house type style - I probably wanted to sound like various Tici Taci releases but didn’t have the knowledge or skill to execute them. I suppose I’ve been making tracks for a number of years that were in that sort of chuggy/ALFOS tempo so not a million miles away. I was certainly chuffed when Duncan and Lloyd (The Long Champs) asked me to do a remix for Tici Taci back in 2017, and again a couple of years ago. Whilst I’ve used live bass and guitars in previous releases, I’ve definitely used more “live” instruments on the album. That’s something that Duncan actively encourages for Tici Taci and it’s been quite enjoyable getting back into playing bass regularly.
What is the target audience for the album, and your music generally?
I don’t tend to think about that too much, but I think it’s fair to say the people that go to an ALFOS night would be prime target audience, particularly the over 30s. That said, the immediate target audience is actually a very few like-minded friends – if they like it, or at least say kind things about it, I’m happy with that.
How valid is dance music at the moment, taking the pandemic and the mass closure of clubs, live music venues and festivals into account?
Well I’d say that dance music is best heard on a sweaty dance floor in a darkened club, which hasn’t happened much for the past year or so. And there’s a good case to be made that dance music has a shorter shelf-life than other types of music – there’s been so many fantastic releases in the past year that’ll probably never be heard in a club because by the time they open again there’ll be hundreds of more recent releases. Which is a shame. But a good record can be enjoyed anywhere. Plus in the past year, instead of going out, we’ve all been tuning in to Sean J’s ALFOS EBS nights and other similar live streams. Not quite the same as “being there”, but the music’s been pretty ace.
Who are your main influences?
Big influences are all the classic 80-90s Detroit techno records, particularly Underground Resistance and Red Planet. Also, 80s acid house with a bit of New Order. More recently, the type of records you might hear played at ALFOS, particularly producers like Duncan and the Tici Taci “roster”, Rich Lane, Jason Peters, Craig Bratley, Zakmina, Damon Jee (to name a very few). But all sorts of weird things can spark can idea – I’m currently working on a track for which I’ve “borrowed” a chord progression from an Iron Maiden song. It’s unlikely that the finished version will be mistaken for Bruce Dickinson and co.
What do you listen to in your free time? Could you list a top 5 of anything in general and nothing in particular?
I’m still a rock/indie fan at heart, same as I was as a teenager. This past couple of months, amongst other stuff, I’ve been enjoying new albums by the Hold Steady and Dinosaur Jr. Also an old blues album by Junior Kimbrough (All Night Long) which is great. In terms of electronic music, I don’t listen to a huge amount at home but enjoy Sean’s EBS broadcasts. My days of being a trainspotter are largely behind me!
Top 5 of anything and nothing:
Faded – The Afghan Whigs. My favourite song off my favourite album (Black Love) by my favourite band.Crush (Future Bones remix) – Duncan Gray. My favourite track from Tici Taci changes regularly but this is consistently in the top 5. Just keeps on building.
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