Christine Hale

Jamie Lidell “Another Day”

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Jamie Lidell rates his happiness as five out of a possible ten. He speaks now with Rebecca Balin.

How do you think you approached your new album Jim?
I approached it like a wounded cougar. With caution and respect.
And around what age do you like your cougars to be?
That’s a really good question. I don’t know them well enough to answer that. Probably in their early formative years—you know, when they’re still a little bit cute.
You sound like you speak from experience.
The funny thing is… well… you know what a cougar is, right?
Are you asking me? What do you think these questions have been about? These are the jokes, kid.
Oh, okay—that kind of cougar. That was a deep-thinking thing. I just got that now. No, I have not been in a cougar relationship.
Do you think Mulitply has influenced Jim?
Previously I just worked on electronica—on my own or with this guy Christian Vogel. It was a collaboration with someone who also wanted to make electronic music. So the fact that I chose to write more song-based stuff was a challenge a little bit—to get to a bigger audience. Pop was always something I grew up loving. So Multiply was my transition into the pop world, I suppose. If I could have done Multiply differently, I probably would have done it like this: how to make it, who to work with and what was working, what makes a good song, what makes a song I want to sing. So I just kind of took all those elements and things that I loved. It should be known that this record is a collaboration specifically between me and Mocky, who co-produced the record and played a whole bunch of instruments on it and wrote some songs. We worked on it together and I brought in all my alter-egos through this as influence.
Do you have anything you’d like to clear up from previous interviews?
It’s hard to find yourself a consistent voice. I remember giving an interview in New York which I had walked away from. That was a first for me because I am an oddly established but optimistic guy, and I have a funny outlook. But somehow these two girls—and I’m not going to mention their names—they kind of put me in a really foul mood. And I suppose if they know who they are, I should apologize for walking out. But they really had pissed me off and they were shallow and their questions were obnoxious. Basically they were like, ‘Oh man, we’re so wasted right now. We’re so high!’  I made a comment and one of the girls said, ‘Well—well, that’s pretty stupid.’ Which kind of offended me, and I had a full day of interviews, and I thought I didn’t need to be asked questions by kinda drunk hipsters—and on the wrong side of the hipster spectrum. But still to this day I regret walking out because they ended up getting the upper hand—I should have held my ground, psychologically. I made the mistake of drinking during the interviews that day. So I want to apologize to any interviewer who might have caught me drunk.
You mentioned in one interview that your style of music is hard to fit in the right market. How has your label helped you with this?
There are a lot of factors but I think the most important is that we all have the intention to succeed—focused on the job and focusing our efforts. It’s really sweet to see everyone there crowding around going, ‘We can do this.’ In the U.K., I’ve been on radio playlists that no one on Warp so far has managed to get on. They go through struggles being a small label and having to really consider where they put their money. So I’m really thankful that they took a risk.
Major labels right now are kind of… tanking.
I think so, too.
Who do you think will end up being the Highlander of the majors?
Probably Universal. Apple will probably just take all the labels down.
Where are you living right now?
Paris. Technically.
How have you been able to find a sense of security and feel at home everywhere you go?
It varies. I really enjoy California. Whenever I come to this part of the world, I feel relaxed. Although I think it’s more than that. As a human animal, you just think, ‘I feel comfortable here.’ As an animal. ‘I could make a little nest.’ I get that feeling here. I get it in New York. I’ve had it in Paris, Berlin, some parts of England, Scotland. All over really. There are a lot of places where I feel really comfortable. I feel really privileged to have seen all those places and to have that sensation is kind of nice. But then you have the flip side where you feel like you don’t belong anywhere—you’re out on the fucking road, and you know, you can’t really start anything. So it’s a little bit odd. But it’s all good though because in the end I’m trying to do this right now. I’m comfortable with myself and I’m comfortable with that decision. So I’m gonna keep on rollin’—keep on truckin’. It’s not that long of a tour anyway. It’s only a few weeks.
What’s your advice for the struggling musician?
So long as you have enough money to live, I would say don’t compromise. In this day and age, there really is no point in compromising. You can’t pull the wool over the public’s eyes anymore because they just want to hear good music—which is actually a really good thing. So you can kind of use that to your advantage if you want to make exactly the music you want to make and not have to think, ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Or ‘Why does this not work?’ Obviously the main focus now is delivering live. It’s the only way to make money. It’s the only way to connect with people somehow. If you don’t have your live game together, you need to get it together immediately. Find an angle for your live game. Try to stay in the game because it takes a while to get noticed. It takes a while to actually make a break. It’s really hard in this country to get noticed amongst everyone else. A thing I learned that was really good is I became aggressive when I moved to Berlin. It wasn’t my intention at all. England is known as one of the tastemakers and everyone just kinds of follows. Being English really helped me on Multiply because it gave me a press angle. The press angle is a really important thing as well. So if you have a press angle and a really strong live show and you’re making the music you want to make—with that kind of combo, in the end you’ll be a winner, I think.
Based on videos I’ve seen and interviews I’ve read, you appear to be a very enthusiastic person. So how would you rate today?
On a scale of one to ten I’d probably give it a five because I feel exhausted, I lost my voice, and I’m tired. I stink. I just woke up. I’m not miserable but I’ve been a lot happier. But still I’m happy. There’s beautiful country around and the sky is blue. It could be a lot worse. It’s going up to a six as we speak.

JAMIE LIDELL’S JIM IS OUT NOW ON WARP.