In Depth Interview With Burial

US Unedited conversation from The Wire 19/03/24

Earlier this year Burial released the Dreamfear / Boy Sent From Above EP and has been releasing music on Hyperdub since 2005, as the first artist signed by Kode9. This article is a superb insight into discovery of his early influences and his approach to making music, taken from The Wire magazine in 2012. Here are some excerpts:

Maybe the feeling of the UK in clubs and stuff back then, it wasn't as artificial , self-aware or created by the internet. It was more rumour, underground folklore. No mobile phones back then. Anyone could go into the night and they had to seek it out. Because you could see it in people, you could see it in their eyes. Those ravers were at the edge at their lives, they weren't running ahead or falling behind, they were just right there and the tunes meant everything.

I understand that moody thing, but some dance music is too male. It's dry, Some jungle tunes had a balance, the glow, the moodiness that comes from the presence of both girls and boys in the same tune, there's tension because it's close, but sometimes perfect together. Men sometimes exist in this place where they don't have a fucking clue what girls go through and vice versa.

I've seen people using sequencers and I've tried hard to use them but it's blocks in different colours and I'm only used to just seeing the waves. I don't need to listen much to the drums because I know they look nice, like a fishbone, rigged up to be kind of skitty, sharp. My tunes are a bit rubbish and messy but it's all I know. One day I want to make a tune people can have a dance to, I've tried.

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/burial_unedited-transcript

And if that's not enough Burial for you, here are his tracks ranked, by Vice Magazine.

My personal favourite? Come Down to Us and the Anti-Dawn EP.

More from Burial on his Bandcamp page: https://burial.bandcamp.com/

About the author [midierror]: midierror makes nifty Max For Live devices, innovative music hardware, award winning sample packs and hosts a podcast speaking to people in the music world.