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In the September of this year, following singles Press A Key for Wurlitzer Jukebox and more recently, Plock, Birmingham based trio Plone released their debut album For Beginner Piano on Warp records. Now on their first full British tour, Re:mote Induction caught up with the guys prior to their set on 7 October at Glasgow's 13th Note Club.

Billy by Mark

Mark by Mike

Re:mote Induction : Right, so I brought a pack of crayons and a pile of paper and I thought, if you're up for it, you could do self portraits.

Mike: Self portraits?

Re:mote Induction : Or if it's easier, pictures of each other, whatever.

Mark: (laughs) I'm not very good at drawing but...

Mike: Absolute rubbish

Re:mote Induction : You don't have to be good.

Mike: We got crayons

Re:mote Induction : Bought today

Mike: They're all sharp...oo! (nb. as in ouch I've hurt myself)

Re:mote Induction : Are you all from Birmingham?

Mike: What, originally?

Re:mote Induction : Yeah

Mike: None of us are.

Re:mote Induction : So where are you all from originally?

Mike: I'm from Belfast.

Mark: I'm from Chesterfield, sort of Derbyshire. Billy's from Ellesmere Port, near Liverpool

Re:mote Induction : So how did you all end up in Birmingham?

Mike: Em, we met in Wolverhampton. Met Billy in Dudley, we were at university in Wolverhampton and Birmingham was the biggest and nearest city when we left so we ended up going there to get jobs and then thought fuck that and just did music.

Re:mote Induction : What did you study in Wolverhampton?

Mike: Politics and Philosophy.

Re:mote Induction : And you chose not to pursue this?

Mike: What politics? (disbelief)

Re:mote Induction : Yeah

Mike: (laughs briefly)... Politics has pursued me.

Re:mote Induction : How so?

Mike: em, Belfast.

Re:mote Induction : Oh right. So do you think you adhere to the Plone concept of timeless electronic melodies?

Mike: only time will tell.

Re:mote Induction : I wonder if the electronic may actually in time come to date it.

Mike: erm

Mark: Tomorrow

Mike: It always does, goes around in cycles. I mean, the stuff that we're doing is probably based more on stuff that was happening thirty years ago so, it's not dated 'til... 'til we're going to ruin it. No but you know what I mean, it's, you know, people probably thought that sound, well they brought in digital since/synths 'cos' they thought analogue stuff was outdated and eh, I don't think it is particularly.

Re:mote Induction : Do you think the equipment you use affects the timelessness.

Mike: erm, the timelessness? erm, I suppose not, no. We use analogue stuff 'cos' we really like the sound. We all play it live and it's more natural with a few analogue synths when you play live than digital ones. I mean, with digital ones you can sequence them and you don't have to play live and then we wouldn't exist... as a live band that is.

Re:mote Induction : Has the Plone sound always been as it is today?

Mike: yeah, pretty much. We were doing stuff before Plone, you know not as something we were up to releasing but we just developed our sound.

Re:mote Induction : What sort of stuff was it you were doing then?

Mike: It was more sort of artificial intelligence 'cos' that's what we were listening to at the time and up to a point, I mean we didn't have... Plone wasn't our name or anything and eh... but we just decided we wanted to do something for ourselves other than playing in clubs we were doing, eh not doing clubs but we were just doing gigs in clubs, got a bit fed up with that. it's a right bastard playing at three in the morning so... and eh, I don't think we were making music that we wanted to make. Anyway so we just decided to write songs instead and play them on our synths and eh, we were listening to a lot of like Martin Rev and Suicide and Silver Apples and stuff like that at the time and Plone just kinda came out of that.

Re:mote Induction : So is this a sound you'll stick with for a while?

Mike: eh, yeah. I mean we won't... I don't think we'll sit down and change it in a contrived way. It'll just develop into something else maybe, if it changes it'll do it that way. Sorry for not looking up... busy scribbling.

Re:mote Induction : You have vocals on a couple of tracks on the album. what do you think the vocals have brought to these tracks and why these track in particular?

Mike: Well, Press A Key was the first track we ever did on record and we had the vocoder and we thought, will we use it and some of the lyrics come out of just like kinda like a statement, this is our first record and this is what we do. And then, I suppose, Busy Working has a vocal refrain in it. That's just more like using it as a sound and of course Plock has got vocals on it and the tune itself like is just kinda like simplest, we could have gone on and arranged it as much as we arranged other tracks but we ended up putting vocoder on it and it's made it kinda nice and simple.

Re:mote Induction : How important do you feel the lyrics themselves are?

Mike: em well we spent a lot of time thinking about them.

Mark: Press A Key was quite significant.

Mike: Yes it was quite a statement really. A statement of the time.

Mark: Press a key and a tune'll come out.

Interruption: There's food available...

Mike: Yeah, we won't be much longer.

Re:mote Induction : Describe the personality of your music.

Mike: Don't know, that's awkward.

Mark: Schizophrenic.

Re:mote Induction : It's often described as childlike.

Mike: That's interesting cos like you know we didn't really sit down and say lets be childlike but we did sit down and decide to write songs.

Re:mote Induction : Do you think the music reflects who you are?

Mike: It must do yeah. yeah I mean, it all feels pretty close at heart and I do get an emotional buzz out of doing it so yeah it must do.

Re:mote Induction : What inspires you, when do you sit down to write?

Mike: Everyday. just kinda sit there with a keyboard tinkling away you know until we got a few notes that go together quite nicely and I'll keep on going really 'til late at night.

Re:mote Induction : Do you think it is ever influenced by the mood you're in?

Mike: Yeah maybe, maybe it's more like the mood I'd like to be in.

Re:mote Induction : With the winter now coming in, I wonder if you think the difference in the seasons might affect, influence your music.

Mike: When we did the album we started recording it in September, we did all the moody songs first.

Mark: Mark: Yeah, that's true.

Mike: And when spring came around we were working on all the happier ones I mean they were written before hand but that was an interesting point.

Mike: I can't do mouths.
I really can't do mouths, Jesus.
Sorry about your mouth Mark.

Re:mote Induction : in my notes, beside Press A Key, I've written dangerous question mark.

Mike: Oh right. You'll have to ask him about that.

Mark: What do you mean dangerous?

Re:mote Induction : I haven't a clue, I can't remember why I wrote that.

Mike: There's something creepy about it.

Mark: I suppose it's a bit more eerie than some of the happier ones. We wrote it such a long time ago though.

Mike: I know.

Mark: When did we do that, Press A Key?

Mike: We did it in my flat one time. Rehearsing or something.

Billy: Three years old or something?

Mark: Yeah, about three years ago we did it Press A Key. I don't know, I suppose we were just into that at the time, get a dark sound and make it modulate. I don't know what I was thinking.

Re:mote Induction : On the Warp tenth anniversary remix album you have a version of Tricky disco's Tricky Disco. Why this track?

Mark: em, did everyone agree on Tricky Disco? or was it...

Mike: Yeah I think so.

Billy: Why, didn't you?

Mark: Well no, no I wanted to do Tricky Disco, I kinda liked it, just I do remember it really well from being younger and for me it was just like a classic track for Warp to have done.

Re:mote Induction : What do you think you have brought to it?

Mark: (pause)... I don't know, we just tried to remix it make it different but stay true to like how the song works and the feeling, the emotion it creates. I remember Tricky Disco, I was fairly young, dancing about at discos and stuff like that and when we re-did it we just tried to get that sort of feeling very much in mind just like some sort of silly little disco somewhere. Get a track you'd image you'd hear there.

Re:mote Induction : So have Warp Records been relevant to your listening habits over the years?

Mark: Quite a bit yeah, one of me uncles' like not much older than me, he's like a D.J. from way back. He started D.J.ing mid to late eighties and he just loves Warp, he thinks they're amazing, so like when I were a kid, hanging about with him was all Warp records all the time. I suppose since then it's just been occasionally hearing Aphex Twin or Autechre or just anyone really.

Re:mote Induction : How did the record deal with Warp come about?

Mike: eh.. it was all a bit weird really, we were supporting Broadcast and they had heard Press A Key, so Rob from Warp came to the gig and approached me and Billy and then we sent them a demo and we did lunch.

Re:mote Induction : Returning to the question of remixes for a moment, have you done, or do you intend to do, any others?

Mike: eh, no.

Billy: Took too long.

Mike: Yeah, it took ages, it took about six weeks.

Re:mote Induction : So Tricky Disco was your first remix?

Mike: Yeah, might take five weeks next time.

Re:mote Induction : How do you find living in Birmingham?

Mike: Desperate. I don't know, I quite like the fact that it's just a little island in the middle of England. Everybody who lives there's alright. Absolutely everybody. Everybody apart from all the gits.

Re:mote Induction : This is the first night of the tour, where next?

Mark: We're playing Leicester tomorrow.

Re:mote Induction : Are you just doing Britain just now?

Mark: Round Britain and then a bit round Europe with the Warp tenth Anniversary tour, then maybe a couple of gigs in America as well.

Re:mote Induction : Have you heard any progress report for the album in America?

Mike: Haven't heard anything.

Re:mote Induction : And Britain.

Mike: We got to number two in the Indie Charts. Number eleven the next week. I know my dad's bought three so if he keeps doing that every week we'll be alright.

Re:mote Induction : Have you been paying attention to the music press?

Mike: em... Shee..yeah.

Re:mote Induction : Novelty value?

Mike: Well yes, like we just made an album, our first album. We want to see how it gets on. I imagine as time goes on it'll get less interesting but after a while you know you've got all these reviews and they're all in big, glossy magazines and it's fucking expensive.

Re:mote Induction : No free copies?

Mike: I don't think so.

Billy: We're hopeless blaggers.

Mike: Yeah, we're really bad at blagging.

Interruption: We're going to miss the food if we don't...

Re:mote Induction : And so the interview abruptly ends with just time to thank Plone as they dart out the door with a schedule to keep.

Andrew
October 1999

More Information

Warp Records

For Beginner Piano

re:mote induction review of this album

Plone live

re:mote induction review of Plone live.