working with RZA from Wu-Tang Clan

I thought, ’OK, Icelandic music would be very phat techno beats that are unfinished and distorted, like eruptions.’ I listen to a lot of Icelandic string music, so i wanted that. I thought, ’Who can I work with...?’ I started off with an engineer and we did a lot of beats that were just, Pchh-pkk-up-chhhu ! And then I thought that RZA’s beats were just gorgeous because they’re really simple and really raw. I can’t remember if RZA contacted me first, but it seemed to be a very mutual sort of thing. He said he wanted to come to Spain, but the Wu-Tang album took longer than they thought. Then I met them in New York.

What were they like ?

Oh, they’re gorgeous, like big teddy bears. They fall asleep in piles, do you know that ? They’re just like [snores]. Derek fell asleep on the studio floor at six un the morning and before he knew it there were five Wu-Tang members on top of him [lies across my lap and pretends to snore]. They’re just gorgeous people. And so we started off doing one track. It’s just doing my head in. I still think we can do better beats on that one. What he did was brilliant, but it was just not the right timing. I was out or something, and when I got back, he’d got all the strings people in and recorded them.

Mixmag, september 1997