It seems every year or two I get on an Aphex Twin kick, revisiting some of my old favorites from Drukqs and beyond.  Usually these reminiscences lead to reading an old interview or two.  I’m not sure if I like his music or public persona more.  Interviews tend to fall into two categories — the more professional interviewees get lambasted by James while the more casual encounters uncover some real gems.  Like this one.  It’s in a narrative style, but James’ very British humor comes out hilariously.  Some highlights:

“The Warp press release states that he ‘has been teaching his computer to write music so he can spend more time shagging'”.

“I tell him about when I go to bed drunk without drinking any water.  In my dreams, I drink soft drink after soft drink trying to quench my thirst.  Says Aphex, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, I do that as well. It’s worse, if you piss yourself as well.  I’ve done that about three times, when I’ve been drunk.  You want to go to the toilet so much, but you’re drunk, so you just dream it.  And then when you wake up, you go, “Ah fucking hell, I’ve pissed myself.”’”

“Talk about strange purchases.  A priori the vault aquisition, he bought a tank.  A real tank — it even fires, but he uses this function sparingly, cause he only has four rounds of ammo left.  He bought it in Cornwall, but his mom and dad moved to Wales, so he moved it with them.  He’s going to try to bring it to London.  The thought occurs to me that this must bring some grief from the government.    ‘But no one actually thinks of stopping you.  Like the police laugh when they see you.  They don’t think of stopping you, because it’s too ridiculous to even contemplate,’ he says”.

James hasn’t released any music in six years.  Analord was pretty weak in comparison to just about all of his full-length studio albums, especially Drukqs.  I would be surprised if he released anything else, as it is pretty clear that he has no desire to, either personally or financially.  I suppose when you can entertain the idea of buying your own submarine it means you’re pretty well set.

It’s a pity, as his prolific music-making nature pretty much guarantees some surely stunning music.  Perhaps we’ll see some yet.  As for now, I’ll keep reading old interviews for laughs.