Quotes Max Brennan - Info Vic King
EARLY DAYS
"I was in a band with Chiz called Shut The Lid, and then the first version of Godfrenzy."Max also played bass in the Bill Reid Band.
"Back in the days of the Granville we had Ian Hampton, a heavy metal guitarist with us. He was in Love's Injection."
The band's name is still scratched on the bridge wall at Curry's roundabout.
TODAY "I started getting into funk, getting more control of what I was doing. For the last three years I've been trying to use the best of playng and sampling. I've started to gig. You need to find clubs with an open enough mind to put it on. I call myself more a producer than a musician. Brian Eno, with his ambience phase, listen to the space.
Sometimes I feel like coming in here with a white coat on and saying 'Today we are experimenting'. I take a lot of the studio out with me live to drive the beat. It's something from the club situation, rather than a live band situation. I'm stepping away from dance music with mad, experimental mixed-up funk.
John Madden from Longdown had been working in London as an engineer. He opened my eyes to a certain way of production and engineering. I've never had a lesson. Josh Brent and Mark LIttle were working upstairs in Happy Daze doing that "House of Happy Daze" thing. Sending out mail order all ove the country. I hooked up with them.
Mark, who did the distribution, hooked me up with Steve from Holistic. There such nice people. I just wait for people to phone us to play. I don't like ego-maniacs."
It was helpful for Max to have his records played at the Fat Cat Record shop in Soho. Max explained:
"The Soho shop, Vinyl Junkies is really behind us. We totally rely on exports.."
BIG IN JAPAN Both Max and fellow Holistic artist Paul Butler have visited Japan where they are popular. Max did a gig at the Yebusi Gardenhall in Tokyo (7th April, 1997), attended by 4,000 people.
"My records are all over the walls in Tokyo record shops. People shouting at me, intense trainspotters who stand watching for things at gigs. There are no vinyl pressings done in Japan. It's all done over here at The Exchange in Camden. Germany is our strongest market. I've done a gig at the Paradiso in Amsterdam but in Holland it's still band orientated."
PEACEFROG - MAXWELL HOUSE I and II We asked Max about the two Maxwell House albums featuring him and Paul Butler on the Peacefrog label.
"The guy from the label loves jazz. The release was really out on a limb for them. Maxwell House II is really intimate with Tom 'Iceman' Vernon on guitar. Time signatures in 23/8, I love cross rhythms."
MAX'S FIRST TAKE RULE "You've got to get that first thing that got you into it in the first place. I'd rather throw something away than try to make it better. Live sets are fun. I've got so much to do I haven't got time to get nervous. Really intense, full on."
SCHATRAX RECORDS A word about Schatrax Records, run by DJ Josh Brent from Carisbrooke. Popular with John Peel who played a track on his Radio One show last Tuesday. Max:
"Very minimal. The most cutting edge underground sound I've heard."
FINALLY . . . Max played us lots of music, including a track of him collaborating with Paul Athey for a forthcoming project. Try putting that into a pigeon hole.
Max Brennan spoke to Vic King and Pete Turner in Cowes 4/4/98
| A MAX BRENNAN DISCOGRAPHY | |
|---|---|
| Holistic Recordings | Fretless AZM |
| Finger | 10 inch EP July 1995 |
| Sunday Afternoon BBQ Music | January 1996 |
| Star Seed Signals | 10 inch EP February 1996 |
| Manipulation | 12 inch March 1996 |
| Gambit | EP June 1996 |
| From MARZ with Love | LP/CD July 1996 |
| Brass Lines and Basses | October 1996 |
| Astral Cinema | LP/CD March1997 |
| Distant Earth | CD June 1997 |
| Love Sock | 12 inch 1997 |
| Oceans of Light | CD June 1998 |
| Universal Being | |
| Sphinx | EP October 1995 |
| Holistic Rhythms | LP/CD January 1996 |
| Size of an Elephant | EP June 1996 |
| Jupiter | LP/CD July 1996 |
| Archives | June 1997 |
| Peacefrog Records | |
| Maxwell House | |
| Maxwell House | LP/CD September 1996 |
| Maxwell House II | LP/CD March 1997 |
| Beau Monde Records | |
| O. H. Krilll | |
| O. H. Krilll | EP September 1996 |
| Cide Records | |
| Cide 001. Max - Pull Thy Boots | EP July 1996 |
| Phono Records | |
| PhonoCide - Max No Such Thing | EP |
| Guilty Records. Cat No 002 | |
| Helmet. (in conjunction with Aubrey) | EP |
| Sublime Records | |
| Max Brennan | |
| Omiga Point | EP 1997 |
| Alien To Whom? | EP February 1998 |
| Alien To Whom? | LP/CD June 1998 |