#TBT: edIT – Crying Over Pros For No Reason

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For all the ones who could have been, for all the ones that got away and all the ones that will never be….

Ten years ago The Glitch Mob’s edIT released his debut album on Planet Mu. Solemn, sombre glitches, handcrafted long before TGM – or most VSTs we know and love – were even conceivable, edIT’s debut smacks of an entirely different paradigm in dance music. Yet, it still sound wholly relevant and timeless…

This week he’s revisited the album with a 10 year anniversary edition, complete with five new tracks. We caught up with edIT to catch his perspective of 2004… Where was he at? What did he want to achieve? What did he make it on?

REWIND….

No Soundcloud, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram… It was a different era of music. It wasn’t social media driven. There was no motivation to gain fans or be popular.

The Inspiration…

“For all the ones who could have been, for all the ones that got away and all the ones that will never be. Back in those days the radio wouldn’t let you say hoes. So artists changed it to pros. It was a cool little riff on it – crying over girls for no reason. Some people got it, some didn’t. Some people thought it was prose, like poetry – I didn’t want to take that away from people… Things are always determined by the listener. The artist should never dictate perception.

The Time…

“Back then I was in my senior year in USC living in a really crumby apartment. This was my transition from making indie hip-hop into making electronic music.

I was actually a theatre major. I went on a scholarship but lost it after my first year. I partied a little too hard. I skipped too many classes. My second year I tried to become a music industry major. But at the time they didn’t consider computer music to be a valid art-form. Back then even teaching Pro Tools was a big leap. They were teaching consoles and tape. When I told them I made music on a computer they shook their head!”

The Technology…

“It was a different time. Ableton didn’t even exist until about six nine months into the project. I wrote the whole record on Pro Tools and an old Mac G3 Tower – one of those really old translucent blue towers. Remember them?

All the glitches and edits were done by hand, with lots of imagination and minidisc recordings to get the sounds, and edited in Pro Tools. It was long before VST plug-ins really caught on. Native Instruments didn’t exist.

The difference…

“No Soundcloud, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram… I only knew about Mu through my house mate who collected the vinyls. It was a different era of music. It wasn’t social media driven. There was no motivation to gain fans or be popular. It was a whole other musical paradigm –certainly with labels like Rephlex and Warp the inspiration amongst the producers felt like we were using technology to push the envelope as much as possible.”

I always felt that if I couldn’t top it, or couldn’t say anything more about it, then I wouldn’t say anything.

The unique scenario of an artist’s first album…

“People ask why I didn’t do a follow-up album or riff on the same inspiration. But I always felt that if I couldn’t top it, or couldn’t say anything more about it, then I wouldn’t say anything.

You don’t get another chance to write your first record. Now, having written two solo records and two TGM albums and a bunch of remixes and singles I really appreciate how special your first album is. There are no expectations, no fans, it’s you in your purest, rawest form. No one has opinion on who you are and what you should sound like or what you should do. Once you’ve put it out there there’s no way back. You will always be sitting there thinking ‘okay I’m an artist, people will expect me to sound like this.’

Your first record is so special. Over time I’ve realised the impact I’ve had on people’s musical journeys. The amount of people who’ve hit me up about it over the years made me realise how cult the record was and how special it was to some people. If I couldn’t hit a home run harder than that, then I wouldn’t do it…”