Simon Green, better known as Bonobo, has given an interview to The Independent from his current base in LA. Green covers a host of topics including his new album Migration (which is slated for release on 13th January), life in LA, and what it’s like to look back at his homeland from the other side of the pond.
Green isn’t alone in having ditched London for LA, he explains that, ‘There are so many people here,’ including Jon Hopkins whom Green enlisted to work on Migration’s title track. He actually paints quite a picture of the chilled Californian lifestyle for exiled Brits, revealing, ‘we were hanging out and I was playing him ideas… I created all the little loops that it starts with – they’re all randomly generated – and set them at random and had Jon improvise. And that was the idea… to have the pianist improvising to this algorithm. We did about three takes from start to finish and kept it as it was.’ Indeed, Green compares this relaxed and creative atmosphere favourably with his previous home in New York, saying, ‘It feels like there are more reasons to be here [in LA], not just musical ones, for the soul as well. There’s a good vibe here at the minute, it’s having a moment.’ The rest of California has also had an impact on Green who loves Death Valley and has used it in the artwork for his new music, ‘because it’s so alien compared to where I’m from. From being in the UK… well all the places I’ve lived have had quite lush landscapes. And this is Martian… I’m trying to get amongst it as much as I can.’
In terms of the sound of his new music, Green seems to want Bonobo to move sonically just as he has moved geographically, renouncing his earlier jazz influences because, I don’t know if it’s where my head is at right now,’ and adding, ‘I’m always trying to find new things that I haven’t done before. I felt like I had a genuine learning curve on this record, diving into aspects of production that I’d not really understood before. I had a lot of people coming through the studio as well, which is the other thing about LA, there’s this exchange of ideas which I hadn’t had for a while. We were just messing around and trying to learn some stuff.’
Green talks effusively about his new home, but how does he feel about the one he left? He’s returning soon to rehearse before heading out to Europe for his upcoming tour, and he reflected on the direction Britain has taken since he left, saying, ‘Fabric, Brexit… it’s hard to get a proper perspective and I feel a sort of guilt, like I should be standing there with my people. I was back at the Hydra a few weeks ago and that still felt like a proper rave though. The will to still go out is there, and that’s important.’
Of course, Fabric has now re-opened, and Bonobo’s forthcoming sixth album will be on us before we know it, on the 13th January, so the future is not all doom and gloom.
