World economies rise and fall, governments come and go, but Massive Attack remain untouched by the outside world. Now working on album number five at their own leisurely pace, they tell JIM CARROLLthat they're not too slow - the rest of the world's too quick
IT'S ANOTHER soft English West Country day in the life of Massive Attack, another day nearer the release of album number five. You could say that this album is long overdue, but you've probably said that about every Massive Attack album since their debut Blue Linesappeared back in 1991. That one was probably overdue too.
Today, as always, the men behind Massive Attack are hard at work. Believe it or not, says Robert “3D” del Naja, they actually do clock in and out most days. “We’re in the middle of rehearsing for this forthcoming tour. And we’re getting our shit together like we always seem to be doing.”
Del Naja chuckles. As the leader of the band often accused of turning procrastination into an art form, he has become used to jibes about their lack of finesse when it comes to meeting deadlines.
But it’s not true, he protests. Massive Attack have always taken their time because it’s time worth taking.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m always thinking about stuff for Massive Attack even when I’m down the shops,” says del Naja. “But I do think that people’s attention spans have changed and record companies sometimes feel that people forget about you if you’re not constantly in their face and doing stuff.
“Right from the beginning, we never subscribed to that. We did things at our own pace and in our own time. Sure, we came late to it sometimes because we never followed a traditional path. And that’s not going to change for us. We do what we do when we feel it’s right.”
This policy has served the original musical riddles wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma well over the years. World economies can rise and fall. Governments can come and go. Football clubs can enjoy seasons of triumphs followed by years of despair. But Massive Attack go on and on and on, unfettered and untouched by the outside world.
That's not to say that there has not been plenty of drama over the years. Founder member Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles split after 1998's Mezzaninealbum, griping on his way out the door that Massive Attack were no longer the collective he had joined.
The following album, 2003's 100th Window,was really a del Naja solo affair, with Grant Marshall sitting that one out. The official reason was the birth of Marshall's first child, but the truth was, according to subsequent interviews, that the pair were sick of the sight of each other.
Eventually, there was a reconciliation and work began on album number five.
Even then, as del Naja notes, “there have been other distractions which have taken over from Massive Attack” in the past few years.
He's referring to his own run of film work where he collaborated with Neil Davidge under the 100 Suns monicker on music for In Prison My Whole Life, Battle In Seattleand Trouble the Water(the Hurricane Katrina doc even got an Oscar nomination for its music). He also worked on music for 44 Inch Chestand Gomorra.
Then, there was the nixer curating last year’s Meltdown festival at London’s Barbican. Del Naja and Marshall invited acts such as Elbow, Flying Lotus, Tom Tom Club, Gang Of Four, Gong, Yellow Machine Orchestra, Stiff Little Fingers, Mark Stewart and others to perform. Naturally, they also did a gig themselves.
So much for procrastination.
“Our manager is very good at imposing periodic deadlines about tours and collaborations and stuff which is very good for focusing the mind,” says del Naja. “Without that, we’d be even worse than we are now. Things would drift on and on forever and tracks would never see the light of day.”
Some deadlines, though, don’t stick. According to del Naja, the fifth Massive Attack album was actually ready to roll last year. “We thought we had an album finished last year,” he insists. “We did Meltdown and then did another tour but when it came to the last shows, we felt we had already released the album. We’d sent it out there, we’d played it in front of X amount of people and it felt like we should start again.”
That must have come as news to the other musicians, crew, management and record label. “To be fair, they get well frustrated. The band are pretty cool with it because they’re here in Bristol with us in the studio, so they’re alright, they know the score. The crew, they’re alright with us too, I suppose. I mean, we’re touring more than we’re releasing records these days.
“For management and the record label, though, it’s a totally different kettle of fish. They’re like ‘what the fuck?’ every time. But since we signed with our record label, we’ve seen the pyramids built and crumble. We’ve seen so many different people come and go. The label we signed to is now gone. We signed to Circa, which became Virgin, which became EMI, which became Terra Firma. It’s a totally different world.”
With work on that album now appearing to be reaching a conclusion (see panel), Massive Attack are about to embark on yet another tour.
"After 100th Window,I really began to enjoy the live shows because of the visual stuff," says del Naja. "What was really missing for me from the live show in the early days was a feeling of being able to communicate the point of the band or project across to the audience.
“Using the LED art screens or information boards, or whatever you want to call them, to transmit all these ideas really appealed to me. It meant that every time we updated tracks, we also updated the visual side – which was very interesting to me. It felt more cinematic and it got across all the extra meanings that the songs had.”
There's even some new music to accompany this tour. The four-track Splitting the AtomEP features contributions from Elbow's Guy Garvey, TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, Horace Andy and Martina-Topley Bird.
Intended as a taster for the album (“People can hear that we have been working,” giggles del Naja), the music is naturally deep, broody and cinematic. Interestingly, it brings such current woozy, wonky beat-diggers as Flying Lotus and Hudson Mohawke to mind – and reminds you that this new school owe a bit of a debt to the Bristol crew.
It’s a link del Naja also points to.
“When we did the Meltdown scene, we were able to put on acts like Flying Lotus and Shape Of Broad Minds and it was great to be able to showcase people like that. Then, there are the new names coming from the avant-grade scene like TV On The Radio and Gang Gang Dance who are doing some really wild stuff.
“When I hear weird dubstep now, the slow, dark stuff especially, it sounds so much like some of our old demos from 10 years ago which we never released. All these dark, druggy, cinematic grooves – we’ve tons of that stuff which we never released.”
But while some at their record label might think the archives could provide an album or two to fill a gap before the new record shows up, del Naja has no intention of going back in time.
“Sometimes, it’s good to go back through the archives to hear something and go ‘wow, that’s cool’, but you don’t really use it. That’s in the past; I prefer to think about the future.
“Nostalgia when it is used well is beautiful. It’s an important emotion for people and I find that melancholic angle, that beautiful, bittersweet sadness, to be very important for our music.
“But when it comes to writing, you have to use nostalgia as an image and not as a way to live. You always have to look forward.”
The Splitting the AtomEP is released on October 2nd. Massive Attack play Dublin’s Olympia on October 6th and 7th
"Put the album out in January"
According to Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja, there is now a firm plan in place regarding album number five.
“Our idea is to put an EP out now, go on the road, play the album live, put out three songs on our website before Christmas, put the album out in January and tour again.”
He pauses for a beat. “That might change, though.”
As always, don’t bet your house on a new Massive Attack release appearing in January, though this album does appear to be nearing some sort of conclusion.
Recording has been ongoing for the past few years. “We’ve got about 12 tracks almost mixed now,” says del Naja.
“On the record, we’ll have Guy Garvey. He’s great. We started working with him in 2007 and luckily for us, it was before things got too mental for them.
“Damon Albarn has done some vocals for us and me and G spent a fortnight messing around in his studio so there are some other parts he has contributed to which are great fun. We’ve also had Hope Sandoval, Horace Andy and Tunde from TV On The Radio doing vocals.” Another guest vocalist is Martina Topley-Bird, ex-Massive Attack member Tricky’s former sidekick.
“The one person who has been influential for us in terms of how this album sounds is Martina. She has an amazing personality and voice and we’ve also stuck our neck out for vocalists who have that unique thing going on which sets them apart. Martina has got that.
“As soon as we hooked up and started to work and got over the initial nerves, it was fucking great. A great voice, a great singer, a great writer, a real love of ours.”
