Biography

by Andy Crysell, March '99

INTERFEARENCE are a London based outfit, with a flawless aptitude for absorbing, original tunes which never fail to get in your head, in confident forward motion. Their debut album is a collection of the four hard-to-find but well received EPs they've put out on their Electronically Enhanced label last year (before signing to ffrr) - with three celestial new tracks - 'Religious Revolution' 'Wonderland' and 'Money Or Belief" - added for good measure. It's an album made by two people who never fail to strike up a dazzling rapport in the studio, but openly admit they don't often agree in other situations. It's a case of opposites attracting, essentially.

The event which instigated their meeting, came when Paul and Tyrrell met four years ago. There they both were, clattering along on a tube train when their eyes met over a Sly & The Family Stone album which Tyrrell was clutching. Soon they're talking and not long after that they're trying out a few ideas in a home studio, with Paul spinning records and Tyrrell armed with a guitar and keyboards. But from these embryonic stages onwards, there's always been something different about Interfearence: most notably, and most contrary to usual form, the DJ was urging the musician to lay down as many sounds as possible on top of the beats and samples, not just your average three chord synth riff.

"He plays some amazingly powerful music," enthuses Paul of Tyrrell "I try to get him to do that without worrying what other bands would do on the same kind of track". Just as their mutual hero hero Sly Stone did it, then. The maverick Seventies funk champ brought them together and his ways have been central to the game plan ever since. "I'm more of a rock person and he's into soul" says Tyrrell. "But Sly & The Family Stone are the point where we meet. They epitomised that golden age when rock was funky and funk was rocky".

Interfearence cover both these bases, seguing them impeccably, plus a whole lot more besides. This is adequately evinced if you partake in a not very controlled experiment, playing their album to a room-full of people: it's astonishing the variety of praise which subsequently fills the air. Some hear an organically funky Underworld. Others a more speedy take on the anthemic experimentation of the Beta Band. Or New York house blasted off on a unique trajectory. Or swoonsome Balearica. Or dubbed-up Pink Floyd. Or hypnotic techno played by Public Image Limited. Or a star kissed, modernist psychedelia of a thoroughly singular kind. "People are pointing out things we haven't even heard in our music," Paul smiles. "It's not about claiming we invented a whole new style. It's to do with putting our own, unprompted, instinctive twist on the music we love and I've got a funny feeling that's what 1999 is going to be about".

Indeed, but just as importantly, this band marry their kaleidoscope range with a sense of drama, emotion and pure spirit which is theirs alone. What's that called? Let's say the sweetest Interfearence you'll hear all year.