FRIEDMYLITTLEBRAIN

DB: Hi. The recent Loungecore comp is so surprising as is so varied, such a wide array of artists involved. What was the inception, the moment you thought ‘Damn we need to compile this?’

TC: ‘Loungecore’ was the foundation of Hospital. Our early tunes were almost all in a fast lounge style, and this set the pattern for Hospital for the future. Selecting the tunes was loads of fun for me, as I am a lounge music fiend.

What makes a tune ‘loungecore’ is impossible to define so it was a totally subjective process. If a tune makes me relax & want to put on a Hawaiian shirt and mix cocktails then in it goes! I’ve been wanting to do this album for years and this summer felt like exactly the right time.

DB: How does the album connect with the original Hospital ethos?

TC: When we made the very first Hospital tunes – Chris Goss and me in the studio, sometimes with Oscar Wilson, collectively as The Peter Nice Trio – we were furiously creating a sound that was unique but inevitable given our respective record collections and musical stroke lack of musical skill. Loungecore sounded like the perfect description, and I used to imagine in my head that my sampler was actually an orchestra of aging men in their 60s and 70s IN the 60s playing furious lounge music at D&B tempo. That image is still with me, and there are tunes on this album such as ‘General Hospital’ that encapsulate that idea perfectly.

DB: I got to thinking about the 90s because of this and the various takes on 90s ‘retro’, from ‘fun’ stuff on Acid Jazz, super cred stuff on Mo’Wax, to nightmarishly good retro vibes from Bristol with Portishead/Massive. Then there’s DJ Shadow… what was your take on the 90s in terms of what you loved, and also your personal musical involvement?

TC: I had an acid jazz band called IZIT. We made 3 albums, had a top 40 single in the UK with ‘Stories’ and a top 10 single in Japan. Chris and I ran an acid jazz type label called Tongue and Groove which served as a valuable rehearsal for Hospital.

Musically the end of acid jazz going into trip hop and thereafter was exciting, confusing, and many artist disappeared up their backside in the quest of trying to do something new. D&B blew everything out of the water for me and I’ve been addicted ever since.

DB: Can you name 5 guilty pleasures?

TC: Sure.
My Wurlitzer electric piano.
The Geoff Love Orchestra.
FPS games.
Any loungetastic cover version of anything by Jimmy Hendrix.
BBC Radio 4 Just a Minute.

DB: Which studio session in time do you wish you’d been a fly on the wall at?

TC: The making of Alice Cooper’s ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ in particular ‘Elected’ which is one of the greatest pieces of rock orchestration I have ever heard. Every track on the album has incredible concept and execution. It’s a gold medal affair for me. Bob Ezrin was a brilliant producer and everything was right with that release: the writing, the playing, the arrangement, the production, the mixing, the artwork and the marketing.

album

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