Chris Coco Remasters the Masterpieces
People that know you from radio 1 and your "Playboy Mansion Chillout" album will be asking- How did this collaboration come about?
It was a couple of things. A guy from EMI in Holland wanted to ado a classical thing and asked me. He heard me play at 'Soccer Club'. Luckily I was with Sacha and we'd been toying with the classical remix idea and using melodies form classical tracks so this was the perfect opportunity.
Was it an easy process with Sacha?
The music is quite subtle and the things we've added are quite subtle so you have to concentrate! Plus there's no beats for you to groove on, here there isnt so you have to really listen to what you're doing a lot more. We got a bit carried away with the strange background noises, of mushrooms growing, various different instruments and hit them and did strange things to create the right atmosphere.
Whose idea was it to re-interpret the less known classical music?
We got a massive box of EMI classic records. Sacha guided me thru it. He's classically trained and trained as a conductor in Moscow and has a deep understanding of it, something I dont have. We wanted to choose things not similar to the millions of compilations out there. We wanted something beautiful with good melodies. There's so much to choose from.
We did some live shows last year and the ideal thing would be to get our little band together and replay some stuff. The ideal will be to make an artist album with a modern band let's say with a string quartet and a rock band.
How was it working with Sacha?
Yeah he's great, eccentric but great. He's been through so many phases, a conductor, then Mr classical and wore tweed suits. Then he was in Bush the rock band with red hair and platform boots! He's a great guy.
Making the transition from radio 1 DJ, a rocker form Bush, do people take you seriously in that world?
I'm sure they dont! But that doesnt matter because the record isnt for classical purists. There's a lot of good music out there and it was about reaching the audience. I've done a bit before on my show, 'soundtrack' which takes a theme and play about 20 minutes of music on that theme, very mellow. I've been into ambient and electro for a long time, thats the angle I approached.
Sacha has scored Hollywood movies like "Die Hard", "The Keeper" and some of his own shorts- Any interest in scoring your own movies?
It's very hard to get into. We did a bit on the football factory which came out last year. there's a scene where a guy makes a speech about how great it's gonna be beating people up at the weekend! There's a sweeping piece of music of electronic music which was really good. I'd like to do more. I've made some videos to go with artists' music. It's becoming quite accessible with digital media. A lot of the music we've pout together would work on film
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