Collaboration is the name of the game on Tim Burgess’ new album Oh No I Love You. Written with Kurt Wagner writing the lyrics for Burgess to sing, and then played by a host of Nashville musicians, tracks from the album are now taking an entirely new life with a host of super-intriguing remixes for a partner album, Oh No I Love You II. These come from Richard Norris of the Time & Space Machine, Tom Furse from The Horrors, Nik Colk Void, Dom Butler and Gabe Gurnsey of Factory Floor turning in one apiece… and, we have for your ears, perhaps the most surprising of the lot, a rework of ‘Tobacco Fields’ by Perc (surely one of the finest artists making music in the UK right now) that makes the Charlatans frontman sound like a collaboration between Smog and Coil. You can listen to that via our Soundcloud below, and pre-order the album here. After the embed, Tim tells us about the thinking behind Oh No I Love You II.
Why did you decide to get remixes done for the album?
Tim Burgess: I liked the idea of extending the project, taking the songs somewhere else. I feel that I live in a space where all of my favourite kinds of people and music can exist and I think I live somewhere in between Oh No I Love You, where the songs are carved out of wood, and the remix album which I have called Oh No I Love You II.
I Kind of like to know what everybody else is up to, and what they’re doing so its good to swap ideas and get a little view into their world, to know the start point that someone like Perc had and then to know where it ended up is a fantastic insight. I get a free X-ray of peoples minds. Does that sound weird ? might be best not to let them know.
Given the record is a collaboration with Kurt, were you keen to further the collaboration?
Yes – take it further out there. Sam Willis from Walls and Nik Colk Void were the first to show interest. I was sitting on all these amazing files. I encouraged all the remix artists to do what they wanted to do – I thought to have another album exist in its own right would be a really interesting idea. I was inspired by Jamie xx reimagination of Gil Scott Heron’s comeback album I’m New Here, I am pretty sure that’s where the initial idea came.
I’d not spoken to Richard Norris for a while but I saw he was doing some quite far out stuff with Time And Space Machine and I am a sucker for wanting to know what’s going on. It’s easier to understand what people are doing when they send you something back.
What excites you about the mixes?
The fact that they grew quite naturally. I have known Tom Horror and Factory Floor for a while but it still doesn’t guarantee me a mix – everyone is so busy and you never know whether the are going to like the songs. Perc I met at the ICA. I knew he was doing a Factory Floor remix but I had no idea I would ever ask him – he introduced me to his girlfriend, she was a fan of The Charlatans, he seemed like a good guy. Then I went to check his stuff out – immaculate – wow! He turned my desolate song into a slow motion murder weapon. It also excites me that we kind of worked out a bit of a swap deal with most people involved so I have given myself some work to do. It’s all music related so it’s cool – its not like I’m decorating Andy Votel’s spare bedroom as payback.
