Klute: Draft Copy

It was De La Soul who once professed that three is the magic number. In numerology it’s commonly understood the number seven is supposed to signify luck. Given that Commerical Suicide boss Tom Withers aka Klute is now on his seventh full length effort with The Draft, does he feel this one will be the lucky charm? Or does he not partake in such superstitious ways of thinking? “I never thought about it like that. I have no idea, I wouldn’t wish to speculate!” laughing at slightly left field nature of the question before continuing. “I really hope so. I do all this with the very best of intentions, to make good music and I really want people to like it. So aside from all the usual music industry hype, I genuinely hope that people do. We’ll see, I’m quietly confident.” 

Our interview takes place after my initial call catches him in his local supermarket buying champagne for a friends birthday he’s due to attend later that evening. Not wanting to talk shop mid shop, we start again upon his return to the comforting confines of home to discuss all things music related. 

Not many artists, particularly in dance music and in this instance drum & bass, reach such a high volume of albums released. As it stands only Calibre, with eight, betters Klute in terms of numbers. But while the diminutive Irishman has amassed an impressive catalogue since his Musique Concrete debut in 2001, you have to go all the way back to 1998 to capture Klute’s first foray into long playing territory. Casual Bodies, released on the now defunct Certificate 18, opened the floodgates for a producer who has steadily released an album every two or three years since, including 2003’s Lie, Cheat & Steal and The Emperor’s New Clothes in 2007. So it’s fair to say that Klute is no stranger when it comes to putting together a substantial body of work for our listening pleasure. There’s evidently something about the album format he likes so much to have made so many. “It’s what I’ve always related to. Long players are my personal interface into whatever music I’m loving. If I really dig an artist I’ll think to myself “Ok, what albums are there? Let me delve into this. See what they’re about, what they’re saying and where they’re taking me.” Through that it just seemed to make sense that I’d do the same sort of thing.” He follows up with an interesting perspective on the creation process of an album itself. “It’s kind of like piecing together a massive jigsaw puzzle. When you’re in the thick of it, things are going, ideas are coming, I find it a really amazing place to be. Just to get on that roll to an end destination.”

Talking to Klute you get the sense of a man with a passion for his craft, a genuine sincerity about his musical output teamed with a very dry wit. When I ask how he would describe The Draft he replies,”I’m meant to have something prepared for that.” jokingly lambasting his lack of a PR ready answer. “There was a definite concerted effort to do more work with vocals again.” He picks out Turnaround as one of his favourites, mainly due to his fondness for a certain 80’s new wave band. “I’m a big fan of Robert Smith and The Cure and, without trying to, it sort of came out like that. I kind of pictured him singing on that track but I never quite got it together to ask. I would certainly never want to have someone try and sound like him.” Ultimately, he describes his album as “me, and how I relate to drum & bass as a creative person, you know?”

The Draft continues what Klute has achieved the length of his career: presenting quality beats wrapped up in various influences which, to its benefit, don’t really conform or bow to current musical trends or flash in the pan genre movements. It melds its numerous styles together, coherently. Opening track Sober Light Of Day is purely ambient. The same goes for Valentine. Yet they don’t sound out of place next to Sick Drive or the wonderful My Black & White. The Draft withholds from separating his love for anything outside of drum & bass too. Previous Klute LP’s have often segregated D&B from techno via double disc CD’s. Not this time. “I made the choice to make this a single CD album because the last four have all been double where I’ve made this distinction between D&B and non D&B stuff. I made so much music for this album the hardest part was deciding what to keep and what to not. It’s just baby steps toward doing it as music as opposed to strictly drum & bass.” With more producers citing inspiration from around the 120bpm mark, you could point out Klute was ahead of the curve in that respect, before name dropping the likes of Richie Hawtin became de rigueur. “I was making techno, but not releasing anything, around 92/93 before I made the decision to concentrate on enjoying and making jungle. I’ve been a massive fan of techno from when I first got into electronic music.”

Since we began our chat in the supermarket it felt only right to ask a food related question before parting ways. If he were to compare his music to a food, what would he choose? “It would be chocolate peanut butter swirl ice cream because that’s my absolute favourite food, conveniently completely inaccessible to me because you can only get it in America. I’ll just liken myself and my music to my favourite treat.” You’d do well to feed your ears on the musical delights of The Draft. Klute once said No One’s Listening Anymore. If they aren’t, they bloody well should be.