There is no doubt that musicians these days work extremely hard for any, albeit slight, progress in the industry. One man who defined that concept is Tony Higgins, also known as Junior85. In the last 12 months Tony’s workload has been heavier than Santa’s sack at Christmas, and with his ambient electronic sound getting some much deserved recognition the work is beginning to pay off. Since February of this year Tony developed a new idea to get as much of his music released as humanly possible, releasing five EP’s between then and April. Along with all he is doing on solo projects he still finds time to regularly play drums for Indie Pop outfit So Cow and occasionally collaborates with Local Living Guy, Vince Mack Mahon and Viking Moses to name but a few. Tony recently got back from the States and gave Connected the opportunity to find out the goings on in the mind of Junior85.
1. You seem to be mad for EP’s at the moment! Tell us a bit more about why you are releasing new material so frequently?
I’d been working away on music for years without really finishing
anything to a level I was happy with. I was always sort of looking at
stuff and thinking, how do I make a coherent album out of this? By
shortening it to EP length, I found it much easier to get things done.
From February to April, just for the heck of it I set myself a
deadline of completing an EP a week. It was a way of getting away from
endlessly trying to polish tracks to absolute perfection and never
getting anything finished! Once I got going, I really got into it and
was able to plan out a path for completing lots of EPs, it was a great
motivation. I have at the moment about another 7 EPs planned out and
which I was sort of methodically working through, though a bit
scattershot at the moment.
I’d try to bring the tracks to as close to release quality as I could,
then let them go. I’d say with most of the stuff I did I got it to
sort of 90% of more or less what I’d be happy with, and it’s a good
thing to let them go at that stage than hang onto them forever. I also
have a friend whose photos I love, and releasing so many EPs was a
sneaky way of using as many of her photos as I could before someone
else did!
2. You work on a lot of side projects, such as So Cow and Local Living Guy. What keeps you so busy? Are these other projects your way of keeping in touch with other forms of music?
I just love playing with other people! I make myself available as much
as I can around Galway, I’m always happy to drum for other folks. It’s
something that I’ve done for years, and its a little bit part of the
ethos that we had since Stress!! (Promoters) started, where we used to have an
improvised music jam at the end where anyone was welcome. It’s
definitely a way of keeping in touch with other styles too, as the
other folks I play with are generally in styles of music that I don’t
make much of myself. I don’t think there are that many drummers around
who are willing to give as much time to stuff and be open to diverse
musical ideas so it just means I get to play a lot!
3. What do you do to unwind? (Please do not be too honest!)
There’s not much unwinding to be done these days! It’s pretty much
flat out all the time, but I enjoy playing and making music a lot so
it doesn’t really bother me too much. I’m quite often happiest when
I’m making some music or playing and it’s going well, it’s very
satisfying. An awful lot of the time things that I do to unwind, such
as going to gigs or listening to music drift into work when I start
studying them or thinking about the bands for Stress!! gigs!
4. Your sound can be compared to anything from Aphex Twin and Unkle to Massive Attack and even Radiohead. Are you aiming for a specific genre or is uniqueness the key?
I’m a big fan of the above bands, and also the likes of Boards Of
Canada and The Books, so I am probably aiming a bit for a sort of
ambient sound. I love a lot of other genres of music too which the
styles of the releases are pretty mixed up. I love the idea of the
variety of releases that someone like Jim O’Rourke does and making
loads of EPs makes it easier to do different styles. When I’m doing the ambient stuff, the main thing I’ll be concentrating on is taking the corners off it as much as I can, removing parts that break the mood and stop “suspension of disbelief” sort of. I listen to
stuff a lot just when I’m falling asleep and also when I’m just
pottering around doing something else in the house, and if anything
sort of jumps out then I try to work it out of it. It’s a sort of
inactive listening, non-concentration on it. A lot of the music I do is
also improvised, so I’m probably also looking for directness from it.
I like clarity.
5. One of your specific genres stated on myspace is Live Electronica. Any gigs coming up so we can see that in effect?
That’s a next step alright. I’ve done lots of gigs of live improvised
electronics and noise music but no gigs of the ambient stuff off the
EPs. There’s a lot of layering and messing I do on them production
wise so that I’m going to have to think about how to do a live show
with them. It’s something I’m definitely hoping to do. I’d love to do
more of the live electronics gigs of before too, but it sounds nothing
like the EPs!
6. Are you an “odd socks don’t matter to me” kind of guy or do they always have to match?
Nah, I wear odd socks all the time. If it’s a matter of necessity,
it’s grand by me.
7. You spent some time in America after the initial frequency of EPs.
Business or… Otherwise?
That was playing with So Cow for two months, which neatly added a
bookend to the EP project. I tried to keep working on EPs while on the
road there to continue doing one a week but it was just too flat out
all the time with traveling and playing. Since getting back I’ve kind
of struggled to get back into it too, or at least to work at a focused
level. I have 3 EPs I’m working on right now but I’m finding it hard
to concentrate on just one of them!
8. Will you ever get tired of playing gigs in Galway? (I genuinely love that city!)
Not at the moment I wouldn’t say, there’s a lot of interesting things
going on. Galway’s a city full of musicians, and while for a bit there
wasn’t so much original music going on there is now.
9. Bigger picture time. What’s on the horizon for junior85?
I’m not sure there’s ever a bigger picture; as long as I can keep
tipping away at EPs I’m pretty happy. Every release gets some more
music out there and improves my production techniques etc. I’d like
to get more people listening to the music as much as possible of
course and perhaps do some physical releases with other folks away
from the EPs being free to download. It was really nice to get lots of play for the
EPs on An Taobh Tuathail on RnaG.
10. What’s your favorite word?
Tough question. I never think about my favorite of anything!
With more EPs in the works and clear plans to get his live performances ready for the public, we should definitely keep an eye on the horizon, as Tony Higgins’ Junior85 will be galloping over it sooner or later. To hear more from Junior85 check out www.myspace.com/roadsignsofourage
Words by Dave Quinn
(please note article originally printed in Connected Magazine)