Born Slippy: Underworld, the ultimate survivors?

United Kingdom | by Ross Purdie | 01 April 2008

Just days after releasing their critically acclaimed opus ‘Oblivion With Bells’, one half of the dance duo Rick Smith almost died from a mystery illness. And this came just months after he was found bleeding and battered by band mate Karl Hynde after anarchists rampaged through their stadium gig in Athens. Oblivion with bells indeed. 

But Underworld are not ones to let life-threatening matters get them down, enthuses Karl during a recent chin-wag. After dragging his best mate away from danger in Greece, and helping him back to health in the latter months of last year, he says the inseparable pair can only see their recent scrapes as a blessed watershed; a sign of better times to come.

With Swansea’s Escape Into The Park, Scotland's Rock Ness and O2 Wireless Festival in London already on their UK agenda this summer, the band have also been announced as headliners for Creamfields’ 10th anniversary celebrations, alongside the likes of Fatboy Slim, Pendulum and Kasabian.

Set to become one of the most travelled festival acts of 2008, we caught up with Karl to try and persuade him to stay out of trouble. We think we probably failed...

VF: You’re headlining Creamfields for their tenth year. An honour?
Karl Hyde: “Oh God yeah, 10 years of Creamfields it’s amazing, isn’t it? We’ve known them since the beginning and have done loads of festivals with them in this country, in Europe and in South America. We’ve always been treated so well by them and I know they’ll put on a great show.”

VF: You’re up against Kasabian. Are you confident you can stave off rock’s best dance pretenders?
KH: [Laughs] “No, we never see it as being up against anybody. Any festival is a place where people move around and there will be some people who will be there to see Kasabian and not us, and vice versa, which is great.”

VF: Do you think they fit the Creamfields mould?
KH: “The mould is changing, isn’t it? It's bringing in music that's got a feel for dance. People like Ian Brown, for example. Let’s face it, without the Stone Roses dance wouldn’t be half of what it is today so I think there are a lot of people who are due some respect for what they have done. The newer bands like Kasabian definitely have something to add to dance music.”

VF: Does good live music go down well at any type of festival?
KH: “I always love to go and see great live acts because there is always something to learn and they’re definitely a great live act. Kasabian are inspiring in the way that they never fake it. They turn an audience on by being real. Those are the performers I like to see.”

VF: You’ve got one of the busiest summers you could have lined up..
KH: “Yeah, we’re off to America tomorrow. We’re heading to Atlanta and then the Ultra Festival in Miami and then we are going down to Chile and Argentina, then supporting Radiohead a couple of times in America and then back to Europe.”

VF: That’s pretty full on. Is there any chance of a Glastonbury slot?
KH: “I don’t know. Glastonbury is one of those places that is very dear to us, having done the 18 hour gig there and the stints on the main stage. So its one of those that we’d have to say probably not to this year. We’ve got so much time away and we need to spend some time in the studio.”

VF: Is there an album in the pipeline soon?
KH: “Not really because we only released Oblivion With Bells last year but what we do have is a whole lot of new material that we release through our underworldlive.com site. We do lots of web-radio and try to release tracks quarterly online. Then we play different tunes that we’ve released during our live shows. We need to be writing all the time so that when album time comes we are not just sat there scratching our heads thinking ‘Oh god, what are we going to do?”

VF: Out of all the shows you are doing, especially the UK ones, is there any one you are particularly looking forward to?
KH: “It would be easy to say all of them but we very rarely play in Wales so the show that we’re doing in Swansea is one of only three shows that we will ever have played in the country since we left. I went to college there and lived there for 8 years. I loved living in Wales and if we ever stop touring and working I’d probably just live in a small hut on a hill.”

VF: So that will be a pretty special one for you?
KH: “Yeah it will, because there will be family and there will be a lot of friends from our days in Cardiff. It will be great to see them all down there.”

VF: What can people expect from your live show this year?
KH: “It will, as ever, be very improvised. The visuals, the lights, everything is improvised. We’ve really had a complete new regeneration since Rick’s illness from last year and have new ways of playing. From what I gather from the internet forums a whole new level of energy is coming off the stage. I can feel it on-stage, but you never know how far that transcends. It’s good to hear that that energy is universal. So there is that and also the new tunes and some quite radical re-workings of familiar anthems too.”

VF: Oblivion With Bells is a deeper and tougher album than your earlier stuff. Is that you maturing or the natural way dance music is progressing?
KH: “That’s just the way the album went really. We were listening to a lot of German electronica. It finished up with being played in the clubs in Germany and we’d just come off the back of two film scores, so both those things had quite an influence on us. We'd moved away from the thing we are most known for, did that for a while and then moved back again with a fresh approach.”

VF: Have you ever felt that there’s been a gap on stage since Darren Emerson left?
KH: “No. We stay in touch as mates and I know that as mate he went on to do something that he really needed to do and he is happy with. Years ago people left with real animosity but that’s not the case with is, so it’s fantastic. Well done Darren!”

VF: Do you think he will ever return?
KH: “I don’t think so, he’s having too good a time really! Last time I spoke to him, which was probably around November time, he was having a great time so why would he want to? He was always a solo artist so it was fairly strange for him to be in a band. Obviously he did incredibly well.”

VF: You had Larry Mullen Jr of U2 drumming on tracks on the last album. Is there any chance of him popping up at any festivals?
KH: “We have talked about him coming out on the road with us a few times and if U2 don’t go out on the road pretty soon then maybe he will. He keeps asking about it. Larry has been a friend and a supporter since the days of ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’. Oddly enough, as with the whole of our band we stay relatively close.”

VF: Talking of which, last year you were first on hand after Rick was caught in a stampede started by Greek anarchists. What happened?
KH: “I don’t really. All I know is that I found my mate in a pool of blood on the floor and we dragged him out to safety and got him off to the A&E in Athens as quickly as we could. The doctors there were absolutely fantastic. It was in a baseball stadium that had been built for the Olympics and we were meant to followed on from Madness and the Beastie Boys. Something kicked off and we got caught in the middle of it.

VF The Beastie Boys were playing at the time weren’t they?
KH: “I think they were yeah, but we weren’t in the crowd. The dressing room and office area just became a very dangerous place. I don’t really know that much about it because it all happened so quickly and as I say we we’re more concerned about my mate and getting him to hospital.”

VF: And then obviously a few weeks later you were struck down by illness. How was it to come back from that and get straight back on it?
KH: “After 27 years together it was relatively easy, but it was a great opportunity to re-think the band, set up completely differently on stage and improvise differently. Out of it came a much stronger and more energetic tour that we have just finished in Europe, with a few extra dates at London’s Roundhouse. Obviously we are now just about to head over to the North and South America too. Another level of energy came out of it all.”

VF: So that was almost like a watershed?
KH: “We had been touring for a long time. Sometimes those things come along and it can go one of two ways. Either saying ‘I’ve had enough, I’m out’ or ‘I’ve had enough, lets push things further’, which is how it went for us.”

VF: You are obviously well respected by people like U2 and Radiohead. How does that compare to the adulation of the average fan?
KH: “I don’t think there are any average fans. Anybody that supports us is a bit special. It’s a hard one to express really because you are constantly re-adjusting your ego, and saying ‘look, I’m just a very small part of what’s going on here’ so it’s great. Let’s just hope that we can still deliver and turn people on.”

Underworld headline the Radio 1 stage at Creamfields on Sunday 24 August. Find out more and buy tickets HERE.