Four Tet Gets To Heart Of Matter

To stay relevant and fresh in the world of electronic music is rare, but to do so for over 10 years outright deserves major props.

Four Tet's Kieran Hebden has been pushing the boundaries of the genre since the late-'90s, when his already lauded post-rock outfit, Fridge, went on what would essentially become a permanent break.

Since then, he has been busy with his laptop, experimenting with big beats and sampled and organic sounds to create warm and intimate music in a genre most often referred to as being cold and disengaged.

There Is Love In You, Four Tet's latest album, finds Hebden seeking a new emotional level with his fans in what could be his most hauntingly gorgeous set of songs to date.

CHARTattack spoke with Hebden about how to make electronic music that feels personal, what he does when he knows he's immersing himself too much into his career and the ultimate godfather gift.

CHARTattack: The title of your new album suggests there might be an emotional theme running throughout the song cycle. Were you consciously trying to make a record about love?
Keiran Hebden: I wanted to make music with emotional substance to it, and with strong ideas that inspires people and changes things. I'm always striving for those things.

There's too much music being made by people that don't even know why they're doing it. They're just making music that kind of sounds pleasing to them at that moment: "Oh, that sounds good, I'll put it out."

I want to try to be better than that. I want to try and do something that has real substance to it, because all of the records I really love have that. Coltrane's Love Supreme feels like his whole life is in it. Everything matters in every single millisecond of that music. To me, that's where I need to be.

I also like the sentiment of the album's title, and the idea of people having to say that to each other when they discuss the record. "Have you heard There's Love In You?" I think it's a positive message.

Do you find it difficult making electronic music that is actually personal and easy to connect with on a more intimate level?
I don't think it really matters if it's electronic music — it could be whatever style you're doing. I think it's about creativity and how much of yourself you're willing to put into what you're doing.

It just so happens that what I'm doing is electronic music, and I know people think it can be a cold and inhuman style, but I believe more in ideas than I do in style. I think if musicians are really talented and have fantastic ideas they can make something beautiful out of a pile of rocks and twigs in front of them. Or if they're in front of a computer or in a studio, something exciting will happen.

Beyond your Four Tet albums you've also recorded releases under your own name, Kieran Hebden, and are still a very active DJ. Are you a workaholic who can't sit still for even a second?
I've got a lot of ideas in my head and I try to go through them as much as I can, and I have to slow down because of life. There have been times when it's gotten too much for me and friends and family will look at me and say, "This is not really working right now — you need to take a break."

Especially once you start touring. I've had weeks of my life when I've been in Iceland, Belgium, Japan and the U.K. all in the same week, running around doing interviews all day and concerts all night. And suddenly you come out of it and everything's all gone wrong.

What do you do, then, when you need to take time away from music?
I guess just be at home and hang out with friends and family. With DJing, you get into a situation where you don't really have weekends anymore. Every weekend you're playing somewhere and all your friends have got more weekday jobs, doing 9-5 or whatever.

So when I'm not working or Djing I try to reconnect with friends. It's been snowing here and I spent the afternoon in the park the other day out in the snow and I felt fantastic. And I just love coming home and cooking a great meal — those are things you end up wanting to do.

The track "Pablo's Heart" has what appears to be a sample of a baby's heartbeat. What brought about this idea?
That's my godson. A friend of mine had a child and named me his godfather. And that is a recording of his heartbeat before he was born when they did a scan and everything. So I put it on there as a kind of gift to him. He won't really understand what's going on now, but I like the thought of him seeing the record in the future and hearing the sound of his heart when it was the size of a pea.

I've been using that sound during live shows from time to time. I like the thought of this small, small little piece of energy from an unborn child being pumped up through a sound system with throbbing bass. It's just amazing. So I've had that sound on my compute for ages and I wanted to include it on the album somewhere and I ended up using it as a stand-alone track.