Russell Haswell :: Never stop

Russell Haswell is a 55-year old electronic musician and visual artist, most well-known for his extreme computer music. He currently lives in Glasgow, having worked together with Aphex Twin, Florian Hecker, Merzbow, Mika Vainio, Yasunao Tone and Peter Rehberg and released on labels such as Warp, Editions Mego, and Diagonal.

You never stop learning. Never stop.

I don’t know if my own theory is correct, but I have the impression there are two kind of people and the way day deal with music: on one hand, there are people for who music is entertainment, who deal with music in a passive way. For them, music is something you listen to in your free time, or something you dance to when you go out. On the other hand, there are people who take music more seriously, for them it’s kind of an artform. Those are the people who study music and want to master an instrument.

Igloo :: At which point did you know for yourself that music would be something which is important in your life, maybe even necessary? Did you already know that as a kid? Or did it came later, as a teenager or as an adolescent?

Russell Haswell :: It’s 2025 and I’m 55 this year and I don’t need to go into what I was doing when I was a kid, but I didn’t release my first record or compact disc until I was in my 30s! In the 80s I studied at Coventry School of Art which became Coventry Polytechnic, and at the same time I was deeply immersed in music, listening to records and watching gigs. So there was always a mix of music, art and technology, plus the Macintosh had just been released and I was using HyperCard and SoundEdit, which was one of the first GUI-based audio editor for digitized audio and a year or two later came Sound Designer II, enabling Playlist editing that can create stutters, chops and other edit effects.

Do you see yourself as a musician in the first place? Or rather as an artist who works with sound?

Russell :: I see myself more as an artist who works with sound rather than strictly as a musician. My approach involves exploring the boundaries of sound, often integrating technology to create unique auditory experiences that might not fit within traditional music definitions or genres. This allows me to blend music, art, and technology.

Did you ever feel you were making anti-music, a reaction against ‘normal’ music based around melody, harmony or a musical development?

Russell :: Anti-music it’s a non sequitur. For me, there’s always been a bit of a reaction against the mainstream and the total shit that most people listen to (Fred Again, Coldplay, Porcupine Tree, Oasis etc). Remain underground.

Did you ever made a difference between music played on an acoustic instrument and electronic music? Do you feel like, with an acoustic instrument, you have to learn how to play an instrument, it’s a craft you have to master. Whereas with electronic music, all the sounds are already ‘in the box’, you mainly have to make choices, decide which sound you want to use(and which not?

Russell :: There is clearly a difference between acoustic instruments and electronic music, but you can blend the two, Xenakis springs to mind! I’ve worked and performed with acoustic instrument players and for Orchestra, often dealing with extended techniques, but I’ve always been interested in electronic sounds, electronic music and then computer music. I don’t use a traditional DAW and I don’t use Ableton Live. I don’t have a traditional synthesizer, I don’t have a keyboard, I have an unusual bespoke modular synthesizer, and I record directly to an audio editor and only edit and master on the computer. And I’ve discovered over the years that some knobs, faders and sensors can be just as performative as any acoustic instrument. However, my approach isn’t orthodox.

Integrating technology to create unique auditory experiences ::

Derek Bailey said that it’s impossible to play a saxophone without sounding like jazz. That, if you play a saxophone, you carry the history of the instrument with you. Do you think electronic music carries less of a history? That you don’t feel the weight of its past on your shoulders, that you are more free with electronic music?

Russell :: Funny you should mention Derek Bailey; I saw him play live a lot in the 90s. But I kind of lost interest when he did the drum and bass CD in the mid to late 90s. Although I’m sure I saw him play solo again after the release of that CD. All instruments (acoustic or electronic) have histories. I’m really not so interested in categorizing and compartmentalizing genre and style. I have genre-less freedom. Though taxonomy is useful. Saxophone is a cheesy instrument at the best of times. When I record or when I perform live, it’s all in the moment, all I think about is the now. It’s total free improvisation, generative, I’m channelling AMM, Keith Jarrett, Jeff Mills, Claude Young, Regis, Abruptum, Incapacitants, Xenakis all at the same time!

Do you still live in London at the moment? In these online times, does it still matter where you live, to be part of a community’? Or are you too old to be part of a scene? Can one make any type of music anywhere?

Russell :: No, I live in Glasgow. London is too expensive and people are friendly in Glasgow. All the DJs, small and big bands play here, there are some great festivals; COUNTERFLOWS and TECTONICS. Anyway, through art and music, I’ve travelled extensively around the world and lived up and down the United Kingdom as well as in other European countries, and you go where your work takes you. And yes the internet has changed everything!

Did you ever made a difference between electronic music as dance music or electronic music as experimental music?

Russell :: Not really! There’s the mind bending, the good and the bad, the appalling and the downright shit in either category. Different people with different life experiences make different music—when DJing, I would often mix Xenakis with Jeff Mills into MC Hellshit & DJ Carhouse!

Did you ever made a difference between music and sound? When does sound become music?

Russell :: Yes. Organized sound is music, unorganized sound is sound. Sometimes I’m unorganized and sometimes I’m organized! Sound becomes music, when the performer intends it to be heard and there is an audience.

Do you see making music as a never ending learning experience, or as that sample on DJ shadow’s Entroducing says: “I will never be the master. I will always stay the student”? I think it comes from a Samuraï-movie.

Russell :: I’ve never listened to DJ Shadow. I never liked Mo’ Wax or that downtempo music. Vinyl crackle samples, breakbeats, wow and flutter et cetera. Early Swans, Corrupted and Sleep is the only good downtempo music. You never stop learning. Never stop.

2025 releases ::
Russell Haswell :: Boro Salvage (Industrial Coast) — Feb 2025
Haswell & Hecker :: UPIC Diffusion Session #23 (Editions Mego) — Feb 2025
Russell Haswell :: Deep Time (Diagonal) — March 2025
Russell Haswell :: KASM 03 (Skam) — March 2025
CD release on FANCYYYYY — 2025
Double CD for iDeal Recordings — 2025

Russell Haswell is an English multidisciplinary artist. He has exhibited conceptual and wall-based visual works, video art, public sculpture, as well as audio presentations in both art gallery and concert hall contexts. Extreme Computer Music is one specialized area of activity. ~Wikipedia

Boro Salvage is available on Industrial Coast. [Bandcamp]