When Groove Armada's Andy Cato says they're totally stoked to be plaing at Forbidden Fruit, he's not just being polite. “We absolutely love Ireland, so I’m definitely not just saying that!” the 45-year-old, English electro star laughs. “There was a period when we were doing a lot of gigs in Ireland,
both live and DJ stuff. It was great. The old cliché about there being no better crowd than an Irish one is just true.”
Back in the last millennium, Andy even ran a club night on these shores.
“Yeah, going way back to the early '90s, I had a residency in a club called Network, in Belfast,” he recalls, “and those nights there were off the hook! Ireland has been universally positive. Going back quite a few years now, unbeknownst to us, we got caught up in a chess game of promoter politics, but that’s behind us now and it’s nice that we’re getting offers to come back – and we’re going back more and more regularly now.”
Staying up North for a moment, he’s chuffed that Derry electro act Japanese Popstars have put out a few GA remixes.
“Yeah, we’ve seen them a few times on the road, here and there. They’re on it; they’ve got a good sound, those boys. They’ve remixed a couple of our tracks.”
Cato is talking to Hot Press down the line from his farm in the French Pyrenees.
“I’ve been here a few years now,” he explains. “It’s an organic farm of cereals and cows.”
The Alex James of electro, he’s no agricultural dilettante.
“It’s definitely a serious proposition,” he insists. “I’m trying to follow lots of inspirational people, particularly in the States, who are trying to produce cheap, non-poisonous, nutritionally sound food without using all of the carcinogens that we’re currently pouring into the land, that destroy the soil. It’s a subject that I got into because, if we don’t sort it out, our kids are going to have literally nothing on the table. It’s something that I’m quite passionate about.This is the time of year that you have to get things right. It’s the time of year that determines everything, really.”
So where does being half of the internationally renowned Groove Armada – alongside musical accomplice Tom Findlay - fit in with being an organic farmer? [Note to Ed: stick in some ‘back to your roots’ joke there for me. Thanks – OT]
“We’ve entered a whole new period since 2010 when we did the last of the live shows at Brixton,” he reflects. “That’s when we were touring the album Black Light. It was Grammy-nominated, but remains a well- kept secret amongst a lot of people. It was our finest ever record in terms of album writing. We finished touring that in Brixton and then decided to knock all that big band, Glastonbury- closing-slot style touring on the head and just go back to doing the house music warehouses and free parties, which is where it all started for us. Since we’ve done that, we’ve been doing tunes with Hypercolour and we’ve got a new album coming out on Moda Black shortly.”
What kind of show is planned for Kilmainham?
“It’ll be what we do now," he says matter-of-factly. “We have quite a complicated-looking DJ booth. It’s not that complicated, really, but both of us are going at it at the same time.We’ve got four decks on the go and some auxiliary synths for extra noises and bits and pieces, and we developed this system for controlling the lights from the booth as well. When we take over, we take over the lighting as well, which obviously makes a massive difference because we know exactly how the tunes go and we can sync everything up. When we’re in full swing it can get busy! You have four tunes in the mix at once, a drum machine on the go, lighting to control and drinks all over the place! It can get quite hectic, but in a good way.”
Their forthcoming album will be Groove Armada’s first in five years.
“It’s a different proposition, because it’s an album that fits with where we’re at now,” he explains. “It’s a mix album, but all the tunes are our own. It’s us on the decks, but only using our own tunes, most of which are brand new. It’s an album worth of new material, but put together in a slightly different way.”
Has Cato tried out the new tracks on his cattle?
“No!” he laughs. “Having spent four million years living to the sound of the wind and the sound of silence, I think that’s probably how the animals are happiest. When I listen to music, I listen to music. When I’m out during the daytime, I just want to listen to the sounds around me. So no, I haven’t got deep house grooves pumping out of the tractor... that’s for sure!”