Richard X- House Music Is The Most Boring Thing On Earth

"To be honest I love anything other than house, I prefer the new generation of clubs where you can hear a Gigolo record next to a punk one. But I don't go clubbing at all; I haven't got the time and I'm too old. The last thing I want to do is to stay out 'till two in the morning, then have to get up and work a few hours later."

Sitting in a South London house on his latest round of promo interviews, bootleg maestro Richard X seems to love working as much as he loathes house. Gearing up for the release of his guaranteed-to-be-massive debut album X-Factor Volume 1, he's clearly learned from his recent collaborators, who include Tiga, Jarvis Cocker, Kelis and one P Diddy (Richard's been working on the Badboy's new album).

"Diddy's a lovely bloke, maybe lovely is not the right word, but he's very charismatic," said Richard.

"When he goes out to party he's obviously a different character, but he does know when it's time to work, and he's aware that having someone naked in front of you sitting on your mixing desk is not something particularly conducive to working."

Naked girls aside, Richard's simple though devastatingly effective formula of mixing classic 80s club hits with contemporary singers and stars has already brought manufactured popstresses Sugababes a number one hit (the fantastic Gary Numan sampling Freak Like Me) and made Liberty X cool by combining Chaka Khan's Ain't Nobody with Human League's Being Boiled. With both tracks included on the album as well as new single Finest Dreams (featuring Kelis) and loads more chart friendly newies, he seems aware that he'll soon be finding himself at the same star level as his supporting cast. Benedetta Skrufff ventured to Tulse Hill to ask the questions.


Skrufff : How much did the fact that X Factor is an album affect your overall approach-

Richard X: "It hasn't really affected it at all. I actually approach tracks more from the idea of singles, so it's a little odd that an album has come about from this. I am more of a 'single' type, in the sense that I feel each track must be individual. This is an approach that I've maintained throughout the making of this album- which I've been told has worked."

Skrufff: It's very much based on collaborators, were there many other performers that you wanted to get involved who didn't work out-

Richard X: "Not really. I have pretty much everyone I wanted to get, though some people I would have liked to work with ideally are already dead, such as Aaliyah. I like the artists I've got because they all like pop music and I also believe they're all really interesting people. Which is something really rare to find these days."

Skrufff: How did Tiga become involved-

Richard X: "He's been emailing me since my first release which goes back to three years ago now, so we've been keeping in touch ever since. I saw him last year, when he came over to promote Sunglasses At Night and we got on really well, then I saw him again more recently and we did the track. He'll be back again soon and we'll be working on a couple more tracks for his album this time. We're doing quite a lot of music together, with more stuff to come. He's a like-minded person."

Skrufff: How did his attitude and vibe compare to say Jarvis Cocker's-

Richard X: "I think they're all different individuals. I was well aware of this aspect; they all work and live in different worlds, as does even someone like Kelis, who is in R&B, and rules it. She's totally different from Jarvis and Tiga, but to me it's more a case of them coming around to my way of thinking rather than the other way around. All the tracks are collaborations but they have to do what I say, otherwise it wouldn't be my project anymore. Tiga was very easy to work with, in fact, they all were. Once you explain how it is, and where it all comes from… they're all musicians, and I think they appreciate throwing themselves into something totally different from what the Tags