James Hardway (Teknova): 80s Berlin, Punk & Drugs, Drugs, Drugs

20 years after dominating German pop charts with his electro-poetry collaboration with Anne Clarke, London born producer James Hardway (known on his passport as David Harrow) continues to create innovative, interesting music, on his own terms in his own time. With a life and career that, as his biog justifiably points out, has been 'more hardcore than any character he could invent' the former London punk has come along way since he first discovered the power of music.

"I discovered a drum machine and realised I could plug a keyboard into it and thought this was the best thing ever and started making records," he told Jonty Skrufff.

"I was 18 years old, I had no idea of what was what and was actually a pretty disturbed, mixed up individual who was full of creativity but wasn't quite sure what to do with it," he added.

Two decades on, he's able to look back on a career that's included spells with Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart, Adrian Sherwood's On U soundsystem, Genesis P Orridge's Psychic TV and his own projects Teknova and current priority James Hardway. He initially created the persona in 1996 to release drum & bass anonymously, though 7 years on, the music has mutated considerably, stretching the drum and bass bedrock to incorporate further his over-riding themes of gambling, Los Vegas and the Hollywood vision of Americana. New album Big Casino showcases his latest state of mind superbly, its noir-ish soundtrack style melodies finding space for the vocals of JB Rose, Ghetto Priest and Tom Robinson.

Skrufff: You're hugely experienced nowadays, how do you approach the whole process of making an album-

James Hardway: "You try and please everybody with a record but ultimately the person you have to please is yourself. It's like playing Solitaire, it's very tempting to cheat and take a look at one of the cards. In other words you end up sneaking a couple of tracks through that you think 'maybe these aren't quite right'. Having made records for 25 years I still have no idea what people like or don't like, if I'm honest. It's always been the gigs that I've thought have been the worst ones I've done, have stood out as the best shows for people who've seen them and it's the same with the tracks- it's always the throwaway ones that you spend two hours on that go huge compared to the ones you sweat blood on for six months then watch them disappear without a trace. I cease to be surprised at what happens."

Skrufff: How do you view this current electro revival-

James Hardway: "It's a little like punk, in the way that punk wasn't necessarily just about the music although that's all that's left of it today. Punk was about a whole lifestyle, like joining a club and this electro thing has elements of that. I remember talking to my uncle, who sadly died of AIDS in the late 80s, about him going to New York in the late 70s and visiting these big bath houses with 5,000 people there. Although sex was the thing that was going on everywhere in those places it wasn't the central thing of that bathhouse culture, it was about an alternative lifestyle, about finding a group of people that you fitted in with. That's mankind; people want to be together, to find like minded people even if those like-minded people are all individuals.

Electro's such a weird word, but the electro scene is no longer about standing at the bar looking mean and moody trying not to look like you're enjoying yourself, and sneaking off to the toilet doing lines of cocaine. It seems like there's more naivety and hopefulness in it, in a good way."

Skrufff: how much did AIDS impact on the first punk-club scene of the early 80s-

James Hardway: "AIDS killed a generation of really talented creative people and to a certain extent what was left was a cross section of that original community and acid house, to some extent, filled that void. Good friends and relatives of mine died slowly and horribly in the 80s, fighting< Tags

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