Banco De Gaia's Hand Of God
Author: Jonty Skrufff
Sunday, April 25, 2004
When Toby Marks launched Banco De Gaia in 1989 few could have expected that 15 years later he'd still be releasing albums, and with more than 5 of the following 15 years being taken up with record company disputes, he could easily have been forgiven for walking away altogether. However, tenacious, relentless and always impressively passionate about his work, he's about to release a new album You Are Here, on his own label Disco Gecko
"In the last six months especially I have actually realised many things about myself, and why I'm doing what I'm doing," he admits.
"In 2001, I finally obtained the rights to all my previous recordings, which were tied up with all the legal actions when Ultimate Records went bust. That's why for several years none of the albums had been available, which was very frustrating for me as an artist. I've spent a lot of time and money to get the rights back, then I spent a lot of time and money re-releasing those albums on my label then I finally stepped back into the creating flow."
And fuelling his creative juices was a bizarre almost spooky incident in Greece when he found himself struggling to get to sleep alongside a rained out music festival.
"It was about 4am and I was not far away from the site unable to sleep because the DJ was playing pounding techno and I was thinking 'It's 4 in the morning, it's pissing down, there's no point in doing this, shut up!' Then suddenly, at that exact moment, there was a flash of light and everything went quiet. Next morning, I found out that during the storm, lightning had hit the power supply and completely shut down the local area's electricity, precisely where Mount Olympus was. Obviously, Zeus decided he'd had enough of techno."
The incident inspired new track Zeus No Like Techno, which appears as a double A sided single with Gray Over Gray. Chatting to Benedetta Skrufff this week, he's cheerful and typically outspoken, whether on his favourite cause Tibet or the cultural sigificance of Britney Spears.
Skrufff (Benedetta Skrufff): The new single features two versions of two very different tracks, why did you decide to release them as a double A side-
Toby (Banco De Gaia): "The album is being released at the end of April and what I didn't want to do was to put out a single which everyone assumed was representative of the album, because neither of the two single tracks actually are. The album is quite varied in terms of tempo and atmosphere, so I decided to release a single with two of the extremes you can find on the album. I wanted to give people a fair warning of what to expect and not to buy the album for the wrong reasons."
Skrufff: How much is your music still informed by the dance floor-
Toby (Banco De Gaia): "When I'm writing I normally let the tune develop wherever it wants to, I let the tempo and the style, just flow rather than me deciding beforehand where it should go. On the other hand, my shows always tend to be more uptempo, so that's certainly a factor I do always keep in mind; ie will the tune be suitable for my live show. For example, a track like Gray Over Gray is not ideal as it is on the single, but by laying a more upbeat tempo under it and keeping the vocals as they are, it can work perfectly. In that way, I can have the best of both worlds, though if I had the choice of deciding how people should listen to the album, I'd go for home listening, for sure."
Skrufff: You still have an essay on Tibet on your site: 9 years since you released "Last train to Lhasa", have you changed your views at all-
Toby (Banc Tags