The Orb's Alex Patterson- All the Rushing Around Doesn't Really Matter
Author: Jonty Skrufff
Monday, March 29, 2004
15 years after he gave up roadying to concentrate on building ambient house giants The Orb, Alex Patterson remains one of dance culture's most enigmatic, highly developed souls, as comfortable discussing chill-out as he is ancient Sumerian History and the future of the world.
"My missing link at the moment is that we don't go to Heaven unless we're complete," he suggests.
"Our own egos have to belief that something happens after death, because we're much too intelligent just to die. What we need to find is some kind of formula that gives us longevity in life so that we can actually reproduce the real power in our brains. But it that happened, we'd all become genuine supermen and there would be far too much of an overspill of population. So right now it's still about keeping that formula from ancient alchemy, down."
Equally happy discussing the background of Stonehenge (he's recently returned from visiting Ireland's equivalent Neolithic structure Newgrange) he's nevertheless resolutely down-to-Earth and quick to downplay his alchemical knowledge.
"It's not about me knowing this or that, it's rather about me reading books, learning about these issues and discussing them with friends," he explains.
"I'm not a person who philosophises, I just read things and try and connect them together. If I had the money I'd love to become an explorer and go on adventures, to find ancient cities in the jungle. But it's not the 19th century."
Instead he continues to make music, such as he brand new Orb album Bicycles and Tricycles, which sees him returning to the four/four ambient dub style he first pioneered in the late 80s.
"I'm 44 years old and I find it magical to be 44 and playing 4/4 music a lot," he quips.
"I am 44, I shall play 4/4."
Chuckling as he ponders such numerological coincidences, he admits he's chilling out even more as time passes.
"I think I've slowed down a lot since when I started, I give myself more time, that's something that happens when you reach 40. You suddenly realise all the rushing around doesn't really matter," he says.
While it might not matter much now, Patterson's energy in the past helped make the Orb one of dance culture's most significant, indeed popular bands of the 90s, their number one albums and Glastonbury headlining live shows putting them firmly on a par with their peers of the era Underworld, Orbital and Leftfield. However, as corporate forces took musical control as the millennium approached, The Orb's relentless experimentation saw them being relatively marginalized though not before Alex duetted with Robbie Williams in a bizarre version of the Bee Gees ballad I Started A Joke.
"Robbie's someone who, if I met him again, we'd have a coffee, a chat and a laugh, I still regard him as a kind of mate in that sense, because he's that kind of bloke, he's not a pretentious pop star," says Alex.
"The funny thing was he first saw us when we were on Top Of The Pops playing chess, years ago- all day, because he was there performing with Take That. He told me that when he next saw us playing live that summer he was so impressed that he decided he wanted to do a tune with us."
Odd collaborations aside, though, he's nowadays back to recording with Orb originals Jimmy Cauty (of KLF fame), Thomas Fehlmann and long term collaborator Simon Phillips and will soon be touring the UK as a band in May. Though not before he's completed a 16 date DJing solo tour of Australia.
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): You're shortly off to Australia for a DJ tour, how does DJing compare to playing live as a band-
The Orb: "As a DJ I will be playing Orb music, I think that's probably what they want me to do, though< Tags