Richard Fearless on his life in electronica: ‘I wish I hadn’t made music for a long time’
Across three decades, Death In Vegas’ Richard Fearless has travelled from nightclubs to the pop charts and back again. Kevin Fullerton talks to the DJ and artist about his circuitous journey through the music industry
Where does Richard Fearless begin and Death In Vegas end? That’s the dilemma that Fearless, who has operated under both monikers since the early 90s, finds himself in as the creatively fertile latter half of his career solidifies him as a distinct presence in electronica. The Fearless alias emerged when he began DJing in small nightclubs, but soon he was experimenting with music in collaboration with sound engineer Steve Hellier, adopting the name Death In Vegas, and being signed to a major label within a year. ‘I did a lot of stuff I wish I hadn’t,’ he laments. ‘With hindsight, I wish I hadn’t made music for a long time.’
These were the days when Death In Vegas (alongside DJ Shadow, Unkle and Chemical Brothers) represented a nexus point between Britpop and dance, leading to the parka-hoods-up swagger of ‘Scorpio Rising’ with Liam Gallagher, or the curious cover of Gene Clark’s ‘So You Say You Lost Your Baby’ featuring Paul Weller on vocals. ‘I don’t listen to those old records now,’ he insists. ‘There was a turning point for me when I made Satan’s Circus. I remember sitting down at my desk and, for the first time, putting down the mix myself. I was like, “oh, this is what I want to do”. It took four albums to get to that point, and then I chose a completely different path.’
That journey has led him towards periods of restless experimentation from his studio, a storage container in London overlooking the sprawling tributary of the Thames. From there he could observe how the high living of Canary Wharf contrasts with Tower Hamlets, one of the poorest boroughs in London. ‘It was a very Ballardian landscape, and that was definitely inspiring.’ Then there are the contrasts hidden within the Thames itself, both its natural beauty and its associations with smuggling and the rampant colonialism of the East India Company. ‘It’s got all sorts of dodgy history. Especially for my last solo work [Future Rave Memory], I tried to tap into that as much as I could.’
His recent work as Richard Fearless has continued to dovetail with his creative vision for Death In Vegas, which has long transformed into a solo project. ‘There were two separate worlds, and it’s taken quite a long time for them all to morph into one.’ Fearless’ music, which once bore the hallmarks of a talented but emotionally distant vinyl junkie, has matured to incorporate an intense autobiographical edge. ‘I lost my father when I wrote Death Mask [Death In Vegas’ latest album]. I was able to channel that grief and despair, and the joy about the people that I love in my life. To throw all of that into the recording process was really cathartic.’
Gone are guest vocalists and lyrics (which he fears ‘overcrowd’ his new compositions), replaced with a focus indicative of someone who, although surrounded by instruments in his compact recording studio, has maintained a relatively spartan analogue palate since the 1990s, consciously avoiding the lure of Ableton and its ilk. ‘You can get a bit overwhelmed with technology, but it doesn’t mean I’m averse to it. It’s just not the avenue I want to go down myself.’ He now cuts a singular figure in electronica, which might help explain why the once disjointed personalities of Richard Fearless (nightclub innovator, tastemaker) and Death In Vegas (mainstream-courter, hitmaker, survivor of a cutthroat music industry) have merged so elegantly.
Death In Vegas, QMU, Glasgow, Friday 16 October; Chalk, Brighton, Saturday 28 November.
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