Countdown to Forbidden Fruit: Leftfield Talks Dream Collaboration

“Wait a minute – say that again. I’m going to listen to that right now.”
Leftfield main man Neil Barnes is one of those artists whose enthusiasm for music is palpable. As our conversation wraps up, he reacts excitedly to my impassioned monologue about US witch house genius Mascara, whose classic ‘Krystalmeth’ is the single best track I’ve discovered this year.
Barnes’ exquisite taste is one of the main reasons Leftfield are always such a superb live act, and why his DJ slot will be one of the essential performances at Forbidden Fruit. In terms of the material he’ll be spinning, Barnes is planning a brilliantly eclectic set.
“I’ve gone back seriously to DJing since about 2013,” he explains. “It’s an opportunity for me to play other people’s music and concentrate on that. More so than ever, Leftfield is not a big part of my DJ set. I’ve played certain tunes of ours, but I don’t play any of our older material. The whole point of it is to play new music that I really love and get people dancing. And also, to open people up to a more varied style of DJing, rather than playing just trancey techno.
“This time around, I’ll be playing more of a psychedelic, slow set. It’s still very danceable, but it’s not banging in that traditional sense of hands-in-the-air drops – the superstar DJ thing that people tend to expect at festivals. I find that really boring. It’s minimal, but there’s still plenty of electronic stuff – there are some very strange tracks that I’ve got on vinyl and recorded into the computer. Also, at the moment I’m playing a lot of African music that I really like.”
The best DJ performance I’ve ever seen was James Murphy and 2ManyDJs’ Despacio set at Electric Picnic last year, which featured a custom-made soundsystem. Did Neil get to experience the show for himself?
“I didn’t,” he replies. “We do build our own soundsystem for our live gigs. James has got quite demanding standards about things like that, which is refreshing to find. I mean, I’d love to be able to do things like that. As far as Leftfield is concerned, wherever it’s been possible, we’ve taken our own systems everywhere. Never to Ireland unfortunately, cos you just can’t afford to do it. So I don’t know how James managed to do that. Maybe that’s why gone back doing the live show (laughs).”
In terms of the best electronic producers over the best 20 years, the LCD Soundsystem man would certainly be up there. So too would Pharrell Williams’ production unit The Neptunes, whose remarkable output I’ve been dipping into again recently.
“I love them,” enthuses Barnes. “They have definitely been up there among the most innovative producers. And Pharrell out-Daft Punked Daft Punk on ‘Happy’, didn’t he? It was brilliant. And when you go back to early Neptunes stuff, it’s amazing. I used to love buying their stuff on tour, because you never knew quite what it would sound like.”
Leftfield have played a number of storming shows in Ireland over the years, and possibly the greatest was their gig at Dublin’s Tripod in May 2010. Is it a performance Neil recalls?
“I remember it well,” he nods. “It was in that old railway station – in fact we did two nights. They were like club events, so it was quite hard to get the gear in. But it was a really great gig, it was right around the time when we’d just started touring again. There are certain shows you do remember as being particularly good and those dates would be up there. Funnily enough, there was another Irish one as well, when we played the Point in the late ’90s. The whole system broke down halfway through the gig! I remember that one really well. Thankfully no one noticed apart from us. It was a good line-up – the Chemical Brothers were playing too.”
Chat about the new Radiohead record leads me to enquire if Neil has ever considered asking Thom Yorke to sing on a track. He says that he has, but ultimately decided against it, as he likes to work with people who’ve never really sung on electronic music before, and felt that perhaps there wasn’t much to add to Yorke’s excellent Modeselektor collaborations. However, when it comes to ideal guest vocalists, the name at the top of Barnes’ list will perhaps raise a few eyebrows.
“I keep going on about George Michael,” he says. “I’m determined not to let that one drop, because I think we could make an absolutely wicked track. It’d be great and I’m trying to make it happen. I like miserable George Michael! The darker stuff is what I enjoy. I’ve just been reading about Wham! actually, and they were one of the most amazing bands as well.”
In fairness, ‘Careless Whisper’ is an absolute classic.
“Absolutely,” enthuses Barnes. “It’s one of the great songs. The George Michael collaboration is still in the pipeline and I’d love for us to do something.”
Leftfield of course, are renowned for their ’90s classics Leftism and Rhythm and Stealth (a UK number one), although Barnes did finally get around to releasing a follow-up in 2015, the well-received Alternative Light Source. Is he the sort of person who gives himself a deadline, or is the record just done when it’s done, Massive Attack style?
“You have to give yourself a deadline these days,” replies Barnes. “The next record is at an early stage and I’m working on some demos. With the last album, it took longer than it should have done. But you need to push yourself and get material out there, otherwise stuff can get lost. At the end of the day, you have to finish a record and settle for whatever it is.”