Keeping The Faith

Rollo Armstrong is a renowned recluse. He is also known as the studio genius behind Faithless, as well as several huge dance projects that graced the top ten during the 1990s. To name just a small handful – 'Absolutely Fabulous and 'Can You Forgive Her' by the Pet Shop Boys, M People's 'How Can I Love You?' and yet another reworking of the Donna Summer classic 'I Feel Love'. And of course, there is that small matter of 'Salva Mea', 'Insomnia', 'Don't Leave' and 'God is A DJ', all massive floor fillers and chart hits that asserted Faithless' individual trump card – namely a near miraculous ability to transform melancholia into huge euphoric club anthems.

In addition to being one of the very few credible collectives found in the world of commercial dance music, Faithless have also entered that small coterie of dance artists who successfully make the transition from 12" club tracks to properly realised full length albums.

Rollo is widely acknowledged as the outfit's studio boffin with the common touch, a maverick musical genius who hasn't got a single note in his head. He doesn't tour with the group, but he goes along to check out an occasional show if it happens to be somewhere sunny. He famously despises publicity, and keeps his promotional commitments to a bare minimum. He much prefers to potter about London, as like any boffin, his studio is the centre of his universe.

"I don't ever really want to totally get away from it all," he explains. "Because my whole life is based around the studio and the record label (Cheeky) and all my friends are all part of it also. I mightn't go touring, but I'm really good at holidays. The more the merrier! If I genuinely feel that it’s all getting a bit like a production line, then I just fly somewhere and chill out. Then I'm itching to go back and do more stuff and try out new ideas.

“The last one I went on was to St. Lucia, which was just beautiful. I've been to Thailand around ten times by now. I'm going to San Francisco in a couple of weeks because my sister is touring there so I'm going to a quiet little hotel in the Ianapa Valley for a couple of days."

Ah, yes. Rollo's sister. The similarly christened and also very famous Dido, once a full time member of the Faithless entourage who embarked on a solo career. Then Eminem decided to sample her track 'Thank You' for his monstrous hit 'Stan' and you pretty much know the rest.

Rollo grew up in Islington with his sister and the pair were reared on music and club culture. It became the norm in their household to frequent both the West End superclubs and reggae nights in Brixton from a very early age. At school, Rollo and his friend Julian (who is now better known as Judge Jules) became obsessed with music.

"When I was growing up, I connected with all sorts of music whenever it created feelings or reflected my feelings when I was going through something," Rollo says of his eclectic musical childhood. "Music would always be in the background and certain songs would mean certain things, so that’s always been a key for me when making music. The most important thing a record can do is to create or reflect some kind of emotion in the listener, so I think it applies to any form of music, be it dance or whatever, that the greater the emotional impact the greater its value. And that’s why I like everything from REM to Bob Marley to Marvin Gaye to Otis Redding to good house music."

Rollo connected with the raw energy of dynamic club music very early on.

"I remember first hearing BBE's 'Seven Days in A Week' in a club and just being blown away by the response," he recalls. "It was a raw, emotional moment which I felt was over and above people just putting their hands in the air. It was a proper 'wow' feeling, and I thought it would be amazing if I could make a record like that. You never know if you're going to do it, but that is what makes it all worthwhile and that aim is definitely the key to what I do.

“Before Faithless, when I had made the Felix record, I went to this club and I didn't know how the track was going down or if anyone even had it. Suddenly the DJ started mixing it, and then played the record in full! It was Lisa Loud years ago actually. The reason that moment had such power was also because it translated that same sort of emotion I had been looking for in dance music for years."

Since the first Faithless album Reverence in 1995 they have toured the world thanks to the huge success of 'Insomnia' and 'Salva Mea', earning a formidable reputation as one of the world's most intoxicating and essential dance acts in the process. Outrospective, their third album, sees them yet again refining their sound into new shapes and moods.

"I'd like to think we make dance music with a little bit of power that is a little bit rebellious and a little bit different, though we're probably just a little bit middle of the road," laughs Rollo. "This is the first album we've actually used other people's music on. There are two tracks on there, 'Not Enough Love' and a track called 'Muhammad Ali' which both use large samples of other people's work. Other than that, we use our own trusty war horses! (laughs)

“We are very lucky because often we receive new synthesisers before anyone else in the country gets them. For example we use a new Yamaha keyboard on 'We Come 1' because we had done an advert for them."

Whether or not you think Faithless have successfully produced "rebellious" dance music, the album's sleeve in itself is a brilliant work of rebel art.

"I found that in a book," Rollo enthuses. "What I like about it is that the guy at the front looks like he's dancing but he's actually throwing a Molotov cocktail! I just saw that image and I thought it’s a bit like what we're about, and definitely what we'd like to get across with this record. This one is a bit less internal and much more about looking out at the world.

“Funnily enough, we had a playback of the 'We Come 1' video on the day of May Day riots for various radio and press people. The video features a police car being overturned and various acts of violence, so it was quite apt and fitting really. Everyone thought that we were getting in on the May Day spirit, ‘Faithless go militant!' kind of vibe. But I swear it was just a pure coincidence. We hadn't set the playback date for May 1st. We were all thinking about going down to the Nike building to get some new trainers just for the laugh, but that’s as far as our involvement went really!"

While they mightn't exactly be street fighters, anyone who has ever seen Faithless play over here will testify that they are one of most dynamic and exhilarating live acts around and not just within the confines of dance and electronic genres. Irish fans will be delighted to hear that Faithless will play at this year’s Witnness.

“The last time I was over it was really good at the Olympia,” says Rollo. All The Corrs where drunk and dancing in their seats! It was nice to come back and do a good show because the time before was really horrible when we played at the Point and six people got stabbed by this lunatic. That was a very heavy and upsetting occasion. That aside, I simply think that you

cannot not enjoy going to Dublin. I mightn't go on all the tours but I choose some cities which I can't miss, Amsterdam, Dublin and South Africa, Cologne, Munich, Birmingham – they're the ones where you know you are going to have a good laugh!"

•Outrospective is out now on Cheeky Recordings. Faithless will play at Witness on the August Bank Holiday Weekend.