Hot Press meets Hercules and Love Affair

Andy Butler hasn’t had a solid night’s sleep all week. This has less to do with artistic suffering than the 45 degree heatwave gripping his adopted home town of Vienna.
 
“Right now the pavements are melting,” says the Hercules and Love Affair leader. “In many ways Vienna has a very high standard of living. At the moment it smells as bad as New York City.”
It’s a busy time for Butler. He’s about to set off on a European tour that will include an Electric Picnic stop-off. He’s also finishing Hercules and Love Affair’s much anticipated third LP. The record will, he promises, take the dancefloor aesthetic of its predecessors and crank things all the way up.
“We’re really bringing out the house element this time,” he says. “It’s a very intense affair.”
A producer and songwriter, Butler works with a rotating cast of vocalists. Most famously, in 2009 he hooked up with Antony and the Johnsons’ Antony Hegarty for the sublime ‘Blind’. On this occasion he’s working with tortured songwriter John Grant.
“I was introduced to John’s music by a journalist. He asked me had I heard of this guy who was also from Denver, was into house music and was gay. I hadn’t, which struck me as strange given we seemed to have so much in common.”
Mutual friends arranged a meet up. Butler and Grant were surprised to discover their paths had likely crossed previously.
“Back in Denver John worked in this record store where I would buy all my music,” Butler avers. “I was just discovering dance music; it was an important time in my life. The chances are that he served me at some point. I briefly dated the manager. So I was going out with his boss.”
Conspicuously absent from the new (as yet untitled) LP is Antony. They’re still close and plan on working together. However, nothing is scheduled for the foreseeable future.
“We definitely want to do it. I know it’s something we’re both interested in. But we’re so busy. It’s hard to find a moment.”
In fact, such is the demand for Butler’s skills as DJ and remixer, he’s found it difficult to set aside enough time to complete the new Hercules and Love Affair LP.
“It’s pretty crazy,” he acknowldges. “I open my laptop and I see maybe  50 or 60 projects, whether that be remixes, compilations, or my own stuff. For a while I was getting into this thing where I’d remix one artist, then another. And I was doing a lot of touring. I kept putting the album off. I had to knuckle down.”
Butler moved to Vienna after falling in love with a studio there. He’s not sure if he’ll stay in the city once the new LP is released. For now, he’s basking in the culture. Coming from Middle America, it will take a while for Austria’s Imperial splendour to wear off. Plus, Vienna’s proximity to Eastern Europe has opened a lot of doors for the band.
“Right now we’re getting an insane amount of bookings from Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Croatia. It feels like I’m going back and forth all the time.”
Butler is out of the closet and his music has a flamboyant, gay disco sparkle. Given the increasingly repressive campaign against homosexuals in Russia, are his trips to St. Petersburg and Moscow fraught affairs?
“I’ve never personally encountered any homophobia there,” he proffers. “However, I do wonder ‘why are we constantly being booked in the eastern bloc?’ I can only assume we’re an outlet. It creates a space where people can live through us in a weird way. We performed in St. Petersburg recently and received a ten minute standing ovation. I can only assume we are providing an outlet for people. “

Hercules and Love Affair play Electric Picnic, which takes place from August 30 – September 1