808 State Interview & Profile

808 State was formed back in 1988 in Eastern Bloc, a DJ record shop in Manchester England run by Martin Price. Customers Graham Massey of Biting Tongues fame and Gerald Simpson got talking with Martin and soon realised how much they had in common. After recording a Hip-Hop flavoured EP as the ‘Hit Squad Manchester’ together with MC Tunes, they decided to call themselves 808 State.

 They got the name from the Roland drum machine TR 808 and the state-of-mind that they shared.
Their first album ‘Newbuild’ on Price's Creed Records, a raw Acid House album, was released during the Summer of ’88 and has since become a very collectible item. During the making of the second album ‘Quadrastate’, Gerald Simpson departed to continue with his solo project ‘A Guy Called Gerald’. DJ’s Andrew Barker and Darren Partington, a.k.a. the Spinmasters, got recruited on a permanent basis to fill up the gap left by Gerald.

The third album entitled ‘90’, now signed under the ZTT label, included the hit ‘Pacific’ which had been an underground classic until then. This album was also released in the US under the name Utd. State 90 on Tommy Boy records. During this time 808 State also produced an album for MC Tunes and released several hit singles. Their biggest selling album ‘Ex:el’ followed, however Martin Price decided to depart from 808 State.

The 1992 album ‘Gorgeous’ included a remake of the UB 40 classic ‘One In Ten’. After extensive touring, 808 State took a break and it wasn’t until 1994 that the single ‘Bombadin’ was released. During that year a fanclub-only CD entitled ‘State to State’ was pressed containing unreleased material.

It took two years to finish the 1996 album called ‘Don Solaris’. To celebrate its release in June 1996, a free concert was given at the Castlefield Amphitheatre in Manchester. Don Solaris featured artists such as James Dean Bradfield of ‘Manic Street Preachers’, Louise Rhodes of ‘Lamb’, Michael Doughty of ‘Soul Coughing’ and showed 808 State from a darker side.

To celebrate ten years of 808 State, 1998 saw the release of a Best Of 808 State album, entitled 808:88:98. In 1999, the classic Newbuild album was re-released on Rephlex records. Currently 808state are looking for a new recording contract.

Apart from making their own music, 808 State do remix- and production work for other artists and appear frequently as DJ’s.

808 State Interview 1993

808 State started of as a hop-hop band back in the early days of dance music.    Original they formed a posse called "The Hit Squad" with MC Tunes,  The Ruthless Rap Assassins and A Guy Called Gerald.    After a while they decided to change from hip-hop to the new style of New Beat.

“We heard hip-hop, but it just got boring and we needed something else. We couldn’t get into hi-energy, which was gay disco music from the States, because it was too thin and didn’t have enough energy. So we got into New Beat and then progressed into weird and crazy Detroit stuff. Before we knew it we were hooked”.

Their first album was released in 1988 called ‘Newbuild’, it was a pure acid L.P.     They had spotted a gap in the market in their home town of Manchester.     Acid House was becoming huge and no one was making any thing good locally.    Eastern Bloc would get about fifteen records a week, and apart from that there was nothing at all. So Graham Massey, Martin Price, Darren Partington, Andrew Barker and a Guy Called Gerald formed 808 State, releasing ‘Newbuild’ as their first album.

After a while Gerald and Martin left leaving 808 State as Graham, Darren and Andrew.

808 State have been on two stadium tours supporting New Order in America with Sunscreem and before this they toured with Meat Beat Manifesto for three months, going to and from different parts of America, including a visit to Hawaii which is the 808th state of America.

“In America we’re not seen as just your average rave band, we’re classed as ‘alternative’ because the whole rave thing has died down over there. You go to L.A. and it’s all the Hispanics that are having the raves, it’s their thing”.

The band always seem to go down well in America, but then again the same thing can be said for over here. At Mickey Lynas’ Amnesia House wedding they dressed up as the KLF. and started to do their P.A. to the sound of ‘What Time Is Love’. Then, without any warning, they ripped off their masks and belted out their awesome masterpiece ‘Cubik’. The crowd went through the roof.

Full of surprises, 808 have co-hosted the Party Zone on MTV.  It was done to promote their new single ‘Boombadin’, which like most of their tracks was unpredictable and in 808’s unique style. It was written and influenced by going out to clubs and hearing a track called ‘The Goodmen’. They knew that they wanted to do something along those lines and through hours of patience and persistence came up with the single by using a ‘K7’ sample.

“We were constantly looking for samples regardless. When we'd go on tour to America you'd find us in second hand record shops. When we were in Japan, we’d be hanging round different places to find samples. It’s what fed our music”.

“We prided ourselves on doing an album, not twelve singles and calling it an album. People would get bored if we just put out singles. Yeah, fine if you want to play them in a club, but at home you listen to different things and that’s why we work hard on our albums. Take any band in history, like Adam And The Ants, for example. You’d hear their first single and you’d go back and buy the album to see what else they were all about. The same thing goes for dance bands, and the way we’ve kept an underground and sort of mainstream following is because we produced albums”.

When working on an album 808 State aimed to bridge that gap between the underground and the mainstream, appealing to a wide range of people.