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Stephen Mallinder

Stephen Mallinder Biography

Singer

Stephen Mallinder is a renowned singer. Born on January 1, 1955, he has made a significant impact in the music industry with his unique musical style and talent.

Stephen Mallinder is a renowned singer. Born on January 1, 1955, he has made a significant impact in the music industry with his unique musical style and talent.

Related Quotes

“We were responding to a period in the 70s when we started that it was very much you cannot be involved in music unless you studied to do music.”

Involved Periods Responding

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“We were coming from a completely different place, which was saying "sound" is what you want to define it as, and you can shape it into music in whichever way you want.”

Way Want Different Sound Shapes What You Want Different Place

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“Music doesn't have to be so rule-based - and so strict in its structures, construction and perception.”

Perception Structure Construction Strict

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“We were sort of coming from an angle where we wanted to break rules.”

Wanted Break Angle

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“We were iconoclastic. We weren't there to sort of follow the trends really. So it was important that we were making a statement against that.”

Important Statements Trends

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“I don't think it had a name when we started. If punk has any roots, Dada is part of it. And we saw ourselves as part of a kind of Dada tradition.”

Ifs Thinking Kind Names Saws Tradition Roots Punk

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“This was in the sense that if Dada was reacting to the morality and aesthetics of pre-WWI, then we were very much a reaction to the pomposity of rock that existed within music at that time.”

Ifs Rocks Morality Reactions Aesthetics Reacting Wwi Pomposity

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“I think we saw our reaction coming from Dada, but at the same time, it formed into punk, which was very much a reaction to the social conditions. That was part of it for us as well, and that's why we were kind of swept along with punk.”

Thinking Wells Kind Social Saws Conditions Reactions Punk Social Conditions

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“It was an important period for us, because even though we weren't a "punk band", and what became a model for a punk band, we were able to be dragged along by the spirit of that time.”

Important Able Spirit Periods Band Models Punk

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“If you're going to change things, one of the things we had to change is to get away from that traditional model of rock music, and we were a part of that.”

Ifs Rocks Models Traditional Get Away Rock Music

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“I think what we tried to do lyrically, vocally and musically was to capture a sound.”

Thinking Sound Capture

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“Crackdown, the video, interpreted and reflected a sense of authority and austerity and a sense of slight, impending doom.”

Authority Video Doom Austerity

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“In the 80s, we were still living in a kind of Cold War environment.”

Kind Stills War Environment Cold Cold War 80s

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“In that period, we had the Cold War mentality imbued through us - the Post-war [environment] and the Cold War. I think we were reflecting some of that. This was before the Wall collapsed, etc.”

Thinking War Environment Wall Cold Periods Posts Etc Mentality Cold War Reflecting Post War

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“We've always been journalists - and have seen ourselves in that way. But we sort of recontextualized it through music.”

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“We've always been observant of things, and I think Crackdown was very much like that and the film interpretation was that journalistic view of that situation.”

Thinking Film Views Situation Interpretation Observant Journalistic

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“Some of it was shot in Berlin, but a lot of it was filmed in Hamburg, along the Reeperbahn in Hamburg in the famous red light district. Kino is obviously German and "film" and "cinema" and we were always cinematic in our thinking.”

Thinking Light Film Shots Red Cinema Berlin Cinematic Red Lights

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“[Kino] worked really well as a song title, and to build into a lyric, and also how we embraced mulit-media at the time.”

Wells Song Media Titles Song Titles

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“I think probably underneath it all, film [Kino] has its own rhythm and its own dynamic, and we were trying to capture the movement of film and cross-reference it with music.”

Thinking Trying Film Movement Crosses Rhythm Capture

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“Going there [Japan] in the early 80s was quite a culture shock. I think the bombardment of Shinjuku and all that would have filtered through, which certainly informed things we later filmed.”

Thinking Culture Shock Japan 80s Culture Shock

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“I edited Big Funk, some of the footage was shot by Peter Care. We were film buffs as much as music buffs, and so there are film reference as well as sound references.”

Wells Bigs Care Film Sound Shots Peter Edited Funk

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“I think in everything we did, there's a sense of tension and a sense of things pulling in a different way. It's interesting calling it "beat music". That's quite true, the rhythm is up to the fore, it's got a slap bass, and it's got "funk" in the title. But I think there's always a level of irony when we did those kind of things.”

Thinking Way Kind Different Interesting Levels Calling Beats Rhythm Titles Irony Different Ways Tension Pulling Bass Slap Funk

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“I think underneath it all [in the Big Funk] was a little bit of a Europeanness in it.”

Thinking Littles Bigs Bits Little Bit Funk

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“Even though we were influenced by American culture and music, we like the rest of Europe have been colonized with that in the post-war period. At the same time there's a sense of dirty earthiness and Europeanness and Britishness in it as well.”

Wells Has Beens War Culture Periods Europe Posts Dirty American Culture Post War

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“One of the tropes of our videos is that they were very rhythmic with clipped edits.”

Video Edits Tropes

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“As sonic journalists, we were increasingly becoming bombarded with global images. It was the early idea of the cut-up, the idea of images being juxtapositioned, which we were doing with sound. That was the early days of samples.”

Ideas Sound Cutting Becoming Journalist Sample Bombarded

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“We had always used found sound, but we had always used it in an analogue way. And it was the early days of using collage and sound in a digital way. MTV, a couple of years later would be that way.”

Way Years Would Be Used Found Sound Couple Digital Mtv Collages Analogue

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“We were fortunate at that time we were working with Virgin, and with Flood, probably more well-known as Brian Eno's engineer now and U2's producer, etc. Even though we weren't working in a strictly popular music area, which was great, we were lucky enough to work with people who were on the cusp of those sort of things.”

People Wells Enough Known Lucky Areas Producers Fortunate Etc Engineers Flood Virgins Well Known Brian Popular Music Cusp

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“Crackdown had Dave Ball playing on it. Flood worked on our next album, and Adrian Sherwood worked with us on Code.”

Next Balls Albums Code Flood Dave

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“We also worked with Marshall Jefferson for Groovy, Laidback and Nasty. So we were lucky to work with some really great people.”

People Lucky Nasty Really Great Great People Groovy

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“I think you have a certain level of confidence in what you do. "Arrogance" is the wrong word. I think when you go into it, you're aware that you're doing it for the right reasons - and you have your own moral and ethical code. And we weren't driven by money, but by a a desire to make music and make a statement.”

Thinking Reason Desire Certain Levels Moral Driven Statements Code Arrogance Ethical Wrong Words

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“Even if that statement was ambiguous, we kind of wanted to cause a stir. We thought that by having the name "Cabaret Voltaire", that with it came a certain responsibility. It wasn't meant to be purely entertainment; it was meant to be something a little bit more serious - and to provoke people - wrapped within an outer wrapping of entertainment.”

People Ifs Kind Littles Wanted Certain Names Causes Bits Responsibility Serious Little Bit Entertainment Statements Meant To Be Provoking Ambiguous Were Meant To Be Wrapping Cabaret

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“We were working in entertainment, in the music industry, with popular music, it was important, but it was something that we also felt was a responsibility.”

Important Felt Responsibility Industry Entertainment Music Industry Popular Music

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“Looking back, I think we were very much a part of democratizing music, and we wanted to demystify the process of making music - to show it's a myth.”

Thinking Shows Wanted Process Myth Looking Back

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“You don't have to be trained in music to create sounds and to produce and release music. That's what we were saying back in 73-74. And that's the way the world is now - and all the tools of creation, production and dissemination are there in everybody's bedrooms, front rooms and studios.”

World Way Sound Rooms Fronts Creation Produce Tools Productions Studios Release Bedroom Dissemination

Author:Stephen Mallinder

“I think that's the fascinating thing that exists now. This contrasts with a celebrity art and celebrity music culture.”

Thinking Art Culture Fascinating Contrast Music Culture

Author:Stephen Mallinder

About the Author

Born: January 1, 1955
Known for: Singer
Quotes: 36

Related Topics

Thinking Sound Kind Way Wells Film Ifs Periods Culture Funk

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People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

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