Glenn Johnson. SUMMER 2000.
Why did you choose 'Waking Up'? Glen Johnson- ' "Waking Up" appealed to me because there's a resigned melancholia and a philosophical ennui to it that's matched perfectly by the banal, repetitive rhythms of the bass and drums. I think Ian always sounded like he destinedto live a terrible existence and there was no way to change it. The line, "A sky without a god is a clear, clear sky" sounds almost optimistic but the song then continues to walk the tightrope between optimism and pessimism. Piano Magic recorded a collaborative single with Low and Transient Waves in Cazimi, the studio where Disco Inferno recorded their early records with the same engineer, Charlie Macintosh. It was a depressing environment - a first floor, damp, dark studio beneath a railway bridge in East London. They recorded at night in what's called "downtime" - when the studio is not normally being used. This nocturnal recording must have had a big effect on their sound, the atmosphere of those early records. Ian said there were rats running around the studio during recording! Cazimi's been knocked down since, I think. '
Raul Fuentes. Starbound.