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Tom Ludvigson Takes A Trip To The Moon - Page 3

© Anne-Marie de Bruin

Do you think music such as Trip's and what people like, say, Mark de Clive-Lowe are doing bridges the gap between the two communities?

"Well it does and it doesn't- because for some people it's an attitude change. I think a lot of people haven't grasped onto electronic music and still draw a kind of distinction between the older/pre-electronic approaches to music and the new approaches, and relegate the new ones outside music. It's like a lot of people don't treat DJs as musicians for example and a lot of current live performance is DJs and there's certainly a big live element in that. But it's sort of too strange for some people to accept that."

So then, have you actually been doing any stuff with a DJ?

"I've been doing stuff with Mike Weston. We've done some stuff under my Alloy name and we've done some under his name Field, and we've done some that we call Jazz Drive, just together, the two of us, and we've had Nigel Gavin in that once too, so yeah it's been interesting. The Jazz Drive thing has been cool because Mike has been DJing jazz and I've been doing beats, so it's been turning the roles around in terms of who does the jazz and who does the beats, as it were."

Speaking of jazz then, are you doing another Bluespeak album in the near future?

"Yes we are, actually. Probably later this month or early next month. We've already written a whole album of new material and we've started having rehearsals for it, so we're on the verge of another album."

So you'll be playing live for it and all that kind of thing won't you?

"Well, we'll see. Bluespeak doesn't do much live work at the moment, you know Greg's busy with other things but I imagine we'll have a party to promote the album. But on the whole I don't we're looking to see Bluespeak three or four nights a week at the bars round town in the near future like we used to."

You were obviously doing all the playing you talk about with Bluespeak quite a few years ago now, but how different is playing now to when you were playing then?

"It's quite different. There's just a set of opportunities to play and the scene is different. There was much greater demand for the acoustic jazz thing then when we did Bluespeak and we largely existed in response to that demand. We didn't set out as a recording act or anything, we just started out with Greg and myself wanting work. And as we got work and got bigger budgets, we incorporated first Peter Scott and then Paul Hewitt and then it all gradually moved into recording from then, so that was entirely in response to the market. But at the moment there doesn't seem to be the same demand for that kind of jazz and so you do other things, but it leaves time- like we're working on the album, Trevor and I."

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