Discover the present
Mary Anne Hobbs has a special aura. She rejects the dubstep’s queen title to incarnate an evangelist of the new sound. In the other hand, her visual iconography is as religious as the reverence that occurs in the electronic world when someone pronounces her name. Apparently, it all started one day when the challenge of punk sound burst into her life with the same energy that removes her own captivating personality. Seductive, she’s recreated at every moment to the rhythm of her loved motorbikes. Her life is a particularly long and winding road away from ostentatious arrangements and travels at high speed. She draws on the rhythms and innovative firm. She is demanding and generous, and cries to heaven against the stuffy attitude of most of the same.
After twelve years working for the BBC she has decided to start a new phase. Before her performance at Sonar, I had the pleasure to share views with her.
After twelve years working for the BBC she has decided to start a new phase. Before her performance at Sonar, I had the pleasure to share views with her.
Some people call you THE DUBSTEP’S QUEEN, what a responsibility, how does it feel?
I blush...I am really just an evangelist for free thinking artists and forward marching sound. If anyone asked me for a job description it would be ‘to champion the next generation of electronic artists operating at what I call The Genesis Point of new sound’. It’s a great privilege to have the BBC Platform that I do, and not a day goes by without me reflecting on this and giving thanks.
From Metallica to Joy Orbison, you’ve fronted rock and dub programs at the BBC Radio 1, which kind of music is first now in your life, electronic or rock?
I was first turned on as a kid by The Sex Pistols...They embody a spirit of defiance that I really identify with in music...Defiance in the face of apathy and inertia in mainstream culture.. It’s the same spirit that I connect with today...For me, all great music bears this hallmark of defiance...genre is immaterial and not at all important to me.
What does dubstep mean to you?
Dubstep has become an umbrella term...It’s now a by-word for sonic invention and freedom.. It connects so many artists, labels and clubs all over the world who share that same spirit and energy… such as DMZ and FWD>>, Hyperdub, Tempa, NightSlugs, Rinse FM, Hessle Audio, Applepips, Numbers, Lucky Me, Dub War, Hotflush, Soul Motive, Brainfeeder, Low End Theory, Purple Wow, Skull Disco, Tectonic, Subloaded, Exodus, SubDub and SMOG...the list is endless
What’s next, an electronic opera, maybe? Your professional career has changed a lot from the early days, so curiosity seems to be important for you. Is curiosity your way of life?
One of the beauties about my job is that you never know what’s around the next corner... The advent of cheap technology, which allows people now to make world class beats on a Playstation, coupled with the online platforms that give producers free access to a global audience in a moment, have seen sound and the creative process accelerate so rapidly it’s now impossible to predict even what will happen next week...and that’s what keeps everything so fresh for me.. It’s an endless journey though sound.
I’m very lucky...the BBC have allowed me complete freedom for 12 years.
We know you always say that SÓNAR FESTIVAL is one of the biggest delights for electronic music fans. You’ve been performing there and you’re going to do it again this year. Is Sónar a big reference in electronic music as an advanced influence or is it just the reflex of what is happening now musically?
It’s a combination of both. Obviously there are big names and true icons on the bill...but always very many pioneering young artists that I have never come across before in my life, and I’m so excited to see.. I feel there’s no question that a stunning performance at Sonar Festival can be a real tipping point in any artist’s career. I’ve seen it happen myself with Skream, Flying Lotus, Joker & The Gaslamp Killer… Sonar changed their lives.
In Barcelona we can see more and more dubstep events every year, but which city is the centre in dubstep’s world?
Right now? Probably Bristol in the UK.
We can read on your myspace that preordained rules are a betrayal of what it means to be human. But humans have invented preordained rules, so is it a vicious circle very difficult to destroy?
It’s your duty to build your own causeway brick by brick...the most exciting humans don’t look to follow where others have already trodden...what would be the point...our species would never move forward...we’d still be rubbing sticks together to make fire..
Your compilations are like the bible of dub, are you working in a new one? And could you tell me who’s going to be the next reference in dubstep?
Not yet…my next project will be to star as the motorcycle stunt girl in Tarantino’s ‘Fox Force Five’ movie...haha!! Just kidding…in my dreams.
I must admit that her dream quickly becomes my delicious fantasy. Tarantino and Mary Anne represent the creation from popular life. I hear her motor’s sound from her beginnings in 1980 at the magazine Sounds Magazine. They were convulsed times in music and closer things went to lead on stage again. People wanted to feel they could get on stage to scream and break every existential obstacle. Then, she began her march and embodied the sound creation movement putting her foot on the accelerator. Her great interest in creation convulses anyone who comes close to her. Her ear exudes good taste and her look makes you lost on the horizon because she abandons you to your fate forcing you to be responsible of your own actions and conventions. If you don’t want to die in discontent you must risk. She's not here because she’s already playing to discover the present.
Text: Juan Carlos Romero
Photos: Mary Anne Hobbs
Text: Juan Carlos Romero
Photos: Mary Anne Hobbs