Face to Face with... James Lavelle

A new exhibition which marries the music of UNKLE supremo James Lavelle to a host of different artists' work including John Hillcoat, Jonathan Glazer and Kai and Sunny takes place this coming weekend at London's Haunch of Venison gallery.

James Lavelle is a busy man. On top of being a renowned music producer, record label owner and DJ he's also one of founders of musical pioneers, UNKLE, who released a new album earlier this year. That work load didn't stop him from co-creating and being the curator of a new exhibition, Daydreamming with...James Lavelle. Taking place at the Haunch of Venison gallery from 27 - 30 August, with a special screening, discussion and Q&A at the Prince of Charles cinema on 31 Aug with Lavelle, and directors John Hillcoat and Alex Grazioli, Daydreaming... is a unique exhibition that brings together some of the most high profile creative names in art, film, fashion and design and aims to marry music with art. Here, Lavelle talks to shots.net about the exhibition and how it came to be.

How did Daydreaming with James Lavelle come to be?
It's been in the planning stages for going on three years. I was introduced to people from Haunch of Venison gallery and to Brian and Leigh Message [co-founders of Daydreaming with... and programme consultants] and we basically wanted to put a collaborative project together using music and maybe one of the artists at Haunch. Initially we thought maybe UNKLE and one artist would be able to do something together. I wasn't quite so into that because I wanted to make it a bit broader and it's kind of developed over the last three years. It's been an interesting three year journey to get to where it's now finally happening.

What, in a nutshell, is Daydreaming...?
It's basically quite an eclectic group of artists that I've brought together to work with on various music projects on different levels, whether it's creating new music or retrospective music or sound design. There's also other work we've done...I suppose it's UNKLE imagery...it's kind of bringing all these things together and linking them through musical content. It's also about being a little bit 'out of the box'. It's basically a three day art/music melt-down event. I hope that we can make it a regular thing and maybe do it in other places; that was the idea anyway.

How did you decide who you wanted to be a part of the event?
It's a real mixture of people. Some of whom I've worked with before, some I haven't. It's all come together as this journey's taken place over the last three years. Some of the artists come from Haunch Venison, some have been introduced to me through friends. It's been very organic really.

Did you give any of the artists a particular brief?
We talked about what we were trying to achieve musically, I suppose. Whether it was going to be based on an existing piece of music or whether it might be something new, or whether people were going to have to create something to accompany the piece. It all happened it different ways.

How has this fed into UNKLE?
It's simply that all those people and all that work and those relationships and the output that comes from that is all very inspiring for me, making music. Thinking about what I'm trying to do in creating a musical world around it, with the design and with the music videos.

Is there something that draws you specifically to the selection of artists you're collaborating with?
It's really hard to explain actually. I suppose it's like trying to explain how you meet your friends and why they're your friends really. You're just drawn to certain people and there's a certain emotional contact and appreciation of similar ideas and ideals. It's hard because to me there's a link between people's work but it's really hard to explain.
Are you ever surprised by how any of the artists interpret your music?
Yeah, it happens all the time. That's one of the great things about collaborating; it's just about choosing the right person to work with. If you do choose the right person then the results can be inspiring.

Are there any artists you'd like to collaborate with but haven't had the chance to yet?
There're loads, an endless list. There're definitely some people out there whom I'd love to work with but I think I'll keep that list to myself for now.

Talking of collaborations, you've collaborated with a lot of great directors to make a lot of great videos over the years; do you have a favourite you could pick out?
They all have really amazing stories but, I suppose, when you're more involved with something you tend to have more of a journey with it. I mean, doing An Eye for an Eye and Rabbit in Your Headlights https://www.shots.net/video_detail_css.asp?id=2465#anch_top was a great period of making videos. And it was great recently to work with Warren[Du Preez] and Nick [Thornton Jones] because again it was a great, close, collaborative process. It's just great to be able to work with really interesting and creative people.

When you initially saw the idea for Rabbit in Your Headlights, what was your reaction?
Jonathan just has this amazing way of getting across a huge amount of emotion in a small, quite simply way and visualising it in my head I just thought, if he could pull it off the impact of the video could be amazing. And of course, he pulled it off, which is what was so good about it.

What are your hopes and expectations of what Daydreaming.... will achieve?
It's a bunch of really great artists and I just hope that people appreciate their work. It's really about them and not about me. For me it's just a joy to be able to bring these people together and put it in that particular context and in that environment and be able to work on the music and just be supported by such a talented bunch of people. There's a lot going on in what is quite a tight place so hopefully people will find it an interesting experience. Fundamentally, I just hope it looks alright!

To find out more about Daydreaming with...James Lavelle at the Haunch gallery click here

To book tickets for the special screening on 31 Aug click here