For almost four years, Ben Edwards and Paul Merritt have been working together on their Expanding Records label releasing sublime electronic music by various artists from around the world, including Cathode, Vessel, Holkham and Maps & Diagrams. The pair also record and release music under the alias of Stendec, and are about to release their debut album 'A Study Of 'And'' later this month. To date, the duo have released a handful of 7" singles on both Expanding Records and Static Caravan, provided a track for the Cactus Island compilation 'Friends we have met along the way' and have also done remixes for the likes of David Mooney, Fibla and Charles Atlas. However, Ben is no stranger to releasing his own music as he also records as Benge and collaborates with Douglas Benford as Tennis.

Paul Merritt recently provided us with an informative outlook on both running a label and releasing his own music as Stendec.

Stendec's debut album, 'A Study Of 'And'' is available on June 14th through Expanding Records. In the meantime, check out the Expanding Records website at www.expandingrecords.com.

Hello guys and welcome to Ape Towers. How are you doing?

Hello simian friends, the sun is out and we're fine and dandy!

Firstly, besides making music under the alias of Stendec, you also run the lovely Expanding Records - what was it that made you want to start your own label? Or was it just originally a way of releasing your own tunes?

Basically Ben set up Expanding way back in 1995 to release his own stuff as Benge and then he brought me (Paul Merritt) in, in 2000 to help him out and take the label to another stage finding new artists and a stronger identity for the label itself.

Electronic music isn't "real" music. There's no instruments as such, and you just press a few buttons on a computer and it makes a track for you. Fact or Ignorance? Discuss...

I find this sort of idea a bit strange really, music is music really, though I do find the idea of just using traditional instruments slightly restrictive as the range of sounds that you have to use is not so great, we have used Œreal instruments on Stendec tracks but not in an way that would make you go "ooh! there's a double bass" (for instance). Regarding the Œpress a few buttons idea, at the end of the day it's mostly ideas and inspiration, whether you have practiced for years on your guitar or drum kit, or have a doctorate in programming, a grade 8 on the piano and a car park full of synths and software it's the ideas that really count, a basic knowledge of your instrument is important but a natural feel for your music and ideas will be what make the music work or not.

What's your stance on people downloading illegal mp3's, is it really destroying the music industry?

Mmm..not really sure yet, on one level I'm just really happy that our music's getting out there, there have been people who have bought CD's from our site that have said they have downloaded an album of ours illegally but in the end really wanted the real thing, on that level it's almost like free advertising. We do take a lot of care with packaging etc so hopefully people will want the whole product, we also put out all our releases on vinyl too which is a market that seems to be very healthy at the moment, I'm a vinyl junkie and very rarely buy a CD, I grew up with an obsession for music and all the surrounding parafinalia and could spend a whole afternoon with the music on the record player pouring over the sleeves taking in every scrap of information, the packaging was a very important part of the pleasure when listening, I can't believe this sort of thing has competely dissapeared now.

If you could steal an artist from another label and sign them for Expanding, who would it be?

Part of the real pleasure of running a label is discovering new artists and so that's quite a difficult question to answer, umm...Mark Hollis though... definitely (see below).

Is there any advice you could give someone who wanted to start their own label?

If there is a type of music that you love so much that it takes up all your time and if within this type of music you feel there is a space to fill and if you know there are artists out there who are not getting their music out and their music would fill this space, then start a label.

So what made you both get into the actual music-making process yourselves?

Ben was a drummer originally, but after turning down the job with a band called Blur, just weeks before they encountered fame and enormous fortune, he decided to throw in the sticks and fiddle with knobs instead. An unhealthy obsession with synths has been with him ever since, he has now made 8 albums of electronic music, his ninth entitled 'I am 9' has just finished and will be out before Christmas (hopefully). I have DJ'd electronica since the 'Halycon' days of the mid-nineties and spent my time setting up parties etc. When we relaunched the label we needed some artists for our first 7" series so me and Ben went into the studio to see what would happen, we we're surprised and strangely pleased with the result so have kept on doing stuff together, when we have a spare minute, ever since, which has finally led us to releasing our debut album 'A Study Of 'And'' on June 14th.

For anyone unfamiliar with your own music, how would you describe your sound?

Electronic, melodic, cinematic.

How does your recording process take place, do you plan ahead of entering the studio or do you try and improvise once the compsing begins?The songs on your forthcoming debut album 'A Study Of 'And'', were recorded over a 4 year period. Do you feel your sound has evolved during that time?

As we have got to know each other better and are more comfortable with the Stendec working process, making tracks had become easier and so the sound has developed probably through that. We try not to follow fashions and will use an acoustic guitar if we feel it fits and not because every other artist in electronica is using one, we're really into music in general and listen to all sorts of very diverse stuff (a lot of which we'd be to embarassed to name here) we try to bring elements of all the music we have ever really liked into Stendec.

A predictable question, but is there any musician or a particular vocalist that either of you would love to collaborate with?

Both of us are big fans of Mark Hollis (ex of Talk Talk) and we would really like to work with him, I've actually been trying to contact him through the net without any luck. I've got a project I'd love to organise which involves artists from the Expanding label working with some of our favourite British vocalists...Mark Hollis, Peter Hammill, John Martyn, Robert Wyatt, Roy Harper, Morrisey(!), David Sylvian, etc...it would be quite a strange project for us as the self describing title for the label is "contemporary non-vocal electronic music".

Why that / those choices?

Regards Mark Hollis, his voice is absolutely unique. It's not just a vocal it's an instrument, and there is so much emotion in his voice without it being cloying - really, really beautiful.

There's been a lot of fantastic music released this year, what have been your highlights so far?

I really liked the Donnato Wharton album on C.C.O. (City Centre Offices) lovely stuff! The Twerk album on Mille Plateux and the Apparat Duplex remix 12" too, I already really liked Anders Ilar but he really surpassed himself with his remix. I'm a bit biased (as we're putting his album later this year) but the Flotel 12" on Arable is a very special piece of plastic.

Thanks for your time!