Pedro, the alias of musician / producer / DJ / remixer James Rutledge, has been a long-time favourite here at AngryApe - in fact he was the very first artist we interviewed on these pages.

Almost five years have passed since that day and now Rutledge has just released his second (long overdue) album 'You, Me & Everyone' in the UK (via Mush Records). We caught up with James to find out about the new record, as well as his future projects.

Hi James, you've finally released your second album 'You, Me & Everyone' in the UK this month, 5 years after your debut - why has it taken so long to surface?

Hello. Well, there are a number of reasons: Shortly after my first album I just stopped doing music for a couple of years. Then I came back to it and did this album really quickly. It was finished over two years ago. The rest of the delay has been because of the label I suppose – I actually signed the album over to them in October 2006. It's annoying that it's been so delayed but I think they had some bad luck / delays with distribution/ licensing deals so… I think when I finished it I thought that it would probably get lots of reviews and so on.

You can get in this quite deranged, proud state when you finish something. It's had loads of great reviews, which is lovely, but I've found the process of not having a press person frustrating - loads of publications have said "we love it – but who's your press person?" Then you don't hear from them again. So, I think I'm maybe destined to languish in obscurity. Which suits me I guess. Haha. I just wonder what might have happened if circumstances were different. I remember going in to meet the head of Warp about it. He said it was one of his favourite things to listen to at the time. So, it was nice when Warpmart put it as album of the week. It can be a strange thing… The one side of me wants it to do really well, and the other hopes nobody hears it.

The new record is a lot more cohesive than the first, in the sense it flows as one long listening experience. The debut felt more like a collection of vastly contrasting songs. Was this something you set out to do from the start?

Thanks. Yes, it was supposed to be like a dream sequence or something like that. There are clues to the underlying theme on the sleeve. I think I just knew how to get what I wanted a lot more. And I think I had much more of an idea about how cohesive I wanted it to sound now.

(Continues below)

The LP is really dense too, there is so much going on at any one moment - were you trying to create a "full band sound"? Following on with that, are people ever shocked to discover you're just a one man outfit?

I read a review that said something like "in places it sounds like three tracks are playing at once." I was really pleased with that. I always really like that sort of accidental collage you get when you play one bit of music over the top of another. Like when you play something without a beat over a drum machine pulse or whatever. A lot of people are quite shocked to discover that there are no live instruments on the album, and that all the drums are programmed. I did want the album to sound like a school band. That was the aim.

What was your process for writing & recording the album?

I just did a lot of sampling and a lot of playing my Jen synth. I tried to let happy accidents happen. I'd have the basics of a track then play records over the top. Something would catch my ear, so I'd press record then shuffle it round afterwards. I used a very old version of Cubase and a very old version of Wavelab. That was it. Hardly any plugins. No pedals etc. I hardly used a sampler actually – things were just edited in Cubase in a really awkward way. I think I only used time stretch once for an effect. I think that's why it sounds quite natural and chaotic. So, maybe you can imagine the amount of work that went into it.

You're next project is a collaboration with Chris Walmsley (All Traps Set / VOTSW) named Colours - can you tell us about that?

A few years ago I was booked to play under Pedro at the Green Man Festival. I thought, oh nobody cares that I'm playing. I wanted to do something exciting. I knew Chris a little – he was playing with VOTSW. I just said to him about 4 hours beforehand "let's just play together for a while in my slot tonight". So we did. We had absolutely nothing prepared but it just sort of went off. We recorded an album very quickly, but (of course) it took me ages to finish. This album is very much the two of us as a band though. It's influenced by 60s music like Can, Silver Apples, Cluster, Nonesuch electronic records and a bit of drone music. Then all the electronic free jazz stuff and a lot of percussion / drum albums. It's quite wild. And also has some noise elements. But it's all live playing, synths and pedals. So, done in a very different way to any of my own music in the past. Just sorting out labels at the moment.

Is Colours a band we can expect to see live on stage at any point?

Yes, definitely. It's very exciting. We've been offered some great gigs but we've got to sort it all out first and work out the timing of gigs.

(Continues below)

Thom Yorke recently said making his solo album 'The Eraser' was really boring compared to recording with Radiohead. Which do you find works better for you; working with your bands Chapters and Colours, or the process of recording for yourself?

Making music completely by yourself is definitely a maddening pastime and you can lose perspective on everything. I'm surprised you picked up on Chapters. The Chapters stuff is very low-key. I'm not sure we'll make an album ever but we'll see. It's just three old school friends having some fun and it's so hard to find the time to do it. I really really really enjoy the social aspect of working with other people – I just miss all that kind of work-colleague type thing.

Speaking of Radiohead, the other month you announced you'd created a "4 hour remix" of their track 'Videotape'. Have the band themselves heard it?

They've given it the OK. They're signing it for the online auction.

Some people could say it was just a marketing ploy on your behalf...?

I haven't read anyone say that. It wasn't done for that reason, but if it was... Why not? Most people do remixes for marketing purposes. It was just a good idea that I had, and it was one of the things that I've enjoyed doing the most. There's a lot of thinking behind it that I don't think many people have picked up on. It's a protest at a lot of things. One of those things is that I feel quite invisible and wanted to make a big statement – so I suppose 'marketing ploy' could be seen as one side of that.

But that's a question rather loaded with negativity. A lot of labels have a person whose 9-5 job is marketing their artists. They go on forums and big up people under false pretences etc. They buy reviews with advertising space. Is that kind of marketing ploy OK because it's more covert?

I don't have a PR person in the UK. I have no advertising budget. The label isn't in the UK. So the publicity was helpful, but that's not what it was about.

I find it a bit depressing that a lot of people seem to have missed the bigger picture with the Radiohead thing. I thought maybe more journalists would get the subtler ideas behind it. I was so pleased about that Guardian article because it seemed to sum up what it was about quite nicely.

To be perfectly honest, I in no way thought that anyone would be remotely interested in a 4 hour Radiohead remix on a VHS tape. I just did it for personal reasons. It wasn't something cooked up in a brainstorming meeting with my marketing person (who doesn't exist). That's how most unusual releases get planned. I just thought about doing it on a train journey when I had Videotape on repeat play on my IPOD.

When I'd done it, I sent an email to my (very small) mailout list and people like Pitchfork and you lot picked up on it, and it spread from there. I'm really proud of it – I found it quite moving to make, as did the other people involved.

I'm glad that people have got the humour in it also. That's a good thing.

(Continues below)

You're also a producer - having worked on Goldrush's last album. Are you working with anyone else lately?

The Goldrush album was the first thing I produced a while back. That was when I'd stopped doing music. Robin, who I'd met when I was at University just phoned me up and asked me to come along. They'd been working on some songs with Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, Mogwai etc), so I was automatically interested. Plus, they just seemed really nice (which is the big part of it), and I got along with them really well. So, we just had some fun and I helped them out. It was cathartic, but at first I was thinking, "should I do this?" My flatmate just told me to go and do it. And then I enjoyed it so much that I decided I wanted to do more producing. The thing that I enjoyed most about it was that it was really out of my comfort zone musically and taste-wise. I've always read interviews with producers and I'm thinking, why did they do that album with that band? Now I understand – it's almost more fun sometimes to work on something that is far removed from the music you make. I rediscovered areas of music that I last listened to when I was 15. It was great and a real turning point for me. Right now, I'm just trying to work with lots of really different people. A lot of producers that I've met just try and jump on every bandwagon going. They wait for a band to be validated and then jump in. Which is fine – that's more a career thing. I just prefer to follow my gut instinct and try out stuff with fashionable and unfashionable bands. It seems nicer that way.

So, at the moment I've done new Munch Munch stuff, some new tracks for The Longcut. Loads of things really, but a lot of them I'm not allowed to mention until they're done. I've only just started producing. So I'm at the start of that. I'll see how it goes. It's tough – lots of people expect you to do on-spec tryout stuff where you have zero budget. You think, how am I supposed to record a band in my flat and make it sound good? You really need a studio for a band.

Anyway, I've been doing lots of remixes in the past year but recently I just finished ones for The Kills and MGMT, and I've got to finish a Foals one – I'm not sure I'll ever finish that! Remixes feel like production – especially with bands.

Next month sees your remix of Japancakes' cover of My Bloody Valentine's 'Soon', and you previously collaborated with Kevin Shields. Are you a big MBV fan and are you looking forward to their reunion shows?

Yeah! I didn't get a ticket though. Maybe I can blag it. I doubt it though. The Kevin Shields thing was when I played with The Pastels – I don't really think I could call it a collaboration. He might slap me when he hears my cover though. That was a funny thing - I did a really tasteful noise type thing then canned it. The other one just seemed more hyper and messy. I think it's a love / hate thing. I've already been emailed some really amazing things said about it, and a few terrible things!

Besides Colours and the MBV remix, what's next in your diary?

Doing some more remixes (see above). More production. And a couple of albums to finish off. Plus a few collaborations. Oh, and I have this 'The Great Ecstasy' album out through Lo later in the year, which is a noise / drone thing. Some reissues. A lot really.

And finally, what's been rocking your iPod lately?

I'm so busy at the moment that I tend to listen to the things that I'm working on. But I don't want to list those! My listening habits are normally all over the place and loads of fairly strange music from the £1 bin in the record shop. But in the past month or so I've only been playing a few albums. Maybe because I've been so busy.

So, if I'm honest:

LCD Soundsystem - 'Confuse The Marketplace'
Carl Craig - 'Sessions'
J D Emmanuel - 'Wizards'
Eric Copeland - 'Hermaphrodite'
Don Cherry & Jon Appleton - 'Human Music'
Cluster - 'Zuckerzeit'
Paul Simon - 'Rhythm Of The Saints'
Sonic Youth - 'Experimental Jet Set Trash & No Star'
Just got sent some new Border Community stuff.
Late Of The Pier LP
Bumps LP
Munch Munch
Portishead - 'Third'
Modern English
The new Four Tet EP is really good. But I just finished an EP of minimal techno a few months back, and my stuff always gets compared to him. So I may
have to bin that!