Rob McAndrews’ latest IDM-inflected Airhead album adapts techniques from the jazz guitar greats. Danny Turner finds out more
Initially influenced by the likes of experimental hip-hop artists such as cLOUDDEAD and Odd Nosdam, Rob McAndrews had already began producing prior to being invited to play guitar as a touring musician for childhood friend James Blake. Quick to find his own unique sound palette, McAndrews’ brooding debut album For Years (2013) had an analgesic yet idiosyncratic quality, rich with discordant acoustic guitars and edgy hip-hop beats.
Fast-forward eight years and little had been heard from McAndrews, save for a few singles and EPs, and 2021’s otherworldly acoustic-electronic LP And a Bit of Hope. However, Airhead’s third LP Lightness charts a distinctive yet no less inventive course. Studying the techniques of numerous American jazz guitar greats, McAndrews discovers ingenious ways to process the instrument, combining tightly packed chord fragments with microscopic beats and deep sub-bass.
Your previous LP And a Bit of Hope and much of your early work blends guitars with electronics. Was guitar therefore your initial instrument?
“I started learning piano when I was five because my mum was training to become a piano teacher. Soon after, I saw someone playing cello and became enamoured with the sound of that, so I began playing cello from around seven years old, and it became my main instrument after I stopped with the piano a few years after. Then I got an electric and an acoustic guitar, became obsessed with early folk music and spent a lot of time copying the fingerpicking styles of people like Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake and Reverend Gary Davis.”
You also play guitar on stage for James Blake. What led to that chain of events?
“James and I grew up together and were making music from our early teens. I was at Leeds College of Music studying music production and he went to Goldsmiths to do a popular music course, but we stayed in touch throughout. He’d made an album as his final year project and needed to perform it live, so we sort of got a stripped down version of the ‘band’ back together again and haven’t stopped playing shows since. It’s been very enlightening to play a role in performing his music to crowds around the world – it’s a chance to see first-hand the emotional impact that music can have on people, and what works most effectively in creating those important moments.”
When did you start recording your own material?
“After the guitar music, I got really into a corner of rap music made by people like Cannibal Ox and cLOUDDEAD. Around that time I got a multi-track recorder and a Boss Dr Sample SP-202 because I wanted to make stuff like Odd Nosdam. Combining slowed, pitched-down, degraded samples and over-compressed breaks had a huge influence on my productions.”
