The Write Hear Interview: Ian Dench of EMF on chemistry, legacy and chaos
It's "Unbelievable," but EMF is back with a new album and their first U.S. gigs since 1992.
“We are channeling our younger selves.” Photo: EMF
Forget everything you think you know about bands named after dubious acronyms (Yes, I’m looking at you, KISS). EMF, formed in the late 80s, was the real deal: a group of Forest-of-Dean lads with a knack for dance-rock anthems and a name that could stand for "Epsom Mad Funkers" or, more playfully, "Ecstasy Mother F**kers" (depending on who you asked). Fronted by the charismatic James Atkin, EMF's lineup was a blend of up-and-comers Derry Brownson, Zac Foley, Marc Decloedt and DJ Milf and seasoned guitarist Ian Dench, fresh off moderate success with Apple Mosaic, who had signed to Virgin and released a single “Honey If.”
Their catchy sound and hit single "Unbelievable" propelled them to international recognition, with the song topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. and Number 3 on the U.K. Official Charts in 1990. The debut full-length release Schubert Dip (1991) kept the band on point and on the airwaves, as did their follow-ups: the EP Unexplained (1992), Stigma (1992) and the somewhat unevenness of Cha Cha Cha (1995).
But sometime after that, the air around the band became thinner and the enthusiasm that Dench in particular felt, was heading into a downward spiral. As you’ll discover, there were an overwhelming amount of circumstances that created that environment. And with the unexpected death of bassist Zac Foley in 2002, that portion of their existence was put to rest.
Yet… there was still an open door to the music. Dench kept himself busy, writing and producing artists (Beyonce, Shakira, Jordin Sparks, Florence and the Machine) and from 2008-10, he was the Vice President of A&R at Epic Records in New York.
Now… the question is: how did EMF decide as a unit (with ‘new’ mates Stevey Marsh on bass and Adrian Todd on drums) to bring it all back home after releasing new material in 2022 (Go Go Sapiens) and this year’s The Beauty and The Chaos and get back for their first Stateside trek in over 30 years?
Let’s find out via a Zoom call from London…
How are you doing?
Good. I'm good, and it's really lovely just to be able to bang on about myself and EMF! I'm very, very excited.
When I found out about all of this happening with you guys, it was a total mind blow. Because quite a few years back, I was so close to interviewing you when Schubert Dip came out and it didn’t happen. So, all of this comes back full circle.
You were 30 or 35 years back! [Laughs] Now I'm so happy and we finally get to do a tour.
Besides the new album, what have you been doing? It’s been so long since you were in the States.
I don’t quite know why it’s been so long. I think, as a band, we do things ‘cause we sort of felt it was right. When we first got together, we didn't try and write a hit record. We got together because we were having fun and good times. And I guess we sort of fell apart because it wasn't fun and good times. Then, lo and behold, 30 years later, we do a couple of anniversary shows. And the magic came back.
We played occasionally along the way, and we wanted to write a bunch more songs, or James and I would write a song occasionally. I mean, James and I have always been close, and we've always had really, really good chemistry. But it's just never felt like the time was right. And something happened a couple of years ago, and we're like, “Oh, we better write some songs!” He's got this beautiful house in the Yorkshire Dales, which is in the north of England, with these rolling hills and sheep, and I love going out there. I just went up there inside his studio and worked on a few songs, and he'd come down to London a little bit, and we did [2022’s] Go Go Sapiens. And then Ralph [Jezzard] appeared on the scene. He'd been in Texas for years and then moved back to the UK. He was the producer for the first two albums [1991’s Schubert Dip and 1992’s Stigma]. We'd written a bunch of songs for another album, and it just all sort of came together. Then suddenly we were on tour again, and these offers of shows in the States came up. And here we are. It's like we're back to the start again. But can I just say it feels like the start again, because it's just fun. We're having a lovely time. I think we're all more grounded. We’ve got nothing to prove anymore. All the stress and the pressure that we had in 1995 has gone, and we're having a great time. And the band’s in a great place.
EMF - "Hello People" (featuring Stephen Fry) / ©EMF
When I heard “Hello People,” I'm like “This is EMF! This is the band I remember.” What has the feedback been when you’re playing live? Who are you seeing out there?
Part of the fact we got together was we played these 30th-anniversary shows, and there was still so much love out there for us. Pop music is a funny thing. I used to think pop music was people would sort of discover you and then move onto the next thing and forget about you. But I realize that when you discover music, as a teenager, it sort of goes into your soul, and you carry it with you for the whole of your life. And here are these people that used to come and see us back in the day, and they're still coming to see us, and that’s such a great community. And when we did the new songs, people are saying, ‘We love the new songs.’ It's still happening.
So what can I say? When I think about it, it's not such a surprise, because, as I said, James and I have got really great chemistry. We've always done what we love doing, and he loves electronic dance music. So, he does these sort of simple things, and I mess it all up with my guitar playing, like I put guitar riffs on it and we work out. It's a very instinctive thing.
Tom Jones & EMF “Unbelievable” / ©GoodBikes.org
But that's our process. And especially with Ralph to produce it. And these days it's so much easier to do the technical stuff, because back in the day, like 30 years ago, the technical stuff of trying to synchronize electronic things that were smack on the beat with organic things like guitars and drums? It was a nightmare! I mean, the hours we spent and then something would crash, and it would all fall apart, and oh, the frustration! And now? We did the record [The Beauty and The Chaos] on this laptop that I'm talking to you on, and you can just go ping, and it all syncs up together. And we’re in a good place. It’s all good.
“The nineties were a very special moment, and no one's ever gonna replace it again.” EMF, 2024. Photo: Scott Jolly
Here’s the interesting part: you want to sound like you did 30 years ago, because that's the stuff that made you happy. But when we get to this age, it’s like cranky old people: “I don’t want to know new technology. I don’t know how to do this!”
Right! ‘Cause the brain cells don't work to learn new things. [Laughs]
Now I know you didn’t move completely away from the music business, so you've been with newer musicians in the last 10 or 15 years. Would you say that’s how you’ve been keeping up?
I've been involved in the contemporary pop world. I've been trying to keep up with the sounds and write songs for contemporary pop singers. And to be fair, I've worked with other people who are really good at that. And thankfully, I still think there is a place for that amongst all the great young producers and the way people are doing new melodies and rhythmic stuff. I still think to be able to say something in a way that connects with people is a skill that is valid, y’know, even when you’re old!
Beyonce - “Once in a Lifetime” / ©2008 SONY Music Entertainment
But I think one of the reasons we came back to EMF perhaps is because I was getting a bit long in the tooth to be trying to write pop songs for young singers [Dench will be 60 in August]. I was writing in the modern Brill Building style, churning out hits for people. That was great fun and it was a great experience. But after a while, it gets a bit tiresome, and you want to write about you, which is what we did in EMF. James and I wrote about ourselves. I was getting fed up with writing songs and trying to find a new angle on a young love story.
All the wonderful things that happened because of “Unbelievable,” seemed to come at the right time. You weren't caught up in the whole Manchester scene, because, frankly, if anybody looked at their geography, you were nowhere near Manchester. What seemed to happen was that you came to America and you had this great dance, hip-hop thing going. And then Nirvana. And then Britpop. And then, what happened?
That goes back to what I was saying about pop music. Time moves on and young people are coming up who are messing with stuff and making great new music. There's a wonderful song on The Beauty and The Chaos called “The Day the Music Died.” I've been trying to explain what it's about. But it's so funny with you. Just talking about that then really resonated with me, and I think that might be what it's about. You hand the mantle to the next generation.
EMF - “The Day the Music Died” / ℗ 2024 EMF
There's always thankfully, gonna be the next generation of young people, pushing it out there, trying stuff. Not just in music, but in protesting for equality, coming up with new ideas, changing things, and rebelling and that's okay. That's just the way of the world. Stigma was our answer to Nirvana and it’s still a fan favorite. And then [1995’s] Cha Cha Cha [laughs]. Heaven knows what Cha Cha Cha was! Maybe it was our Parklife, but it just went a bit somewhere very strange, and I guess we sort of got a bit sad. We were like, “Okay, maybe we're the old garden. We want to go off and get excited about something else.”
30 years later we realized, “Oh, my God, people love what we did, and it is still relevant. It meant something to all those people and it means a lot to us.
Did you ever think that far ahead, back then, that you might need to stop all this?
Well, I think back then we were feeling our way, as we always do. But, oh, my God! In the 30 years, I've thought about what if we had done this, and done that, and tried this? And why didn't that work? We should have been the Rolling Stones! We should have written, you know, a hundred “Unbelievable”’s, those scenarios. And do you know what? Fuck that! You can’t be woulda, coulda, shoulda. It's like you just gotta do what you love and that's what The Beauty and The Chaos is. We’re doing our own thing and the fans love it.
When I saw this collection of songs, I thought this doesn't have to live as a 30-year-old tribute to your younger self. It can stand on its own. And maybe you’ve had enough history to get that point across. But I will say, you got this album down to 37 minutes. How did you do that?
[Laughs] That's because of Cha Cha Cha. Once you've done a double album where you've gone off into these like conceptual tangents, then you're like, “Okay, we gotta be clean and concise. Say what you're saying. Move on.
But, Amy, when you said this is talking to your younger self, that made me feel really, really emotional, because I'm not sure I quite thought about it like that before. I remember how Nirvana hit us and how amazing it was, and it was like, “Oh, shit!” things have moved along and “The Day the Music Died” is maybe talking to my younger self. We still got our younger selves in us, and maybe they need to go to bed a little bit earlier [laughs]. But you don't have to grow up and leave them behind. You can bring them with you.
“As time goes on, we will remember the good stuff.” Photo: EMI
Well, you look at The Stones and they’ve got 20 years on us. And you wonder if you’re going to be doing this music and the music you did 30 years ago and then stop or are you gonna change and keep going?
Good question. In a funny way, we are channeling our younger selves in defiance of our older selves. You know, my back's terrible, and then I get up on stage and the adrenaline is the greatest medicine for a bad back. All of a sudden it's like I can leap around!
I’m dialing in from events of 30 years ago and thinking, do I remember that correctly? I’m sure you’ve had moments of “Did we do that?” and someone goes “Uh, yeah, you kinda did do that.”
There's definitely a bit of that!
Are you doing anything to avoid that these days, or are you embracing it?
Oh, my God! I mean, because we were young - I was the oldest. I was 25. James and Marc were 21. Zac and Derry were 18. I guess we did all the normal stuff that rock and roll bands did back in the day. That was our right of passage. And a lot of it is very blurry. I keep looking at lists of our gigs, where we played. We played in Estonia! It's all a bit hazy, and I hope I behaved reasonably well.
But what a wonderful thing to have done, too. The moment I picked up a guitar when I was 14, I dreamt of being in a rock and roll band and touring in the States and having a hit record. And I did it. And how lucky am I to have done that?
I don’t realistically think that we're gonna have a number one record again. But I'm fine with that. I just wanna go out there and connect with all those lovely people we've connected to before.