BIOGRAPHY
Promotional biography
by Vaughan Allen 1998
The Utah Saints like taking their time about things. They released a lone single in each of the first two years they were together. They've released a single LP in their six years of existence. They limit themselves to doing no more than three re-mixes a year. Mount Etna erupts rather more often.
But with rather less style. Rather less fire and brimstone.
Jez Willis is the fire. DJ Tim Garbutt is the brimstone. The combination is explosive. The Utah Saints are about combining influences, cross-fertilising ideas. Jez Willis brings to the band a background in industrial-electronica (notably in near-things MDMA). DJ Tim brings the house, hip-hop and techno background that allows him to play 'spot the drum loop' with anybody on the planet.
They met at a club in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Tim was running the Saturday night, Jez the Friday. They both wanted to make records, and both wanted to play live. They got together. A week later, their debut track, "What Can You Do For Me?" was recorded. Three months later, they were on Top of The Pops.Their name was inspired by the last line in The Coen Brothers' "Raising Arizona", "I don't know, maybe it was Utah."
"I love the name Utah", Jez has said, "it makes me think of weird religious practices, salt deserts and land speed records."
"What Can You Do For Me?" was originally released to help pay off some of their respective debts. 800 were put out on orange-marmalade-coloured vinyl. The combination of the lilting Annie Lennox sample from "There Must be an Angel" and the title line lifted from Gwen Guthrie saw the track quickly picked up by DJs around the country; Pete Tong at Radio One loved it and signed the track for ffrrr records. Within weeks, it was in the Top 10, alongside such other dance classics as The Prodigy's "Charly". And Jez's mass of multi-coloured hair extensions brightened up many a hairdresser's life.
The originality of their sampling method immediately caught the ear. The Utahs' attitude to sampling was born essentially out of a punk aesthetic; they don't look for the cleanest sample, only the best, the biggest, the most interesting. For them, the sampler is a tool that allows them to play around with voices, guitars and noise—their chosen instruments. Other bands find a sample and create a novelty track; the Utahs always look first to the basic groove, the overall sound, before considering which sample will fit in and enhance their music.
Utah Saints Firsts:
The success of their first release meant that the band was able to go out and play live, as they'd always intended. At first, they did PAs; playing over eighty major raves in their first year, across the entire country. They showed their versatility by playing across the spectrum of the dance world, fitting in at both Cream and The Orbit. Their cross-fertilisation of genres went down a storm. "There's nothing like turning up for a PA," said Jez at the time, "and doing a track with all this metal stuff dropped over it. The crowd go mental."
The second single continued this exploration of the weird ways in which techno, house and rock could collide. "Something Good" pulled together Motorhead and a divine vocalisation from Kate Bush. To take the sampling theme even further, they became the first band to sample a video, by buying up segments of Bush's video for her original track, "Cloudbusting", to use in their own. The track went into the Top 5, considerably higher than "Cloudbusting".
Some Utah Saints figures:
The success of ‘Something Good’ allowed the band to move into proper live work. While most bands working in the dance area were still regarded as faceless, the Utahs were determined to play live, to develop a real presence. They put together a five-piece band, using percussionists and live play-back of samples. DJ Tim improvised live, dropping beats and sounds into the music, just as he would in playing at a club. Jez stayed up front, wielding sampler and midi guitar. This was Metallica meeting Mantronix. It became hard to tell whether ravers or rockers dominated the audience. But the crowds loved it, and they became the first dance act to really cut it live, without dancers or cleavage-flaunting girls.
The US release of "Something Good" allowed them to try it live in the US. A coast-to-coast tour culminated in a massive rave in Florida alongside House of Pain and Rage Against The Machine. Their moshpit-cum-dancefloor audiences went crazy. They had reached the level of a stadium house act.In the wake of such a successful tour, they rush-released the debut LP in the US, recorded in only a matter of weeks. It attracted a serious amount of praise. They were compared to such a wide range of bands as the KLF, Ministry, The Shamen and Nine Inch Nails. It became the first techno LP to be given 4* in Rolling Stone. Playboy stated that it was, "the first single-artist techno album an outsider can take home to his or her stereo."
On their return to the UK, they released their third single, and had their third top 10 hit. "Believe In Me" sampled the Human League, Crown Heights Affair and Sylvester. Meanwhile, their success in the US had come to the attention of U2, and the Utahs were invited to provide support for their European tour. The stadiums got bigger, the atmosphere harder. But they won over huge crowds across the continent.
In one week the Utah Saints played with: Take That, The Shamen, The Mission, East 17, The Fall, Moby. And, of course, U2.
In a break with their usual tardy release schedule, the fourth single, "I Want You", was swiftly released, which took the band further in the direction that they had been exploring live. Jez provided the vocals, working around samples from Slayer's "War Ensemble". It was the heaviest and fastest dance track of the year, but effectively belied the tag that they were simply musical jackdaws. It was a deliberate musical policy to depart from the sample-based records. "I Want You" brought Industrial noise to the dancefloor, and the dance beats to industrial floors.
A re-worked form of the LP was finally released in the UK, and went top 10. Mixing the sample-based tracks with more orthodox techno work-outs such as "Trance Atlantic Glide" and even cover versions ("New Gold Dream" by Simple Minds). It summed up the way they were working, the way that they brought disparate influences together.
It's a method that they've maintained. The two members continue to bring their own styles and interests to the band. DJ Tim has been playing almost constantly, culminating in a stint at New York's legendary The Tunnel club. Jez has been working on the production side of the material available in 1998, building the Utah Saints sound even further towards a wall of noise, an apocalyptic clattering together of techno and metal. The most exciting genres of music slammed together and erupting through your speakers.
Ten things you probably already knew about the Utah Saints:
Written by Vaughan Allen- many thanks for his permission to use it.
A brief biography from back in 1993 can be found here.