Released in 1992 (‘93 in the UK), the eponymous debut album from British electronic duo Utah Saints smashed together influences from rave, pop and rock music in new and unique ways.
On a literal level, the sample-heavy album acts as a collage of sounds pulled from sources as diverse as Kate Bush, Candi Staton, Sylvester, The Human League and Slayer.
That blend of influences also runs through the ethos of how the album was made. It’s a record built on the euphoric beats of rave culture, but filled with proper pop hooks – and run through with a punk rock spirit. Despite going on to chart success in the UK and US, the album was the work of two Leeds musicians – Jez Willis and Tim Garbutt – working in a small studio messing around with limited gear.
“The thing about influences is that it's good to take as wide a range as possible,” Willis explains to us, when we sit down with the duo in their Leeds studio. “You start to realise how many things different tracks have got in common, especially around structure and dynamics.”
Prior to forming Utah Saints Willis’ background primarily involved playing in industrial bands. “I was heavily immersed in the European side of things, which was called EBM, Electronic Body Music,” he says. “I was learning a lot about sampling from bands like Public Enemy and The Young Gods and Front 242, from Belgium. That was the way I came at Utah Saints.”
By contrast, Garbutt was a DJ playing house and hip-hop – and a former DMC scratch mix finalist aged 17.
“At a very young age, I used to go to these all-dayers in Nottingham, at Rock City,” Garbutt says. “I saw people like Mantronix, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Stetsasonic, LL Cool J – so I got the bug for hip hop and turntablism. At the same time, I always liked disco, and I did like electronic music and bands like Human League and Depeche Mode."
“Before we recorded the first album, we had a bit of [electronic music] experience between us,” Willis explains. “I started on a Yamaha music computer called a CX5, which was a real nightmare to program, but it had a MIDI out. I moved from that to an Atari. I was always analysing tracks. My first sequencing was probably on a Roland SH-101, where the first thing you do is try and rip off the bassline to I Feel Love.”
“I started out with turntables, and I progressed into going into studios with an engineer, not knowing anything about how to use the gear,” Garbutt adds. “I was just kind of picking things up as I went. Then when I met Jez, I bought myself an Akai S950, a little Korg keyboard and an Atari and started to learn Cubase.”
Despite confusing some corners of the music press with its genre spanning sound, Utah Saints made an impact both in the UK and US, particularly through its Kate Bush-sampling lead single Something Good.
“We're incredibly privileged, honoured and lucky to get it cleared,” Garbutt tells us, of the track’s use of Bush’s Cloudbusting. “She's never cleared a sample since, and I know countless times people have approached her. We've got to thank [FFRR Records boss] Pete Tong for that as well.”
“We did write a letter and gave it to our record company to pass on to her,” Willis adds. “We're not sure if that letter ever made it there though.”
Whether Kate Bush opened their mail or not, other notable names certainly took note. The KLF’s Bill Drummond described the pair as ‘the first true stadium house band’, while the amalgamation of rock and electronic sounds are acknowledged as early influences on acts like Pendulum.
Utah Saints also provided an unexpected source of inspiration for REM frontman Michael Stipe – who would later lend vocals to the band’s follow up album.
“Michael Stipe from REM did an interview in Mojo magazine, and he said that this album was his favourite dance album of all time,” Willis explains. “Because it had a lot of instrumentals on it, he used to put it on and then write his lyrics for REM to it.”
In The Studio
The album itself was recorded in the small Lion Studios in Leeds with engineer Guy Hatton.
“He was great for us, because we had so many influences. When we made tracks we chucked the kitchen sink in,” Garbutt explains. “We'd always rock up with these samples and try to make a lot of things fit into one track. Guy was brilliant at taking stuff out of it for us.”
“The equipment we had was pretty basic, really, because it was already expensive and it was all hardware,” Willis says. “At the heart of it all was an Atari computer. The reason that was so reliable was it had a MIDI in and out, so you got very little time delay.
“We had Akai samplers. The studio itself had an Akai S1000, which was a stereo sampler. That was a step up for us, because up until that point, we've been using the mono samplers – one of the S950 or the S900. Keyboard wise, we had a Korg M1 in the studio, and we had a Kawai K1 or K5. I think we had a TX81Z, which was from Yamaha.”
Another prominent bit of kit used on the album, for the track I Want You, was the Digitech Vocalist.
“[That] was meant for solo performers to do their own backing vocals, but we just really pushed that,” Willis explains. “We'd always approach things without reading the manual, and just push all buttons until something happened.”
Due to the limitations of the setup, the whole album was effectively recorded live to a single stereo output, with no multitracking to tape.
“We never used any tape,” Garbutt says. “Even now, people go, ‘Can I do a remix of this?’ And we go, ‘Well, you can. We might be able to find a mini disk with some information for Cubase, or for the Atari, but there's no stems. We didn't record anything to tape. Everything just came live out of the computer. All the MIDI came out of the computer to go into all the machines in the studio, and it was recorded, you know, left and right onto the DAT, and that was it.”
“Sometimes it would take three of us to make little adjustments as the track was going down live,” Willis adds. “We all had to get our cues in the right place.”
Utah Saints has recently been reissued on vinyl and CD, having been out of print since its original release over 30 years ago. The album has been remastered and extended including rarities and choice reworks by the likes of David Morales, CJ Bolland and Andrew Weatherall.
In our video interview, which you can watch in full above, Willis and Garbutt go into detail about the making of the album, the challenges of performing it live, and why it took them almost a decade to release a follow up.
The pair are still making music together, in recent years providing a soundtrack for the video game Final Vendetta, as well as soundtrack contributions to a variety of films and TV shows. They regularly DJ and host nights as Utah Saints. Head to their Instagram for more information.
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