Burial: "My tunes were never designed to be heard by anyone"

Burial’s “last-ever interview”, which took place in October of 2007 just ahead of the release of his seminal album ‘Untrue’, has been published in full for the first time.

Conducted by writer Dan Hancox at his home in Tooting, the interview gives a snapshot into Burial’s thoughts on anonymity, dubstep and club music at the time, and how he perceives his own productions.

“My interview with Burial from 10 October 2007 was his last interview, certainly to date, perhaps ever,” Hancox said via Instagram earlier today, September 25, when sharing the interview. “Just 3 weeks before 'Untrue' came out, we sat down in my flat in Tooting and talked for hours.”

In the 3,000-word interview, Burial says his music “was never designed to be heard by anyone", adding that he first began making music for his older brother. “He was around then and used to go to those raves, and used to make tunes when he was young,” he said. “I wanted to recapture that lost sound for him.”

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When asked if his productions are club tracks, Burial responds: “No, they’re more influenced by when you come back from being out somewhere… in a minicab or a nightbus, or walking home across London late at night, and you’ve still got the music kind of echoing in you.”

“It’s pretty sad, but my music probably is just for moody people to walk across London in the rain to,” he says. “That might sound rubbish, but most of my experience in life has been exactly that.”

“I don’t really know how to make songs properly. I feel like I’m cheating almost, because I’m releasing tunes before I’ve really learned how to make them. I have the utmost respect for people who are properly technically gifted with their music, but I’m not that guy.”

Read this next: Film director Harmony Korine on working with Burial: “I never actually spoke with him”

Elsewhere in the interview, Burial also speaks on the progression of dubstep at that time, calling it “the latest stage” in club music, explaining: “It’s got that spirit. I don’t see it as independent genres, dubstep, jungle, hardcore — I see it as all one thing.”

“I think about it like that, I’m romantic as fuck about it,” he says. “I don’t like this idea that club music should be a disposable thing, that’s bullshit.”

Burial also notes how only few people knew that he made music during that period. On his music getting picked up at the time, he explains: “I couldn’t be at my job and just tell everyone, so I was absolutely buzzing, but I didn’t have anyone to tell.”

Read the full interview via Dan Hancox’s Substack here, and subcsribe here.

Dan Hancox is the author of Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World. The paperback comes out on November 4, pre-order it here

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on Twitter