The promo for the first single Drifting was directed by John Clayton for Swivel Films. In keeping with the desolate atmosphere of the track, it was filmed in a derelict Victorian hospital in Woolwich, London. Alan was again involved in the whole process right down to the final editing itself. This was also the case in the production of a Recoil E.P.K. (Electronic Press Kit) - a promotional interview video. One part of this was filmed during a gruelling photo shoot with two of the collaborators on 'Unsound Methods', Douglas McCarthy and Siobhan Lynch, on what must have been the hottest day of the summer. VH1's Pip Dann interviewed both Doug and Siobhan at this time and later joined a production team at Alan's house and studio to interview Alan himself. Alan also returned to the studio to program and produce his own remix
of 'Drifting' (Poison Dub) as well as commissioning guest remixes
- in this case a version of 'Control Freak' by Barry Adamson and
Panasonic's interpretation of 'Shunt'. In November, he returned again to
the studio with P.K. to produce two new remixes of 'Stalker' and
'Missing Piece'.
A few weeks before the release of 'Drifting', on October 13th, Alan undertook a European Promotional trip, taking in 6 countries: Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Austria and France and covering 7 different cities. His first port of call was Stockholm where he did interviews for national and college radio, Swedish MTV, national daily papers, magazines and the major electro-fanzines. Copenhagen, saw him involved in a live internet chat for New Music United and a similar array of interviews. In Belgium he did a live interview for Radio 21 amongst the normal selection of press. Hamburg was particularly hectic with non-stop magazine and fanzine interviews, photo shoots and T.V. interviews all day. This was made much easier thanks to the beautiful weather and the fact that everything could be done on the terrace outside the front of the hotel - an added bonus that seemed to please the small army of fans who kept arriving all day to talk to Alan and ask for autographs. Next stop was Munich and after a full day of press Alan enjoyed 2 days just relaxing and even took time to wander around the city's biggest flea market where he managed to pick up one or two interesting bits of medical paraphernalia for his collection back home. He then travelled on to Vienna and finally to Paris where his schedule included a filmed interview for Club Internet which you can view at http://www.club-internet.fr Back in England, the press has continued throughout this period. For example, Alan was a special guest on the 'Sean Hughes Show' on Greater London Radio, he did major interviews for 'Future Music'(issue 62 October special) and 'Sound on Sound' (January 1998 issue) - go to: media to read in full. His musical expertise was also required by 'Time Out' magazine to review the singles in their Nov 5-12 1997 issue. Together with many regional articles and interviews, reviews of the album have appeared in all the major music publications. Add to this, several days of 'phoners with territories such as Australia, Japan, S.E. Asia and further afield in Europe, and you have the most extensive period of promotion ever done for Recoil. And the requests are still coming in. In the USA, where the whole process of marketing and promoting albums
is different to Europe, the album was released by Reprise a month after
Europe. Although Alan has done some press for this territory (including
a live 'phone chat for Sonicnet http://www.sonicnet.com), more is scheduled
to follow in the coming months.
View the 'Unsound Methods' E.P.K. | View the 'Drifting' promo |