‘Keep going no matter what’: Award-winning Irish electronic artist Roger Doyle on legacy, vinyl and recording with Bono

Award-winning Irish electronic artist Roger Doyle says he will “keep going no matter what” as the composer readies for the 25th anniversary of his magnum opus, Babel.

In June, the godfather of Irish electronica will re-release the body of work, a project spanning a decade of composition, featuring over 100 pieces and almost 50 collaborators, taking listeners through a virtual tower of Babel.

Babel is just a drop in the ocean of music released by synth pioneer Roger in a career spanning decades, working with emerging technologies across genres to produce an immense body of work.

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A founding member of the experimental theatre company Operating Theatre, the artist’s track Spring is Coming With A Strawberry in My Mouth was recently covered by Canadian art pop icon Caroline Polachek.

The track was initially released on U2’s label Mother Records in 1986 after Operating Theatre were invited to record a single on the label by Bono, to whom Roger had given piano lessons.

“The expense was all U2’s because it was on the Mother Record label,” Roger Doyle told the Irish Mirror.

“And they signed up a number of bands, six or eight bands, to be on the label to support Irish music and get this stuff recorded properly.

“And presumably, we all thought [it would be] released properly but that second part didn’t happen. They did a beautiful A and B-side, in 1985, which cost £1,000 a day, which U2 happily paid, we were thrilled of course.

“I don’t want to be moaning too much, but they never promoted it! They spent all that money on it – and I’m not the only person to say that – other bands were kind of left stranded.

“We were at a disadvantage because we weren’t a touring band, we were a studio band. So I doubt we could have done Spring is Coming live.

“That was part of our problem, but the other part was that we didn’t get one radio interview. I certainly was not interviewed by any magazine or publication or on the radio or anything.

“With that muscle behind us, that clout, you really thought maybe I would break through with this super A-side and B-side, which were so fresh in the 1980s, Queen of No Heart and Spring Is Coming.

“Obviously, the thrill is that Spring Is Coming has survived and still is fresh, that’s the really nice thing. And with Elena López’s super singing and, as Olwen Fouéré said in a Facebook message this morning, ‘Operating Theatre lives again!’”

After the idea was sparked in his early days with Operating Theatre, Roger finally embarked on Babel in the spring of 1990, growing the collection of tracks until it had reached more than six hours of music, finally being released in 1999.

The release is often considered the artist’s magnum opus. Featuring over 100 pieces and almost 50 collaborators, it marks a journey through a virtual tower of Babel, with each piece corresponding to a room within an imagined giant tower city.

During the period that Roger was composing Babel, he did not release much new music, although Operating Theatre was active in performing avant-garde shows in unusual spaces.

“There was a period when I wasn’t putting stuff out because I worked for 10 years on Babel, but we were doing shows,” Roger explained.

“The theatre side of Operating Theatre was an active experiment with the role of music in theatre, so we were doing crazy beautiful shows, some of them theatre with no text at all, just music in very unusual spaces, like shop fronts and abandoned warehouses.

“So we were just kind of happy to, year after year, maybe to do one or two productions a year, we got Arts Council funding, which was the lifeblood of what we did.

“To an extent, I just keep composing, without really looking around too much, because if I stop, what’s the analogy… is there an analogy there? If I stop, everything collapses?

“People sometimes say, ‘Well, you know, has the public forgotten you or does anyone know you’re still active?’ Sometimes. Maybe it’s true, but I don’t dwell too much on it. I just get on with the next record. Every now and then you see me, above the parapet, ‘Oh, it’s him again, he’s still doing stuff.’

“That, to me, is the most important thing. Just keep doing stuff. You will fall in and out, people will forget you, and then they’ll remember you again.

“The best thing is just not to be totally forgotten. I mean, if I made that record in 1985, ’86, with Mother Records, and then you never heard of me again, that would be sad.

“That might have happened if I stopped composing. Even after Babel, which came out in July ’99, I asked myself, ‘Will I stop now?’

“The answer is absolutely do not stop. Keep going no matter what. Keep going. I’m reminded of that Samuel Beckett quote: ‘I can’t go on. I must go on. I will go on.’”

Roger’s magnum opus will be re-released in June on vinyl and CD, 25 years after it was initially released as a five-CD set. As the re-release approaches, Roger says his “heart is in the five CD set version”.

“I’m hoping for a CD return,” Roger revealed. “That’s such a vague, faint, faint wish, but that’s my favourite medium.

“To hold Babel in my hand, I was given one copy at the moment of the ultra Babel, double vinyl. I mean, there’s nothing quite like this 12 by 12 gatefold package. Beautiful. And it’s lovely. But my heart is in the five-CD set version!”

All City Records’ re-issue of Roger Doyle’s Babel will be released on CD and vinyl on their Allchival reissue label on June 20 at the Cooler, The Complex, Smithfield.

The new Babel re-release comes as a double vinyl ‘best bits’ 80-minute-long showcase, with the full six hours available with an individual download code printed on a postcard.

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