TONY EDWARDS spends some time with the mercurial TRICKY, the Bristol-born onetime trip-hop god whose creative vision remains as individual and unique as ever.

Tricky owned 1995. His debut album Maxinquaye clawed its way to number three in the UK charts and NME bestowed their prestigious Album Of The Year title on him. Since then he’s released an album roughly every two years, consistently hitting the top twenty, and experimenting with sounds and styles that go far beyond the trip-hop tag that he’s worn from the beginning. Then came a gap after 2003’s Vulnerable, the five years we’ve waited for this new record has proved his career’s longest break from the studio.

The new album is called Knowle West Boy, named after the estate where Tricky grew up in Bristol, deep in England’s west country. Not that the entire album explicitly references Tricky’s childhood, but he felt it was time that his birthplace got some positive recognition.

 “The album’s just called Knowle West Boy because that’s where I’m from, and I’m proud to be from there,” Tricky shares in his thick Bristol accent, which remains remarkably undiluted by his time spent in the US. “People tell you not a lot comes out of Knowle West, but I managed to do good, coming from there. But the album’s not really about my youth, it’s just the name really.”

He’s been living partly in Los Angeles and partly in New York during the gap between albums, but insists the change of continent does little to change his music. It’s all just Tricky as far as he’s concerned. One thing that’s been affected is the range of vocalists on the label though.

 “One girl’s from France, one girl’s from Italy, two people from the States, one person from Iceland.” Some of those artists Tricky has come into contact with from running the Brown Punk label, a project he shares with Chris Blackwell, head of Island Records, which Tricky’s first album was released on.

“We’re not really doing anything [with Brown Punk] at the moment with it because I’ve got to promote my album. This album’s taken up a lot of my time.”

 Another thing that’s furthered the longer gap between albums is a movie that Tricky directed for the label, also called Brown Punk. It features twelve songs from a handful of Brown Punk artists, which Tricky then wove into a loose story. “I took the lyrics and used them as kind of a narrative, listening to the tracks and just visually seeing stuff. I made videos out of the songs. It’s one big music video in a way, but it’s all based around the lyrics.”

He appears briefly in the film, but it’s mostly non-actor friends and family of his that appear on screen, including his grandmother, auntie, and his brothers. The trailer for Brown Punk is quite dark, almost bordering on horror, but it seems that’s just purely for impact.

“No, it’s not really violent or dark, it’s quite funny actually”, Tricky explains. The films themes vary, but the recurring ideas centre around “different musicians struggling to get their music heard, and what people are willing to do to get their music heard.

“I’ve done a couple of music videos but I’ve never directed a film before. I find it really fascinating to watch people do their thing. It’s like watching TV. Especially with people who’ve never done it before. Some people I really had to persuade to be in the movie, they really didn’t want to do it and I’m like ‘please, do me a favour, be in the movie’. And then as soon as they started doing it it made me realise… everyone’s got talent. Everybody has got a talent! I found it amazing, it really blew my mind, when someone would do something and I’d be like, ‘I can’t believe they just did that!’ And I knew straight away when I watched it back that it was a great scene. I found it mesmerising just watching these people act and get really passionate about what they’re doing. I’m an observer so I love watching people, I found it an amazing time.”

 Tricky doesn’t see too many parallels between directing films and his musical output. “I think it’s two different sides.” One thing he does enjoy is the focus being shifted onto others though, the anonymity of being on the other side of the lens for a change. “I could kind of stand back and let them do their thing. The attention wasn’t all on me. When you’re doing music the photoshoot’s about you, the music video’s all about you, the press is about you. I found it nice … that it was all based around someone else.”

Since Tricky released Maxinquaye all those years ago the music market has become exponentially saturated. I asked the songwriter if he felt it was harder to get his tracks on the radio, to get noticed, just like the emerging Brown Punk artists in his film.

“I’ve never been a radio artist. My stuff is more like word of mouth and in the press. I’ve never got loads of radio. I think it’s a great time to bring an album out if you’re an individual. Everything’s kind of uniform right now. A lot of artists, to me, they all look the same, their music’s the same. Indie music right now is kind of uniform, so is urban music, everybody’s got the same sound. So anything that’s a little bit different, a little bit individualistic right now is going to stick out like a sore thumb. It’s a good time for me now to bring an album out.”

One of the artists on the label is Kira, who’s also featured on Knowle West Boy. Her own release is pencilled in for the end of ’08. “Kira’s touring with me, she’s going to be coming on the European tour, and then later in the year we’re going to start getting her some shows and stuff.” The Knowle West Boy tour will take in Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea, the UK, and then on to North America in September. The Australian leg of the tour has Tricky particularly enthusiastic.

“Some of the people that are touring with me have never been to Australia, so they’re really excited. Kira is going to come out to Australia and she’s never been. It’s going to be a really, really good vibe. Up until now I’ve just been stuck inside working, doing interviews, so I’m really looking forward to getting out on stage now.”

TRICKY performs at Splendour In The Grass, Byron Bay, this weekend. He also plays a much more intimate (and no doubt intense) sideshow at the Zoo on Sunday August 3 – tickets from www.oztix.com.au. KNOWLE WEST BOY is out now through EMI.

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