Underworld Look to Youth for 'Barking'

To endure a long career these days, bands are certainly faced with an uphill battle. If you're an electronica musician, the battle is steeper, even though the genre has gained more mainstream appreciation over the last 10 years. That's why it's rather remarkable that British electro pioneers Underworld, whose eighth studio album 'Barking' is out now, have stayed together and fresh for 30 years.

This longevity might have to do with their philosophy of looking towards the young, even as they age -- a rare feat for veteran musicians. 'Barking' sees the duo working with an array of producers, including, Paul van Dyk, Mark Knight and D. Ramirez, dub step producers Appleblim and Al Tourettes, as well as drum and bass artist High Contrast.

"We realized as you get older, you gain something and you lose something," Underworld's Karl Hyde tells Spinner. "If you move further away from your youth, you're losing a point of view. Working with these guys is infectious. It reminded us about a particular kind of passion and things we left behind."

Over the years, Underworld have seen many artists remix their work, with some new version better than the originals, in their opinion. "We had 20 years of people remixing our music and a lot of those remixes were really inspiring, but the frustration was, we wanted to have musical conversations with them but it was too late," Hyde says. "It was seen by a lot of people as only remixes, but for us, they were musical challenges. They were different ways people were seeing our group. Sometimes a remix would come our way and we'd think it was actually better than what was on the album."

For Underworld fans, this shouldn't come as a shock -- they've made sure that they've surrounded themselves with artists who work in an array of different media over the years (Hyde himself recently unveiled some new paintings in Japan). But as they've aged, 'Barking' demonstrates that Underworld is not only looking towards others for ideas, but specifically towards a younger generation.

"Youth has a lot to pass on," Hyde says. "There's a lot of prejudice from older people that look at younger artists and say, 'I've heard it all before.' There's a criticism of youth. Youth has enthusiasm -- it's not held back by any deep seeded prejudice, it's not tired. Proximity to people of different generations is inspiring."