Life lessons from Andrew Weatherall

It has been a whole year since the legend that was Andrew Weatherall tragically passed away, leaving a sizeable hole in the global music community. Often referred to as “the soundest man of music,” Weatherall’s legacy lives on and his relentlessly positive, inquisitive approach to life serves as inspiration to musicians and other artists around the world. Personally, I wish I had known more about him while he was alive but, as is so often the case, I find myself delving into his life and only truly appreciating his brilliance now that he is no longer with us. Below I have shared some of my most significant learnings about Weatherall and five life lessons we can derive from his time here on earth.

Lesson #1: “Fail we may, sail we must”

This message to keep on keeping on has a rather charming story behind it — in an interview with Dummy Mag, Weatherall spoke about a conversation he’d had with a fisherman who picked him up for a gig in County Cork. After recounting tales of being out at sea aged 18, captaining the ship in a force nine gale because the captain (his father) had broken his leg, Weatherall asked if there were days he woke up and felt he simply couldn’t face going to work, to which the young boy replied “Fail we may, sail we must.” This spurred him on to get the saying tattooed up his arm and produce the chorus for a track he had already written the crux of, which went on to become the opening track on his first solo album, A Pox On The Pioneers.

Weatherall went on to talk about his interest in tales of heroic rock and roll failures, saying it was as though these people had died for his sins. “The more they suffered, the more powerful the rock and roll voodoo is,” he stated. A Pox On The Pioneers was really all about the true cost of heroic failure and his own belief that he was going to fail, but that there was something heroic about that.

Lesson #2: Make decisions based on love, not money

There was definitely something heroic about Weatherall’s approach to money and fame; after producing over half of the tracks on Primal Scream’s Screamadelica, a string of other major artists got in touch, but he resisted the temptation to sign lucrative deals with them, saying, “I’ll only work on tracks I like by bands I’m into. If a band sound like wankers, I won’t work with them.” Fair play.

Making this decision to sidestep the fame that would have led him to become a household name like his contemporaries Paul Oakenfold and Fatboy Slim demonstrated to other artists that a fulfilling life need not be all about wealth and glory. Weatherall made music for the love of making music and felt that bringing careerism into art was dangerous because you start to make decisions simply to get higher up the career ladder, or “showbiz pole”, as he referred to it in a conversation with The Independent in 2016. “I had a little look in the early nineties”, he said. “I stood at the bottom of that pole and looked up and thought to myself ‘The view’s pretty good. But it’s very greasy and there are a lot of bottoms up there that I might have to brush my lips again. So, maybe I’ll give it a miss’.”

Lesson #3: Share your discoveries

Weatherall appeared to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and loved to share what he had discovered, whether it was about music, literature, history, culture or fashion. He spoke of how he would gather his friends in a room to listen to a new track because he delighted in seeing the look on their faces when they heard something for the first time. According to Weatherall, DJing in a big club was simply an extension of that. In an interview with the Guardian, he said “I think I’ve never lost that thing I had when I was 12 years old and inviting my mates round to my house. They’d all be copping off with girls and I’m going, ‘No, check out this B-side.’ I’ve never lost that slightly nerdy approach to wanting to share what I like.”

Despite having a healthy amount of cynicism, Weatherall remained enthusiastic about discovering new music right up until his death. In a conversation with The Wire shortly after he died, Shoom founder Danny Rampling reminisced about their time together, the inspiring conversations they had and the way they would spend hours sharing and playing music with one another. He describes Weatherall as an “oracle of knowledge,” who truly loved the spirit of Acid House. When talking with The Thin Air about friends of his who had dissimilar tastes, Weatherall said, “Because I was an enthusiastic proselytiser, even if it was something they didn’t like they could see that it meant something to me, so I’d try and share it with them.”

Lesson #4: Respect the basic need for transcendence

In that 2016 conversation with The Independent, Weatherall stated, “The basic need for transcendence is part of the human condition, and has been for thousands of years.” He respected people’s desire to dance for hours on end, recognising that what really appeals to us about dance music is the transcendent experience it offers. Weatherall openly talked about the ritualistic nature of Acid House, comparing it to an ancient Greek ritual that involves taking ergot, which LSD comes from, and going into a room full of smoke and coloured lights. “And then you have the Catholic Church and the thurible”, he added when discussing the transcendent power of music with Hole & Corner Magazine. “The incense and smoke as the light shines through the brightly coloured windows. It’s all about transcendence.’

Despite his reputation as an artist with impeccable taste, Weatherall was certainly not a music snob, nor was he a perfectionist when it came to mixing; his sole focus as a DJ was to make people dance. He also recognised the debilitating effect of reminiscing non-stop about the good old days. “I very rarely sit there and go ‘it’s not like it used to be’,” he told Crack Magazine. “I’m 50 years old, there are 18-year-olds getting the same joy of discovery that I got when I was their age and the same transcendence through music that I got. The means of delivery and style may have changed, but the human condition hasn’t.”

Lesson #5: Always keep an open mind

Weatherall believed the most important thing to bring to the studio was an open mind. He was not fussed about making hits — he just wanted to produce interesting tracks that would bring people together on the dancefloor. For this reason, he was unafraid to push boundaries and bridge genres, resulting in him introducing an entire generation of rock fans to the rave scene. He had only set foot in the studio once before producing Loaded, which he believed worked to his advantage, as he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. In an interview at the 2011 Red Bull Music Academy, he refers to ‘the confidence of ignorance’, claiming he used ignorance to his advantage. “I didn’t know I was breaking the rules because I didn’t know what the rules were”, he said.

It is clear that Weatherall was not interested in belonging to one particular tribe and had a disdain for the ‘uniforms’ that accompanied the different genres. He spoke about being inspired by Punk, as it broke down all barriers, but eventually a new set of rules was established and you were expected to grow your hair as a kind of badge. When the UK finally gained recognition for its rave culture in the early 90s, he chose to hold up Tom Waits’ Kentucky Avenue instead of a smiley face, as he did not buy into following trends. “I always want to be in a gang then I don’t want to be”, he told Resident Advisor. “I want the best of both worlds.” He also stated a reason he does not subscribe to any particular faith is because he believes in too much and sees beauty in all of it. When interviewed by Mixmag, Weatherall said the following: “Music goes in waves and whatever I play is just a reflection of what I think’s good at the time, that’s why it changes and I go through phases … it’s not fickle, it’s just new.”

A whopping 900 hours of mixes by Andrew Weatherall have been shared by his fans in the aftermath of his death. The Weatherdrive, which features studio mixes, live recordings and radio shows from between 1988 and 2020, can be found here.

Written by Milly Day

The Fail We May, Sail We Must graphic can be found on t-shirts over at Teepublic, with all proceeds going to musicians affected by the pandemic.

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Originally published at http://bestbudco.wordpress.com on February 17, 2021.