Autechre

Live in Princeton, NJ, 6 May 2001

Biography

[INCOMPLETE]

Sean Booth and Robert Brown both met each other in Rochdale's graffiti scene in 1987. Rob notes that a mutual friend of theirs, Ged, first met Sean on a bus tagging and later Rob and Sean formally met each other to exchange graffiti files. After the initial meeting, Sean ended up going to Rob's house and getting access to Rob's tape equipment, leading to them both creating mixes. Both already had background experience in making tapes: Rob having made multiple mixtapes (Rob Brown's Ultra Rare Mixtapes) and Sean having done tapes since being 11-12 at his granddad's.

Name

The name "Autechre" was created by first typing "au" and then keysmashing the rest until the Atari's 8-character limit was hit. It initially came about as a track title for one of their demo tapes ("Autechre") before being adopted as their stage name six months later. Rob explained that the initial "au" came from a sample on the FZ10, which itself was part of a list of samples Autechre labelled as "au[insert descriptive]" for "vocal choir voices sustaining a single note" like oou. However, in a 2024 interview, they clarified that it wasn't fully random, but rather part of their naming conventions abbreviations, meaning that it was more akin to "oou-take-three", which would align with tracks like "Techthree". The current accepted pronunciation of Autechre, as the band itself uses, is "awe-teh-ker" (/ɔːˈtɛkər/), however they accept any pronunciation.

Trivia

Autechre Gear List

• Autechre's record deal with Warp Records supposedly states that both Sean and Rob are forbidden to release material under any name other than Autechre (or Gescom in select circumstances). The only exception to this is Sean Booth on 3. Telepathics Meh In-Sect Connection due to miscommunication, however Gescom's Horizon was almost also premiered under Sean Booth.
• Autechre used "MYSLB" multiple times, including an old MySpace page and a website. The name comes from one of their first tracks "Myslb" which is an acronym of its sample going "Make Your Self Look Bad".
• Autechre mentioned two major arguments they've had in a Clash Magazine interview. The first was in 1989 where Ged's tape deck got ruined due to one of their tapes, leading them to blame each other before settling the damages between each other. The other was during some live show in Japan, where miscommunication by Rob caused Sean to abruptly lash out at him.
• After a German festival got cancelled due to bad weather creating muddy grounds and flooding, Autechre alongside Boards of Canada broke into a trailer to steal champagne. After the raiding, Sean got so drunk that he tried to tackle Mike Paradinas – who was otherwise actively avoiding getting any mud on him – into the mud.
• During a show, Sean's vodka-covered hands caught on fire after his R8 went alight. His attempt to clap it out caused the audience to start clapping along, with some setting their own hands on fire "as some kind of tribute".
• Sean notes one of his greatest fears is "nothing."
• A few times during shows somewhere between 1996-2002, they compensated for their laptops failing and thus the show falling silent by letting a Minidisc shuffle sounds to fill the space, although Sean notes that the audience caught on quickly.
• During the early 90s "at a show by warp/mushroom records in AU", Rob became sick from the smart drinks given to him, leading to a situation where at the start of the performance he tried to vomit discretely into a nearby water bottle that he emptied. Unfortunately, due to it being a tiny 25cl bottle, it flew back out, hitting both the roof and his face - although the speed of it meant none stuck to his face.
• For "Gyroscope" off Board of Canada's Geogaddi, Sean provided the band with the samples of a child reading out the numbers from a number station.
• In an Interview with data.wave, Darrell Fitton (aka Bola) explained that after meeting Rob and Sean and letting them make music on his equipment, Sean challenged Bola to make a track similar to what they were making. After completing "Blipsalt", Darrel gave it to them, which they then was gave to Warp. "Blipsalt" ended up appearing as a track on Artificial Intelligence II.
• In the credits for Metroid Prime, both Sean Booth and Rob Brown are listed under Special Thanks. In an interview with the game's audio lead Clark Wen, he notes that at one point in early development, an Autechre song was used for a demo level while they were making arrangements with Autechre to compose music. Sean explained in the Sean Twitch AMA, July 2022 that they had contacts at a Retro Studios branch that were keen on letting them compose the soundtrack for the game, but it fell through after Nintendo got their own musician to compose it. Sean later confirmed on Mastodon that it was only talks and that no demos were made.
• For 808 State's Prebuild LP, it gives big thanks to "Sean and Rob who got the tapes out of the cupboard and set the project running." Sean elaborated later that they were bugging Graham Massey over possible unreleased material which started the project.