Collected Writings
A guest post
Today I’d like to share a short guest post from the elusive producer Jonathan Wolf. The two of us actually grew up together in the Sussex town of Crowborough - highest town in the South of England, also home to Arthur Conan Doyle. Having gone our separate ways after school, we were reunited by chance in 2024 and began working together again. The Prey / LV / Ears trilogy is a direct result of that collaboration. The following text was originally published in Andrew Neil Hayes: Collected Writings (2017)…
I used to hang out with Andrew in his dreams. We’d do stuff together – play football, go swimming, cause trouble. I didn’t mind taking the blame because people couldn’t see me and it was fun to orchestrate chaos. I could tell soon after we met he was probably going to grow up and become an architect, or an engineer, or a town planner.
One day we crept up the bank of his family garden and launched mud bombs at the neighbour’s car. The man came out and shouted but we were well hidden and he only got more and more furious. He deserved it, what with all the stress his boundary dispute had caused. It felt good to work as a team, stirring shit up. The town in which we grew up together was nice, and I mean that in a bad way. No one uses ‘nice’ to describe something or somewhere that they actually like. What the hell does nice even mean? It doesn’t give me pleasure or satisfaction.
There was one incident I’m less proud of. Andrew and I were spending the day at his mother’s work, sat at her colleague’s desk. I suddenly got a dark idea that it would be funny to write a threatening note and leave it in the drawer of the desk. I dictated and Andrew wrote, “I know who you are and I’m going to get you”. The day after I considered telling someone it was my fault, but I never found the courage. A month later the police turned up at Andrew’s house and gave him a dressing down. I feel bad about that. We were just trying to buck the way things were.
If I am a black hole, Andrew is the sun. They do say opposites attract. We were always surfing the edge of life’s cosmic joke and I think he took that with him after I left. As Neil Young wrote, and Kurt Cobain quoted, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”. As far as I know he still hasn’t balanced the books, but he’s trying his damned hardest and I’m sure he’ll get there in the end.
There is an awful lot going on at the moment. In between the practise and rehearsals and admin and logistics and training and PR and caring and cooking and therapy and masturbation and social media and driving, he found the time.
Recommended:
Modulations - Cinema for the Ear
A really great documentary featuring a tonne of legendary figures responsible for the evolution of electronic music. Check it out on Youtube
Current and forthcoming works:
Run Logan Run - How Long Does This Last (Run Logan Run Remix)
First single from the final instalment of the Prey / LV / Ears trilogy! An RLR remix of a beautiful track my Samuel Fox fka Mossfellow. Check it out on your preferred DSP at the link here.