the man who turned down Kylie FUTURE PILOT AKA
SHE REDUCED Nick Cave to a pool of molton Vegemite, then persuaded James and Sean Manic to write her back into the realm of pop credility... Without a doubt, Kylie Minogue has a profound effect on otherwise stout-hearted men.

Not Sushil K Dade, however. This former Soup Dragon somehow finds sufficient hours in the week to create a series of inspired gladiatorial groove collaborations under the collective auspices of Future Pilot AKA, run his own Via Satellite record label, be a member of the BMX Bandits, and still hold down a part-time job because all the above activities pay less than the average income of the average salt- miner.

So, when the call came recently offering this veteran of the Glasgow indie wars six weeks honest tail and real person's wages playing bass for her Minoguishness, his answer was predictable.

"Yeah. I said 'no'. And I mean, I could do with the money!" laughs Sushil, lord of all he surveys in his humble one-room house/office/ recording studio. "But I couldn't do it. Kylie's beautiful, but her music doesn't touch me. I do have a lot of respect for her, actually, but from a playing point of view it just wouldn't be true."

For Sushil K Dade, truth presently lies in the international audio collisions between himself, as Future Pilot AKA, and a fecurd range of like-minded souls which shall eventually comprise the album 'Future Pilot AKA Vs A Galaxy Of Sound'.

Just from going to gigs and chatting to fellow musicians about what fires their lions at present, Sushil secured the services of The Pastels, ex-Orange Juice guitarist James Kirk, Brix Smith, Scanner and Cornershop's Tjinder Singh
among so many others that he's had to expand the original concept into a double album.
The interested parties may meet, or they may simply exchange tapes in the post, before Sushil sits down at his dub vending machine and out pops Future Pilot AKA's trademark rough-hewn widescreen symphonies.

"Ravi Shanker and Lee Perry would be my ultimate collaborators," he says, dreamily. "I'm just a a fan, it's what I love. Without collaboration I think there's no way forward for this particular style of music."

For his new single, Sushil welcomed US psyhchedelic legend Kim Fowley and, for a magical imterpretation of "We Shall Overcome", the Ranjit Nagar Corus from New Delhi. The latter's recruitment was especially unpremeditated: while taking the air one day in the land of his fathers, Sushil noticed a group of children clearly fascinated by the weird black thing on his head...

"I explained to them it was a Walkman and that it played music. Then I thought, 'It records too'. The next thing I knew these kids who lived on this road called Ranjit Nagar started singing me all these songs they got taught in school, one of which was 'We Shall Overcome'. They were unbelievable, they wouldn't stop! Iran out of tape! I could probably do a whole album!"

The crazy thing is, he probably will. And we should be so lucky.

Keith Cameron

The single 'We Shall Overcome'/ 'Night Flight To Memphis' is out now on Creeping Bent.

This article was taken from the NME 30th August 1997.
Both tracks on the single are extremely fascinating and deserves to be in your record collection. 7" only.
The single V's Meditation Rat and Alan Vega is even better than the first. On the Creeping Bent label.

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