Question 1:

Q 1. I would like to contact the band themselves. Is there anyway to get in touch?

Traditionally, Massive Attack are like most major record label bands i.e. no easy or direct way to get a message from fan to band. For official communication with the band’s management (such as things like bookings or PR) contact info[AT]westorg.com. This email is at the back of the 100th Window and Collected sleeve booklets.
Even though in this age of social networking websites, there are a few new ways you might stand a chance of being heard. 3D has a few online profiles out there, most prominently (even though, still somewhat of a secret) is his MySpace, which he uses primarily to show off his artwork, but where you may leave a comment he might just read, as he tends to log onto it quite regularly. He also seems to have a Facebook profile and Twitter account, but these do not seem to have much activity on them yet.
His bandmate, Daddy G does not appear to have any kind of online profile (probably because he is a self confessed computer phobic) and neither does former member, Mushroom. Apart from this, co-producer, Neil Davidge’s Facebook profile is located here and Massive Attack’s guitarist, Angelo Bruschini and drummer, Damon Reece both have MySpace’s, here and here, respectively.

Q 2. Where can I buy 3D’s artwork?

3D’s artisty received a notable bump in prominence with his paintings and designs for the U.N.K.L.E album War Stories, which marked his return in a big way to the art scene and established him as an artist on the same level as contemplatives such as Banksy, Mode 2 and Stanley Donwood. His artwork and prints are therefore quite pricey, together with only being produced in very limited quantities of between 10-50 prints typically, all of which are signed by 3D. The two art shops that deal primarily in official 3D art are Pictures On Walls (POW) and Lazarides. POW deals primarily in prints (which have a typically value of £275) while Lazarides 3D offerings are even more expensive with some one off hand painted canvases that cost several thousands of pounds. Occasionally as well, the odd exclusive 3D print goes on sale at another online known as Yo! Depot, which tend to be a bit cheaper than POW or Lazarides. Because of the very limited quantities, 3D’s prints tend to sell out very quickly (when the original War Stories prints went on sale on POW, they sold out within minutes).
Other alternatives to get an official 3D piece of art include trying the 2nd hand market such as EBay. Actually, for bargain hunters this is a good idea, as from experience, 3D’s prints tend to go for cheaper than their original sale price in online auctions. There are also two well regarded contempary art forums you can try and make a request on to see if anyone is willing to sell a 3D piece of art - Banksy Forum and Wall Kandy.
A sample of some of 3D’s artwork lies below. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image

Q 3. Do Massive Attack resent the ‘trip-hop’ tag? What exactly is ‘trip-hop anyway?

Trip hop originated in the mid ’90s in Bristol, UK, during a time when American hip hop started to gain increasing popularity in Europe along with the then well established House music and dance scene. British DJ’s decided to put a local spin on the international phenomenon and developed hip hop into a different style, marking the birth of trip hop. Originators in Bristol modified hip hop by adding a laid-back beat – Bristol’s signature sound in hip hop (trip hop’s predecessor) was characterized by its emphasis on slow and heavy drum beats and a sound drawing heavily on acid jazz, Jamaican and dub music. Trip hop took root in Bristol partly because of its deeply rooted sound system culture and its relationship with a black identity, which was characterized perfectly in Massive Attack’s 1980’s predecessor, The Wild Bunch.
The term “Trip hop” was coined by music journalist Andy Pemberton in the UK magazine Mixmag to describe the hip hop instrumental “In/Flux”, a 1993 single by DJ Shadow, and other similar tracks released on the Mo’ Wax label and being played in London clubs at the time. “In/Flux”, with its mixed up bpms, spoken word samples, strings, melodies, bizarre noises, prominent bass, and slow beats, gave the listener the impression they were on a musical trip, according to Pemberton.
As for Massive Attack’s personal opinion on how their music was pigeonholed with the tag trip hop was one of condemnation and apathy, but over time has led to acceptance of the tag at least for their earlier output, as a convenient way to identify their music to the media and new fans who rely on such easy genre classifications. Quote - Daddy G’s feelings regarding the nametag of ‘trip hop’ - “Trip hop was a stupid name that was invented by the media, by people like James Lavelle, just to describe their music. The whole thing about Massive Attack was that we always thought about moving and expanding what we are doing, so people imitate Massive Attack and call themselves trip hop; where as, Massive Attack move on.” [2TVE Interview - Summer 1998]

Q 4. Did’nt Massive Attack launch thier own record label, Melankolic a few years back? What happened to it?

The Melankolic label by Massive Attack was launched in September 1996, as their own personal pet project, which was to start a label to discover and mature artistic talent which had a similar style and direction to their own material. Many of the artists that were signed to Melankolic would be familar to Massive Attack fans like, Horace Andy, Alpha and Craig Armstong. Massive Attack espoused a non-interference philosophy that allowed the artists to make their albums in the way they wanted. Although Melankolic was initially launched so Massive Attack could continue working relationships with artists who had contributed to their own music (Andy is a regular guest vocalist, while Armstrong did orchestral arrangements on Protection), the label gradually started on signing musicians who work outside the mainstream but who they believe could be hugely commercial, given sufficient time and support. Artists like Sunna and Lewis Parker.
Quote - Massive Attack’s manager Marc Picken, who also helped run Melankolic for them - “The boys don’t only deal with the A&R. They have a hand in most aspects of Melankolic’s projects. Their real strength is being able to communicate on an artist-to-artist basis, in terms of both music and business, which most A&R men can’t do. We don’t want to sign some radio-friendly singles band because we don’t find that a challenge. We’ll leave it to the majors to discover the next Oasis.” [Dot Music Interview - September 1997]
However since around 2003, sadly the Melankolic label quietly became defunct and it’s artists were subsided into Virgin Records, with the label’s last release being in 2002 with Craig Armstrong’s ‘As If To Nothing’.

Q 5. What political causes have Massive Attack aligned themselves with? Are they percieved to be a ‘political band’?

Within the last decade, Massive Attack have become well known and documentated within the British music press to be among the most vocal of their peers when it comes to voicing their opinions on a range of hot topics, from anti-wat sentiments to the abolishment of music as a torture device. This increased political activism seems to have coincided with 3D’s more domineering position in the band as many of the causes he supports, he has used the brand image/clout of the Massive Attack name to have his political ideals advanced to a wider auidence. Before this, he was wary of getting to heavily involed (maybe for fear of not been taken seriously), but his friend, Damon Albarn’s Blur (who was already quite the political activist), encouraged him to get involved in 2002 with an anti-war ad, both he and Damon Albarn took out in the British music magazine, NME, protesting at the then planned US/ British invasion/occupation of Iraq for disingenuous reasons. The 100th Window tour was also partly used a platform to relay to the nightly audience at each show the depressing and sometimes horrorfying real time statistics of 2003 war so far. They have continued this theme of relaying information to the audience in subsequent tours; information like rendition flights across the globe to how much different countries spend on their military.
To get an idea of what other organizations, Massive Attack have lent their support to, just check down at the bottom of the left hand column of any page on this site under the ‘Massive Attack Supports’ heading. The two organizations they have supported perhaps the most recently have been the Hoping Foundation (for Palestine children) and Reprieve (for the humane treatment of prisoners globally).
So far, Massive Attack have mostly resisted the urge to blend overt political lyrics into their music, with the exception of Flase Flags, which was about the race riots in Paris at the end of 2005. Quote - 3D on why they have been wary of using politics as a direct musical inspiration - “There’s always inspiration in there but we’ve always been very cautious about how to write a song and a protest song is always difficult. When it works, it can be beautiful but when it doesn’t, it can be quite feeble and patronising or silly.” [BBC Newsbeat - June 2008]

Q 6. What’s this story about child porn charges being brought against 3D and then dropped in 2003?

An admittidly lowpoint in Massive Attack’s history at the time, but one in which 3D and Massive Attack recovered quickly from with little to no damage done and which is now largely forgotten about. The incident in detail was that 3D was arrested and questioned by police over alleged Internet child porn offences. Detectives seized computer equipment and a quantity of suspected drugs during a raid at 3D’s home in Bristol, UK on the 25th February 2003. The news of this would not break until two days later however. The arrest was made under Avon And Somerset’s Operation Ricochet, part of Operation Ore, the national crackdown on child porn. Quote - 3D said of the incident - “I have never looked at child pornography in my life. “I am co-operating fully with the police and I would ask everyone not to judge me prematurely. I have total faith in the justice system.”
Directly owing to 3D’s recent arrest and questioning on child porn offenses, the first two shows of the 2003 tour (both in New Zealand) were forced to be cancelled. Finally, on 22nd March 2003, announced all enquiries relating to the arrest of 3D for Internet pornography had been dropped and he was announced as being completely innocent. The reason why 3D had been suspected in the first place of child porn offences, was that his credit card had been used on one of these sites without his permission for a charge of only $4, but which was enough to have him questioned as part of Operation Ore, which also wrongly accused fellow musician Pete Townsend of “The Who”. It also did’nt help matters much that the UK tadloid, “The Sun” relished being the first to publish the story of 3D’s questioning (almost certainly in a police leak) and then failing to report of 3D’s innocence a month later.
Those are the facts of what happened, but they are some conspiracy theorists out there who believe that all of this was a carefully planned “stitch-up” against 3D to discredit some of his antiwar creditenials against the immenient Iraq invasion which along with his friend Damon Albarn of Blur, were among the very few UK musicians who were actively opposing the war. The timing of the release of 100th Window (a #1 chart album in the UK, increasing his profile in the media at the time) only two weeks prior to all this is also suspect.