STEREO MCs
One Sunny Day in Hoxton Square

My interview with the Stereo MCs was a disaster from the start. I wasn’t supposed to be the one interviewing them so had very little time to prepare questions and working equipment. And of course, Stereo Mcs Nick Hallam and Rob Birch are fairly intimidating people, which did not help my ill-prepared self one little bit.

I showed up to the venue early, was wandering around in a daze, was introduced to the guys, was terrified of Rob as he has this perpetual expression like he could punch you in the face at any given moment, was left wandering with the guys for a quiet place to talk, ended up in the middle of the greenery in Hoxton Square, sat down for our chat, and none of my frickin equipment worked! Luckily Rob didn’t throw a punch at this.

Nick was very understanding – he was the main one responding to my interview questions… He was SO understanding that after the interview he said that if my recording didn’t work, I could take the liberty to make up the entire interview!!! GENIUS!

Turns out my equipment DID work, but fuck it… Nick Hallam said I could, so here is my made up interview with the Stereo MCs:

LLHG: So guys. What inspired you to get into the music biz?
NH: I always walk around the house with major AGRO, banging shit, like pots and pans and stuff so I thought, why not make some money out of this?
RB: *intense stare*

LLHG: Fascinating. So of all the people you’ve worked with, who were some of your faves?
NH: Beyonce. She was a class act.
RB: *intense stare*

LLHG: Who was your first love?
NH: Well, let’s just say that Justin wasn’t Britney’s first. Or, rather, Britney wasn’t Justin’s first.
RB: *intense stare*

Well, there you have it folks. Total utter nonsense inspired by the words of Nick Hallam and the stare of Rob Birch, collectively known as the Stereo MCs.
The real interview was more like this:

LLHG: *Very professional question*
NH: *insert totally sane, gentlemanly comment here*
RB:*intense stare*

Any Salvagable Audio Clips COMING SOON!!!

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GARY NUMAN
Mighty Boosh Festival 2008

From Right to Left: Me and Gaz


How can I not admit that I was shitting myself at the prospect of interviewing Gary Numan – the LEGEND himself. I kept putting it off saying I didn’t mind waiting until the end of the journalist queue for my interview, trying to go over all of the research I had done about him over the past few days in preparation for our chat. After all, I didn’t want to seem clueless about his epic past, even though I was only aware of dribs n drabs before my date with Google.

The music speaks for itself. His most famous hit Cars is recognized all over the world nearly 30 years after its release. He’s been sampled numerous times by everyone from the Sugababes to Basement Jaxx to who knows who else. He’s also influenced some top artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Beck, Dave Grohl, and countless others. He’s also mentioned rather fondly as well as frequently by Noel Fielding’s Vince Noir on the Mighty Boosh. He’s used to this affectionate fan behaviour as his loyal fanbase call themselves Numanoids.

He’s rather modest about the whole LEGEND status and Numanoid following. He is genuinely flattered by all the attention he gets and cites Noel and fellow admirer Trent Reznor mutual influences as he’s a fan of them as much as they’re fans of his! LEGEND!!!

On the BOOSH attention, Gaz says, “The thing that’s lovely about it is that I am genuinely a fan and I saw the first ever… I actually saw Noel do standup about 2 years before I even knew about the boosh… so I was actually a fan of him before I even knew who he was… Then the boosh came along and I started to get mentioned on it and I just thought HOW COOL IS THAT!”

Is he the nicest rock star ever or what!!?

Anyway, discussing what he thought of those artists that cite him as an influence but copy his sounds rather than his early pop-modernist attitude, he again was just grateful for the attention and the adoration and does not take his success for granted whatsoever. Especially when Trent Reznor told him that he was the reason that he ever got into keyboards in the first place, Gary was just flattered as he was a huge Nine Inch Nails fan!

I didn’t get a chance to get onto the topic of his aviation skills (the man has a pilot’s license! LEGEND!), but I did get to geek it up a bit and ask him how the evolution of technology has affected his music writing process. Gary believes one must learn discipline otherwise it would take 10 years to make an album playing with all the toys now readily available. In some ways he envies guitar bands as he feels it must be ‘easier’ for them to just nail their sounds.

I didn’t have time to ask our usual One Word to Sum You Up question, so I am taking the liberty of deciding that it’s LEGEND

www.numan.co.uk


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Robots in Disguise
THE TRIALS OF THE ROBOTS
The Mighty Boosh Festival 2008

The Robots put on their Geil (HORNY) faces for the camera

Girl duo Robots in Disguise are probably known better for their Mighty Boosh association than their music. But with some great electro tunes in the vein of Chicks on Speed or Peaches, I doubt things will be that way forever for Robots in Disguise.

While guest appearing on Mighty Boosh (Dee Plume dates Noel Fielding!) has exposed them to a wider audience, the gals still find it stressful being in the music biz as their autobiographical single We’re In the Music Biz may allude to. Dee Plume and Sue Denim have been around for years and of course being 2 girls, they have experienced sexism firsthand in the cock-rock dominated music industry.

“GET ON THE FUCKING STAGE AND PLAY” is some of the abuse they’ve gotten from ‘macho’ sound engineers. “Yeah you’re girls, who do you think you are? The music industry is still really about boys. There are just loads of girls coming to our gigs and I feel like we’re doing something important for them.”

I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with the Robots, but I got the impression that they’re slightly ADD jumping from one topic to another, breaking into song and sporadically admiring my watch. Full of energy, hyper, fun-loving good people who are coming up to nearly 10 years in the music biz because they genuinely love what they do and are not in it for the money, or lack of in their case.

Sue currently lives in Berlin with their drummer, one reason being that she can’t afford to live in London. She has a “good quality of life out there in Berlin as an ex pat” with rent a mere 200 euros per month. Berlin is like a bigger Shoreditch in their eyes. A huge music scene including their idol Peaches who they desperately want as producer on their next album… They promised they would be asking her that day while she was on site to perform a DJ set! Let us know how it went girls!!!

Even though Dee and Sue live in different cities, they still manage to work well together. Many of their songs were written over the past few years and Dee went to live in Berlin for three months while making the last album.

When asked our usual tormenting question of one word to sum them up, after much debate, the word is… (drum roll please) Geil – the German word for HORNY!

www.robotsindisguise.co.uk

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Jack Penate
Bestival
September 2007

Jack Penate is not what you think he is. He’s not just another pretty boy on the London scene; he’s not just another version of Lily Allen, Kate Nash or Jamie T. He seems to abhor fame and the fact that he shared an NME cover with Kate Nash leading people to pigeonhole him by association, therefore misjudge him as his music is nothing like hers except for the fact that he has a vague London accent.

Jack as a person is quite different to Jack as a musician. Musically he can often come across as harsh or self-proclaimed ‘simple’ as many of his musical influences have been derived from ska and soul among other genres. Personally he seems thoughtful, easy-going, genuinely concerned that I might have lost my Ipod on the ferry ride over (I didn’t, don’t worry) and a happy individual. And why shouldn’t he be with his debut album breaking the charts and him loving every minute of it!

Excited yet nervous to play Bestival, Jack has worked his way up from trying to entertain crowds of 10 people, to holding his own on a festival stage. He’s still down to earth enough to let the paranoia of a potential lack of audience get to him. Lucky for us he realises that it’s worth that risk in exchange for the possibility that he might make a new fan or two in the crowd.

With witty analogies comparing studio recording and live recording to writing a play and being an actor, Jack creates music for his sanity, as it is his emotional outlet. With soulful and ‘simple’ music, a thoughtful manner and raw geniality, Jack Penate has won me over.

One word to sum him up? Non-cynical. He is one happy chap indeed!

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The Sounds
Roskilde Festival
July 2007

Yes, he is winking at us

I’m rather ashamed to admit it now that I’ve seen them in action, but I’d never heard of The Sounds before this year’s Roskilde festival. Well, someone’s been missing out because they’re pretty fucking cool. Hot front-woman Maja rocks the Annie Lennox-style androgyny and has a belting voice. And, as much as the band may deny their 80s influences, they can do a power ballad better than Berlin can (quite well). Not to mention the synths.

We met Sounds drummer Fredrik for a chat at Roskilde on the Friday (the ONLY day it didn’t rain). Here’s what he had to say for himself, more or less:

How did you guys first meet?
We’re all from a pretty small town in Sweden (Helsingborg). Johan (bass) and Felix (guitar) knew each other when they were kids, they played soccer or something together. Years later, me and Johan were living in the same neighbourhood and he asked me to be in the band. Maja and Felix went to the same art school so he asked her to be in the band. A year later we met Jesper (synths) at a festival in Sweden. That was in 1999.

How has your sound changed over the years?
In the beginning, when you don’t know how to write songs that well, you focus more on making a whole lot of noise. I think we’re becoming better and better at songwriting. We know much more what we want these days, especially in the studio. In the beginning we knew how to play live, but we didn’t really know what we were doing in the studio. We had to put our trust in the people working with us, but they didn’t always have the same vision of how we were going to sound. But these days we’re much more in control.

Your first album was recorded in Sweden and your second in America. What were the differences?
Well, they were two totally different records. Recording the first album was quite easy – all the songs were written and played over 100 times live. But for the second album we spent three months in the studio just doing stuff because we didn’t have 100 shows behind us. Also, the first time we were in a much smaller studio. No one wants to spend any money on a band no one’s heard about.

Why do you think you’ve achieved such popularity in America? (The band feature on the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack and played at Bam Margera’s wedding. Random!)
For a year and a half we devoted all our time to playing in America. Most Sweden bands go to America and play a couple of shows, but we kept going and going.

How do you feel about being labelled New Wave?
Well, we don’t really agree with that label, but that’s what the media does – puts things into boxes. We wouldn’t say our sound was really 80s – we have so many influences, we listen to a lot of reggae and stuff.

With music downloads being at the forefront of the industry, do you feel the pressure to make each song a single?
No, I think digital music is good for bands to get exposure and develop their fanbase. But people get bored and will want something new. Our next album will definitely be an 'album'.

If you could describe The Sounds in one word?
Snacks.

www.the-sounds.com

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Jazzy Jeff
May 2007
By Tom

Jazzy Jeff – or to give him his proper, post-legal battle with Jazzy Jeff of Funky Four Plus One fame title, DJ Jazzy Jeff – is difficult to know how to approach. He’s the man who used to have such a reputation on the Philadelphia hip hop scene that, by all accounts, Will Smith used to get bottled off stage because the headnodders wanted to trainspot Jeff creating the transformer scratch. He’s the man who made my 21st birthday such a good night for dancing I forgot to get blind drunk and earn a spot on Britain’s Most Pissed and Incapable. He’s also the man who most people only really know as the comic foil that routinely enraged Uncle Phil and caused Jeffrey’s eyes to roll skywards.

In short, a phenomenally talented DJ and turntablist who became a household name for reasons entirely unconnected to his most apparent skills. Speaking to Jeff, it becomes immediately apparent that he subscribes to the classic KRS-1 maxim, ‘Rap is something you do/Hip hop is something you live.’ He’s deeply frustrated with the current US rap scene. As far as he’s concerned the rap industry is now just that – a business like any other, that identifies its target audience, markets viciously, sorts out the post-product merchandising opportunities, does the beancounting on tour revenues, and wonders as an afterthought whether they’ve got an ex-drug dealer with a vague vocal co-ordination to hang it all on.

Jeff’s mission with new album The Return of the Magnificent has been to ‘take it back to momma’s basement’. If you listen to any of the tunes, it’s clear that they’re full of the old-school scratching style and jazz breaks that hip hop was built on. It’s no coincidence that Jeff is quick to namecheck Gangstarr’s master producer DJ Premier when talking about other DJs that have become fed up with the US’s demand for gangsterism and decamped to Europe to find an appreciative market.

But he hasn’t come to England just to peddle US hip hop to Brits though. Jeff’s quick to bemoan the fact that people like Dizzee Rascal and Ty who’ve got ‘crazy energy’ aren’t making it over in the US, but says that they always go down well when he plays them stateside.

Looking over my back-of-an-envelope notes and questions it becomes quickly apparent that most of the questions I asked Jeff during our brief chat were ones that were always going to elicit negative responses about the state of US hip-hop. But you can’t help thinking that if they were more people like Jeff out there, trying to make people move to a dancefloor rather than figuring out just how many words they can rhyme with gun, then he would have had much more to be positive about.

The Return of the Magnificent is out now.

www.djjazzyjeff.com

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