Morcheebas lush sound which is topped off by singer Skye Edwards velvety soft, soothing and sensual voice is like a warm bath. Its something you should surrender and sink into.
Coming to the fore in the mid-nineties alongside such artists as Portishead, Tricky and Massive Attack, Morcheeba helped define the trip hop genre with the mellow vibes and downtempo grooves of their seminal 1996 debut, Who Can You Trust. Theyve always refused to be confined by the tenets of trip hop however, and in the intervening years the UK trio which is comprised of Edwards and brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey have transcended the genre they helped create.
Though Morcheebas music is often supremely relaxing, its never tired, and their forthcoming studio album, the bands eigth, is no exception. While retaining their unique warm and mellow sound, and delving back into their hip hop roots, the new release, Head Up High, has a subtle yet invigorating upbeat kick something the band refer to as Morcheeba with a pulse.
On the eve of a string of North American and European dates, we caught up with Edwards to talk about the new album, which hits stores on October 14th.
NP: Youve been making music for 18 years now, does it get harder or easier as you go along?
SE: It seems to get easier. Certainly with this last album that weve done, Head Up High, it seemed to flow. We did a lot of talking beforehand, which wed not done before talking about what we wanted to do, talking about the tempos and the mood that we wanted to create. Then, when we got down to it, Paul fired over loads of beats probably about 20, maybe 30 different beats and ideas and then Ross would put some chords and guitar or keys on top of it, sometimes Paul would send them over with some keys on it, and then Id put a melody on it, send it back. Paul would write lyrics, send it back, so it seemed to flow. I dont know, maybe the guys will tell you a different story, but from my end it was pretty easy.
NP: Its interesting that you said this time it was easier because you talked about it before you went in the studio. I know as a writer if you sit in front of a blank computer screen and you try to write its hard. The key is knowing what you want to do before you sit down to do it.
SE: Yeah, exactly.
NP: This album seems more upbeat. Was that intentional?
SE: Yeah, it definitely was intentional to be more upbeat. Paul described it as Morcheeba with a pulse. He wanted it to have more energy. We talked about the type of tempos that we wanted and we knew we didn't want to write another Rome Wasnt Built in A Day [the bands most commercial sounding endeavor] but we definitely wanted something that people could move around to. We werent going to do dance music but there are a few songs that you can dance to. Well leave the dance stuff to the remixers I guess. So yeah, it was definitely intentional to be more uptempo, but it still feels like Morcheeba. Its still got a kind of mellowness to it even though the tempos a little bit more sped up.
NP: You described the process I take it you were working remotely, with files being exchanged over the internet?
SE: It was pretty much to begin with. Paul lives over in France and Ross has just moved back from Los Angeles. He was living out there when we did Blood Like Lemonade, that was all done individually. But this one, to begin with, lots of emails being sent through. Then, when it came to recording vocals and guitars, bass, piano, we got together in a studio near where Ross lives. Paul came over from France and we chose a studio just because Ross girlfriend was heavily pregnant at the time so he needed to be close to home, so it worked out really well.
NP: You have three children now. Hows motherhood changed your life?
SE: Well, I pretty much started my career and became pregnant around the same time. So hows it changed? Well the industrys changed? Hows motherhood changed? Well, Ive got an 18 year old, Ive got a 15 year old and I have a 5 year old.
NP: So your 18 year old has grown up alongside Morcheeba.
SE: Exactly. I mean when you said youve been going for 18 years, its like yep, everything goes by the ages of my children. They kind of help me to rememberI guess, like most parents, it's a bit of a juggling act being a parent and working. The hardest thing is going away really. When they reach school age, youve got to leave them behind and thats a little bit tough, but they seem to cope fairly well. Im the one who struggles the most really with being away. But then Im not really going to complain. I love what I do. I do like touring and performing and stuff, but if I could be in two places that would be ideal. Or if I could just be a teacher and take them on tour with me all the time, that would be perfect.
NP: What do your kinds think of moms career? Do they have any concept of how cool mom is?
SE: NoMaybe when they reach their 30s theyll think Im cool. Every now and then they give us a thumbs up. For instance, when the beats were coming through, my son who plays drums, he said they were sick. [laughs] I think that means he was quite impressed with some of the songs. And they were impressed that we were working with the Rizzle Kicks. They loved the rappers on the record as well. But were parents at the end of the day, so I don't think it really matters. Once they get older and become parents themselves, theyll give us the respect thats due.
NP: What kind of music are they into? And does it influence you?
SE: Well my sons into the Black Keys and Alt-J, and my daughters across the board from Rhianna right through to The xx. She streams a lot of music on Spotify and I go in with my iPhone and Shazam it
I don't know as far as influences go, I guess they kind of influence us, but, especially Paul who produces, hes got a good sense of exactly what he wants and how he wants things to sound. But he was saying he was influenced by dubstep, I think thats what his son was listening to. He took elements of that, which you can probably hear on songs like To The Grave on the new album, but we certainly arent going to turn into a dubstep [band] anytime soon, though I do love dubstep.
NP: I understand lyrically, you used William Burroughs cut-up method on this album, which is a technique thats been used by David Bowie, among others.
SE: Thats what Paul was doing. Paul writes the lyrics for Morcheeba, hes always done that.
NP: So you come up with the melodies?
SE: Im the melody maker.
NP: Thats quite unusual. Often when people write top lines, theyre doing the melody and lyrics together. So does Paul do the lyrics and then you figure out a melody for them? How does that work? Which comes first?
SE: Its easier for me if I do the melody first, and then he fits the words to it. The words came first for the track To Be which features the Rizzle Kicks, but most of them the melodies start first. When Im doing my solo stuff, as Im coming up with the melody, I try to throw words in there. Then I listen to it on repeat and its almost like the words appear, and then I kind of make sense of what it means afterwards. Whereas Paul, he would ask if I could not put words in there, because sometimes those words would influence what he was writing. But its the way that I come up with the melody, so sometimes it was difficult not to throw the odd word in there. But sometimes Ill offer stories. Under The Ice for instance, he was struggling with what to write, so he was asking for a story. I sent images, pictures of a frozen lake and a few phrases and he kind of came up with a story for that song. But he writes the lyrics and I make sense of them and sing them.
NP: So when youre giving Paul the melodies, do you just hum along to the backing track?
SE: Yeah, exactly.
NP: I guess that makes the process for Morcheeba very different from when youre doing your solo work, which is probably a good thing. It keeps the two separate.
SE: Yeah, exactly, yeah.
NP: Which do you enjoy more?
SE: I love doing the solo stuff and I love being in Morcheeba as well. I describe Morcheeba as the blockbuster movie and Skye, the solo [project] is like the theater, the play that I go off and do every now and thenTheyre both equally rewarding. Im kind of known as the voice of Morcheeba, and its nice with the solo thing to be more than just a voice. But at the same time, Im happy in Morcheeba to do the melody because Paul writes great lyrics. People say thats a bit weird, and I say, well you read books dont you? If its a good book, its easy to read. Its the same thing with lyrics. If theyre written well and its good to sing, you can do a cover and make it your own. Thats what its like really.
NP: Its always difficult with bands, especially when the singer goes off and does solo stuff. But you now seem to have reached an equilibrium youve done a solo record, youve done a Morcheeba record, youve done another solo record, another Morcheeba record. Is that the case? Has there been an equilibrium established?
SE: Well, Morcheeba is my main focus and then the Skye thing is more like a side thing really. Im going to continue to do the solo albums. Each time I do it, I think, OK, Im just going to do it and put it out there and see what happen, then things come through. Oh ,weve got a TV show, or would you mind going on X Factor in Italy, and would you go and do some interview in France and stuff. Its always a surprise to me that people know about it because its really such a low-key thing. But Id like to continue to do that and the guys are really supportive of the solo thing. Theyve come to my shows whenever Ive had them if theyre in the same place. Im really lucky that I can do both.
NP: One of the fun discoveries that I made when I was doing research for the interview was the tracks that you did with Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague. I absolutely love your version of Blondies Call Me. It's got this calypso feel.
SE: Yeah, yeah, That was really fun to do. I guess it was a bit of a side thing that he was doing really. He called it Hollywood Mon Amour and basically took songs from movies and put his French spin on it. And then also, more recently, with the other half of Nouvelle Vague, Olivier [Libaux], hes taken the songs from Queens of the Stone Age and got 10 or 11 female singers to do their versions of them. Hes done all of the music and then he sent us the tracks and we recorded them. So thats called Uncovered: Queens of the Stone Age
NP: Which track did you sing?
SE: I did 3s and 7s. Josh the singer, hes really behind the record as well. Hes a huge fan and he was really, really blown away by it when he heard it.
NP: The Queens of the Stone Age guys are awesome. Ive interviewed them a couple of times for SuicideGirls. You have some shows coming up in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
SE: Thats right, yeahThese are going to be our first shows debuting the new songs. Weve done a few in Europe through the summer, festivals, and we added about two or three new songs, so were going to be in rehearsals next week and were going to add probably about five or six new songs to the set and really change it up a bit. Then hopefully, our managers in talks with our booking agent out in America and wed like to do a tour out in America sometime next year, maybe in March possibly.
We really enjoyed the last tour that we did in America, even though it was freezing and the bus broke down and we had to stay in a little motel at one point because we couldnt get to where we were going. But we really, really do love touring America. I grew up on American TVso when I come over to America I get a little warm fuzzy feeling inside.
NP: What shows did you grow up watching?
SE: Sesame Street, Knight Rider all those kind of shows. Star Trek.
NP: How did you perception of America from TV compare to the reality of it?
SE: I remember being in New York for the first time, and seeing NYPD on the side of a police car and thinking, oh my God, its just like the TV! And I had to go to a hot dog stand and say, give me a hot dog with everything on it.
NP: So I take it you were watching lots of American cop shows too.
SE: Yeah, I was a bit of a tomboy. I had whats called a Grifter bike and I would take my mums empty cigarette packets and make myself a little CB radio and attach that to the handlebars with an elastic band. So, yeah, I was one of the cops.
Oh, T.J. Hooker as well, the Hill Street Blues, there were so many crazy cop things. Quincy, I could sort of embarrass myself going on about things I used to watch as then more of a teenager. Hawaii Five-0, its amazing how many American TV shows we had over here before we even had cable
NP: So when did you flip from playing cops and robbers on your bicycle to wanting to do music as a career.
SE: Well, music as a career, that was when I joined Morcheeba when I met Paul and Ross. They were really driven, Paul especially. They were going to be famous. Well, not famous, but they were going to be a successful band. I kind of joined their dream really. I didnt really imagine that I could be a singer. I did some backing vocals in a funk band before that but was quite shy when I met Paul and Ross. The style of music they were doing, the singer that they had, her voice was much bigger, like a soul singer I suppose, more R&B. So when they met me, and I was really shy and quiet, they changed the style and slowed down the beats to suit my voice. I guess Trigger Hippie was born from that, and then we kind of wrote an album around that song, and the rest is history as they say.
NP: And that was the roots of the trip hop sound.
SE: Yeah, I mean its funny, I did a few interviews last week out in Germany, and one of the guys was asking, how do you feel about being called trip hop. Ive always felt that we outgrew that title. Even on the first album we had songs like Col. It was just a string quartet and a vocal and I thought, how can this be trip hop? This isnt trip hop. "Trigger Hippie" definitely, thats a trip hop song. "Never an Easy Way" and "Moog Island" thats all like trip hop, but once you got to Big Calm, you had strings and it just didnt feel like tip hop, but I couldnt really come up with a name for it. I always say to journalists, its your idea to come up with a name and a style of music that we do. I feel like trip hop is a dated title. Ive grown from then. 18 years on, I dont know if we can still call ourselves trip hop.
NP: Well, with this album in particular, I feel youve redefined the meaning of the term. Its trip hop in a different sense, in that it combines 70s funk with pure hip hop elements.
SE: Yeah, yeah. I mean Im really happy that Paul got a lot of different rappers in for this record because there were none on the last Blood Like Lemonade album. He reads reviews, he reads lots of different things that people have said about the music that we do, and I remember him saying that people always used to fast-forward when the rapper comes on. So he didnt use any rappers, and I think thats part of the Morcheeba sound really. You know, on Big Calm we had Nosaj from New Kingdom on there, and I think we do have a lot of fans in the hip hop community, old school hip hop certainly, so Im really pleased that he got back in touch with the hip hop roots and the rappers on this record.
NP: Which of the songs on the new album are you most excited to perform live?
SE: Im looking forward to performing Release Me Now and "Make Believer" Im really, really looking forward to those. I just hope we can pull it off.
NP: I love "Make Believer" that has a real ragga feel.
SE: Exactly, yeah. I remember sending it over to my friend, like before there was any melody or lyrics on there, and she wrote back immediately saying, oh my God, whats Paul been smoking? I want some. Im really looking forward to bouncing around on stage to that one. So well see what happens.
Morcheeba are playing the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA on Friday, September 20th and the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, September 21st. Their new album, Head Up High, is released on October 14th. For more info visit Morcheeba.co.uk/
For more on Skye visit SkyeEdwards.com/.
Coming to the fore in the mid-nineties alongside such artists as Portishead, Tricky and Massive Attack, Morcheeba helped define the trip hop genre with the mellow vibes and downtempo grooves of their seminal 1996 debut, Who Can You Trust. Theyve always refused to be confined by the tenets of trip hop however, and in the intervening years the UK trio which is comprised of Edwards and brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey have transcended the genre they helped create.
Though Morcheebas music is often supremely relaxing, its never tired, and their forthcoming studio album, the bands eigth, is no exception. While retaining their unique warm and mellow sound, and delving back into their hip hop roots, the new release, Head Up High, has a subtle yet invigorating upbeat kick something the band refer to as Morcheeba with a pulse.
On the eve of a string of North American and European dates, we caught up with Edwards to talk about the new album, which hits stores on October 14th.
NP: Youve been making music for 18 years now, does it get harder or easier as you go along?
SE: It seems to get easier. Certainly with this last album that weve done, Head Up High, it seemed to flow. We did a lot of talking beforehand, which wed not done before talking about what we wanted to do, talking about the tempos and the mood that we wanted to create. Then, when we got down to it, Paul fired over loads of beats probably about 20, maybe 30 different beats and ideas and then Ross would put some chords and guitar or keys on top of it, sometimes Paul would send them over with some keys on it, and then Id put a melody on it, send it back. Paul would write lyrics, send it back, so it seemed to flow. I dont know, maybe the guys will tell you a different story, but from my end it was pretty easy.
NP: Its interesting that you said this time it was easier because you talked about it before you went in the studio. I know as a writer if you sit in front of a blank computer screen and you try to write its hard. The key is knowing what you want to do before you sit down to do it.
SE: Yeah, exactly.
NP: This album seems more upbeat. Was that intentional?
SE: Yeah, it definitely was intentional to be more upbeat. Paul described it as Morcheeba with a pulse. He wanted it to have more energy. We talked about the type of tempos that we wanted and we knew we didn't want to write another Rome Wasnt Built in A Day [the bands most commercial sounding endeavor] but we definitely wanted something that people could move around to. We werent going to do dance music but there are a few songs that you can dance to. Well leave the dance stuff to the remixers I guess. So yeah, it was definitely intentional to be more uptempo, but it still feels like Morcheeba. Its still got a kind of mellowness to it even though the tempos a little bit more sped up.
NP: You described the process I take it you were working remotely, with files being exchanged over the internet?
SE: It was pretty much to begin with. Paul lives over in France and Ross has just moved back from Los Angeles. He was living out there when we did Blood Like Lemonade, that was all done individually. But this one, to begin with, lots of emails being sent through. Then, when it came to recording vocals and guitars, bass, piano, we got together in a studio near where Ross lives. Paul came over from France and we chose a studio just because Ross girlfriend was heavily pregnant at the time so he needed to be close to home, so it worked out really well.
NP: You have three children now. Hows motherhood changed your life?
SE: Well, I pretty much started my career and became pregnant around the same time. So hows it changed? Well the industrys changed? Hows motherhood changed? Well, Ive got an 18 year old, Ive got a 15 year old and I have a 5 year old.
NP: So your 18 year old has grown up alongside Morcheeba.
SE: Exactly. I mean when you said youve been going for 18 years, its like yep, everything goes by the ages of my children. They kind of help me to rememberI guess, like most parents, it's a bit of a juggling act being a parent and working. The hardest thing is going away really. When they reach school age, youve got to leave them behind and thats a little bit tough, but they seem to cope fairly well. Im the one who struggles the most really with being away. But then Im not really going to complain. I love what I do. I do like touring and performing and stuff, but if I could be in two places that would be ideal. Or if I could just be a teacher and take them on tour with me all the time, that would be perfect.
NP: What do your kinds think of moms career? Do they have any concept of how cool mom is?
SE: NoMaybe when they reach their 30s theyll think Im cool. Every now and then they give us a thumbs up. For instance, when the beats were coming through, my son who plays drums, he said they were sick. [laughs] I think that means he was quite impressed with some of the songs. And they were impressed that we were working with the Rizzle Kicks. They loved the rappers on the record as well. But were parents at the end of the day, so I don't think it really matters. Once they get older and become parents themselves, theyll give us the respect thats due.
NP: What kind of music are they into? And does it influence you?
SE: Well my sons into the Black Keys and Alt-J, and my daughters across the board from Rhianna right through to The xx. She streams a lot of music on Spotify and I go in with my iPhone and Shazam it
I don't know as far as influences go, I guess they kind of influence us, but, especially Paul who produces, hes got a good sense of exactly what he wants and how he wants things to sound. But he was saying he was influenced by dubstep, I think thats what his son was listening to. He took elements of that, which you can probably hear on songs like To The Grave on the new album, but we certainly arent going to turn into a dubstep [band] anytime soon, though I do love dubstep.
NP: I understand lyrically, you used William Burroughs cut-up method on this album, which is a technique thats been used by David Bowie, among others.
SE: Thats what Paul was doing. Paul writes the lyrics for Morcheeba, hes always done that.
NP: So you come up with the melodies?
SE: Im the melody maker.
NP: Thats quite unusual. Often when people write top lines, theyre doing the melody and lyrics together. So does Paul do the lyrics and then you figure out a melody for them? How does that work? Which comes first?
SE: Its easier for me if I do the melody first, and then he fits the words to it. The words came first for the track To Be which features the Rizzle Kicks, but most of them the melodies start first. When Im doing my solo stuff, as Im coming up with the melody, I try to throw words in there. Then I listen to it on repeat and its almost like the words appear, and then I kind of make sense of what it means afterwards. Whereas Paul, he would ask if I could not put words in there, because sometimes those words would influence what he was writing. But its the way that I come up with the melody, so sometimes it was difficult not to throw the odd word in there. But sometimes Ill offer stories. Under The Ice for instance, he was struggling with what to write, so he was asking for a story. I sent images, pictures of a frozen lake and a few phrases and he kind of came up with a story for that song. But he writes the lyrics and I make sense of them and sing them.
NP: So when youre giving Paul the melodies, do you just hum along to the backing track?
SE: Yeah, exactly.
NP: I guess that makes the process for Morcheeba very different from when youre doing your solo work, which is probably a good thing. It keeps the two separate.
SE: Yeah, exactly, yeah.
NP: Which do you enjoy more?
SE: I love doing the solo stuff and I love being in Morcheeba as well. I describe Morcheeba as the blockbuster movie and Skye, the solo [project] is like the theater, the play that I go off and do every now and thenTheyre both equally rewarding. Im kind of known as the voice of Morcheeba, and its nice with the solo thing to be more than just a voice. But at the same time, Im happy in Morcheeba to do the melody because Paul writes great lyrics. People say thats a bit weird, and I say, well you read books dont you? If its a good book, its easy to read. Its the same thing with lyrics. If theyre written well and its good to sing, you can do a cover and make it your own. Thats what its like really.
NP: Its always difficult with bands, especially when the singer goes off and does solo stuff. But you now seem to have reached an equilibrium youve done a solo record, youve done a Morcheeba record, youve done another solo record, another Morcheeba record. Is that the case? Has there been an equilibrium established?
SE: Well, Morcheeba is my main focus and then the Skye thing is more like a side thing really. Im going to continue to do the solo albums. Each time I do it, I think, OK, Im just going to do it and put it out there and see what happen, then things come through. Oh ,weve got a TV show, or would you mind going on X Factor in Italy, and would you go and do some interview in France and stuff. Its always a surprise to me that people know about it because its really such a low-key thing. But Id like to continue to do that and the guys are really supportive of the solo thing. Theyve come to my shows whenever Ive had them if theyre in the same place. Im really lucky that I can do both.
NP: One of the fun discoveries that I made when I was doing research for the interview was the tracks that you did with Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague. I absolutely love your version of Blondies Call Me. It's got this calypso feel.
SE: Yeah, yeah, That was really fun to do. I guess it was a bit of a side thing that he was doing really. He called it Hollywood Mon Amour and basically took songs from movies and put his French spin on it. And then also, more recently, with the other half of Nouvelle Vague, Olivier [Libaux], hes taken the songs from Queens of the Stone Age and got 10 or 11 female singers to do their versions of them. Hes done all of the music and then he sent us the tracks and we recorded them. So thats called Uncovered: Queens of the Stone Age
NP: Which track did you sing?
SE: I did 3s and 7s. Josh the singer, hes really behind the record as well. Hes a huge fan and he was really, really blown away by it when he heard it.
NP: The Queens of the Stone Age guys are awesome. Ive interviewed them a couple of times for SuicideGirls. You have some shows coming up in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
SE: Thats right, yeahThese are going to be our first shows debuting the new songs. Weve done a few in Europe through the summer, festivals, and we added about two or three new songs, so were going to be in rehearsals next week and were going to add probably about five or six new songs to the set and really change it up a bit. Then hopefully, our managers in talks with our booking agent out in America and wed like to do a tour out in America sometime next year, maybe in March possibly.
We really enjoyed the last tour that we did in America, even though it was freezing and the bus broke down and we had to stay in a little motel at one point because we couldnt get to where we were going. But we really, really do love touring America. I grew up on American TVso when I come over to America I get a little warm fuzzy feeling inside.
NP: What shows did you grow up watching?
SE: Sesame Street, Knight Rider all those kind of shows. Star Trek.
NP: How did you perception of America from TV compare to the reality of it?
SE: I remember being in New York for the first time, and seeing NYPD on the side of a police car and thinking, oh my God, its just like the TV! And I had to go to a hot dog stand and say, give me a hot dog with everything on it.
NP: So I take it you were watching lots of American cop shows too.
SE: Yeah, I was a bit of a tomboy. I had whats called a Grifter bike and I would take my mums empty cigarette packets and make myself a little CB radio and attach that to the handlebars with an elastic band. So, yeah, I was one of the cops.
Oh, T.J. Hooker as well, the Hill Street Blues, there were so many crazy cop things. Quincy, I could sort of embarrass myself going on about things I used to watch as then more of a teenager. Hawaii Five-0, its amazing how many American TV shows we had over here before we even had cable
NP: So when did you flip from playing cops and robbers on your bicycle to wanting to do music as a career.
SE: Well, music as a career, that was when I joined Morcheeba when I met Paul and Ross. They were really driven, Paul especially. They were going to be famous. Well, not famous, but they were going to be a successful band. I kind of joined their dream really. I didnt really imagine that I could be a singer. I did some backing vocals in a funk band before that but was quite shy when I met Paul and Ross. The style of music they were doing, the singer that they had, her voice was much bigger, like a soul singer I suppose, more R&B. So when they met me, and I was really shy and quiet, they changed the style and slowed down the beats to suit my voice. I guess Trigger Hippie was born from that, and then we kind of wrote an album around that song, and the rest is history as they say.
NP: And that was the roots of the trip hop sound.
SE: Yeah, I mean its funny, I did a few interviews last week out in Germany, and one of the guys was asking, how do you feel about being called trip hop. Ive always felt that we outgrew that title. Even on the first album we had songs like Col. It was just a string quartet and a vocal and I thought, how can this be trip hop? This isnt trip hop. "Trigger Hippie" definitely, thats a trip hop song. "Never an Easy Way" and "Moog Island" thats all like trip hop, but once you got to Big Calm, you had strings and it just didnt feel like tip hop, but I couldnt really come up with a name for it. I always say to journalists, its your idea to come up with a name and a style of music that we do. I feel like trip hop is a dated title. Ive grown from then. 18 years on, I dont know if we can still call ourselves trip hop.
NP: Well, with this album in particular, I feel youve redefined the meaning of the term. Its trip hop in a different sense, in that it combines 70s funk with pure hip hop elements.
SE: Yeah, yeah. I mean Im really happy that Paul got a lot of different rappers in for this record because there were none on the last Blood Like Lemonade album. He reads reviews, he reads lots of different things that people have said about the music that we do, and I remember him saying that people always used to fast-forward when the rapper comes on. So he didnt use any rappers, and I think thats part of the Morcheeba sound really. You know, on Big Calm we had Nosaj from New Kingdom on there, and I think we do have a lot of fans in the hip hop community, old school hip hop certainly, so Im really pleased that he got back in touch with the hip hop roots and the rappers on this record.
NP: Which of the songs on the new album are you most excited to perform live?
SE: Im looking forward to performing Release Me Now and "Make Believer" Im really, really looking forward to those. I just hope we can pull it off.
NP: I love "Make Believer" that has a real ragga feel.
SE: Exactly, yeah. I remember sending it over to my friend, like before there was any melody or lyrics on there, and she wrote back immediately saying, oh my God, whats Paul been smoking? I want some. Im really looking forward to bouncing around on stage to that one. So well see what happens.
Morcheeba are playing the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA on Friday, September 20th and the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, September 21st. Their new album, Head Up High, is released on October 14th. For more info visit Morcheeba.co.uk/
For more on Skye visit SkyeEdwards.com/.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
fellonearth:
Sorry about the three-peat comments... There's no edit button, and I accidentally kept pressing enter to create another paragraph, only to learn that it automatically submits. I tried deleting the other comments, but I keep getting an error... Oh well.
nicole_powers:
All good. XoX