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"it wasn't like going to see ballet or an opera, it was more like going to the Royal Albert Hall to see an orchestrated ... mudfight! Pretty twisted, huh?" |
Roots Manuva
South London's Roots Manuva is back with his fourth album on Big Dada records. After admitting "I don't give a damn about U.K. rap/I'm a U.K. black/Making U.K. tracks" in his last record, Rodney Smith chose to go back to his musical roots: mythical Jamaican music from the sixites.
Mr Manuva, you're releasing "slime and reason" this summer, but when Awfully Deep came out in 2005, you weren't sure you'd release an album again, what motivated you to produce this album?
Oh well just because, after the last one came, I just felt like I had to do another one (laughs)! I think that working on the last album was like "oh, this could be the end of the story", but it didn't work quite like that. I was even more compelled to do another record, because I was surrounded with musicians that I was working with for the first time, and I was hearing sounds differently.
Did the tour play a part in your will to continue?
The last tour was quite successful in terms of making a noise, an individual noise, and approaching the live format in a different way, trying to recreate the record and not just replaying the records as they were. It was doing a live remix of the past three records. And at the same time we were improvising a lot and coming up with new stuff. It was the starting point for a whole bunch of new inspiration.
You did quite a long world tour after the last album. Any particular gig you remember?
It was like a campaign that lasted 18 months. We played at Sonar, some big London gigs at Somerset House. The band kept changing, we were constantly rehearsing. We also gave a huge show at the Brixton Academy, which is like playing at home for me. It was a bit of a riot. And a bit of a headache too! I don't think I'll ever play so close to home again because it's just too much hassle. Everybody wants to get in for free, everyobody thinks he's more important than the backstage area. and there was also a bit of a fight, a massive argument before the show!
On this album, as in the past, most of your songs are driven by their fat bass lines. Did you have a clear idea of how you wanted the album to sound like when you started writing?
All I wanted to do is to capture a peculiar sense of rythm and harmonics. I wanted to capture a particular movement of drums and basslines, as if the notes or the actual timbre or content of the instruments wasn't as important as the space between them. It was like trying to bring out a peculiarness, like say Phil Spector, or Serge Gainsbourg, very sophisticated and very beautiful. But it wasn't like going to see ballet or an opera, it was more like going to the Royal Albert Hall to see an orchestrated ... mudfight! (silence) Pretty twisted, huh?
Was this an urge to find a unique style that would define you, or did you want to express a certain groove you have in you?
It's just a basic feeling, and a basic want. The drums and the bass have been a part of music since the beginning of times. In African music, every drum pattern has a message, and it's actually talking and expressing moods. I try to lay that on an industrial soundbed, with a twisted time signature, that technically shouldn't be working, but still it works! It's right... because it's wrong!
For this album, you've mentioned going back to the roots of your music, and especially productions of Jamaican institutions like Studio One records..
Oh yeah, definitely! The over-processedness of it, it's all quite "in your face", and it's not about high fidelity at all, it's about the exaggerations, the overcharacterised use of bass and a strange use of percussion.. If you pulled all the bass out of these productions, you'd lose 75% of the composition! You can't take an single element out, it all sticks together! I remember an old producer, an old traditional English producer, talking about the first time he heard Bob Marley's music and he felt his sound was totally "inside out". And if someone told me today my music is inside out, I'd be very proud of that!
To create the peculiar sound of this album, did you work on your own? Are you the man behind all the production? What equipment do you use?
Well yes, all by myself for the main skeletons of the songs, and then with a little help for production from Phil Gordon who comes and plays live with us, and producers Toddla T and Metronomy. But the sounds are all coming from the "Witness school of one-finger basslines and basicness". I mainly use one laptop with Logic Pro, two Novation Bass synthesizers, an MPC, and an Akai 3000 sampler.
You've invited MCs Ricky Rankin and Mr Versatile on this album, after numerous prestigious colaborations. Was there an artist you enjoyed working with?
It was great working with someone like Chali 2na [from Jurassic 5], because as much as it was organised by the record company, it didn't feel like a forced collaboration, pushed by the label. He came and spent four days at my house in London. We smoked a lot, everyone came around, the house was full. And when time came to go to the studio, it felt like working with someone I had known all my life, it fell totally in place. Working with someone like Leftfield was impressive, it was the first time I had worked in such a big studio, with so much time to work on only one song! Every single element, every single note, every single word has to be in the right place..
Is there anyone you'd like to work with?
Oh yeah, loads of them! I'd love to work with someone big, like Björk, or Daft Punk.
Tell us a little bit about Big Dada, the label you're signed on, do you get along well with the other artists? do you feel part of a team?
I think when we see each other, it's all love, family and all, but our lives don't let us see each other much. The French band TTC, who actually left Big Dada, are guys I really like and admire. And they're funny guys. But I was most annoyed that their last album was madder than mine and I was like "wow.. they outweighted me".
You've created "Banana Klan Records", do you aim at releasing records of young talents ?
Well, young and less young. We've put out productions of Dawn Penn and Ricky Rankin, but it's a collective more than a record label really, as in contracts and royalties coming twice a year. It's more a bunch of artists that go to the studio an every now and then put out a 7-inch or the odd 12-inch. I'm just trying to use the platform that I've got to give them some attention. When we can, there's always 15 minutes in each Roots Manuva show when the crazy Banana Klan, whoever, join us on stage for a couple of tunes.
In the song 'Witness the Fitness', you mention the mystrious "Crufafftin Liveth". Can you tell us what this means?
Well I think the Cruffatin is everyone"s little monster, like the monster within us all, it's like a friendly monster. It's just a metaphorical motif for bringing out your determination.
