Photo courtesy of THESUPERMANIAK
When I heard that Basement Jaxx were in town for a show at the Hoxton, I was filled with a ten year old's level of excitement. Probably because when I was first introduced to them, on—no judgment here please—those always popular Now Dance compilations that were the bane of my parents' existence. Now all grown up(ish), I jumped at the chance to sit down with Simon and Felix to hear about how their new album, Junto, is all about spreading good vibes and the butterfly effect, and what it was like throwing parties with Daft Punk and DJ Sneak when I was still learning my times tables.THUMP: Your new album, Junto, which will be released on August 26, is much lighter and less introspective than Scars. What prompted this very different feel to it?
Simon: Well first of all, we took a bit of a break before this album, at the end of 2009. We'd completed our contract with XL, and we'd done a decade's worth of album, going on tour, album, going on tour. It had been a great time but we really needed a break, and the idea of just going into another album blindly seemed too stale. So we took a break, saw that the musical landscape had changed quite a lot, and we decided to do some other projects, like film soundtracks and orchestral pieces—just really exploring music for the sake of it. Finally about two years ago we just finally felt like we were actually ready to do a new album. We definitely wanted to make it an album that was light, because our last album Scars, that was a lot more introspective and somber in tone, I guess we were a bit more world weary at the time. So we really wanted to do something that was looking outwards, to what's good about the world and how the world is connected, about the butterfly effect and spreading good vibes essentially. Also we wanted to make an album with tunes we could play in our DJ sets, because its actually been a long time since we've played our own tunes in our sets.How did moving studios affect the album?
S: [Laughs] Yeah, we moved studios, which seemed to affect our mood a lot—we had been in the same studio for about ten years with a leaking roof and no windows. The guys who were in the studio beside us used to make garage and drum and bass, and they'd be up all night smoking skunk and couldn't be assed to go to the toilet so they'd piss in bottles and then leave the bottles outside. We would come in in the morning, and there would be these bottles of piss lining the corridor, and we'd think to ourselves "Really? We're like, proper musicians, we're professionals, we've had hits, what are we doing?" So we hunted for a studio and wound up in one in King's Cross, which just had so much light compared to the one before. I really think that was a big influencer on how we approached this new album. After years in a dark studio, all the light and being able to look out across London, it's just so great.You haven't brought your live show to North America, is that something that you're planning on?
S: The live show is really almost like an entity to itself. There's plenty of people in England and Europe who come and see our shows, even if they don't own any of our albums, they don't know our music that well, but it's really its own thing so they come to experience that. We would love to bring it over here, but there are 24 people involved in it—it's a really big production. There has to be the demand for it.When did you start developing the live act?
S: When we were DJing in the '90s, and then when we got signed to XL they were like "right you better go live," it was weird for us as producers going live but Daft Punk had really set a precedent. It was just them behind a mixing desk with some visuals and that was all so new in the '90s, you know, that was totally different. And so we did that, plus a percussion player, some singers—we felt really silly just standing there behind the desk and we wanted to give our audience something or someone to really engage with, and to deflect the focus from us really. Now it's amazing, we've got wonderful costumes, great lighting, seven singers who are all such characters in their own right, I play lots of guitar, some keyboard, Felix does all the DJ bits and the mixing, we had a ballerina and a robot one time. It's really a feast for the eyes.Can you tell us a little bit about throwing parties in Brixton with Daft Punk and DJ Sneak headlining back in the '90s? How did that come about?
Felix: Well, that was '97, '98 or something, and basically I'd started doing parties in Brixton, because I would do them for free, and it could go on all night. First it was in this Mexican restaurant, then it was in the basement of a church, like the cellar, and I used to get this huge sound system in from Essex that was far too big for the place. Probably when Daft Punk and Sneak came, that was the third venue. That was with a friend of mine Fiona, her job was to get people, and my job was to get people to play and do the banners and the flyers. It was mostly our friends at the beginning, and by the time Daft Punk came we had been around for a bit, and there was a bit of a vibe happening. The music was very underground, I was trying to emulate what a New York club would be, and actually going there a bit later because I realized I was pretty much on the money I think. When Daft Punk and Sneak came, I don't think anyone got paid, they never did at that point, and the records would always jump—I remember Eric Morello came and he was DJing at the Ministry of Sound, and he wanted to come play our party cause he thought it would be good for his credibility—and he genuinely wanted to—and I remember him coming in this nice slick black leather jacket. He rocked the house, he was brilliant, and then we gave him back his jacket, completely covered in ash and beer and god knows what. We were just so apologetic. But he had an amazing time so he said he didn't care.Why were you so wary of the parties getting big?
F: It was when the Face Magazine did an article on us, because they heard what was going on, and I was really worried about the hipsters and the fashionistas coming in and seeing what's up then just moving onto the next scene in a few weeks. It was very real, the mix of people that had been there before that. There was just this raw mutual fascination of these weird groups who wouldn't usually be hanging out. When all of a sudden there were big queues around the block, I thought "Ok I need to stop doing this soon, I need to close it." I was just really worried, I was always very wary of the music industry, maybe it's down to my father being a vicar but I grew up to be a bit suspicious of like… the media, the music industry, TV industry, champagne socialists, I had a whole list of people to watch out for really. The time just felt right to move on.Want to read more about Basement Jaxx? Check out:Basement Jaxx Bring Their New Look to America This July
Basement Jaxx is Coming Baxx with New Album Junto
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Simon: Well first of all, we took a bit of a break before this album, at the end of 2009. We'd completed our contract with XL, and we'd done a decade's worth of album, going on tour, album, going on tour. It had been a great time but we really needed a break, and the idea of just going into another album blindly seemed too stale. So we took a break, saw that the musical landscape had changed quite a lot, and we decided to do some other projects, like film soundtracks and orchestral pieces—just really exploring music for the sake of it. Finally about two years ago we just finally felt like we were actually ready to do a new album. We definitely wanted to make it an album that was light, because our last album Scars, that was a lot more introspective and somber in tone, I guess we were a bit more world weary at the time. So we really wanted to do something that was looking outwards, to what's good about the world and how the world is connected, about the butterfly effect and spreading good vibes essentially. Also we wanted to make an album with tunes we could play in our DJ sets, because its actually been a long time since we've played our own tunes in our sets.How did moving studios affect the album?
S: [Laughs] Yeah, we moved studios, which seemed to affect our mood a lot—we had been in the same studio for about ten years with a leaking roof and no windows. The guys who were in the studio beside us used to make garage and drum and bass, and they'd be up all night smoking skunk and couldn't be assed to go to the toilet so they'd piss in bottles and then leave the bottles outside. We would come in in the morning, and there would be these bottles of piss lining the corridor, and we'd think to ourselves "Really? We're like, proper musicians, we're professionals, we've had hits, what are we doing?" So we hunted for a studio and wound up in one in King's Cross, which just had so much light compared to the one before. I really think that was a big influencer on how we approached this new album. After years in a dark studio, all the light and being able to look out across London, it's just so great.
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S: The live show is really almost like an entity to itself. There's plenty of people in England and Europe who come and see our shows, even if they don't own any of our albums, they don't know our music that well, but it's really its own thing so they come to experience that. We would love to bring it over here, but there are 24 people involved in it—it's a really big production. There has to be the demand for it.When did you start developing the live act?
S: When we were DJing in the '90s, and then when we got signed to XL they were like "right you better go live," it was weird for us as producers going live but Daft Punk had really set a precedent. It was just them behind a mixing desk with some visuals and that was all so new in the '90s, you know, that was totally different. And so we did that, plus a percussion player, some singers—we felt really silly just standing there behind the desk and we wanted to give our audience something or someone to really engage with, and to deflect the focus from us really. Now it's amazing, we've got wonderful costumes, great lighting, seven singers who are all such characters in their own right, I play lots of guitar, some keyboard, Felix does all the DJ bits and the mixing, we had a ballerina and a robot one time. It's really a feast for the eyes.Can you tell us a little bit about throwing parties in Brixton with Daft Punk and DJ Sneak headlining back in the '90s? How did that come about?
Felix: Well, that was '97, '98 or something, and basically I'd started doing parties in Brixton, because I would do them for free, and it could go on all night. First it was in this Mexican restaurant, then it was in the basement of a church, like the cellar, and I used to get this huge sound system in from Essex that was far too big for the place. Probably when Daft Punk and Sneak came, that was the third venue. That was with a friend of mine Fiona, her job was to get people, and my job was to get people to play and do the banners and the flyers. It was mostly our friends at the beginning, and by the time Daft Punk came we had been around for a bit, and there was a bit of a vibe happening. The music was very underground, I was trying to emulate what a New York club would be, and actually going there a bit later because I realized I was pretty much on the money I think. When Daft Punk and Sneak came, I don't think anyone got paid, they never did at that point, and the records would always jump—I remember Eric Morello came and he was DJing at the Ministry of Sound, and he wanted to come play our party cause he thought it would be good for his credibility—and he genuinely wanted to—and I remember him coming in this nice slick black leather jacket. He rocked the house, he was brilliant, and then we gave him back his jacket, completely covered in ash and beer and god knows what. We were just so apologetic. But he had an amazing time so he said he didn't care.Why were you so wary of the parties getting big?
F: It was when the Face Magazine did an article on us, because they heard what was going on, and I was really worried about the hipsters and the fashionistas coming in and seeing what's up then just moving onto the next scene in a few weeks. It was very real, the mix of people that had been there before that. There was just this raw mutual fascination of these weird groups who wouldn't usually be hanging out. When all of a sudden there were big queues around the block, I thought "Ok I need to stop doing this soon, I need to close it." I was just really worried, I was always very wary of the music industry, maybe it's down to my father being a vicar but I grew up to be a bit suspicious of like… the media, the music industry, TV industry, champagne socialists, I had a whole list of people to watch out for really. The time just felt right to move on.Want to read more about Basement Jaxx? Check out:Basement Jaxx Bring Their New Look to America This July
Basement Jaxx is Coming Baxx with New Album Junto