Basement Jaxx Interview

One of the greatest Dance duos to ever grace the music industry, Basement Jaxx are returning with their seventh album. A diverse mix that we have grown to know them for, ‘Junto’ features Japanese Taiko drums, a Paraguayan orchestra and an Italian Flamenco guitarist, making it an experience more than just a record. Anyone that loved ‘Romeo’, ‘Good Luck’ and ‘Oh My Gosh’ will be reminded about the duo’s talents with this newest release, plus a few surprises along the way. With anticipation and excitement surging through our veins, BBM were lucky enough to get an exclusive interview with Simon Ratcliffe to talk about the sound of ‘Junto’, contributing artists, the best gig they’ve ever played and his personal memories of Ibiza.

Hi Simon, how are you?
Great thank you.

Where are you speaking to us from?
Tokyo, Japan.

So what have you been up to whilst you’re there?
We’re doing the Fuji Rocks festival here.

Ah how is it?
Well we did the promo yesterday, then we’re playing tonight. So it should be good. We were in LA and New York last week, so it’s been a busy month!

Yes, sounds like it. So the new album is due out really soon – the 22nd August I believe, are you excited for the release?
Yeah, yeah – the feedback’s been really good, the vibe’s really good – a lot of people are saying it’s the best thing we’ve done, which is very nice. We spent two years working on it, and we’re just trying to do something that’s well, relevant, and that’s good for the world, and that it’s something that people want to listen to, and that’s fun. It’s stuff that we can DJ. It’s probably been a while since we did something we can play. So we’ve been playing it out, and fine honing and tuning it. We’re glad to get it out the way to be honest – as it was a lot of work, and a lot of time, and now we’re looking forward to seeing what the world makes of it. So that’s all you can do really.

I had a listen this afternoon, and it’s really, really great – I loved it, and you’ve put so many genres in there – tell me a bit more about that, and the influences you had for it.
Well, we’ve always done that. We’ve travelled around a lot, so we’ve got Japanese Taiko drums, an orchestra from Paraguay – these were kids who had nothing, and they went to the rubbish dump, they took whatever they could find, and they recycled stuff and made instruments out of it – and that formed the orchestra, and they tour it, they perform it around the world.

That’s amazing.
Yes it’s an amazing story really, and so they’re on the track ‘Power To The People’. And we’ve got an Italian Flamenco guitarist on a track called ‘Mermaid of Salinas’. It’s very global, it’s about the world coming together, and the power that each of us has to make the world a good place, and appreciating the littlest thing we do, it’s a knock on affect really, like the butterfly effect of making things good and happy.

So you worked with quite a lot of people, vocalists etc. on the album, interestingly you worked with Mykki Blanco.
Yes do you know him?

Yes, I do, I remember his stuff emerging last year.
Yes well he was probably the best-known person on here. He was supposed to do a second verse to that track and he disappeared, and I think he went off into the desert apparently. So that was cool. He’s probably the most known person and was also the only one we didn’t meet. With Mykki, we weren’t sure if it was a him, or her, some people refer to him as her, he was the one who came up with the verse, but he never followed it up.

So that was for the track ‘Buffalo’? I quite like that track, it’s pretty crazy…
Yeah it’s kind of like old late 80s Jungle mixed with a track from now, so we were sort of trying to keep the energy of Jungle and just update it a bit.

Yes that’s exactly what I got from it. And you also worked with Patricia Panther… is she Scottish? Because she sounds like a Londoner.
Yeah, yeah – she’s from Glasgow. Well if you listen to it again, you’ll pick out that she’s got a really strong Glaswegan accent. But it doesn’t always come across. The thing is with this, there’s a lot of people who are authentic, not that kind of X-Factorie thing, these people, we work with them, and use their vocals, and she’s someone who’s very sincere and believable. So she’s talking about love, summer love.

Yes, it’s a very uplifting song. So later in the album where you’ve got ‘Rock This Road’ that’s got a kind of carnival feel to it. Talk me through that, was that the sort of “togetherness” again that you wanted to put across?
So ‘Rock This Road’ we’re performing in the live show, and features the vocals of Shakka, he’s a young guy. I think he’s about 20. He’s been performing with us for the last year or so. A lot of the people we met are from friends, family, people we work with, and he’s a wicked guy. He’s a really talented guy, he’s writing music for a play, acting, and he’s got his own album that he’s been working on and he’s been a real asset to us really. And the song has some steel drums on it, so yes, carnivally, African influences.

It’s really nice. So do you have a personal favourite from the album?
Personal favourite? I don’t know – well I’m really happy with ‘Power To The People’ because we were working on it for ages, and it had so many different versions and incarnations, and for a time, it felt like we were never going to get it finished. I’m really happy with it, and I really enjoy playing it out. It’s got rhythm, the message is strong, and there’s a website called powertothepeople.fm, and it’s a place where we’re inviting people to come and submit their own versions of that song. They can do it as an entire song, or submit stems like the tracks needed for making up a whole song. One version that was done was from Paraguay and was translated into Spanish by this Paraguayan singer, and there was a lyric in our song that says “We’re all in it to get together”, and “together” translates as “junto” [pronounced hoonto] and that’s where we got the title of the album from.

So, obviously your career has taken you around the world, where would you say is the most memorable gig you’ve played?
Oh, Japan! The last time we played Fuji Rock, and there’s a festival in Korea called Jisan, which was awesome, just amazing. I’d never seen such an amazing crowd in my life. It was like there had been a music ban, and we were the first band they’d seen in a year.

And where would you say is the most amazing destination your career has taken you in travel terms?
There’s nowhere quite in the world like Ibiza. It’s funny I was actually nearly killed in Ibiza. I was knocked down by a car when I was three-years-old.

Oh my God!
I was in hospital for two or three months, in plaster up to my chin basically, you know, I smashed my leg, cracked my head, and it was all very serious, so I’ve had this thing with Ibiza. My parents would tell me the story with tears in their eyes about what happened, and I thought Ibiza is a dark place where I nearly went to the other side. So I was always a bit nervous about going there, but with the job I’m doing and the career I’m in, Ibiza was a really important part of its story. When eventually we got asked to DJ there and I was so nervous about playing there, I just had this really bad vibe about it, a fear about it, then I got there… and that all just disappeared, and I was like “this is just fantastic”. I’ll be honest, I’m not really like a clubber, you know, obviously I’ve been in thousands of clubs, but I’m not really someone who goes out loads and clubs loads, but in Ibiza I just love the island. You’ve got deep blue seas, green forests, fantastic food, lovely people, and you can just hide away. 90% of the island isn’t exposed, you’re in paradise, and it’s close to home. It’s only two and a half hours on a plane. It’s a very special place, and I love going there.

Thanks, Simon!

Listen to Basement Jaxx ‘Unicorn’ featuring on the new album, ‘Junto’

By Hannah Shakir