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Skiddle Speaks to Groove Armada
17th May 2007
Ahead of this weekends Radio 1 Big Weekend Show, skiddle talk to Groove Armada about the new album, Radio One and live shows....
Starting with the new album – how do you feel it shapes up compared to your former efforts? Do you find yourself comparing the albums much or do you just view them more as separate entities?
I just generally think that you’ve got to view as separate entities every bit of work that’s got its place in time. I think if you compare them...it’s the best record we’ve made since ‘Vertigo’ – because that was sort of the iconic one that had ‘I See You Baby’ and whatever else was on that...‘At The River’ and stuff like that. I feel like it seems to be going down well with radio....we’re back on Radio1...we haven’t been on Radio1 for a few years. So it’s good, we’re enjoying it. We moved labels – we’re on a different label now – we’re on Sony BMG, which is not our decision...but it just feels like a fresh start.
There’s some interesting collaborations on there – Simian and former Sugababe Mutya – what was the idea behind these? Were they chance happenings or were they pre-meditated?
Well obviously they were mildly pre-meditated – they didn’t just walk into our studio and surprise us – but they were kind of like....Mutya had an album out around the same time, and it was kind of a record company suggestion, which was all good. But she’s a really nice girl actually – very straightforward. We did a gig with her last night and she had the smallest pair of shorts I’ve ever seen on...it was quite hard to concentrate on the gig actually! Ha ha.
But you just take it on track by track, and you try to get a sense in your head of what you hear this track as, and then try to pursue someone who will help you pull it off.
How has your live show evolved over the years? Has it changed a lot in the last 5 years really?
Yeah massively, it’s kinda of in a weird sort of way a thing that I think we do best. I think we make good records and occasionally we make very good records, but I think it’s the live stuff....I genuinely think we’re the best live dance act in the world. There’s people like Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers....I’ve enormous respect for the fact that they put on a good show but it’s not live y’know? And I think when it comes to reproducing music in front of people, no-one does it better than us. In this last year it’s just moved on...massively. Watching the launch party last night – I was just blown away. You get these little moments in your career where you try and get to a point and you don’t quite know how to get beyond it – particularly the live stuff. I got [to] that point last night and I think we’ve got to get our thinking caps on again. But it looks wicked, it sounds wicked, it’s got a lot of bollocks about it...it’s great.
You will be playing both live and DJ sets at Radio1’s Big Weekend in Preston on May 19th. Is it something special to you to be involved with a BBC Radio1 event?
It’s a great line-up, and that’s the thing with Radio1 – they’ve obviously got such ludicrous pulling power because they are by some distance the most supportive music outlet in Great Britain, and they get ridiculous bands. It’s the bands I would have loved for Lovebox – it’s like The Gossip, CSS, The Klaxons...mental. Totally ridiculous line-up there.
I have a love/hate relationship with Radio1 because they can sort of make or break bands and they are incredibly powerful, but the thing I like about them is that when it all comes down to it – they really love their music. I think when you travel the world you realise actually that this thing that the UK takes for granted is actually a fucking great radio station y’know? To have public radio as confident as that is good, ‘cos you don’t get it anywhere else. You turn your dial on in America and it’s pretty depressing
What was the idea with Lovebox this year? More of the same or a change of tact?
I think our basic vibe is to be vaguely known as a dance event, which sort of wasn’t really our intention, and I don’t really think that’s really viable anymore. I think people’s tastes are more “Catholic” than they used to be and people want to pick and choose from different places. So it’s just trying to make it a more inclusive thing – bring a bit more indie into it. We did a merger with the Barfly group who promote a lot of the Barfly venues obviously and they are doing a whole sort of indie tent on the Sunday, and it’s trying to sort of open it up to different tastes at the moment but sort of still keeping the danceyness and the kind of energy around the event. I’m really pleased with the line-up – I think it’s the best line-up we’ve ever had. It’s hard work – ‘cos you’ve got a lot of people who don’t want you to come to the party – but you’ve just got to try and do it.
Is there anyone you are particularly excited about having on the line-ups this year?
There’s loads of people I’m excited about. I love the fact that we’re doing this whole Brazilian baile funk tent on the Saturday with people like Diplo and Bonde Do Role – I think that’s just bang on and just the right time for it. B-52 ‘cos they’re a real coup for me ‘cos they’re just a very influential band and they’re much better than people ever give them credit for....Blondie will be a lot of fun....and there’s all sorts of great house DJs there as well like Switch and Felix da Housecat and Tiga...and I think it’s bang on.
As for Birmingham, very nice...Calvin Harris, Mr. Hudson & The Library, Jazzy Jeff puts on a good show...and The Plump DJs who are just always very high quality.
Why do you think there has been such a massive increase in the amount of festivals in the UK in recent years?
I think it’s just obviously a nice thing to do and I think it’s just sort of in line with the very vibrant scene that there is in the UK at the moment. I just think that right now...I can’t remember a better to be working in music.
And finally – we’ve seen Andy putting out quite a few single releases and remixes on his own – have you been doing some bits away from Groove Armada?
I’ve been doing stuff under the name Sugardaddy, so I’ve been doing bits and pieces. I did a track called ‘Love Honey’ that was on Turk and a few things like that. I’m not quite as prolific as Andy but I’m sort of working on this project with a kind of commitment to it, so it kind of takes a bit longer, so I’m sort of getting a band together doing that. I’m excited about it even though nobody else is!
If you want to win tickets to see Groove Armada live in Newcastle, then click here
Starting with the new album – how do you feel it shapes up compared to your former efforts? Do you find yourself comparing the albums much or do you just view them more as separate entities?
I just generally think that you’ve got to view as separate entities every bit of work that’s got its place in time. I think if you compare them...it’s the best record we’ve made since ‘Vertigo’ – because that was sort of the iconic one that had ‘I See You Baby’ and whatever else was on that...‘At The River’ and stuff like that. I feel like it seems to be going down well with radio....we’re back on Radio1...we haven’t been on Radio1 for a few years. So it’s good, we’re enjoying it. We moved labels – we’re on a different label now – we’re on Sony BMG, which is not our decision...but it just feels like a fresh start.
There’s some interesting collaborations on there – Simian and former Sugababe Mutya – what was the idea behind these? Were they chance happenings or were they pre-meditated?
Well obviously they were mildly pre-meditated – they didn’t just walk into our studio and surprise us – but they were kind of like....Mutya had an album out around the same time, and it was kind of a record company suggestion, which was all good. But she’s a really nice girl actually – very straightforward. We did a gig with her last night and she had the smallest pair of shorts I’ve ever seen on...it was quite hard to concentrate on the gig actually! Ha ha.
But you just take it on track by track, and you try to get a sense in your head of what you hear this track as, and then try to pursue someone who will help you pull it off.
How has your live show evolved over the years? Has it changed a lot in the last 5 years really?
Yeah massively, it’s kinda of in a weird sort of way a thing that I think we do best. I think we make good records and occasionally we make very good records, but I think it’s the live stuff....I genuinely think we’re the best live dance act in the world. There’s people like Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers....I’ve enormous respect for the fact that they put on a good show but it’s not live y’know? And I think when it comes to reproducing music in front of people, no-one does it better than us. In this last year it’s just moved on...massively. Watching the launch party last night – I was just blown away. You get these little moments in your career where you try and get to a point and you don’t quite know how to get beyond it – particularly the live stuff. I got [to] that point last night and I think we’ve got to get our thinking caps on again. But it looks wicked, it sounds wicked, it’s got a lot of bollocks about it...it’s great.
You will be playing both live and DJ sets at Radio1’s Big Weekend in Preston on May 19th. Is it something special to you to be involved with a BBC Radio1 event?
It’s a great line-up, and that’s the thing with Radio1 – they’ve obviously got such ludicrous pulling power because they are by some distance the most supportive music outlet in Great Britain, and they get ridiculous bands. It’s the bands I would have loved for Lovebox – it’s like The Gossip, CSS, The Klaxons...mental. Totally ridiculous line-up there.
I have a love/hate relationship with Radio1 because they can sort of make or break bands and they are incredibly powerful, but the thing I like about them is that when it all comes down to it – they really love their music. I think when you travel the world you realise actually that this thing that the UK takes for granted is actually a fucking great radio station y’know? To have public radio as confident as that is good, ‘cos you don’t get it anywhere else. You turn your dial on in America and it’s pretty depressing
What was the idea with Lovebox this year? More of the same or a change of tact?
I think our basic vibe is to be vaguely known as a dance event, which sort of wasn’t really our intention, and I don’t really think that’s really viable anymore. I think people’s tastes are more “Catholic” than they used to be and people want to pick and choose from different places. So it’s just trying to make it a more inclusive thing – bring a bit more indie into it. We did a merger with the Barfly group who promote a lot of the Barfly venues obviously and they are doing a whole sort of indie tent on the Sunday, and it’s trying to sort of open it up to different tastes at the moment but sort of still keeping the danceyness and the kind of energy around the event. I’m really pleased with the line-up – I think it’s the best line-up we’ve ever had. It’s hard work – ‘cos you’ve got a lot of people who don’t want you to come to the party – but you’ve just got to try and do it.
Is there anyone you are particularly excited about having on the line-ups this year?
There’s loads of people I’m excited about. I love the fact that we’re doing this whole Brazilian baile funk tent on the Saturday with people like Diplo and Bonde Do Role – I think that’s just bang on and just the right time for it. B-52 ‘cos they’re a real coup for me ‘cos they’re just a very influential band and they’re much better than people ever give them credit for....Blondie will be a lot of fun....and there’s all sorts of great house DJs there as well like Switch and Felix da Housecat and Tiga...and I think it’s bang on.
As for Birmingham, very nice...Calvin Harris, Mr. Hudson & The Library, Jazzy Jeff puts on a good show...and The Plump DJs who are just always very high quality.
Why do you think there has been such a massive increase in the amount of festivals in the UK in recent years?
I think it’s just obviously a nice thing to do and I think it’s just sort of in line with the very vibrant scene that there is in the UK at the moment. I just think that right now...I can’t remember a better to be working in music.
And finally – we’ve seen Andy putting out quite a few single releases and remixes on his own – have you been doing some bits away from Groove Armada?
I’ve been doing stuff under the name Sugardaddy, so I’ve been doing bits and pieces. I did a track called ‘Love Honey’ that was on Turk and a few things like that. I’m not quite as prolific as Andy but I’m sort of working on this project with a kind of commitment to it, so it kind of takes a bit longer, so I’m sort of getting a band together doing that. I’m excited about it even though nobody else is!
If you want to win tickets to see Groove Armada live in Newcastle, then click here
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