18 November 2009 (Music Interview)

Over the last ten years, London duo Basement Jaxx have become one of the biggest dance crossover acts in the world - as well known for their flamboyant live performances as they are their addictive floorfilling tunes. They've just released their fifth album 'Scars', which is probably their most eclectic work to date - featuring guest performances by Yoko Ono, Lightspeed Champion, Yo Majesty and Santigold, amongst others. I spoke to one-half of the band, Felix Buxton, about their forthcoming UK and Irish tour. They play Dublin's Olympia Theatre on December 8th and 9th. | Words: Lauren Murphy

Hi Felix, how are you?

Yeah, I'm good, thanks. I've just been running around with our percussionist, Ollie. We've been doing some training for the tour.

Congratulations on the new album - it's one of my favourites of the year, I think. Have you been pleased with the reception to it?

Thank you! Umm, yeah. It's been good. It's been varied, the reception, which is… I dunno. I think with us, we just carry on doing what we're doing. We've just been to America and we got a very good response there, and we just did some DJ shows and we're doing some promotion. So we're just kind of moving forward. With those kind of things, it's best not to think about it, because otherwise you start worrying and you rely on other people to make you feel good about everything.

You don't read your reviews, then?

Not generally, no. Well, I met Irvine Welsh a few years ago, and he said that he'd discovered one way to really deal with things is don't look at any reviews, 'cos you can obsess about one little detail that's wrong, and it's just not a very healthy mindstate to be in. So, from a few years ago, I've never bothered. I just take a 'do what you do, and don't worry about that' approach.

You've always been a band that thrives on eclecticism, but I think you really pushed the boat out with this album. Was that a conscious decision, to push it even further and get as many different diverse artists as possible involved?

It wasn't the plan, it was just the way it developed. I suppose we get bored easily, and that's why so many different styles came into effect. There was no plan who were gonna work with - except for Yoko Ono, that was our plan at the beginning. And the fact that we were in New York, we thought it'd be good to record with other people.

How did that come about? Did you know each other beforehand?

Well, we'd heard that she was a fan of our music, and I'd seen bits on TV about some artwork she's been doing recently, and there seemed to be quite a few parallels. I'd discovered her old track 'Kiss Kiss Me Now', and the words 'Just one kiss will do', and we did a track called 'Jus 1 Kiss'. Then we heard she did some interview in London, and the music she said she was listening to was Basement Jaxx. The artwork that I saw her doing - well, this ice sculpture in particular - it was really powerful and beautiful, and it seemed really positive as well, and deep. And I just thought, in a way, that's amazing, 'cos she's really had her scars and demons to deal with, and she's done that really well. And to come out of it with a positive mindset - I dunno, I suppose coming from the Acid House generation, there's similarities with the Peace & Love generation, I guess.

When it comes to collaborators, do you write the songs with certain people in mind, or do you ask musicians to contribute and then let them bring their own flavour to the song?

Well… with the Yoko song, I imagined that she was gonna be writing that song, but it worked out that she wanted direction and she wanted to know what words to do, so I ended up writing that, which was surprising, really. It all depends. With the Santigold one ('Saga'), I imagined that she'd write that as well, but it ended up that she'd heard a song that I'd made when she was coming into the studio, and she said she wanted to record it - so that worked out like that. And with someone like Lightspeed Champion, we were playing him some grooves, he wrote something on the spot, and then we edited his song. But it was very much his song idea.

So it very much depends on each individual collaborator, then.

Yeah, it does. In the past, the majority of the stuff we've written… dance producers sometimes get someone just to sing any old stuff over a groove, but we've never been like that, we've always written songs and it's been about more than just some vague vocals over a groove.

Just to talk about your live performances - you headlined Electric Picnic festival this year…

Yeah, it was great. The weather was a bit… (laughs). But people braved it and that was really impressive. We really enjoyed it, I think it's a great festival.

Your live shows always go for the spectacular - do you put a lot of effort into the live element, since there's less of a market for CDs these days?

I think it's just developed like that, really, it wasn't planned. I think with most live performances I see myself, I often find them a bit boring. So maybe we're part of the MTV generation, and it's kind of a multi-cultural, multi-media thing. I think bands nowadays can be boring, so I dunno… it's just developed like that. And because the songs have different singers and different vibes, we've made that come across on stage, really.

You and Simon have been making music together now for 15 years - does it seem that long?

It doesn't seem that long, but I've got a terrible memory (laughs). I don't know where the time's gone, we've just been really busy a lot. I dunno, I suppose it's like any relationship - you have to give room and space to breathe, and be an individual. We spend a lot of our lives together, but at the moment we're finished, and we go off to our individual lives and keep them quite separate.

Have there ever been any major disagreements about what direction the music's going, or have you ever had to compromise on anything big?

Ummm… not really, no. I suppose I've always taken a bit of a lead, and mapped out a direction for us - Simon's kind of happier to just do stuff after I have the bones of an track, I think. I'll have an idea, and he'll be more about the chords and the feel of it.

You're now classed as pretty much one of the biggest dance-crossover acts in the world - I know it's a bit of a vague question, but is there one gig, or one experience, or one moment that stands out?

This summer we were in Korea, and we'd never done a live show there before, and we had no idea what the response was gonna be. But we were quite blown away by the audience's reaction. We were headlining a rock festival they have there, and Oasis were playing on the Friday, I think, and we did the Saturday night, and we just had no idea what they were gonna make of it all. The song 'Hot & Cold', which is off our third album, and which is not a hit anywhere except Korea, where it's massive, got such an incredible reaction. So that was such a buzz. When you think 'God, there's all these people really into it, they know all this music, and it's on the other side of the world…'

Finally, as the decade draws to a close, where do you see Basement Jaxx going for the next 10 years? You've got a new EP, 'Zephyr' coming out next year - what can you tell us about that?

Yeah, we've called it a second album rather than an EP - it's 35 minutes of music, and I think it's going to be available for download at the same time as the UK tour. The mastering engineer who does our stuff says it reminded him of the stuff we did when we started Basement Jaxx - it has very much that original vibe to it. It's not for the dancefloor at all, it's more to kick back. We're really pleased with it, actually. We ended up doing that when we were making Scars - we did it at the beginning, then went to do Scars afterwards, because we just wanted to get away from having to do something as professionals, or for clubs - we just wanted to make some music. So that was good, we've been wanting to do it for a few years. We were gonna be a double album, and that was gonna be the second half, but then we decided to just put it out on its own. I think there's gonna be a physical release in January or February.

Well, we look forward to hearing it, and to your Dublin gigs, too.

Yeah, me too. Thanks!

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Basement Jaxx play Dublin's Olympia Theatre on December 8th, and a second date has been added on December 9th due to demand. Tickets are on sale now. 'Scars' is available on XL Recordings now.

Watch Basement Jaxx feat. Yoko Ono performing 'Day of the Sunflowers (We March On)' on 'Later with... Jools Holland':

 

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