Onze laatste liverecensie.
Onze laatste albumrecensie.
Ons laatste interview.
Onze laatste video.
What can we expect from the new album?
"Jake: It's quite different, we've been making a few bold steps. We've made a song with a singer called Wildflower, that's new for us. And we've also been making our own samples, with the Herbaliser Band. What's also new is that Ollie came up with the title, 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', even before we started working on the album. We've used it as a sort of framework."
Who is 'Wildflower'?
"She had a song on the last Roots Manuva album, the song was called 'Baptism'. There's a whole tradition of female rappers and we've always wanted to work with one. When we heard that song we thought she would be perfect. We've worked with a lot of rappers for this album, and it's a mixture of UK rappers and American rappers. We've got Raaka Iriscience (Dilated People), Seaming To (Homelife), Phi Life Cypher, Blade and MF Doom (KMD). But there are also a lot of instrumentals on the album. We get a lot of inspiration from soundtrack composers and those instrumentals can easily be used for any documentary of series."
You said you've been making your own samples. Is that the next logical step for Herbaliser?
"On the previous albums about fifty percent of the material were samples and the other fifty percent was life stuff. On this album it's eighty percent life stuff and only twenty percent samples. It's not like we don't consider sampling to be a challenge anymore, because it is. It's really hard work. There are a few computer programs that make it easier but it still takes a lot of time and effort. But a life instrument still sounds warmer, it's the real thing. You know, when we started out we were using houndred pound mics to produce our music. If you want to make your own samples using real instruments you need quality material that costs a lot more. Now we had saved enough money to do it, so we did it."
Does this also mean we can expect a live tour with The Herbaliser Band this year?
"That will be difficult because there are three albums going to be released by individual members of the band so it will almost impossible. We are going to do some festivals in the summer but there's not going to a big tour like in 2000. Me and Ollie did make a four turntable Herbaliser Megamix and we are going to tour to promote that. Although I can already say there's going to be a special Herbaliser live performance with band in the Ancienne Belgique in Belgium on 11 may. It will be a Belgium exclusive."
These days everybody seems to be blending hip hop with jazz, with the whole lounge hype and the Jazzanova thing going on. Does that make it more difficult to keep being original?
"We do what we do. We are the Herbaliser and we have our sound. If you look at hiphop there's always been a tradition of melting hiphop with jazz, so it's not like it's something new. It's always been there. We just do our own thing and we hope people like it."
What kind of new stuff do you listen to these days?
"Ollie: The new 4Hero album is really great, really love it. I also like Agent K and Neonfusion. Jaydee is good and also dj Format from Brighton is excellent. There's also lots of good stuff coming from the Austrian Klein Records label. There's a lot of good music around these days."
If some movie exec would come up to you and say you can any movie to remake the soundtrack, which one would you choose?
"Jake: Something like 'The French Connection', any classic cop movie, stuff like 'Enter The Dragon' or James Bond."
What do you think are the chances of hearing a Herbaliser track in the next James Bond?
"Jake: Well, we haven't been approached by the movie company, but Ollie is pushing the production company to name the next James Bond movie 'Something Wicked Comes This Way' (laughs)."
What's the early response to the new album.
"Ollie: We already did interviews on the continent and we got some good reactions. The sound on the album is more authentic, more live, but it's stil Herbalism."
Are there rappers who you've always wanted to work with but didn't yet get the chance to?
"Jake: Actually no. When we started nobody knew us and Ninja Tune was still very small. So we worked with friends and we still do and we like it like that."
The Single 'Good Girl Gone Bad' is out now. 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' will be released on March 18th.
http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/the-herbaliser/the-herbaliser/1369/
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