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Basement Jaxx: "We used him because he can sing."
Another Basement Jaxx interview, singing the praises of JC's voice and yet again defending their choice. I vote for a smack up 'side the head to the next reporter who brings it up.
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charlidos' LJ, and she gacked it from VH-1.
Basement Jaxx: Kash Money Millionaires
by Gil Kaufman
Undergrounders go overground to invite 'N Sync's JC Chasez for a ride through the electronica world. No Missy Elliott, though - she wouldn't take their calls.
Given a choice of 'N Sync members to guest on your album, not many artists would opt for JC Chasez over Justin Timberlake. That's kind of like choosing Ringo over Paul. Yet it's just the kind of odd and willful maneuver Basement Jaxx love, and what's more, on their third album, Kish Kash, they make it work. Seriously.
A pair of pale English boys who fell in love with Chicago house music as kids, Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe have long invited guests to sing over their crazed fusion of house, rock, R&B, salsa, funk and techno. Typically, they've gone for unknown, untrained vocalists: kids from the neighborhood, girls they met at clubs, and cult figures like Japanese soul singer Monday Michiru. The lack of marquee names hasn't stopped them from scoring worldwide hits with dance floor anthems such as 1999's "Red Alert" and 2001's "Where's Your Head At?"
This time out, though, the Jaxx boys are sporting pop stars. Electronica snobs may chuckle over the inclusion of boy band stud Chasez, but most people will be humming along to "Plug It In," his Prince-like slice of falsetto space funk. Kish Kash finds the Jaxx dudes also hooking up with punk legend Siouxsie Sioux, English rapper Dizzee Rascal, and funky bassist/singer Me'Shell NdegéOcello. Further, they lassoed Lisa Kekaula of L.A. blues-punk band the Bellrays, transforming the wild-haired Tina Turner belter into a soul disco diva on "Good Luck."
We pried the 33-year-old Ratcliffe away from his mixing desk for a few minutes so he could gripe about Missy Elliott not taking his calls, describe how to be a cheesy yet cool pop star, and explain why the Neptunes are the best thing to happen to dance music since the mirror ball.
VH1: How did you end up with JC Chasez on "Plug It In"?
Simon Ratcliffe: We used him because he can sing. We've had that track for a while, but no singer took it to the next level and we were getting frustrated. We got a call from a friend who works [with 'N Sync's English label] and he said JC was in the building to meet English producers he wanted to work with on his album. He said he wanted to meet us. We chatted and "Plug It In" happened to be on the mixing desk, so we asked if he'd fancy going in the booth and having a go at it. He was very obliging and it was fantastic.
VH1: What surprised you about him?
Ratcliffe: I'm not an 'N Sync expert, but I guess they can sing. It was exactly what we'd hoped for. He's very flexible. We asked him to do falsetto and he can do a fantastic falsetto that has a Prince-y feel. He does it all so easily. All he needs is people to guide him.
VH1: Did you secretly wish you'd had Justin's number?
Ratcliffe: No. I think he's done his thing and made his mark and we try to do our own thing, unless it's remixes. After the initial elation of having someone work on the song, there was a question of, "Is this bad? He is from a massively poppy boy band." But we just thought, 'F*ck it. If it works, it works.'
VH1: Is hip-ness just a matter of hanging with the right circle - whether it's you or the Neptunes?
Ratcliffe: These days so much music sounds the same that when something interesting comes out, people just embrace it. If, in the case of Justin, it's a boy band member who made good by hooking up with cool people, it gets you more excited in a way. It seems like that division between cool and un-cool, over-ground and underground, is blurred. When we were in the U.S. recently, the [Neptunes'] Clones album was No. 1, and a lot of that music is underground. [It's] very experimental and not compromising. The fact that the Neptunes and Timbaland have been on top for so long has changed things in a big way. It sells millions, but is still very fresh music. It's proven that you can be a pop artist and sell millions and still be cool.
VH1: What's the best thing to happen to dance music in the past five years?
Ratcliffe: As far as house goes, not much. People like the Neptunes and Timbaland are doing their own thing, which is funky and modern. The Neptunes could tackle any style and make it sound cool. In our own little way, we try to do same thing.
VH1: What's the worst?
Ratcliffe: Well, the Spice Girls seemed so cynical at the time, but, my god, they're interesting compared to all these Pop Idol competition winners. There's always been sh*t pop music, tacky songs that wankers can jump around to that gives dance music a bad name. But you can also get inspired by that and work out why it is so bad and try not to do that.
VH1: You've worked with so many vocalists. Who did you try to get but couldn't hook up with?
Ratcliffe: On this album, we tried to get in touch with Missy Elliott because she's so cool and has her own style, but we didn't get past her secretary. This album was strange because for the first time we have some known people on there. In the past, we used people from around the corner who were not necessarily the best singers, but have a personality. We didn't plan to have well-known people, it just happened that way. We could never have planned to work with a member of 'N Sync, but it worked.
VH1: Do you think the days of the big, dumb, recognizable sample are over?
Ratcliffe: I guess so. We'll still do it if we come across a sample we like, because it works on the dance floor. There are actually less samples than ever this time. One reason is we started using a Macintosh computer so we can do multi-track recordings. The other is that we started songwriting in a more serious way. Because we've not been DJ-ing as much - we haven't done it for over a year - we've withdrawn from the club world a bit. Before, you'd play in the club and come back to the studio with the club environment in your mind. But we've just been doing it all in a bubble for the past year, concentrating on making the kind of music we want to hear.
VH1: Name a song you would never dare remix.
Ratcliffe: Oh, there's loads. Early on, we would have said yes to anything and would have been excited to work with established songs. But there are so many songs in my heart I'd rather not touch. Any of the classic rock, or soul, disco ... well, that's not true, classic disco is tempting. I wouldn't touch Prince, though we'd like to work with him on something new. We do make bootlegs where we'll sample parts of popular songs and use them with something that doesn't go in such a crude way that it's being very disrespectful. But I wouldn't like to take a Prince or a Stones song and club it up.
VH1: How does one convince Siouxsie Sioux to do a dance record?
Ratcliffe: She'd been asked by quite a few bands to do stuff and we heard she was into our stuff. We sent her a couple of ideas, and she picked one of the songs, did a demo and asked us to do whatever we wanted with it. But what she did was perfect. We didn't really touch it.
VH1: Surely that's not her rapping at the beginning of the song, right? That seems like it would be asking too much.
Ratcliffe: No, the rap at the beginning is from these two girls, Xenia and Shelly, who we met a long time ago who aren't really singers, but we like their voices. Siouxsie is a very respected figure for us, so we were precious about it. I remember buying "Happy House" when I was ten years old. It was one of the first singles I bought as a kid.
Gacked from
charlidos' LJ, and she gacked it from VH-1.Basement Jaxx: Kash Money Millionaires
by Gil Kaufman
Undergrounders go overground to invite 'N Sync's JC Chasez for a ride through the electronica world. No Missy Elliott, though - she wouldn't take their calls.
Given a choice of 'N Sync members to guest on your album, not many artists would opt for JC Chasez over Justin Timberlake. That's kind of like choosing Ringo over Paul. Yet it's just the kind of odd and willful maneuver Basement Jaxx love, and what's more, on their third album, Kish Kash, they make it work. Seriously.
A pair of pale English boys who fell in love with Chicago house music as kids, Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe have long invited guests to sing over their crazed fusion of house, rock, R&B, salsa, funk and techno. Typically, they've gone for unknown, untrained vocalists: kids from the neighborhood, girls they met at clubs, and cult figures like Japanese soul singer Monday Michiru. The lack of marquee names hasn't stopped them from scoring worldwide hits with dance floor anthems such as 1999's "Red Alert" and 2001's "Where's Your Head At?"
This time out, though, the Jaxx boys are sporting pop stars. Electronica snobs may chuckle over the inclusion of boy band stud Chasez, but most people will be humming along to "Plug It In," his Prince-like slice of falsetto space funk. Kish Kash finds the Jaxx dudes also hooking up with punk legend Siouxsie Sioux, English rapper Dizzee Rascal, and funky bassist/singer Me'Shell NdegéOcello. Further, they lassoed Lisa Kekaula of L.A. blues-punk band the Bellrays, transforming the wild-haired Tina Turner belter into a soul disco diva on "Good Luck."
We pried the 33-year-old Ratcliffe away from his mixing desk for a few minutes so he could gripe about Missy Elliott not taking his calls, describe how to be a cheesy yet cool pop star, and explain why the Neptunes are the best thing to happen to dance music since the mirror ball.
VH1: How did you end up with JC Chasez on "Plug It In"?
Simon Ratcliffe: We used him because he can sing. We've had that track for a while, but no singer took it to the next level and we were getting frustrated. We got a call from a friend who works [with 'N Sync's English label] and he said JC was in the building to meet English producers he wanted to work with on his album. He said he wanted to meet us. We chatted and "Plug It In" happened to be on the mixing desk, so we asked if he'd fancy going in the booth and having a go at it. He was very obliging and it was fantastic.
VH1: What surprised you about him?
Ratcliffe: I'm not an 'N Sync expert, but I guess they can sing. It was exactly what we'd hoped for. He's very flexible. We asked him to do falsetto and he can do a fantastic falsetto that has a Prince-y feel. He does it all so easily. All he needs is people to guide him.
VH1: Did you secretly wish you'd had Justin's number?
Ratcliffe: No. I think he's done his thing and made his mark and we try to do our own thing, unless it's remixes. After the initial elation of having someone work on the song, there was a question of, "Is this bad? He is from a massively poppy boy band." But we just thought, 'F*ck it. If it works, it works.'
VH1: Is hip-ness just a matter of hanging with the right circle - whether it's you or the Neptunes?
Ratcliffe: These days so much music sounds the same that when something interesting comes out, people just embrace it. If, in the case of Justin, it's a boy band member who made good by hooking up with cool people, it gets you more excited in a way. It seems like that division between cool and un-cool, over-ground and underground, is blurred. When we were in the U.S. recently, the [Neptunes'] Clones album was No. 1, and a lot of that music is underground. [It's] very experimental and not compromising. The fact that the Neptunes and Timbaland have been on top for so long has changed things in a big way. It sells millions, but is still very fresh music. It's proven that you can be a pop artist and sell millions and still be cool.
VH1: What's the best thing to happen to dance music in the past five years?
Ratcliffe: As far as house goes, not much. People like the Neptunes and Timbaland are doing their own thing, which is funky and modern. The Neptunes could tackle any style and make it sound cool. In our own little way, we try to do same thing.
VH1: What's the worst?
Ratcliffe: Well, the Spice Girls seemed so cynical at the time, but, my god, they're interesting compared to all these Pop Idol competition winners. There's always been sh*t pop music, tacky songs that wankers can jump around to that gives dance music a bad name. But you can also get inspired by that and work out why it is so bad and try not to do that.
VH1: You've worked with so many vocalists. Who did you try to get but couldn't hook up with?
Ratcliffe: On this album, we tried to get in touch with Missy Elliott because she's so cool and has her own style, but we didn't get past her secretary. This album was strange because for the first time we have some known people on there. In the past, we used people from around the corner who were not necessarily the best singers, but have a personality. We didn't plan to have well-known people, it just happened that way. We could never have planned to work with a member of 'N Sync, but it worked.
VH1: Do you think the days of the big, dumb, recognizable sample are over?
Ratcliffe: I guess so. We'll still do it if we come across a sample we like, because it works on the dance floor. There are actually less samples than ever this time. One reason is we started using a Macintosh computer so we can do multi-track recordings. The other is that we started songwriting in a more serious way. Because we've not been DJ-ing as much - we haven't done it for over a year - we've withdrawn from the club world a bit. Before, you'd play in the club and come back to the studio with the club environment in your mind. But we've just been doing it all in a bubble for the past year, concentrating on making the kind of music we want to hear.
VH1: Name a song you would never dare remix.
Ratcliffe: Oh, there's loads. Early on, we would have said yes to anything and would have been excited to work with established songs. But there are so many songs in my heart I'd rather not touch. Any of the classic rock, or soul, disco ... well, that's not true, classic disco is tempting. I wouldn't touch Prince, though we'd like to work with him on something new. We do make bootlegs where we'll sample parts of popular songs and use them with something that doesn't go in such a crude way that it's being very disrespectful. But I wouldn't like to take a Prince or a Stones song and club it up.
VH1: How does one convince Siouxsie Sioux to do a dance record?
Ratcliffe: She'd been asked by quite a few bands to do stuff and we heard she was into our stuff. We sent her a couple of ideas, and she picked one of the songs, did a demo and asked us to do whatever we wanted with it. But what she did was perfect. We didn't really touch it.
VH1: Surely that's not her rapping at the beginning of the song, right? That seems like it would be asking too much.
Ratcliffe: No, the rap at the beginning is from these two girls, Xenia and Shelly, who we met a long time ago who aren't really singers, but we like their voices. Siouxsie is a very respected figure for us, so we were precious about it. I remember buying "Happy House" when I was ten years old. It was one of the first singles I bought as a kid.
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ROFL! I loved that. Reviewers. Swear to god, I wonder if they even listen to half of the stuff they write about.
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That's kind of like the single most obnoxious sentence I've ever read. Grrr! *shakes fist*
Yay to the BJ guy for stressing the vocal ability. Because yeah. Duh.
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I was so pissed off that I sent them email about it!
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That said, the article above takes it way too far. For goodness sake, it actually insulted JC. Grrrr. Obviously Justin's a huge solo star. But comments like, "that's kind of like choosing Ringo over Paul" suck. Also. Featuring JC is not really all that daring. Get over it.
boy band stud Chasez
At least they got that right. He is a stud. With a hell of a voice.
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Which moved me to write:
Dear VH-1,
I'm writing in response to the article "Basement Jaxx:
Kash Money Millionaires" by Gil Kaufman:
http://www.vh1.com/artists/interview/1479779/101603/basement_jaxx.jhtml
I'm responding specifically to the opening lines
concerning JC Chasez:
"Given a choice of 'N Sync members to guest on your
album, not many artists would opt for JC Chasez over
Justin Timberlake. That's kind of like choosing Ringo
over Paul."
It's this kind of attitude that frustrates NSync fans
in general and JC Chasez fans in particular. Sure,
Timberlake is good, but he's not the only talented
member of the group. The next time Mr. Kaufman writes
an article, he might want to pull his head from
between his buttocks so that he can hear the artists
he's reporting on.
As a friend of mine put it, "From some underground
music mag I would expect this, but from VH-1? The mind
boggles."
[offline name here]
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That whole attitude drives me crazy. The Pittsburgh Post Gazzette's review of the Celebrity concert included the lovely phrase, "Nsync, better known as Justin, JC, and Huey, Dewey and Louie." I'm still pissed off about that one.
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Was this UK or US VH1?
Gill
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my mind went straight to the bad place, oh my yes.