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Basement Jaxx Interview

Basement Jaxx Interview
Interview by ND McCray
Photos by Andrew Whitton

Most people know Basement Jaxx (Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe) from their chart-topping singles “Red Alert,” “Jump N’ Shout” and “Rendez-Vu,” which is from their first album, Remedy (1999). But many are not sure where the hitmaking-duo’s name derives from or how they came to release their fifth studio effort, the eclectic Scars (2009). Well, I recently had a chance to talk with Felix from his UK-home and he shared with me his background, the group’s name, the meaning behind the title Scars and many other cool and interesting things.

Nu-Soul: How did you get into producing and remixing?
Felix: I was working in an office thinking that maybe one day I might setup a design company, and I was doing music on the side. I’d meet with Simon every few weeks, do some tracks…. Though I thought of it as more of a hobby. At the time, I was putting on parties and DJing, imagining the parties would be like a basement in New York, or in Detroit or Chicago. I was into the underground New York garage scene, and Chicago house music, stuff coming out of Detroit, and hip hop, and jazz, dance, Latin music, African dance as well.

Nu-Soul: So, is that where the name Basement Jaxx comes from?
Felix: Yeah, we started in a basement making the tracks. And we wanted to make them with a vibe of Chicago house music. That was where the name essentially came from. And Traxx Records was in Chicago, that’s where “Jaxx” came from.

Nu-Soul: You and Simon have had some interesting titles for your albums, Rooty, Kish Kash, Crazy Itch Radio but now you have Scars, (no pun intended), What’s the story behind this one?
Felix: We had the song “Scars” for quiet awhile, and we were talking about being broken down and falling to pieces, you know, getting cut up by life, really. Like all of us, we have contact with the world and relationships and physical, mental and emotional scars that makes us the person we are. And when we look at scars we can see the pain we’ve been through but hopefully we’ve overcome that pain.

Nu-Soul: Having said that…what’s the difference between this project and your last Crazy Itch Radio or even your first, Remedy?
Felix: I think the new album has a touch more darkness and melancholy there. Which is quite fitting because in talking about “Scars,” we talk about the pain, but with “Remedy” it was about healing, so we sort of worked backwards.

Nu-Soul: So when you guys create mixes, do you have a particular artist in mind or do you find an artist and create to their musical style or is it a collective effort?
Felix: Well, all the time we’re creating bits of music. Like for Christmas of last year, we had about 45 tracks. The record company came to us and said you really have to finish these and stop making new ideas. But yeah, we make songs sometimes, sometimes it’s just an instrumental thing. Sometimes its starts from a song I’ve written or something. Like on the album there are a couple of things…like the song by Yo Majesty (“Twerk), they wrote it. We were jamming with them and they did the lyrics. As with Sam Sparro (“Feelings Gone”) and Santigold (“Saga”), there was a song in existence that I wrote, and then they sang the song. Or sometimes it’s just Simon strumming a guitar and we’ll make up a song about something…or it starts with a groove, just getting into a vibe, and the song sort of appears.

Nu-Soul: As you mentioned, there are some amazing guest appearances on Scars…Yo Majesty, Sam Sparro, Santigold…in addition to Kelis and Amp Fiddler, but what was it like working with a veteran like Yoko Ono? How’d that collaboration come about? And what is she like?
Felix: Well, that was in the beginning of the album and we didn’t have a plan as to what music we were going to do, or what we were going to make. I said to Simon that maybe I need to go and look for something else, something different, because I’d never done that before. Initially, I was going to have a creative break in New York and I said I might do some recording. So I said I wanted to go and speak to Yoko Ono and talk to her about life and everything. I think probably because she came from the peace and love, anti-war generation, the hippie era. And she’s an artist, and she’s still producing art that’s emotional and strong and works in a contemporary way. So I thought, it’s great that she hasn’t become bitter and still seems to hold a vision of these ideals close to her heart.

And for me growing up in the Acid House generation in England, which was like a new generation of summer loving in 1988, there was all this new electronic music, people coming together in clubs from all backgrounds, dancing together. For me as a teenager that stage was really exciting. And I did believe we were gonna be the new Generation X…. So, my interest with Yoko stems from that really. I’d heard she was a fan of our music. And I thought she was a really interesting woman. I think some of the music she was making years ago was miles ahead of its time. And that’s why I wanted to talk to her, to see where her head was at.

Nu-Soul: That’s awesome! So I’m curious. You guys don’t appear on any of your album covers, might I add, wickedly creative album covers, is there any reason behind that?
Felix: Yeah, I’m really pleased with the album cover but I don’t know if a picture of us would help on there. {laughter} I mean is that going to really help it?? I mean the Basement Jaxx world is about so much more than pictures, I think…. I mean we could have our mugs on the back, we did on the first album.

Nu-Soul: You and Simon are based out of the UK, do you think you’ll ever make the move to the U.S. for, let’s say, an extended vacation in New York or LA?
Felix: Well, actually Simon will be in New York next week. He’s gonna be there on holiday for a couple of weeks. As for me, I don’t know where I’m gonna end up living. He’s got a young baby. I’m kind of floating around the world trying to find my planet.

Nu-Soul: I completely understand that…. So, if you weren’t a producer, what do you think you’d be doing?
Felix: When I was teenager I wanted to be an architect. And then when I was 17, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I don’t know, I suppose I wanted to design buildings in a way to create art. I studied engineering, and I’m useless with computers. When we started Basement Jaxx I wanted to setup a design company, that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t know if I was the world’s best designer, more of a creative. I think I’m better at working with a designer. The live shows we do here in England, they’re kind of a theatrical performance. I think I love all aspects of art, really.

Nu-Soul: Easy question: Who do you listen to in your downtime? Who’s in heavy rotation on your iPod right now?
Felix: I’ve only listened to my iPod once a few years ago. {Whoa!} But it’s absolutely full with music. I mean I’ve got music all over the place. When I’m in the car, I just flip through the pirate stations in London. I’ve got some dubstep, Asian dubstep. I’ve got that in the car. I still listen to Mozart, a lot of classical music. Bits of jazz. Bits of dubstep. I don’t know, any kind of music really. I think when you work in music as well, you just end up having such a wide radar. Like a couple of weeks ago I DJed in Ibiza, so I’ve been listening to a lot of DJ club-club music in the last couple of weeks.

Nu-Soul: I can relate! I mean I’m the same way. Being a music writer, one day I’ll be into some dubstep or hard house and then the next, its just straight-up 70s funk and soul. So I completely get where you’re coming from.
Felix: Yeah.

Nu-Soul: So, what’s next for Basement Jaxx? Any upcoming projects? Collaborations?
Felix: Yeah, we’ve sort of got the second half of the album, “Scars” part two. Well, we actually have to give it a name today really. So that’s eight-tracks, it’s like a musical journey of about 40 minutes. It’s got live tracks, two-thirds of it is instrumental. So I’m really pleased with that. It’s something we wanted to do before. We were gonna put out a double album but we kept this one as a second serving. Ummm, the Kelis track we’re gonna try to work a video treatment for that, and hopefully make a video for it. We’ve got a UK-tour in December, but we are going to be in the States a bit before. We’re doing a bit of DJing and promotion. So, yeah we’ll see how the U.S. takes to the album, maybe we’ll come back at some stage and bring the whole live show. Because that’s been a big thing in Europe, you know all over the world.

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