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  Pneumatic & Sloth Interview
interview 0515 added 10.07.07 words:
Nina Carmela
technical:
QED
The
history behind Pheumatic and Sloth speaks for itself; having met in the ukhh.com forums back in ’99 they’ve had a nourishing musical presence
within the scene to date. Now represented by Headcount Records the
rapsational duo have released their debut album, ‘Audibly Nice’,
following the success of the critically acclaimed ‘EP’.
Whilst influences bounce off from each other, fate brought together two
exceptional talents to create a movement as one. Having worked and
supported with some of the finest UK artists to date, as well as
creating a positive impact to the scene alone, Nina Carmela dwels into
the autobiography of Pheumatic & Sloth…
When did your musical aspirations start and how did you individually
begin to pursue them?
 PMAN: I’ve loved music and art from a really early age, like 4 or 5 but
aspirations to become a rapper came when I heard people like B.I.G and
Rakim when I was about 13 or 14.
SLOTH: I started making tunes when I was about 16 on a PC my dad got me
for doing school work on. A mate had Hip Hop Ejay, the one with the fake
deck you put your mouse on to scratch, it was brilliant! haha! When I
got bored of that and started sampling stuff off my parents CD's and
making my own tracks from scratch. After getting some decks I got bored
of scratching over the same beats again and again so I started making my
own beats. Special times…. Haha.
What’s the story behind meeting on the UKHH.COM forum?
PMAN: Sloth had entered a remix competition being run on the site. I
checked his entry and liked it – he also wrote that he would like to
work with emcees – so I contacted him and then Bob’s your uncle!
SLOTH: They ran a remix competition for Big Dada tracks about 6 years
ago, I had Roots Manuva’s ‘Juggle Tings Proper’ on vinyl so I had a bang
at that. They were all put up on the site for everyone to listen to and
a put a comment on mine saying I’m looking for rappers to work on some
tracks, cos I had a load of beats I’d made but rappers were scarce in my
village. Pneu had the remix and sent me an email saying lets do summink
together. So we started posting CDs to each other with beats and vocal
tracks on and working on stuff. It was probably about 2 years before we
met each other in person.
What kind of promotional antics did you carry out when you started to
pursue this venture?
PMAN: We didn’t really promote ourselves, we just fucked about by him
sending me beats and me sending him raps. We only thought about
promoting when we had something to sell.
SLOTH: Leanne who runs headcount with Chris and Laura took care of most
of the business / promo end of things. Like building the Myspace page up
and getting gigs etc. She also runs ‘No Good Promotion’ and secured
reviews in HHC, Big Smoke, One Week To Live, Blues and Soul, The Metro
to name but a few... we knew we had to push it hard as we hadn’t had
anything out since the new wave ep, and because we didn’t have a single
out first we really had to hit it hard on the promo campaign. We created
new website too...
www.headcountrecords.co.uk.
“...I’ve had to sell my recording equipment to get by. (Biggest
mistake I’ve ever made)...”
Was there enough support within the scene to help move you?
PMAN: You need support to earn money I guess. Not to move on – I don’t
care if I only make some travel cash at the end of the day… I’ll always
move on and carry on making music.
SLOTH: I guess so; we’ve had loads of positive feedback from people for
ages, done a lot of gigs that have gone down well. Obviously we’re still
as about as obscure as it gets but hopefully word of mouth from this
album will help with that. Dan Greenpeace (who runs All City etc) has
given us massive support in HHC, he loves the album... the big quote in
HHC said ‘Its Pure Genius... Pman and Sloth are the living embodiment in
UK Hip Hop!’ that was amazing to see splashed over a large picture of us
in HHC!
When and where was your first live performance and how did the crowd
respond?
 PMAN: My first gig was in the High Wycombe Student Union. Probably about
30 people in the crowd and Sloth wasn’t even there. He may not have even
known about it. I did a couple of tracks with another emcee and a
singer. Two people I remember had a little bop on the dance floor… and I
remembered all my lyrics so I thought it went well to be honest.
SLOTH: Our first gig was at a night that Chris (Pneu)’s mate ran in
Liverpool supporting Miniature Heroes. I think the night was pretty dead
but we a couple of cheers I think. I just pressed play on the CD player
and did some shit cuts.
How would you describe your music?
PMAN: The music I make with Sloth is Hip Hop…
SLOTH: Bog standard Hip Hop, but done well, only different.
Who has influenced your musical direction?
PMAN: Everybody and everything I’ve ever come across in my entire life I
guess.
SLOTH: Tough to say, I guess when I first started it was just trying to
make a track that sounded like Premo or whatever. I don’t really know
what the difference is between listening to stuff and being influenced
by it. I like producers who use loops rather than synths, nice tunes
that go places.
Where do your aspirations come from when you’re writing lyrics?
PMAN: My aspirations come from my brain and I don’t know exactly how
that works. Sometimes I have no aspirations and I just write things down
and see what happens. 90% of the time its butters and I throw it away.
Watch - some kid will tell me that I’ve lied and I didn’t throw em away
– I put em on Audibly Nice.
“...when I first started it was just trying to make a track that
sounded like Premo...”
What do you think is the most important musical element whilst pushing
your music independently?
PMAN: Pick a sick tune – pick some sick artwork and promote it to the
best of your abilities.
SLOTH: Make sure you’ve got someone at the head controlling it who’s in
the know… Leanne and Laura take care of us... if you’re not a natural
business person then don’t let your ego get in the way, reach out and
get advice and help... its very rare to have a creative and business
mind at the same time... I wanna do well but I have no idea on that side
of things so I leave it to our label ladies! I’m picking it all up
though.
You’re new album ‘Audibly Nice’ is out now, what should we expect?
 PMAN: It’s a collection of tracks Sloth and me have been making since I
was about 17. I’m now 24 and there’s a tune on there I made last year.
So it’s just an introduction to what we’re all about I guess. Writing
about your own music is pretty lame – so just go to a pc with Internet
access and type
www.myspace.com/audiblynice into the browser to get an
idea.
SLOTH: Tunes! It’s a good album it is. It’s all our best tunes since we
started. We just kept on making tracks until we had enough to make the
final cut. We’ve got a shed load more that will never see the light of
day. It’s had a load of positive feedback; it’s very varied for a Hip
Hop album, loads of different moods and styles. Every track has a theme
and a point to it, a lot of people who aren’t really bothered about Hip
hop like it, which is interesting.
Is there a concept to this project and are their any particular tracks
that stand out above the rest and why?
PMAN: There is no concept to the album. Most of the individual tracks
have concepts though.
SLOTH: No concept as such no, but each track does have a theme to it. As
for stand out tracks, ‘The Morning Star’ is the rowdy one that came out
on vinyl already and got some wicked reviews. ‘Navigate Through’ is the
uplifting one, a bit more commercial, but not commercial rap commercial,
more indie commercial.
What’s been your biggest musical obstacle and how have you overcome it?
PMAN: There hasn’t really been any obstacles. There’s been a time when
I’ve been stayin on people’s couches and not had a gaff, so I’ve had to
sell my recording equipment to get by. (Biggest mistake I’ve ever made)
so that set us back on a bit of recording time, but thanks to people
like Illustrate, Rinse Dog and Mr Brown I got it all finished. (big up
to them heads for recording my shit).
SLOTH: Just getting the album together as a finished product was a
proper mission. Getting it all mixed and mastered and getting the
artwork done took ages, making the songs was the easy bit.
“...its very rare to have a creative and business mind at the
same time...”
What difference has it made having an independent record label support
your movements?
PMAN: It has turned our CD into an actual release – rather than it being
just another demo on a CDR or something.
SLOTH: More control being the obvious one. Because I’ve known Laura for
years and I’ve been with Leanne for years we really have people we can
trust to work the campaigns from start to finish... if something’s shit
and they don’t like it they can easily tell us... and they both know
what they are doing as they did music industry degrees and have worked
at loads of labels / pr etc... so we all work well as a team... team
headcount!
You’ve worked and shared the stage with many great artists but who’s
been the most inspirational?
 PMAN: We supported Skinnyman in Oxford once – he smashed it that night.
Don’t think he even had a hype man - he just claimed the stage and
claimed the show. Phat night.
SLOTH: I haven’t! haha, we have supported a few big names tho, Ugly
Duckling, Skinnyman, Phi Life. I don’t really have people that are
inspirations as such, I respect artists or bands who get somewhere
without having to change their sound.
Can you remember your first ever written rhyme?
PMAN: Yeah – they were shoddy. Nuff said.
What’s been your biggest musical achievement?
PMAN: Making Audibly Nice and starting up Headcount Records.
SLOTH: I guess this is the same answer as question 12, finishing the
album was definitely an achievement for us, selling it will be the next
step. If we can make our money plus a bit, and get our name about a bit
that’ll be an achievement for sure.
What are your views on the current UK urban music movement?
PMAN: I don’t really know what the current UK urban movement is.
SLOTH: It’s like any genre man, some of its wicked, some of its shit. I
don’t really listen to anything that you’d call urban other than hip
hop. I’m not up on Grime, or UKG or whatever so I can’t really comment.
I like prog!
“...this album isn’t trying to break any moulds, it’s just
trying to be a wicked listen throughout...”
Do you think that being involved within the music scene has become a
trend to the younger generation?
PMAN: It’s more an escape than a trend.
SLOTH: It certainly seems like everyone’s a rapper or a producer or
whatever, but then those are the circles we move in so it would, hehe.
You mean the generation below us? You do hear a lot of little kids
rapping on the bus or whatever, but I don’t know if that’s a trend,
music is a big deal to every generation, I bet in the ‘60s everyone was
in a rock band, same way that everyone’s a rapper now.
What advice would you give to all those trying to pursue their musical
interest into a full time career?
PMAN: If you truly want it, never stop trying.
SLOTH: Haha, don’t ask me I haven’t done it. I don’t know enough about
the business side of it. Don’t expect anything big to come out of
nowhere. I doubt there’s more than 10 people in the UK making a decent
living out of selling there music. Most artists have proper jobs.
Why should we be looking out for Pneumatic & Sloth and what kind of
impact do you feel you can create within the music industry?
 PMAN: You don’t have to check out our album if you don’t want to. If you
do want to, a good place to start is our myspace page. If you like it to
the point where you would actually like to buy it and put money in
Headcounts bank account then that’d be nice.
SLOTH: I think people should check us out cos we do what we do well,
this album isn’t trying to break any moulds, it’s just trying to be a
wicked listen throughout. The next thing we do will probably nothing
like this. If we stay doing hip hop we’ll probably make a little dent in
the scene which is cool, but personally, now that ‘Audibly Nice’ is done
I’m up for doing something totally different, branching out a bit. We’ll
see… I’m working on a few tracks with Sonnyjim... hopefully something
will come out of that. Getting myself out there as a producer I guess...
and more headcount ish... Illustrates album ‘The Stuff’ will be coming
out later in the year... people are going bananas over it already... the
headcount ladies are always getting mails from people buggin when it’s
gonna drop!
What would you like to have accomplished within the next 5 years?
PMAN: More releases. More sick tunes. More gigs. More travelling around
the world and hanging out with my girlfriend. A few more nights out with
the crew and possibly owning a dog and learning to drive. I am butters
at driving though so that one could get scrapped.
SLOTH: Musically? I guess another couple of albums. We know we can do it
now, but there are a lot of other aspects that we need to get tied down,
contacts, business, regular gigs, and all that stuff that you don’t
really wanna think about if you’re an artist. I guess building my name
as a producer too... working with over artists too... there’s plenty of
Sloth to go around!
“...I bet in the ‘60s everyone was in a rock band, same way that
everyone’s a rapper now...”
What’s on your musical agenda for 2007?
PMAN: Record a couple of joints and see that Illustrates album ‘The
Stuff’ gets a proper good release with the help of the fantastic
Headcount crew. Word up to Laura, Leanne and Sloth. Hopefully another
10” compilation as well but we’ll see.
SLOTH: Promote the album as much as we can, do more gigs, start working
on new songs. All that sort of stuff. Keep on trucking.
-
Nina Carmela
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www.myspace.com/rhythmicvisionspr
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