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  BC400 (Buttercuts) Interview
interview 0377 added
03.03.06 words:
Lady Cook
technical:
QED
Renowned for their lively live shows, BC400
– one grouping of the
artists on the label Buttercuts – have steadily built a strong following
in the U.K and Europe. Breaking barriers through their unique line-up
including an MC rapping in French, a female singer and the irrepressible
Wildeye, and their ability to create party tunes alongside those
commenting ojn serious political issues.
Their latest project is a groundbreaking collaboration with Slovenian
crew RDYO: the creation of an album, YoYoCuts, which is themed by the
inspired tactic of basically swapping each others instrumentals and
re-creating the tunes using new lyrics and themes. Three of the
vocalists from BC400 gave me their feedback on working on the YoYoCuts
project:
Introduce
yourselves, who are Buttercuts and what does it stand for?
 XTBL: I’m XTBL (pronounced cris--ta--bell), singer, born and bred in
Zimbabwe.
Cultcam: I'm Alain, aka Cultcam. I run Buttercuts with Butterfingaz and
UncleP. We set up Buttercuts in 2000 as a platform for ourselves and the
numerous talented people we were making music with. We were a bunch of
musicians who wanted to release music. 6 years down the line, we are
still a bunch of musicians but we actually run a label and release
records. It almost makes me feel like we're successful to say that, only
kidding, we've released about 15 records and I'm proud of each one of
them.
How did you meet
Rdyo?
XTBL: In a cow field in East Germany - we bonded eating free vegetarian
food and drank lots of German beer!
Wildeye: We hooked up at a festival of European hip hop in East Germany
near Leipzig, in Summer 2004, even though the festival was badly
organised and not promoted at all, the acts hailed from all over Europe,
Germany, France, Greece, Albania, Holland etc. BC400 represented the
UK...in true Brits abroad fashion, since the festival was pretty dead,
we drunk gallons of German beer. and gave a performance your loudest of
football hooligans would have been proud of. Though we seemed to amuse
most of the other acts and heads that were at the festival, like being
introduced to the crowd as “alcoholics from England” and to “take them
(BC400) to your drug dealer, hehehe. It was all taken in good jest and
we consumed 27 cans of beer and bottle of vodka whilst on stage and
shouted every song as loud as we could. So basically everyone was fully
aware of our presence at the festival, this was the first time we meet
Murat, Jose, Semo, DJ Fu, Kpow and their manager Tina so I think we made
a good impression and to be honest they smashed it up with their set.
“...the BC400 album was developed from our live shows and this album we
made from a short burst of intense studio work...”
Had you heard much
European hip-hop before you met Rdyo?
XTBL: I've listened to MC Solaar from France.
Cultcam: Well, I’m half Belgian, half Finnish, and I grew up in Brussels
so yeah. I grew up listening to classical music, metal, French and
Belgian hip-hop... all sorts of stuff.
Wildeye: Yeah, I’ve heard bits n pieces, of course French hip-hop NTM,
FMR, 3rd eye foundation, TTC and Starflam from Belgium, Dark Circle -
they are Anglo German I think? Maybe a few others, on the whole I am
pretty ignorant of the scene in Europe when it comes to rap crews but
the graffiti scene is sick, the German country side is littered with
pieces, dubs and proper burners too.
How was it hearing
other MC's spit over 'your' beats?
 XTBL: Wicked! Fresh!
Cultcam: Bloody brilliant... particularly on ‘Who's hood’, which is
their version of our ‘Who's who’. I have to admit their version puts
ours to shame; don't understand a word of it, but the delivery and the
phonetics sound unbelievable!
Wildeye: Weird at first but refreshing cos we rinsed the BC400 album
–The Antidote. We had performed it live like hundred’s of times and it
is ingrained in to my brain, every word, scratch and beat. So hearing
someone else do it in a different language made it happen for me again
like when I had first heard the tunes. Especially ‘Who’s hood’, I
fucking love it the way they worked with the track and turned it on its
head.
Who or what are you
influenced by when making music?
XTBL: African drums! Great Ladies like Dinah Washington! Pop! Life!
Love! Pain!
Cultcam I trained as a classical pianist so lots of dead people like
Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninov but also Jimi Hendrix, 1960's Jazz (I love
Coltrane), Georges Brassens (French satirical singer, '60s), lots of
Reggae and Funk (James Brown, The Meters), Carelian folk. I love Latin
American music too.
Wildeye: Well, a lot of difference artists inspire me to write lyrics
like Elephant Man, Vybz Cartel, Immortal Technique, Ghostface, Ill Bill,
Rza, Slug, MF Doom, Scorz from Notts just to name a few. But when it
comes to being influenced, it’s myself, the people around me, my
environment and my current situation which is reflected in my rhymes.
On the Yoyocuts album I came up with the concept for the tune
‘Martyrs’.. which is a response to the current political climate after
the 7/7 bombing and the war in Iraq. I wanted to present three different
characters and their reaction. Cultcam takes for his perspective a
highly charged political angle. I take on the role of a British soldier
who is disillusioned from his part in the war and returns home with a
plan to kill the prime minister and Andwhy is a 7/7 victim, with
Christabel providing a heart felt hook to complete the package.
“...I now have a little laptop and I have much more freedom to develop
lyrically without the pressure of being in a studio and coming up with
the ideas there...”
Another tune I wrote on this album is ‘Don’t mean a thing’. Basically
all the materialism and violence, which is presented in mainstream pop
rap, is bullshit, the only value it carries is commercial, forsaking
artist integrity, turning the art form into little more than a
commercial. I grew up on a diet of awe inspiring music such as Public
Enemy and KRS1, etc, these artist’s have withstood the test of time and
been critical in shaping the genre and movement. Whereas now a flash in
the pan formulaic hit is the main goal, though this maybe a catalyst for
change and a reawakening in the scene.
Where do you want to
go with this CD?
 XTBL: To the bank, hopefully!
Wildeye: I would like this CD to be the beginning of a permanent
relationship with Rdyo and for us to collaborate more and more together
on future projects. Just going to Slovenia and being away from it all
was good because all the distractions of London were gone and I could
focus on the music and getting it right. Also to do an album with such a
talented and professional group of people is a blessing in its self. I
was brought a country I hadn’t even thought I would visit and visited a
different culture.
Cultcam: It's not so much about where we are going with it for me. I
feel the goal itself was to make the record, one of the most
multi-lingual and multi-cultural records I know of. It sounds fucking
great and we had a real laugh making it. Hopefully we'll sell lots of
them too - let's be honest - but I'm proud of just having made that
music.
What does the future
hold for Buttercuts, what direction are you going in?
Cultcam: Left, right at the traffic lights, up the hill, 3rd right and
back to square one. Only kidding, we are working on Illa Man, Joe
Driscoll, The Pistachios, fbcfabric & reindeer remix... there's a lot in
the pipeline.
Are there any other
European acts you would like to work with?
XTBL: MC Solaar.
Cultcam: We've worked with Starflam and Murat & Jose so far... I'm up
for more...
Was there any major
differences in the way you work as a group and the way Rdyo work?
XTBL: They argue less and smoke more!
 Cultcam: They seem more relaxed than us; then again, they don't have a
Wildeye...
Wildeye: Yeah, the BC400 album was developed from our live shows and
this album we made from a short burst of intense studio work. Which I
feel has given this album more of a theme running through it unlike the
BC album where all the artists kind of had a different direction. This
is more hip hop which works for me…and the antidote was our first album
so we learnt a lot form that process to bring to this project.
Do you prefer
recording and releasing, or performing live?
XTBL: Recording - it’s like being in a creative bubble!
Wildeye: There is nothing like performing live and I can’t wait for the
up and coming gigs with the YoYoCuts project. I used to find studio work
a bit uninspiring, but I now have a little laptop and I have much more
freedom to develop lyrically without the pressure of being in a studio
and coming up with the ideas there. I can just mess around and see what
sounds best, then once I am confident with the delivery and content, I
can go and drop it.
Cultcam: I don't know, it's hard to say... it's like asking "do you
prefer running with your left or your right foot?". They are all
essential parts of what it is to make music, you may enjoy a gig that
goes really well, then hate one because the sound is rubbish, get bored
in a studio repeating the same thing over and over again, then suddenly
really hit that groove and develop a huge grin.
'I hate rappers' is
quite a strong sentiment, can Wildeye expand on where the inspiration
for this?
Wildeye: Everyone has to get some stress off their chest and I guess it
is a culmination of experiences. I played a show in Germany with this
crew, who aren’t even worth naming, but they are from Europe and they
rap in American accents, wear matching basket ball out fits and chat
about the ghetto, now I told these boys they got skills but they need to
quit the America shit – they didn’t take it too well but fuck em.
“...I just thought it was time to speak out against the current tide of
bullshit I see being washed up of the shores of hip hop...”
I just thought it was time to speak out against the current tide of
bullshit I see being washed up of the shores of hip hop. For me MCing is
all about self expression, its an artform and I feel a lot of rappers
are trivialising this artform into nothing but a few clichés and common
stereotypes, which only reinforce the culture that we are living it
rather than challenge it, or rather than be counted as an individual
they would prefer to follow the herd. Though this track is tongue in
cheek, a bit of piss take it’s not the gospel, I probably wont change
the direction of the tide but I might make some people laugh.
Please shout out
your friends, any other albums we can still buy? Any forthcoming gigs?
 XTBL: My love Neil, my mum Vic, Dee, Momo, Zory, Tiwa, Matthew and Rudo--those
closest to me in this life and beyond.
Cultcam: The album launch for YoyoCuts is on Friday 3rd of March, "Talk
of the Town" at the Rhythm Factory, 16-18 Whitechapel Road... a crazy
night of multi-lingual hip hop, funk, reggae and ska... Any info you
need on Buttercuts or if you want to buy CDs, t-shirts or anything else,
please visit www.buttercuts.co.uk.
Wildeye: Look out for my mixtape MC Wildeye presents Hackney Karaoke
Part 1: £5 for 22 tracks, a bargain featuring Lost Project, Non
Thespian, Blu Monkey, MC Nutella and production from Uncle P, DJ LG,
Advocate, DWYZ and more, check out www.wildeye.org I want to shout out a
few heads like the ATG boyz, 1Timers, Core People, Lost Project, Non
Thespian, Dealmaker, DJ LG, Biscuit, Micall Parknsun, Weapons Grade and
all the people who come down to Talk of the Town, You, You and You, One
Love, Wildeye.
If you haven’t already witnessed the mixture of a Buttercuts live
show – burlesque strippers a recent addition to their eclectic warm up
acts, try to get yourself down to one of the Talk of the Town’s. The
YoYoCuts album is released on March 3rd, showcasing ably the skills of
BC400 and RDYO, it is the freshest release I’ve heard in a long while.
- Lady
Cook
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