The Nextmen are amongst the UK’s most well known and respected Hip-Hop producers.
Brad Baloo and Dom Search met whilst still at school in Cambridgeshire. Their first venture was back in 1996, a remix of London Posse’s classic ‘Style’ track. This would launch them onto bigger and better things. Signed to Scenario records (Ed Pitt’s label) they released their first album nearly 3 years ago, entitled ‘Amongst the Madness’, an album which has marked the UK scene ever since leaving in its trail many a classic hits. Since then the boys have been more than busy touring with the likes of Eminem and High & Mighty as well as remixing for a slew of different artists from Morcheeba and Groove Armada via The Pharcyde and Public Enemy. They have also been very busy with their residency at the Embassy in Islington (as part of the infamous Friends and Family nights) and also their appearances at various big venues and clubs, such as Fabric. All this work has led to their second album, called “Get over it”, released in July.
In advance of that, the boys were kind enough to let a French hip-hop head into their house to question them on the new album, their recent work and their future as one of the leading production teams in UK Hip-Hop. The following was caught on tape.
Since the first album you’ve been doing a lot of production remix wise, you did the soundtrack to the Hip-Hop years documentary, you’ve been carrying your sound to other projects (Battlecreek and a slew of remixes and one off projects). Can you tell us a bit more about what was involved in that work?
Dom: I think when the first album came out, it was more of a surprise to people because it came out of nowhere. There was a couple of other production crews around in the UK, like Mark B and the Creators, flying the flag for UK production, urban music production, hip-hop production. And our album came out of nowhere and slapped a lot of people in the face. Like “Oh my god! What’s this? This is good”. And we got a really good response from it. And the sound was particular to us, I think, it had this kind of punchy, still an independent hip-hop feel, but punchy, rhythmically tuff sound to it and it just seemed to work on dancefloors and music clubs. So I think the reason why we got a lot of remixes sent to us is because people wanted a piece of that sound. And it all went off, you know, we ended up doing Public Enemy, Morcheeba, Groove Armada, loads of stuff. Dynamic syncopation w/ Mass Influence, Rae & Christian and the Pharcyde, loads of stuff that was really good but I think it was probably a year into remixing that Brad and I suddenly realised we could make these sort of beats standing on our head. And we decided to change things up a bit. And since then we have kinda been evolving the sound, rehoning it, and we are, I guess, on the corner at the moment. But we are feeling more confident about a new sound which is more futuristic and different.
Regarding the remixes, do you guys have a formula you try to apply or do you approach it all differently depending on what it is and who it’s for?
Dom: I think that you can approach remixing with your own formula, and we have done that in the past but it’s really a bit lazy to do that, so we are not doing that anymore. But yes we have done that in the past, approach it like, let’s get the beat ready, this will suit this. And to be honest sometimes it’s not just down to us, sometimes you remix for someone and you push the boundaries a bit and then they go “oh no! We wanted a Nextmen remix, we wanted your sound!”
Brad: You are in a bit of a difficult position then…
Dom: then it’s a bit difficult, because they want something from you and you’re trying to show them you can do other things and so obviously the only outlet for your new stuff is your own. Which is what we are doing now with the new album, which is a different style.
Brad: which is why I think it’s good that you’ll see a development in our new album and a development in the sound. Which means that the next load of work we’ll get after the album, people will be happy for us to experiment more because this album is a lot wider and a lot more varied. But the stuff that we’re working on now is completely different from the new album, which hasn’t even come out yet. I think the idea is to push yourself and try and learn new disciplines and learn how to do new stuff
You guys are always evolving then? No stagnation?
Brad: Just do different stuff. If we could change the production styles almost completely with every album that would be brilliant.
Dom: but with a connection between them…
Brad: there’s always gonna be one.
Dom: The thing is, there is a difference between beatmakers and producers. We are producers. Music producers, people say hip-hop producers because we’ve made 90% hip-hop but we’re definitely going to do other stuff. I want to work in songs, we write songs, we play the guitar, keyboards and that’s all gonna come into the frame.
You don’t just base yourselves around beats and samples?
Dom: We don’t just dig for beats, we write music so it doesn’t have to be hip-hop. And I’m glad about that because we want to show people what we can do.
Hip-hop as a genre is wide and broad enough (in terms of production styles) to allow people like you to do that.
Dom: that’s true
Lastly, about the Public Enemy remix of “Do you wanna go our way”. How was it working for such a famous band, with such a powerful hip-hop heritage and history? It must have been a buzz?
Brad: Yeah it was definitely a buzz. Getting an acapella of Chuck D is very exciting, when the vocal just turns up and you’ve got it.
Dom: Tell him about Chuck D getting in contact…
Brad: Well yeah, Chuck D got in contact with us recently, through his manager, and he wants to put the remix out on his Internet label (the 12” was never officially released, only on some limited bootlegs). And so we had to send him an mp3 of it so he could check it out again, and his manager got back to us saying “yeah that’s cool”, and I asked him “can we do another track with him?” and he’s gonna have a meeting with him and ask him if he wants to do it. But he is coming over in April for a show at the Astoria. So we could grab him and get him in the studio.
Dom: that’s what it’s about, once you meet them sometimes you can just grab them. That would be incredible to do.
It’d be amazing to work with Chuck D on a brand new track!
Brad: it was really exciting for us to be involved with remixing all these people and groups we’ve really liked growing up, people like Blackalicious, Pharcyde, Public Enemy. But now looking at the work that we’re gonna get after this album, I’m not really that excited about doing remixes, I’m more excited about getting production work from doing the album. To just do a remix is cool but to find an artist and make their whole album or some whole tracks for them is what it’s about now.
Dom: That’s what we’re good at, putting an album together
Giving a sound to an artist…
Dom: yeah it doesn’t matter if they are a band or just a singer or MC
Brad: I think that’s what we are gonna try and push for, because we’ll be in more of a position where people may offer us a remix of a project and we can step in and say “look instead of us doing a remix of the project why don’t you give us the project”. Let us produce it and we’ll do it probably better.
It’s good when you are in position, after enough work, where you don’t have to settle for just any type of production work.
Dom: but there is a danger in remixing, as well, which is that you give away loads of your creativity and good stuff. Creativity is final, it doesn’t last forever. There is a couple of beats, namely the one we did for Encore (called ‘Love and Hate’), which is probably, for me anyway, one of the best beat we’ve ever made. And when it goes on a remix which just comes out on some small label, which is great but also means that the beat doesn’t really get the audience it could have got (in certain cases).
Brad: Pharcyde, the remix we did for that is one of the best as well I think
Dom: yeah but that got what it deserved as it sold over 30,000 copies which is more than what our first album sold! (Rae & Christian feat. The Pharcyde is the remix in question). It came out on four releases and sold 30,000 copies. And we got about 10 pence for it (laughter all around). But we’re not bitter, they’re friends of ours so that’s cool
Brad: we did a swap with them, they did a remix for us and we did one for them, it just happened to be so huge
Excellent. So have you found it difficult to go back in the studio after this long break for your new album? Obviously the work you’ve been doing has helped towards that as you’ve said. Any problems with reaching this new sound?
Brad: well one of the reasons it’s taken so long is because you do your record and then you have to do all the promotion, and then you get 8 million remixes. So you don’t even think about making the next record because you’re just doing mixes and they kinda take your whole time. So it’s taken us, by the time it comes out, literally three years to the day since our fist album came out.
Dom: and we don’t want to do that again. We want the third album out by the beginning of next year because I believe that there is, you know, at least 5 or 6 albums in the Nextmen. I think an album a year is quite feasible, it’s in our range. At the end of the day if you sit around and say “we make brilliant music” but you never put it out, it’s a bit pointless!
Can you tell us more about how this new sound has evolved? Your first album was really quite happy, with funky basslines and beats that were very reminiscent of mid 90’s Hip-Hop. Is the new sound still close to your first album or have you just flipped the switch?
Brad: It’s really different, not like the first album anymore. That type of sound (from the first album) is cool because we grew up listening to hip-hop and certain people from America influenced us, we learned how to make beats that way. So obviously our first album sounded a lot like those tracks that influenced us: Pete Rock, Premier and such. But that’s really a process that you have to go through, and it’s a process that most people end up staying in.
You have to imitate a certain amount of stuff in order to innovate, that’s how a lot of people learn.
Brad: so this is more us getting to grips with our own kind of hip-hop. Making it slightly more British and stuff. I mean, the first one definitely had our sound but it also had elements of learning in it
So would you say your sound has matured then? You’ve reached a more mature level?
Brad: Definitely
Dom: Tell me what you think of this, would you have said this was the Nextmen?
Dom plays me some new tracks. One with MC Dynamite, one with Rodney P/Dynamite/Cutty Ranks and a Cutty Ranks solo and a Rodney P solo. All the tracks are decidedly different from their previous stuff. The sound comes across rawer but also more mature than their first outing. You can hear that they have strayed away from the more classic hip-hop production that marks so much of what comes out. The sound is definitely more diverse and eclectic, but still retains a lot of punch. It’s still head nodding Hip-Hop, just not as typical as the rest of what you hear, which I think is really good. There’s definitely more influences present in their production, it’s much more dense but also more rewarding as an aural experience. The Mcing is on point again and the choice of MCs seems to work well on every track, specially the tracks with Rodney P. They even have J-Live on one track which bodes well for the new album. They also play me a song featuring Aim’s girlfriend, which sounds really good and has an amazing vocal. This is an example of the work they want to do outside of normal hip-hop production.
I think these days we sit down when we make a beat and right from the start, from the first sample, bassline or guitar riff, and we think “right let’s make this a bit different and give it something else”, right from the start. And if it’s not going that way, we just toss it away. I think that’s the best way to work, if you’re unsure that something can work or not, put it in straight away and continue with it if it’s working. And if something is going a bit too independent, kinda normal “boom, gap ah boom boom gap”, we just get rid of it. And there’s nothing wrong with that type of beat, there are excellent examples of beats that are like that and we don’t mind making them but at the moment we’re honing a new sound, so we are deliberately putting effort into making it sound a bit more different.
As a duo, do you guys work in a special way? Do you split the work? Do you fight?
Dom: We bounce off each other don’t we? We have different ways of working but there is a big overlap.
Brad: we still disagree on an enormous amount though
Dom: we disagree about a lot
Brad: about virtually everything…
Dom: [pisses himself], not virtually everything !…
Brad: we disagree on quite a lot of stuff and I think that’s why it ends sounding like it does. Because we often pull it into opposite directions.
Dom: I think you get that in any duo
Brad: I think quite often when you get a duo, you have 2 people that have very different roles. One person will be a sort of verbal ideas person who will sit back and give ideas and the other person will often put that into practice technically
Dom: but we’re not like that
Brad: no we’re not like that because we both do exactly the same things. We can both make a beat and…
Dom: we could both easily make a Nextmen track on our own because we both do everything.
Would you say the fact that you balance each other as producers and have a sort of harmony in your work makes a difference to the sounds you produce?
Dom: I think it does make a difference, I mean we might disagree and stuff but it’s like chipping away at something until it’s right and you’re both happy with it.
Brad: it definitely makes it sound like us because of our interaction.
Dom: I don’t think we disagree on everything. I’ll tell you what we never disagree on: if something is glaringly good, just blatantly good to have in a record, we don’t disagree on it. If there is something that’s alright, but the other one doesn’t like it then we work on it till it’s fine or we bin it.
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Part 2
