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 Vinyl Dialect
Interview
interview 0222 added
15.08.04 words: Guru Mike technical:
Spoon
Vinyl Dialect
are a three piece from East Anglia who have recently released their critically acclaimed debut album, “Dialect”, almost five years after their breakthrough single “B Boys Rock The World”. They’re a breed apart from the majority of UK hip hop acts and proudly claim allegiance to the beats produced by their American counterparts such as The Neptunes and Timbaland. Yet they are still a distinctly British band, with no sign of out and out aping of US sounds by either DJ/producers Olson and Precise or, more importantly for some fans, by vocalist Ezra.
On the 8th May, they paid a visit to our fair capital city and, more specifically, to the Bug Bar in Brixton where they hoped to perform a gig. Due to unforeseen circumstances however, the gig had to be delayed and was cut short, but they still rocked the place like it was the Casbah, pumping up the crowd to reach a true party atmosphere. The beats were bouncy, clean, and yes, they could be described as bling. And as for the emceeing, well, Ezra has been on the mic for a long time, and his skills shine through tonight, especially on “Ouch”.
And although they’d been travelling all day and hanging around all night, they were more than gracious enough to grant me an interview. So outside an old refurbished church that was playing pounding drum n bass, with police sirens in the background and interruptions by people trying to sell us weed, VD set about to tell me their views on the UK scene, clear up some rumours, the kind of games they like to participate in, and the effect of snow on their performance.
Firstly, who are Vinyl Dialect?
P: I’m Tom, known as Precise
O: I’m Ollie, or Olson
E: And I’m Ezra.
So what do you guys bring to the live environment that makes people stand up and take notice?
P: Quality DJs!
E: It’s an all round thing, it’s like the beats, it’s the written songs that we perform and the way they’re structured for a live audience, it’s the scratching, it’s also the freestyle and… Of recent much more of a kind of a drive to connect on an intricate level and communicate with rather than just performing songs, you know what I mean? Yeah, it’s an all round thing, it’s a freestyle thing as well you know, not that I did any of that tonight but…
Do you have any favourite stories from playing live or touring?
E: There’s a thing we did recently, this thing for Gonzo On Snow on MTV and we had to play in this room where it was all artificial, artificially made snow.
O: No, it was real snow.
E: Oh, was it?
Oh, was that at the Milton Keynes Bowl?
E: Yeah, yeah. It was minus four degrees.
Really?
P: Yeah, the records warped! So you literally couldn’t… it was fucking bizarre, I tell you
O: We couldn’t work it out and afterwards it just clicked – ah, it’s cos it’s fucking cold!
P: The faders on the mixers went, it was really stiff.
O: It was fucking cold as well!
E: I had to borrow some gloves!
So, what’s the worst thing that’s happened to you playing live?
P: There’s been times when things just haven’t been set up right.
E: At the Reading Festival the speakers exploded right near the beginning when they were trying to set sound up. We had a different second MC with is at the time, Jibba, and I thought “Fuck, he’s been electrocuted!” So I looked around and he was okay but the sound was gone basically and we were standing there, we’ve just announced ourselves but now there’s no sound. So he recovered from the concussion in his ear and started doing this beatbox routine and I freestyled over the top of it, and then the sound kicked back in eventually. That was Reading 2000.
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We didn’t get told by the label to do any such thing, we just carried on making tracks
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As you probably know, you’ve just released your album, are you entirely happy with the finished product?
E: I don’t think anyone is ever happy with what they’ve finished and want to make the second album better.
P: I’m fairly happy with it but at the same time a lot of those tracks have been recorded, done over two or three years. But that’s not a problem, and I think you reach a point when you start doing tracks you never want to put anything out, you never want to finish anything cos you think “Oh it’s not right, it’s not good enough. There comes a point when you have to have a cut off and you just have to put it out. And that’s what we did with our album, we could have gone on and on and done it for ages but you gotta reach that point and just do it and put it out. And we put out our album and I’m pretty happy with it really, considering. All things considered, we’ve got a small studio, we haven’t got a total bling set up, so we’ve done the best we could do with what we’ve got next time we’ll be mixing at Dre’s studio!
E: I think we’ve got a great sound out of the album which is our own individual sound and which I think a lot of other acts would, deep down, be proud of.
Well, you are considered to have a fairly different sound from the “typical” UK hip hop sound.
E: Oh definitely. When people talk about UK hip hop they really mean London hip hop and that’s like, to us, we’re not from London, and I’m not influenced by the things that… we’re not trying to recreate “Gangster Chronicles” basically.
O: We’re trying to get rid of the branding thing, well, personally. On a personal level UK hip hop is just hip hop, it doesn’t matter when it comes from. I mean the Americans started it, and we all aspire to be as good as them, there’s no real point saying UK hip hop as the sound isn’t that different, and it’s not like they’re aspiring to be something completely different as they’re not.
What about the rumours you were forced to make your album more commercial by your record label?
E: Let me clear this up, as I see it on the internet all the time. What happened was our album was ready to be put out and the label was still going with Blak Twang’s, so they were given time to do that. In the meantime, we went back to the studio and made more tracks. Now, our sound has moved on. One thing we strive to do is evolve with time. For us, a lot of UK hip hop is still living in the 90s, you hear lots of group who people give props to, with Primo-esque piano loops but those records don’t have the energy of 90s hip hop. We were there at the time, we’ve been into hip hop since the 80s and the records that people are making now don’t have the energy and things have moved on. Hip hop is not retro, hip hop is a progressive thing so things change and when people say it make it more commercial I don’t really know what they mean.
P: We didn’t get told by the label to do any such thing, we just carried on making tracks. When the Blak Twang thing had been done that meant the record label could then focus on what we’re doing, which is great, and meant we had all these new tracks.
E: I think a lot of people were, you know, wanting us to make twelve versions of “B Boys Rock The World” or something. And I’m sorry to disappoint those people but we’re never gonna stick to the past. Those records were done in ’97, ’98 and this is 2004. We’ve evolved, and if the listening audience that were into “B Boys Rock The World” evolve with us, all well and good. And if they don’t, I’m sorry.
And I also hear you were forced to get a new male vocalist for one song as his manager thought it would be bad for his image. What’s that all about?
This set the album back a bit. There was an original vocalist on “So Damn Hot”, the record had already been pressed and we were sorting out the contractual things and everything had been done in good faith. Then he signed to a management company who insisted on pulling him off it cos they wanted to, they thought they were gonna blow him up and he was gonna be a big pop artist. So MG took his place, and the thing about it is it set things back a bit, things would have come out before and is some ways that was a bad thing and in other ways it’s good cos MG is down for the cause. He’s gonna be a regular part of our line up and he adds that… The previous guy was a more slick, R ‘n’ B thing, whereas MG is on a more of a kind of soulful, Al Green type tip. He brings a whole new dimension to us which we’re really feeling, and he’s extended family.
Ok, away from the rumours now, you’re studio is an old air base, how did you find it?
P: I worked for a bloke who does sound, I worked for this chap’s company, Synergy, and they do sound engineering, and they do big gigs and outdoor gigs and stuff. And they were set up there. I was working for them, they just said “There’s some places here, check it out” and we just liked it so we just stayed there and it’s worked out really well. It’s cheap rent and it’s amazing, it’s got a weird atmosphere as well.
Does it help your creativity and what does it bring to your sound?
We’re able to step back and do our own thing without feeling the pressures of having to sound like other UK or London acts. And I think you’ll find that’s true of any artist who’s coming out from where we’re coming from whether it’s DPF or Def Tex or us. And there’s loads of people as well, Archie, Mancini. It’s our own sound, because it’s our own studio, we’re out of the way. After we leave London tonight, we’re going back somewhere we can step out of it for a minute and we do our own thing.
And I imagine it’s a good place for a game of hide and seek, right?
E: I don’t know, I’ve never played hide and seek!
O: It’s too good, you’d never find anyone! You’d get bored, you could be there for weeks!
E: It would be a good place for paintball, it’s massive.
O: It used to be the longest runway in Europe. It used to be the only place in Europe they could land the space shuttle.
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If you think you know it all, you’re wrong
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How do you find small town living?
E: Well, I live in Ipswich, and Ipswich is not a big city but it’s a big town.
O: That’s just cos it doesn’t have a proper university it doesn’t get proper city status.
E: We don’t have a cathedral either but Ipswich is a town centre and a lot of estates and Chantry estate is the second biggest housing estate in Europe so it’s not small, you could get lost quite easily.
What about Framlingham, or Framsterdam as you’ve called it?
E: Well, it’s called Framlingham cos there used to be so many growing houses out there. That’s where a lot of the weed in East Anglia comes from. And Framsterdam is like a small market town, it’s mellow, it’s cool, I flit between the two. I’ve always lived in Ipswich more or loess except for a couple of years living out at the studio when it was in Fram.
Is there any desire to relocate to London?
E: Nah. That’s for all those rapper from other towns and cities who move to London and start talking like they’re from Kingston, Jamaica and you know who I’m talking about, there’s fifty million of them.
O: I think the scary thing is there’s loads of them in Sheffield and Leeds and Birmingham and Manchester and they all speak like “Ya get me?”
P: I actually live in London however, so… Ya get me?
E: It hasn’t changed his ways though!
What about musical influences? You’ve said before that you love US music, would you say that’s easily noticeable in your music?
E: Ha ha, loaded question! Of course it is, but we’re into loads of other music as well. We’re into world music, prog rock, British jazz, there is no music that we don’t have a taste for. And after a while, musical boundaries, for me anyway, begin to blur. If there’s a groove, if there’s a strong groove in something, and something’s funky and soulful then I’ll probably like it.
O: Our musical tastes are similar and if any one of the group really, really likes something, I think the rest of them are gonna because our music tastes are so similar. It might not be hip hop you know, it could be anything. There are a few exceptions of course.
P: you know, the one thing about American hip hop, particularly hip hop than any other stuff, is the sound of it is so fucking amazing because the studios they use are fucking incredible, they’ve got the biggest, most amazing studios. And you listen to Dre beats or Timbaland beats or Neptunes beats and they sound fucking amazing. From an engineering point of view, not even from a musical point of view, from an engineering point of view they sound fucking amazing. And as an engineer, which, you know, me and Ollie are, we strive to make our sound as good and as professional and as proper as it can be basically.
E: That’s the other thing about Vinyl Dialect is that everything is in-house. These guys could work in professional recording studios, we don’t need to bring anybody else in. Everything’s in-house, it’s all our own shape. And as to musical influences, I’m listening to Souad Masi at the moment. That’s what I’m into and it’s miles away from hip hop. The wider your influences, the more… it’s like this yeah, if you were to interbreed in the same family for years and years and years, you’re children will come out fucked up, if you mix up the gene pool, you’re children come out with a better temperament and more intelligent.
Do you think that your sound could be big in America?
E: No, I don’t think so, not at the moment.
O: I think Americans find it hard accepting hip hop from other countries, which is kinda fair enough almost. Well, it’s not fair enough but I can totally understand how they get set into listening to such high quality. There might be a novelty factor…
E: They’re might be people into the independent scene who might think that, but I think that out stuff doesn’t really sit in the mainstream or the underground. I think it’s a lot more like, it’s less restrictive then that.
O: The point earlier about having to re-record the album from label pressure, like Tom was saying, we go for the best quality sound possible, so that’s why we’ve got stuff that sounds good so if people say it’s a bit bling, then cheers! Thanks for the compliment, you say Dre’s bling, you say the Neptunes are bling, so cheers.
E: The other thing, in terms of movement as well, we aim to make music, to give the music a groove. Now, a lot of UK groups, everything they do is very static, it’s very staccato with no swing in it and no groove in it. And the other thing is, when you start talking like that around UK producers and UK MCs, you see their faces go blank cos they don’t know what you’re talking about cos they can’t groove. The proof is in their music and in their response to it. They’re like “What does he mean?” They can’t groove, they’re not funky, they’re not soulful. They wanna make everything moody and dark and like some kind of military march tune. Like they think they’re going to war or they’re all angry all the time. And if you’re telling me that you’re in that mood all of the time, you need to get therapy or you’re lying, one of the two. You’re either a liar, or you need therapy, or both.
And what would be your dream record label to join in America?
E: All American labels, or all labels elsewhere, labels period, have pros and cons and until you actually get to sign to a record label and see the inside workings of it, you can’t guess from the exterior. That’s my experience at record labels anyway. You don’t know, and some of them do some things really good and some of them do other things badly. For groups, particularly in this country where things are generally quite small scale, you have to make up for the deficiencies in your record label, so if they’re weak in a particular area you need to get on it. We’re quite lucky with press and radio plug-ins to a certain extent, Wall of Sound and Bad Magic are really good. I’m sure everyone else signed to a record label has the same thing. Signing to a US label, I don’t know, it’s not something I’ve ever thought about. There’s only two labels in America anyway. Def Jam and Interscope, there are no other hip hop labels in America.
Well, what do you think of the current UK scene?
P: I think we’ve covered that haven’t we?
E: We’ll give a few shout outs to people that we’re feeling, DPF…
Oh, we’ll come to that in a bit please. Do you get involved within the UK scene much?
P: We are in the UK scene. We have to be involved.
E: We did a song on the album with Task Force. Now, Task Force sound is something which is imitated in this country. And it’s different from our sound and people might be like “That’s a bit strange.” And the thing that we have in common with Task Force is that we’re both not feeling the UK hip hop scene, I think I can speak for them, on their behalf. I don’t think Farma and Chester would mind me saying that. We think that things could be stepped up, there should be more quality control. And while our sound is different from theirs and vice versa, and they might not be totally into what we’re doing, and we’ve already said what we feel about…
O: The thing is, radio and TV, things like that, are prepared to put on American acts, American hip hop acts all the time and play their stuff all the time, Kanye West is all over the shop, but then UK hip hop acts they won’t support.
E: The only other time that anybody with any money is prepared to support something is if it’s a novelty like Goldie Lookin’ Chain who just got signed for half a mil. It’s because it’s a novelty thing and in a certain way you can see that setting hip hop back because the mainstream aren’t going to take anything serious seriously.
P: a good novelty thing like Pitman didn’t even break.
E: Well, he’s saying something serious, it’s not just an Ali G tip he’s talking about, he’s talking about what we’ve been talking about through the course of this interview.
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a lot of UK groups, everything they do is very static, it’s very staccato with no swing in it and no groove in it
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So who you feeling in the UK scene at this moment?
E: DPF. Mystro, we like Mystro. Shout out to some of the other groups who are prepared to stick their neck out and do something original stuff, people like Roots Manuva. Because he’s got his own kind of take of thing and he sticks to it and it works basically.
O: Blak Twang as well. I like Blak Twang.
Is that cos you’re on their label?
E: No, no, Blak Twang releases quality products and he’s got a range of music as well. He’s not scared to do stuff which is more accessible or party orientated and at the same time do something different, he’s not restricted in the same kind of way that other people are.
So when are you gonna start on your next project, either an album or an EP or whatever?
E: We’re halfway through our next album, plus there’s a Plagawrists album on the way as well.
So what direction is the new album taking, is there anything you’re gonna do differently from the current album?
O: Progress.
E: We don’t want to say too much, but there’ll be more live music.
P: Yeah, more live instrumentation
E: More evolution, things becoming more songy for all those moody heads out there who like straight laced tracks.
O: Maybe a bit more cutting, we’ll see.
E: we’ll keep it funky and soulful.
Are you worried about the so called second album curse considering your current album had gotten really good reviews?
E: Nah man we’re gonna better the first album with the second album, no doubt about it. We can step that up loads.
O: We’re still learning. If you think you know it all, you’re wrong. You can always get better if you’re trying to learn, if you don’t wanna learn and wanna stay as you are, you’re not gonna get better..
E: I always feel like a beginner, like there’s things I can improve on. I can’t understand people who think they’re like right on top of it and there’s nothing they can learn and their attitude… I don’t relate.
And how long are Vinyl Dialect gonna be around?
E: Shit, I don’t man. In one form or another, I guess…
O: 2038!
E: There you go, we’ll set a date for you!
Well, on that note, cheers for your time guys, cheers for the gig, and any shout outs?
E: EA All-Stars basically, which is Olson, Precise, Mancini, Intricut, Sky, myself Ezra, Joshin, Tommy Tempa, Izo, MG, DPF, Force 10, have I missed anybody?
P: Not that I can think of.
And so as I venture off to find a nightbus home, I leave Vinyl Dialect with some serious partying to do. Their album 'Dialect' is out now on Bad Magic, and if you get the opportunity to see them live, make sure you take it cos this is one VD you do want to catch!
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Guru Mike
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