The Brand New Heavies play funk and soul for a good time. Pioneers of the London acid jazz scene, the Brand New Heavies translated their love for the funk grooves of the 1970s into a sophisticated sound, which carried the torch for classic soul in an era dominated by hip-hop. Formed in 1985 by drummer/keyboardist Jan Kincaid, guitarist Simon Bartholomew, and bassist/keyboardist Andrew Levy. They have since gone on to sell millions of records worldwide gaining a loyal fan base. Music News caught up with them over a coffee and talked through their colourful musical career and latest album featuring the gorgeous Nicole Russo on vocals.
Present were:
Simon Bartholomew - Guitar
Andrew ‘Love' Levy - Bass
Jan Kincaid - Drums and Keyboard
Nicole Russo -Vocals
MN: You have now been going for over 15 years. In what way do you feel that you have changed over this time?
JK: Err, I don't know I think.……
ALL: Weight!…… (laughs)
JK: Yeah, that too. Well I think the main difference has been the modern technology that has been at our disposal. In the old days in the studio, everything had to be put on tape but now we've got a lot of different things that we can use to make music, like we can use a computer as well which just makes it a lot easier to do what you want to do.
SB: If you listen to Missy Elliot then you can make out a bit of James Brown, well I can anyway, but with us because we play live and want to play funky music, we're not going to go mad with the 'Wah Wah' ‘cos it would be rubbish. We've got to be slick and sophisticated for the funk. It's not like we've learned more chords or using more synthesiser or drum machine…..
ALL: …..so in a way we're just saying that now we're better musicians than we were back in the day, definitely.
SB: Yeah, in a way we're more refined in what we do.
ALL: We've got a very wide spectrum of music that we draw from and listen to so there's always something that changes around in our music. Working with Nicole means that there is a whole different sense of things that we need to draw from.
MN: So what has changed from the song aspect…. as in when you write, where do you start from?
NR: Sometimes it's from backing tracks as obviously these guys have been jamming for years. They've got a plethora of music. We found 'Surrender' in that way which was just a jam that just went on for about an hour where we took out about 4..5…or 6 seconds…
ALL: Yeah about 6 seconds of it…which were good (laughs).
NR: …so yeah, then we started on the toplines or the melodies and lyrics.
JK: Other times we jam and sometimes, cos you find that computer tapes cost about £150 a pop, you only get about 15 minutes of time and you have to keep on rewinding and starting again. Now when you are using a computer where you have a limitless amount of recording time, you end up recording loads and loads of stuff for no purpose other than just getting good grooves and changing them so that what you end up with is shit loads of stuff to listen to…….
SB: Not loads of shit stuff! (Laughs)
JK: …and out of that you might find something that's a real piece of magic. There's something about playing when you're not really listening, for me as a musician anyway, when you're not playing a song, you're just playing something really cool which is quite a liberating process, but you just get a totally different thing from sitting down and saying 'come on, lets write something in the key of B', which we do as well but it's just totally different.
SB: There are only a few ways that you can write really, but anyway…what I think we have that other bands don't have is the groove. When we used sit back in a room in our schooldays and just play a groove for ages it was cool. It was always the same thing for ages and then we'd say 'Right, we're writng a song now so lets start a chorus'.
ALL: We were writing grooves but we were also learning…well, I was anyway….just learning how to play, as I started to learn to play quite late. I was still learning how to play and how to keep time, how to play with the drums and how to play the strings and how to syncopate together…it was good I think.
MN: OK, what about the live scene? Where do feel you get your best receptions?
JK: The best reception that I think we had was when we played one of our cassettes of one of our bedroom jams in a club called 'The cat in the hat', which was the centre of the world in terms of the Acid House Scene. The crowd were dancing to one of our cassettes and we just thought 'mmmm, maybe we could make some money here'. We didn't say that but….you know. In terms of reception and how well we are received, we've just got back from Europe and played 2 weeks and they were all really, really good gigs from the audiences point of view. From a personal point of view I think that we each have better shows than others. I personally like the small gigs of about a thousand people tops, that's good for me. Outside of that you are dealing with people who can't even see and you're dealing with a massive venue where the sound changes and the stage is massive and where it's harder to be close to the other musicians…..
NR: …….so you can feel them more.
JK: Yeah, and that's where we started as a band back in the day with small stages.
MN: Has Nicole's voice changed your style in songwriting?
SB: It's definitely changed our sound a bit.
NR: For a start, every songwriter has their own style…
(Interrupted by a load of tasty M&S mini cakes entering the room and being handed round. Interview from here slightly muffled by the sound of chewing and swallowing)
NR:..obviously top-line writers and lyrical writers have their own style so it would have to influence it in some way.
(The cakes are handed round the room again. Music news decides to go for the cornflake cake option. Lovely!)
MN: You would admit yourselves that your music has been heavily influenced by the likes of James Brown but over the time that you've been together, has there been anyone else that you feel has influenced you more recently?
JK: Well, we're still influenced by the same people, but we do still buy and listen to a lot of music, so you may hear a few new things that are interesting. I think that now the most interesting thing for me personally is the mixture of the different styles that you are getting in our music. We're crossing different styles and we're being influenced by music that you wouldn't normally consider our music to be a part of. That is interesting to me, but also our old stuff is just as interesting as it always was. The funny thing is that there's been a spate of new rock bands that have been influenced by Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd which are still bands from the 70's, which is quite interesting as it says something about the 70's..
ALL: Yeah, it rocks!
JK: I think it says a lot about the music from then. I think that those people will always be influential because it was an incredibly influential time in music and that will never change. I don't know that there will be another time that will be that influential in music again.
SB: A lot of people think of that time as being a time of flares and tackiness and that kind of bullshit…but in terms of music there were loads of fusion groups and rock ‘n roll bands and jazz and world music and record labels were signing billions of acts. These days you have to have hits or your gone. Maybe there are a lot of bands still being signed that never make it, but not on that scale.
MN: Do you reckon if you had just come out now that you would be just as successful with your type of music?
SB: I don't know, as it's hard to say. We were talking about it before and how we were signed to Chrysalis first of all in '88 (the summer of love) and then bang, that was all out the window but fortunately there was a massive club scene that we were part of which was the funk scene and the acid Jazz scene. So when we got dropped we moved to Acid Jazz records, and that's part of the club and black market and where the first raves started really. We still played them so that we were still able to survive and other bands come out of it like The Denims, The Beads and the Goaty Beards.
(Laughter as Simon tries to give us a rendition of a song by the Goaty Beards as Music News ashamedly has never heard of them or a great name like that!)
MN: Is there one particular gig that stands out to you over the past few years for whatever reason?
SB: Well we've just done a tour in Europe and I must admit that playing a club in Serbia was quite interesting. It was built by Stalin in '55 and it was in the shape of a sort of Moscow…..
NR: I know it was a Russian…but that was Warsaw. (Laughs)
SB: Oh fuck, yeah. Well listen, they all look the same inside.
NR: It's gets very confusing on the road.
SB: I'm getting confused now between Warsaw and …
BNH other members together: 'Belgrade!'
SB: Belgrade. Thank you
MN: Well how did the collaboration come….?
(Handing out of more tasty cakes around everyone)
ALL: You don't mind us doing this while we're chatting, do you?
MN:: No, not at all. In fact I will try one of those chocolate cakes now, cheers!
Anyway, how did you 3 decide on Nicole being your next singer?
JK: Well, we'd probably say that it's quite an organic process. We met Nicole nearly 2 years ago and she was introduced to us as a songwriter and she heard some of our stuff and really liked it. We had an album out in Japan which had a few different people on and all the team were American and we were offered some gigs to promote that and we asked Nicole if she'd be interested and so she came down and met the guys and we had a little jam and it seemed to work really well so she said she'd like to do that, and we did that, and then we got back and then started writing as a band and getting some material together. That turned in to an album so that's obviously quite an organic process. In terms of what you look for, I think that the main thing is personality and having someone who's got their own musical identity and ideas and strong personality. I think one of the main questions that Nicole is asked is 'How do you feel about walking into a band that has already had so many great singers?'. I think that the answer to that is to have someone with a really strong personality and is really their own person and I really don't think that there is another way to do it.
NR: I don't think that you can go in and go ' mmm, maybe I should be more like this' or 'should I do this song more like them' because the second that you do that the whole thing is damaging your own energy and your own way of expressing in your own unique way, whatever that is, and secondly you critisize that part of yourself when you get to it. With that in mind you sometimes just have to nod to it and just be flattered to be associated with such talents.
MN: You've known the Brand New Heavies from a young age. How does it feel now to be the lead singer of the band that you have known for so long?
NR: It's great actually, and it's funny because when we go on and we do a live performance, the guys go on before me and I wait at the side and watch and it's really strange because as a kid that's what I used to do with my dad, just stand at the side watching which is a great feeling because you get a very intimate view of performing.
ALL: Ah…, watching our arses?
NR: Laughs (a little too much to believe that this isn't the case!)
NR: And that's the moment all my stresses and strains go out the window and then I can really get in to it because obviously when you are rehearsing and when you are thinking about the shows you are thinking about the levels and how it's going to work in the shows but sometimes it just nice to step outside for a moment and to be at the side as a spectator, which is really cool.
MN: How much do you feel that your image has changed over the years, if at all?
NR: I don't know. I suppose the image was a lot more 70s before.
SB: But we were wearing black which wasn't just particular to the 70s..
ALL: But in terms of our perception and our music we were.
NR: You need to look at the colourfulness of it all because if you look back to the late 80s it wasn't really that colourful a time in terms of clothing. Everyone was wearing beige, cream and all that. I think that what was wonderful about the 70s is almost the shamelessmess of what people were wearing, and that's what makes people like the OutKast, who are doing now what 'The Heavies' were doing then, so exciting. It's kind of like they are going 'hey, I really don't give a shit' and to me that's a great performance and that's what you see when you go to see them.
ALL:True, people are paying more than £25 plus to come and see The Brand New Heavies, I feel that we should give them….even if they are taking the piss out of us and laughing at us, they need a little bit more out of us than just jeans and trainers.
SB: If you go to a show, then you want to actually see a show. If you go to see…Earth, Wind and Fire then you don't want to see them come out..well I personally don't, with some t-shirt with some logo on it.
MN: I've downloaded your single 'Boogie' on to my phone from your website. Do any of you have one of your songs as a ringtone, and if not, why?
ALL: I'm gonna do that right now actually…
SB: No, what does it sound like?
NR: I haven't heard it. Can I ring it now? What's your number?……
(Music news regrets to announce that because we were interviewing, our phones were switched off and not with us so we didn't get that phone call from Nicole along with her phone number.)
MN: My cousin reckons that your track 'Dream come true' is the greatest funk track ever written. Do you agree?
ALL: It's what I like to call part of the 'Crown Jewels' of the BNH.
SB: I met this guy in the 90's sometime who'd entered this Japenese dance group challenge, and they'd won this competition they were in. The song that they were getting down to was 'Dream come true' which I found really….weird as it's quite up-tempo.
ALL: I've got the strongest memories of Japan actually…..because they look after you so well and treat you like kings over there and theyre just so enthusiastic.
SB: ….and they're tighter as well.
Thank you BNH for the interview, we had a great time and left absolutely stuffed.
The new single 'Surrender' is released the 11th April. Check out the video links below:
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