Morcheeba

Mon 29th Dec, 2008 in Features

Seminal trip-hoppers Morcheeba chat to FL about ‘chillout’ music, their musical turn-ons and their latest album Dive Deep on the eve of their second ever tour to our shores.

“How’s it going?” Ross Godfrey’s Pommy accent echoes down the line from his LA home. He and Paul Godfrey are the brothers behind a group whose music has been decisive in shaping the chillout music scene over the past decade.

With influences sprawling from jazz, funk, electro to soul, Morcheeba have never cornered themselves into any genre. “The centre of Morcheeba is always going to be a mixture of soul/folk songwriting with hip-hip/electro type beats and dubby noises,” Ross explains. “We feel this latest record is just that – it’s nice to be able to write an album that is definitively Morcheeba.”

Coming off the end of an eight-month tour, Ross shares what it is about their latest record that is so unlike anything they’ve ever done. Unlike Morcheeba’s first four releases (the first being Big Calm in 1998 with vocalist Skye Edwards ), the band opted to bring in a bunch of new singers on Dive Deep. Unlike many other bands that have lost their singer, the Godfrey brothers have taken it as a chance to expand musically – with a view that progression is necessary.

“You can make a record with one singer but it can be a bit boring. I mean unless they are one of the best singers in the world, it’s kind of a little bit monotonous…not saying that I don’t like any of the singers that we’ve worked with, I love what they’ve done with us. For us it’s just more interesting because we get bored pretty quickly,” he laughs.

The band could have kept writing records like Big Calm, with those dreamy soundscapes and transcendent vocals. What they’ve done on Dive Deep, though, is create a story – with each of the vocalists as a new character. “We wanted to write the songs and give them to the singer we thought would be able to sing them the best,” he says. In this vein, Dive Deep has been heralded by many as the band’s return to form.

Ross likens their new chorale to a movie cast. “I suppose it’s like directing a movie. You’ve got loads of different vocalists who are your cast and here we can tell a story from so many different perspectives.”

The band has lassoed the likes of childhood hero Judy Tzuke, French singer Manda and Thomas Dybdahl to leave their own creative fingerprint on the album. “We’d fallen in love with Judy’s soulful voice way back and she appears on the album quite a few times. As for Manda, she’d sent us a MySpace message telling us it has been her dream to sing on a Morcheeba album. I mean, we just felt rude to deny her and she’s amazing. Her voice is so soothing and effortless. Thomas is just this amazing Norwegian singer [who] can play basically any instrument – and we’ve got a lot in our studio!”

Soothing is definitely a word that sums up these British chillout behemoths. Albums like Big Calm and Fragments of Freedom imply in their names alone a sense of relaxation and wonderment. Dive Deep is no different. “There is a reason why our records are so mellow, it’s because when we’re mixing them we’re usually pretty hungover! You wants something soothing!” he laughs.

Having toured Australia once before in 2003, Ross shares his thoughts on Aussie crowds and their imminent return to our shores later this month. “We’re really excited to be getting back down to Australia,” says Godfrey.

What is so different about this visit is that brothers Ross and Paul will be bringing with them their travelling troubadours and any one singer. When asked how they enjoyed their last tour down under Ross replied, “It’s a pretty mellow place. Everyone just seems to get off on the vibes. I think last time people expected us to be a really, really mellow band, and they were pretty surprised when they discovered that our live shows are a lot more energetic than our records.”

Morcheeba hit our shores this week for their first Australian shows in over five years. See the Gig Guide listings below for details.