Breakbeat Era. The ashes of Roni Size and New Forms. DJ Die and, for the sake of this interview specifically, lead vocalist and frontwoman Leonie Laws. A charming lass meeting with us shortly before Breakbeat Era's set at Coachella '99, a two-day outdoor festival in Southern California.
Soundproof: What are your thoughts on transferring Breakbeat Era from the studio to a live group-- How’s the tour been going?
Leonie: We’ve played just about everywhere. We’ve played from Japan through Europe and England and America. We’ve had a really good reception everywhere we were. You were at Los Angeles last night yeah?
Soundproof: Yeah.
Leonie: That’s typical of how we’ve been received all over the place. We’ve had some really good gigs with Roni and Die. It’s going amazingly. Basically, we’re on the up. We’ve done some television in England. We did Jools Holland’s Later, which is one of the best music programs on the BBC. It was wicked yeah. So we’re getting good acclaim. We did a Radio 1 session in England as well. Yeah, its all going pretty damn well. Well the music’s so great isn’t it?
Soundproof: When you were working out the transition from the studio to the live show, what was that transition like. Did it come smoothly?
Leonie: Well from the beginning when we signed our contract, I knew that Roni and Die were’nt going to be on stage with us. There was a lot of talk about various different ways that I could have done it by myself, but I wasn’t happy with that. I’ve known Toby, the drummer that we have for us now, for over eleven years. I’ve worked with him before. The first beats he ever played were breakbeats. I knew that he was a breakbeat man. He could play everything with his hands tied behind his back…which indeed he does. So he was my start off. Basically I said to Roni that I didn’t want to sing to a DAT. I didn’t want any sequencers, because we can do it for ourselves. We’re all good enough musicians. I know enough. So he let me run with it, basically. Finding musicians is no difficulty at all. Liam, I’ve also know for years. I’ve made music with him and he’s got a fine pedigree. He’s made music with Derrick May.
Soundproof: He’s playing right now.
Leonie: He is? Aw shit! I wish I could be doing that. Derrick May and Juan Atkins and all that lot, yeah! So we’ve got him on the samples. We’ve got Joe on the bass. Obviously there were natural tweakings that went on because we weren’t using a traditional drum sound on stage. To get around that…because we don’t have a lot of money either… you know we can’t afford V-Drums. So we got a few de-bugs on the drum…so as he hits his drum he’s triggering off samples. He’s got a couple of little loops…you know…boom-cha, boom-cha…on a couple of little bass pedals. So basically, Toby is an island entirely unto himself. He can do whatever he likes. Because the things is, I never wanted to limit our ability to jam, which we do. As musicians, you can get very bored playing things over and over again. I wanted the danger aspect where we were really playing the music, like somebody on a high wire. I mean really, it defies gravity. It gets easier and easier as we do it. So apart from the purely technical things, we were getting our heads around how to translate the things that you hear on the stage, the things that you hear. That wasn’t really that difficult. No, it was fantastic. The first gig we ever did was in a place called Bath in a tiny little club. We didn’t play Bristol until last week. We played this tiny club. We got the essence of it even then. We did ten days of rehearsals. That’s all the time that we had was ten days. We had the essence of it down. Since then it’s just been going on and on and on. I felt very passionately about the live thing. I still do and I know I was right. I know I’m right. People come up and say, "Where’s your sequencer?" And we go,"Who?" And they go, "Where’s your DAT?" Looking at me like "What?" It makes me very proud, because we are truly live. Also, it allows for anarchy. In my old days I used to be really into Frank Zappa and used to love it. I mean, like or hate his music; when you hear the way his band used to play, it blows you away. That’s the kind of thing. Ultimately in the end, I like the ways that DJs can jump from one sort of theme to another. We’ve got themes throughout our album. And to get the crowd revved up…I mean you can’t do that if your constrained with sequencers and DATs. We’re not. If we have a mind to, we can do anything we like. Ha ha ha ha!
Soundproof: Speaking of Frank Zappa. If you had a third child what would you name yours?
Leonie: I don’t think I’d have a third one. I don’t know. That’s really funny, because…Finnbar!
Soundproof: Finnbar? Why?
Leonie: I like the name Finn.
Soundproof: And why the Bar?
Leonie: I’m English and you’ve got to give somebody their full title. I could have said Finn, but that’s sort of like, Californian. I’m only kidding! Well let’s face it. Zappa came from L.A., didn’t he? I didn’t know. I was going, "Where’s the Valley?" What did he say? "I don’t want to be free. I just want to be cheap."
Soundproof: Do you think you’ll be continuing along the same vein as what you’re doing now and working with the same people?
Leonie: (Burps) Do beg my pardon. Who let that goat in? Yeah, with the next album, definitely. Roni and Die and I are going to work again. We’re going to have more resources. We’ve got the band for instance. Now, we actually have no idea, just like we had no idea when we went into the studio with Ultra Obscene. This really is experimental music. We’re doing what we feel to do really. All I know is I’ve got high hopes. You just watch this space really. I mean, who knows what the new Reprazent album is going to sound like? Who knows what Krust’s album is going to sound like, or Die’s?
Soundproof: Who are some of the vocal oriented bands that you’re interested in seeing here at Coachella?
Leonie: Wow like Beck. Beck’s the dog’s bollocks as far as I’m concerned. Beck’s written some really lovely music. Morrissey as well, is the author of my world number one favorite track of all time. It’s called, When is now? Do you know it?
Soundproof: How soon is now. Yeah they use it in car commercials all the time now.
Leonie: Is it? Oh what a shame. Here you go. If it was down to me…oh shit. I love that song. I love that, the way it goes…not as much the words, but that "dun duh dun dun duh" thing. There is no power in a Nissan! But yeah, Beck definitely. Are there many other vocal groups? There’s quite a lot of DJs isn’t there? We’ll go and see Beck. I mean if I get a chance, I’ll have float around and see everything. At festivals like this, you’ll get caught up. You’ll get to listen to music that normally you wouldn’t listen to in a million years. But you get caught up in the middle of a crowd and some things can be really nice. Like, "Bloody hell! I never knew I liked country and western. I better not drink anymore cider." But you know, that’s happened to me at a lot of festivals. That’s why I like it. Get everyone together and you can find things. I’m a bit eclectic, basically. I like all kinds of things really.
Soundproof: Are there surprising reactions that you get when you play festivals like this from people who might not normally listen to the type of music that you play?
Leonie: No. In Bristol we sort of delineate things to a dance tent and a jazz stage usually. It’s separate. The only surprise that the pure drum & bass and DJ fans have had is that in the middle of the DJ sets on the dance stage, out comes a live band. We’re the only live band in the dance tents as far as we know. So that would have been the only surprise. We’ve had fantastic reactions. At Reading and Glastonbury it was amazing. Reading was just phenomenal…people screaming. I felt like a proper pop star. It was incredible. They all knew the words and shit. It was like, "Fuuuck!" Millions of them! Millions and millions and millions of them. Well, thousands.
Soundproof: Let’s not exaggerate.
Leonie: Why not? I played to a herd of wildebeasts stretching majestically to the skyline. Get serious for God’s sake!
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