"One of the brightest hopes for dance music in the next millennium" Mixmag (UK)
JIVE: When you first started producing, what do you think your
influences were and why did you go into drum and bass rather than other
forms of electronic music?
Dan: Well, we grew up with the hardcore sounds and drum and bass music.
When we were young, our older friends were playing it. We really got
into it. Once you start listening to drum and bass or hardcore you get
addicted to it. So you just keep listening to it and it captures you.
JIVE: Who were your influences?
Mick: Prodigy.
Dan: Yeah Prodigy. That was like way back in the day, the early hardcore.
Mick: the "House Crew." [laughs]
Dan: yeah, "House Crew."[laughing]
Dan: Who else? Andy C. The fist time I went out I was like 14 years old
I went out to a club and Andy C was playing. At that time he just made
like ''31 seconds'' and he like smashed it up that night when we went
out and that was always a big influence over the last few years.
JIVE: What's your opinion on the availability of mp3s on the net? Have
you had any run-ins. Do you think it's a positive or negative influence
on the recording industry?
Dan: Well, we think basically the Napster/mp3 thing is going to die and
that once Napster is declared illegal, the record companies are going
to set up a team of people to search the internet for pirating sites.
It's not something we agree or disagree with but I think that's what's
going to happen. To be quite honest at the moment because Napster is
going on we can't do anything about it and we don't hold grudges
against people who download our tracks.
We had an incident with our newest album where some guy had a
promotional copy uploaded on Napster and 7000 people downloaded it on
the first week and that's undeniably going to impact the sales of our
album. It's because we're trying to make a living out of this so we can
take it seriously and put all our effort into it. It's hard enough as
it is.
At the end of the day, once intellectual property like music or art
becomes valueless, it's going to be a big problem for our society and
in particularly for London which has a large music economy.
Mick: Yeah it could crumble the whole music economy worldwide if people
get their music for free. People won't become big superstars on
television. It will pretty much ruin everything created over the years.
JIVE: What do you think of the US drum and bass scene and do you see it maturing to the same level of acceptance as the UK?
Dan: We just set up a message board called www.dogsonacid.com and it's
part of BCRecordings.com and it's basically a portal for up and coming
producers to put up links up to their mp3's and their tracks and we try
to listen to them and give everyone feedback. Now gradually other
people from other labels are going there to listen. It's through a
whole lot of people in the underground and it's been very suprising to
see how much talent is going on in the states. I mean it's obvious that
there must be because there are so many people, but we never seem to
hear anything that's that good and in the last 2 months since we set up
the message board we've heard 20 fold what we've heard up until then in
terms of talent and it's really raised our expectations for the states.
Mick: It seems like the states scene has been growing over the last 3
or 4 years and it seems healthy and striving. The kids seem up for it.
JIVE: Where do you see your place as far as the experimentation and
evolution of the sound of drum and bass? The sound of drum and bass
seems to constantly change, almost drastically from one year to the
next, from, say, jump up to the popularity of tech step and now
Neurofunk. Where do you think you want to take the sound?
Dan: That seems what drum and bass has always been about.
Drum and bass has always been a really progressive music. It progresses
slowly when you're involved in it but from the outside looking over the
progression it's really changed over the years. Like if you listen to
tracks from like 92 to 94 they're totally different from 94 to 96
they're different. From now to 98 they're different. So it's just a
progressional thing that producers experiment with new equipment and
new techniques and anything to get that new sound. That's the struggle
with drum and bass. A lot of music like house and techno use the same
formulas.
Mick: Yeah they're just trying to make money. It's like they find a commercial formula.
Dan: The one thing with drum and bass is that nobody is making that
much money. So people have to slow down to being into it for the right
reasons and trying to further what they're doing as far as music, like
going into it for yourself.
Mick: It's not about the money. Because if it was about the money it'd
be house or speed garage or pop music, which is a hell of a lot easier
to produce than drum and bass. So yeah that's basically what it's all
about like the progressive mood and the push of technology.
JIVE: Speaking of equipment and technology, do you see anything that
really excites you or that you are already using in your production?
Mick: Yeah…networked studio environments.
Dan: We have this new digital mixing desk, which is a Mac DBA digital.
It has all the verbs and effects and compression, etc. all inside this
one piece of equipment.
JIVE: Is it small and something mobile?
Dan: For what it does, it is a lot smaller than all the bits and pieces
that you would have needed before to make the same thing. We know a
couple of other people who have the same desk and there are ways of
sending the mix through the internet to another desk so that it spins
into place. Then you have Logic Audio that connects over the internet,
also, so that two people can work on the same tune and be totally in
sync. Our studio has been very much developed or designed for four
people, which a lot of the time is a problem so we have to try and make
technology work for us so we can work together on a networked
environment. We always have to be on the edge of what's going on and
trying to find newer solutions for our problem which is there being so
many people in the studio at one time.
Mick: There are a lot bigger more expensive studios that are a lot less
complicated than ours. Our studio has about six or seven computers in
it and you are just surrounded by monitors and computers. We have loads
of equipment.
JIVE: As far as your productions, why do you decide not release a good amount of your tunes?
Dan: Well, Bad Company has always been about quality. That logo has
always meant to stand for something and the only way we can reinforce
what it stands for is by associating it with something that is strong.
So out of maybe every twenty tunes that we do, we might only release
ten of them.
This is why dub plates are very important to us. We play mostly our own stuff.
Mick: We'll test out new tunes and things that are going down will stay
in our set. Things that are just going all right will get pushed to one
side.
Dan: This is how we figure out our releases…so we know they will work.
We think there is enough crap already in drum and bass without our
releasing some more shit.
JIVE: About the track Breathe, it is a smashing dance tune, which has a
very futuristic sound. How did you end up hooking up with Sage to
produce the track? Whose idea was it to put together such incredible
vocals?
Dan: It was God's idea [grins]. We know the UFO guys from San Francisco
and Sage is a good friend of ours. She was down the studio from us when
we were making Breathe so we needed someone to lay down the vocals for
us. She just happened to be there, but at first, she was like "No I
can't sing!" We told her "Yes you can!" [laughing]. We put a mic in her
face and we had all been drinking [laughs] and so we got these vocals
from her. That is what happened with Breathe.
JIVE: So you were really pleased with the final outcome of that?
Dan: Yeah, it was cool.
Mick: But…not really.
[Dan and Mick laugh]
Dan: We are ever the perfectionists. We are never happy. I mean, it's all about the tune that is not finished yet.
Mick: It's all about the mix too.
JIVE: Will we being seeing more collaborating with US artists?
Dan: Well, as far as working with other US artists, we aren't right now
but we are waiting to meet people that fit into the program.
JIVE: On the World of Drum and Bass LP you have a track on there that
represents Iraq possibly? What is the story behind that track?
Mick: Basically, when we wrote that tune, 4 Days, it was during the
Iraq bombing campaign which at the time we were putting the track
together, the bombing campaign lasted 4 days, then it stopped. While we
were writing this tune, we were listening to the radio, we were
listening to Grooverider or Andy C on KISS. The radio show cut short
and there was a news flash about the bombings starting again in Iraq so
we decided to write it around that.
JIVE: So it seems that something can just come along out of nowhere and inspire you guys.
Mick: That happens quite a lot actually.
JIVE: Okay guys, big important question here… How did you get the name Bad Company?
Mick: Well, basically, we were all big comic fans when we were younger.
Dan had this one Bad Company comicbook among thousands he has, like
X-Men and others. Dan was looking through them and he said, "Bad
Company! Hey man, let's do that."
JIVE: So the name did not come from the rock band, which is what some of our readers were wondering about.
Mick: No, it's from the comicbook.
Dan: Anyway, the band [Bad Company] is so cheesy that they deserve it [laughing]
JIVE: When will you guys be performing a live act?
Mick: That is what we are working toward at the moment. We are
practicing, building tracks, trying to get ready, and gearing towards
rehearsing all this, maybe by the end of the year or the beginning of
next year.
Dan: Maybe, we will see how it goes. We're perfectionists so it has to be tight or no ones going to hear it.
JIVE: How did Paul Kodish come into the picture to help out with Digital Nation?
Dan: We met him down at Apollo 440 Studio and he was just doing some
mad shit that I have never seen before with a drum kit. It was drum and
bass style and I kept thinking I had never seen this done before. We
said, "My God this is fucking amazing" and were totally in awe of it.
He was just kind of cool, you know? So we told him about what we were
trying to do and he said, "oh, you guys are Bad Company. Man, I've got
all your records." After that we just hit it off and it just happened.
It worked out really well and now he's a really good friend of ours. We
are looking forward to getting into some serious projects with him this
year.
We're actually starting a band called Digital Nation. We're also tyring
to find a vocalist at the moment. We've done one track with one guy.
We're just looking around trying to get the whole thing together. It's
like a long and difficult process. But yeah, it seems to us that you
can only go so far as a DJ with records. You really need to be able to
portray yourself for the show so that people who aren't into drum and
bass and dance music, that are more from a rock background, can
actually see something going on and relate to it a bit more and then
relate to the music rather than thinking ''Oh well, this isn't an
artist. This is just two guys mixing records into one another." It's a
chance for us to show the atmosphere that's going on in our studio and
the way we interact when we build music, rather than just mixing
finished tracks.
JIVE: Tell us about your new EP coming up.
Mick: Our new EP coming up is actually a series of two or three EPs and with tracks like Spider, Believe, and Numbers.
And now for the JIVE Five, some Southern fried humor:
JIVE: Have you ever had a mullet hair cut? Do you know what a mullet is?
Mick: Yeah, I know what a mullet is and I HAVE NEVER had one. I think that anyone who has one should CUT IT OFF.
JIVE: What about you Dan?
Dan: I've never had one, but I have given a few. Never been on the receiving end.
JIVE: Have you ever eaten grits and if so do you like them?
Dan: Not deliberately.
Mick: Nah…cuz the laws of physics in my kitchen are different from everywhere else.
[JIVE side note: go rent "My Cousin Vinny" if you don't know what Mick is talking about]
JIVE: What do you like about Southern Women?
Mick: Ooh, this could be risky!
Dan: Well, they are southern. They are always Southern.
Mick: I'm not even going there.
Dan: Let's leave this one blank [laughing]
JIVE: What record never leaves your bag?
Dan: [grinning] go see what Dieselboy answered to that question.
JIVE: What is the funniest or strangest thing that has ever happened to you while performing?
Dan: I was in Hungary and I was given this bottle of water. This guy
came up to me and said, "Ah, you must be very headstrong!" I said,
"Why?" and he said, "Ah, this is strong Hungarian E!" I was like,
"NO!!" So for the next two hours during my set I was buzzing my tits
off! Yeah, that was dark.
Mick: We've got another one. We played in Seattle in front of 5000
people with one turntable and a mixer that didn't work. So that was
freaky. Then a technician came up and picked up the mixer, dropped one
of the decks and totally messed the place up. Dan and I just stood back
and let it go. Just kept putting on one record at a time and stood
back. We just kept dropping down one record at at time, when it ran
out, stop the tune, put on the next one. When the bass hit the floor,
the crowd was like "YEAH!!!" [raising his arms in the air]. No one knew
what was going on really.
