P: We're Morcheeba and you'd better believe it!
P: I always had fantasy groups going in my head all the time and Morcheeba was one of them and it was, like, a sort of silly rap crew that were always too stoned to do anything. And the name just stuck. We started doing demos and we changed our name every week and on one of the tapes I think we wrote Morcheeba and the record company that signed us were like, "Oh we really like the name", so we were like,"Ok, we'll keep it!"...
S: The new album's called Fragments of Freedom...
P: The title Fragments of Freedom was something that came at the last minute.
R: The new album is not really that far away from the last one. I mean it's still, kind of, the same instruments, still the same people making the music.
S: It's still Morcheeba; I'm still the singer ... and there's still Ross and Paul in there.
R: The only thing is a change of frame of mind, insofar as when we wrote the album, we were in a lot more positive mood.
P: We just wanted to make a happy record. We were feeling good...
S: I'd describe it as an uplifting, happy sort of ... crossover
P: On this record we had a bit more budget because, obviously, we're now on a major record label, so we got in the gospel choirs and the best brass section and just really had some fun with it.
S: There's some good songs on there ... My favorite one is called Shallow End. [She sings] "You know I'm through with feeling deeply, lets dive into the shallow end". Cos it's saying 'I'm through with feeling deeply, lets dive into the shallow end', but when you dive into the shallow end you only bash your head on the bottom! So its kind of like, you know, it's not good to be shallow.
R: On the new album we wanted to expand even more with more collaborations and so we got Bahamadia, who's an incredible female rapper from philadelphia, I thinks she's from, and she rapped on Can't Keep a Good Girl Down
P: We had some DJ's come in. We had DJ First Rate, who used to be with the Scratch Perverts, who came in and did some scratching on Be Yourself. He's just crazy, he's just manic, his scratching's amazing and similarly, we had DJ Crossphader who was in town with Complex. He came in and did some pretty wild cutting on Love Sweet Love. It was nice, it was just a really nice atmosphere having, you know, genuinely creativre, happy people in and out and just doing exciting stuff...
There was this guy Fimber, busking, playing steel drum and it was just amazing. And I just stood there and just listened to him for about half an hour and thought "We gotta get this guy on our record". So I called Ross and I was playing it down the phone to him going "Listen to this guy play steel drum"...
R: And I was listening and I said "You gotta get the guy's number cos we had the idea of having steel drums on a blues track...
P: Cos he was playing kinda like bluesy stuff and I always associated it with being sort of more strictly Caribbean but I thought "This could fit around how we work"
R: And he picked it up first time and played it and actually changed it a bit and played it much better than i'd written it and we were just sitting there absolutely mesmerized by this sound. It's just the most beautiful instrument to play and if you can play it well it's amazing.
P: It's very pleasant and I'm sure it's gonna get hammered on holiday programmes!
S: Two brothers. There just two brothers, you know, come from the same punani!
P: Working with Ross... I dunno, Ross is like on of my legs or something. I can't really be that objective about it.
R: My parents got divorced when I was quite young, so we had to stick together. Otherwise evrybody would be fighting, and there was no point in that.
P: We've been working together so long now and we just click in a very kind of telepathic way.
R: We have a very good shorthand for talking, say, in the studio. Reference points just come out and we know what we're talking about and everybody else is like "Duh?"
S: What happens usually is that Ross will just be strumming away on his guitar and I'll just hum something over the top of it and then Paul will take it away and is like, "I've got some lyrics to that melody you came up with" or he'll have the lyrics already prepared and I'll just kind of read them ...
P: We were desperate for a singer because we didn't have a front person.
S: I never really wanted to be a performer, it all kind of happened by chance: I mean I used to go to dance school because the opportunity was there...
P: I met Skye at a party ...
S: They was looking for a singer and I said "Oh I can sing a bit!" and that's where it all took off from there
P: She was very pretty and she had a very sweet voice and we sort of struck a deal with her and we been sort of married to each other ever since.
R: And so, yeah, she's a little diva now!
R: We got a platinum record for Big Calm which was really good to get.
P: I think the success of Big Calm was a great kind of affirmation for us that we desperately needed at the time.
S: It's cos it was a good album. I don't know if that sounds big-headed but there were some good songs on there!
S: Oh yeah, we played at the Albert Hall back in November last year [1999]
P: The booking agent said "Right, we can put you in the Albert Hall" and we were like "You're joking, we can't play the Albert Hall, nobody'll come!", and it sold out three months in advance. It was an immensely popular gig, it was really crazy.
S: It was amazing. I'd like to go back there because there was a few mishaps...
P: I had a technical problem with my turntables and I drank a bottle of tequila to try and make up for it. The rest of the evening is a blur!
R: We're playing at a lot of festivals this summer [2000 but click for this summer's venues]. There's the Heineken festival in Italy, Glastonbury in England, we're playing in Valencia and we're playing in Lisbon at a festival which should be fun. I mean it's nice in the summer when the sun is out, playing happy music to lots of happy people.
S: The difference will be that we'll have a backing vocalist and Steve Bentley-Klein, who writes the string parts for us and always has done, he gonna come out on the road. He's ditched Shirley Bassey, can you imagine!?
P: Steve is like our bridge to the 'proper' classical musical world, so between us, we can get the job done.
P: My favorite tracks on this record? I love Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
R: My favorite is also Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, because I have to agree with Paul, it's the best song ever written, even much better than Dylan or anyone like that!
P: The Stones... In fact, it's better than the Beatles entire back catalogue!
R: Rome is my favorite because I remember going round to my brother's house with a four track demo and playing to him and saying "I've got this idea and the chorus goes 'You and me, were meant to be' and I can't think of anything else to go with it" and he came up with the rest of the chorus and we'd always wanted to use the title 'Rome Wasn't Built in a Day'. When it fitted in and rhymed we were just jumping round this flat going "Yes, we've done it!", and we sang it for the rest of the night. That was a very, very happy moment and I think it's very difficult with creativity, because it doesn't come on tap and when you get something like that it's very pleasing
P: I love all the singing. It's great to write words and hear gospel choirs singing them...
What we've tended to do in the past when we've come across big songs is to say "Oh no, no, it upstages everything else on the record, lets not do it", and we've kept it all kind of downbeat and cool, whereas on this, I kind of forced it through and said, "No, we're gonna do this and it's gonna be a really good song". And sure enough it is, it's just so joyous, it makes me run up and down on the spot when I hear it.
P: [in mock serious tones] I think we've just got to learn to love one another and just let down the defences and just embrace each other and help each other out. It would make the world a much better place!
R: Ah, that's beautiful Paul!
S: [Pretends to vomit and then pisses herself]
