It’s been a while since Goldie Lookin’ Chain burst into the mainstream with their unique single, ‘Guns Don’t Kill People’. The eight friends from Newport found themselves in a peculiar position as one of the most talked about artists in the UK at the time, having simply formed as something to keep each other occupied. With the release of the latest album, ‘Asbo4Life’ and a nineteen date tour of the UK in December, Goldie Lookin Chain aren’t ready to become a forgotten name of the decades.
Eggsy took some time out of rehearsals to talk to me.
1) You’re currently recording for the follow up to 2009’s Asbo4Life, how have you evolved your sound for this upcoming release, and how would you compare these sessions to previous ones?
We’re not using as many samples as in previous ones. We’ve got a setup in a big house, with lots of weed to smoke and we just get to it. Mike (Balls) nearly died a bit back! We’re looking at being both more experimental, and keeping that sound our fans love.
2) Your massive UK tour is just about to hit the road, what’s your favourite aspect of touring?
Aside from the show, I love that after gig shower then diving on the bus, just chilling out and relaxing, having a few drinks and a smoke whilst watching a movie on the road to the next city.
3) What’s Goldie Lookin Chain’s most memorable show to date?
Garlic Bread, Disguise and New Day. For New Day we wanted to get a whole boys choir to do some backing, but we ended up doing it ourselves, we managed to get it sounding just how we wanted though.
5) The UK music scene is changing and evolving at a rapid rate; what new artists have impressed you over the last year?
To be honest nothing much has stood out recently, the charts are full of so much bad music. Jamie T’s new album is pretty great though!
6) What’s your interpretation of X-Factor. Would you say it’s a positive asset or detrimental to the UK music scene?
I don’t like it myself really, it doesn’t really add much. It generates a lot of money and people clearly enjoy it, and it does increase awareness of the industry.
7) What experiences have you had in Newcastle over the years?
We don’t tent to see much of the city other than the venue on tour, although I did get a great tracksuit from the Metro centre once.
8) What can gig goers expect to see from your show on the 15th December?
We want it to be like one massive office party. We’re going to be playing loads of old school stuff as well as some of the new material we’ve not released yet. There’s gonna be a big photocopier, fax machine and that on stage too. We’re going for a semi-erotic gig.
9) With this decade in music coming to a fast close, what have been the band’s favourite moments?
Nothing specific, just the whole thing really! We just loved the way a few songs we all sat and wrote stoned turned into top 40 hits, and we don’t want it to end.
10) You grew up and formed in a small town, what advice would you offer to the more rural musicians wanting to make the break?
It’s not so important where you’re from as long as you’re getting the music out there to the people. Play lots of gigs all over the place, and don’t be precious in song writing – people aren’t gonna go out and find you, so you have to do the work.. Also get your material online too, we’ve got loads of unreleased older albums on ours.
Finally, after many albums of your comedy orientated hip hop, have you ever felt the need to evolve your sound into a more conventional one?
Not really no, we enjoy what we’re doing and the fans obviously do. We don’t wanna water down our sound to sound like some shit like N-Dubz or whatever. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Eggsy then turned the tables, asking me for the time. Turns out he’d taken the interview whilst on the move. Goldie Lookin Chain played Newcastle Academy 2 on December 15th
Stuart Edwards
No comments:
Post a Comment