wanted to take that feeling of always being on the road, getting the next dollar and keeping our heads above water and put that into a storyline and dramatise it, so we kinda turned it into an international adventure story where we’re three guys on the run from this contingency of bad guys who are trying to take us down. Which is probably just a metaphor for getting older and dealing with an unforgiving business. Kind of a soundtrack which is up- tempo and exciting, but with a new angle.
Your albums always have really cool artwork. Do you get very involved with that? Yeah absolutely and it started because Einstein is a very serious record collector so he really appreciates album artwork. When we put out our first EP ‘Fresh Mode’ we didn’t just want to put a picture of ourselves on it because we didn’t think that was very interesting and somebody at the record company knew a guy called Corky McCoy who had designed some famous record covers for people like Miles Davis and he did this cover for us and we liked it, so we decided we should make it a tradition to always get an artist to do our covers for us. We were hoping we’d get all these famous guys but we never really had the budget for it, so for the last few we’ve just found commercial artists and given them a theme and worked on it with them and it’s a lot of fun, because you’re trying to look for a still image that can signify the whole album. It’s cool to put something on the cover that might inspire a little bit of thought or interest.
How do you think the hip hop landscape has changed in recent years? As we make a living from hip hop and as fans as well we’ve seen a lot of cycles come and go, but the one thing that I think has changed that isn’t stylistic is that rap didn’t use to be a commercial industry. Even an album like ‘Te Chronic’ which was a huge seller wasn’t on the radio and at some point it started making this transition to becoming radio music with people like Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent and that really changed the whole spirit and attitude of the thing. It’s amazing it’s become so mainstream because it’s supposed to be like punk; a rebel music that’s counter culture.
You guys are heading off on a big tour
soon. Are you looking forward to dusting off the gold chain and getting back out there? Actually we were looking at the gold chain the other day and it’s lost a bit of it lustre so we looked into getting it re- plated but it was going to cost about $750 and I think we only paid about $50 for it in the first place, so we’ll just have to put some more light on it and polish it up and it’ll be ok.
You’re playing lots of UK dates, which most American rap groups don’t generally bother to do. We said if we don’t get to play Swindon we’re not coming!
ARE WE PLAYING THE ARTS CENTRE AGAIN? IT WAS REALLY GOOD THERE LAST TIME.
What’s a typical day on tour like? Say if we’re in Norwich we’ll do the show then sleep there and hopefully wake up as late as possible ‘cause what’s great about playing in the UK is that usually the distance to the next show isn’t that far, so you can check out at 12, have lunch and be in the next place at 3 or 4, then spend a little time there before you go down to the club at 8. Some of the shows may only be 45 minutes apart and in America it’d be unthinkable to have shows that close.
How do crowds around the world differ? Does a UK crowd differ from the States or Asia, for example? I think English people have a special charm and wit and a love of talking and a little bit of cynicism in their humour. We work so much in the UK and I really enjoy that and we design the show so that we’re taking the piss a bit, because we know the audience appreciates that and likes it. Rap generally is such a self confident medium and there’s nothing funny about it, so the fact that we have a bit of humour and self deprecation in our show has always worked in the UK. But when we come home sometimes we’ll have a little bit of that but the audience just doesn’t get it, there’s no place for it. Relating to the audience takes some little subtle differences.
Have you got any favourite places over here? We like to work so we tell our agent we don’t want any days off. We like performing so why have a day off and it’s really fun too, going to off the path places. Norwich is a really fine destination and there’s a couple of good clubs there. Are we playing the Arts Centre again? It was really good there last time. Te only thing I don’t like about going to Norwich is the road in, when it gets to a single lane near that big memorial (near Tetford)!
You guys are really into Nando’s. Have you thought about asking them to sponsor the tour? Well I like Nando’s but Einstein is obsessive about it. He’ll go there twice a day. We’ve been putting a few calls into them but I don’t think anything’s going to come of it!
I like it when bands play a few random, less well known songs in their set, as well as the hits. What’s funny is sometimes you’re performing and you’ll get a sense that some people in the audience really like your group and some people might just have heard ‘A Little Samba’ and that’s it. So you want to entertain everybody and you’re happy anybody comes to the show but it’s funny ‘cause if you try and do too much stuff for the fan who knows everything then you isolate the person who’s a casual fan and if you just play the songs that you think people might know then you leave the other group out, who know all the little nooks and crannies of the band and want to hear other stuff. What you’re trying to do is keep everybody happy and that’s probably impossible but that’s a real fun part of entertaining. We don’t play the songs for ourselves. We know the songs. We do it for the audience.
James Smith
Ugly Duckling play at the Norwich Arts Centre on 19th October. For tickets and information go to
www.norwichartscentre.co.uk. To read the uncut version of this interview, go to
Outlineonline.co.uk.
outlineonline.co.uk / October 2011 / 27
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