Soul Sedation: Preparing for the tour I presume?
Lance Ferguson: Yeah, we’ve got these four dates in Australia and then we’re heading over to Europe and the UK for a whole month so there’s a fair bit of preparation going on.
SS: Although you must be pretty used to all that tour prep after four albums?
LF: This is our third tour of the UK so I pretty much know what we’re in for, but I’ve got a few more booking agents on board over in Europe. When you’re on the road with nine people it can add up when you’re booking accommodation. I asked them to book it solid and they took me literally, so I think we’ve got two or three nights off in 30 days.
SS: Are there any US dates planned after the Euro dates?
LF: We’re planning a tour of the States for February 2011. Tru Thoughts have distribution through EMI now, so there’s a whole machine of other stuff we can do now. We’re heading over there for three or four weeks in Feb.
SS: Days Like This was the last time you were in Sydney. Good memories for you guys?
LF: Yeah, we went on kind of early, and it was an insanely hot day, but we had a fair few people show up for our set, so it ended up being a good time to play. And we’re really looking forward to the Manning Bar. We haven’t played at that venue before but I’ve heard some good things about it.
SS: How do you feel about [new album] 4 now that it’s out there?
LF: It’s kind of funny. Tru Thoughts always like to have the stuff really up front, so I delivered all that music to them over six months ago now. There’s always a period of when I don’t want to listen to it after working on it for nearly a year. My head goes into a different place and then six months later the album comes out and I go back to it and talk about it and analyse it a bit more. That kind of process has its merits I think. We have been playing a lot of that material live over the last six months anyway. I’ve put the album on a few times recently and I’m proud of what we did. Because we had a bit more of a budget to work with and a bit more time to get it done meant I could really go into the finer details of it more, so I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
SS: One of the things I’ve noticed about your music going along is that it’s moved from that really raw, sparse funk, toward a more polished pop sound… is that the detail that you’re talking about?
LF: I think as time’s gone by my songwriting has improved and developed, I like to think. Back when the Bamboos started, we were basically an instrumental band and I was writing songs that sounded a bit like The Meters or James Brown type grooves and stuff. As time has gone on it’s become really important to me to write songs that’ll stand up over time, so that’s one of the aspects. And the production side of things is one of the other aspects. As much as our first album is really super raw and cool, not all of that is necessarily about the production, it’s also about the fact that we didn’t have that much time or money to do it as well. But I still think that album sounds cool and has a brash, rawness to it, but given a bit more time and money it’s great to be able to take a whole week to get the rhythm section hacks down, rather than an afternoon.
SS: Amongst the critiques of the new record there was a comment about the soul/funk revival acts, and how the sound has been re-established, and where to take it next. Do you think that’s a valid viewpoint, and is it something you consider when you’re making Bamboos music?
LF: This funk/soul revival thing has played out. When the deep funk movement first started in the late 90s it was really based around Keb Darge’s club and about people pulling out 45s and all that sort of stuff. It caught people’s ears and it really peaked when Mark Ronson did his thing with Amy Winehouse and Duffy and it brought that sound back to the mainstream consciousness. And as much as people might criticise acts like Duffy and Amy Winehouse, the positive of it is that that sound has infiltrated people’s ears again. For bands like us that started out before they were ever big, we just kept doing what we were doing, and it meant that a few more people were roped into hearing our music, which is cool.
But I’m not all about this funk/soul revival band, like a retro thing. It’s really important for me to make the music progressive in some way. There are some very big differences between what the Bamboos do, and what an actual old school soul or funk band would sound like if you go into the detail. It’s things to do with the ways the drums are mixed – it was a bit more of a pop aesthetic – and we’ve used emcees on all our albums. The there’s the aspects of the way we put our live show together. I’m not into having a retro band because for me that would kind of be redundant.
SS: It was cool to hear the bluesy influence come through on the new record, especially on ‘Ain’t No Good’, which is something we haven’t necessarily heard from you guys before…
LF: Before I went into writing this record I wasn’t really listening to much funk and soul. I was thinking if I listen to some different kind of genres and let that inform how I write for The Bamboos then I might come up with some different stuff. I was listening to some straight up rock music, but also some pyschedelic garage bands from the late ‘60s as well. The album has got a slight kind of rock element to it, and a slightly psychedelic influence coming into it on a couple of songs. I think it’s just another area to explore, and it’s kind of refreshing for us which is cool too.
SS: I heard that was you singing on ‘Ain’t No Good’, is that the truth?
LF: No, that’s King Merc. He’s a family member of mine. He’s not actually a singer in the sense that he goes out and performs but I just wanted to get him on there. That’s some of the Tongan influence coming through.
SS: The sitar in ‘Up On The Hill’ – that’s one track that really stood out for me – I guess that’s some of the psychedelic influence you’re talking about…
LF: There’s a guy who lives in Melbourne, his name’s Kumar Shome, and he’s an amazing guitar player, but he plays sitar as well, he’s an Indian guy. He really did a great job on that track. We’re actually bringing him up to play that track at the Sydney show.
SS: Which rappers have you been listening to and who might we hear from next in collaboration?
LF: Well, sadly I’ve been listening to Guru the last few days. Hip hop wise, I’ve been doing my latest record for Tru Thoughts under my Lanu guise, which is my solo, electronica based stuff. That albums got a bit of inspiration from classic Native Tongues era, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers era, so I’ve actually been going back and checking out that stuff again which is kind of the first hip hop I’ve ever listened to.
SS: Has that album progressed far enough to bring any emcees into the fold?
LF: I’ve delivered that album to Tru Thoughts already, and it doesn’t actually have any emcees on it. Just in terms of some of the beats, some of the production styles, some of the samples I was listening to that stuff. Since we did the Lyrics Born track I haven’t actually worked with any emcees, but I’m sure someone will come out of the woodwork soon.
SS: When’s Tru Thoughts going to let the Lanu album out?
LF: That’ll come out late September this year. And I think there’s a single coming out in about two and half months
SS: Any more surprises for the Sydney show?
LF: We’ve played a few songs from the new album in the past month just to see how they go, but it will be really exciting just to play most of the album live. It’s going to be fun.
Soul Sedation 