February 25, 2025 • 50 mins
The British funk band Cymande released their self-titled debut in 1972. The album’s deep calypso and reggae rhythms are inspired by its member’s West Indian roots. And decades after its release, samples taken from Cymande’s albums would find their way into songs that now define hip-hop’s golden era from artists like De La Soul, Gang Starr and The Fugees.
While Cymande has found a second life through sampling during the late ‘80s and ‘90s, its primary members, bassist Steve Scipio and guitarist Patrick Patterson had long since moved on from their artistic life in London, and both moved back to the Caribbean to become lawyers.
But the desire to make music never left them and last month Cymande released a new album called Renascence, a project their label describes as a “spiritual and sonic follow-up” to their 1974 album, Promised Heights.
On today’s episode Justin Richmond talks to Steve Scipio and Patrick Patterson about their early band days in London, and about the early calypso tracks that helped launch Cymande’s sound. They also reminisce about touring the U.S. and opening for Al Green in the '70s, and how they came to collaborate with artists like Jazzie B. and Celeste on their new album.
You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Cymande songs HERE.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The British funk band Simonde released their self titled debut
in nineteen seventy two. The album's deep calypso and reggae grooves
are inspired by its members West Indian roots, and decades
after its release, samples taken from Simnde's albums would find
their way into songs that now define hip hop's Golden
era from artists like Day La Soul, Gang Star and
(00:42):
the Fujis. While the band had found a second life
through sampling during the late eighties and nineties, its primary
members bassist Steve Sippio and guitarist Patrick Patterson also found
second lives as lawyers, but the desire to make music
never left them, and last month Simonde released a new
album called Renaissance, a project their label describes as a
(01:03):
spiritual and sonic follow up to their nineteen seventy four
album Promised Heights. On today's EPISO, I talked to Steve
Cipio and Patrick Patterson about their early band days in
London and about the early calypso track that helped launch
Simonde's sound. They also reminisce about touring the US and
opening for Al Green in the seventies, and how they
came to collaborate with artists like Jazzy B and Celeste
(01:26):
on their new album This is Broken Record, Real musicians,
real conversations. Here's my conversation with Simandae.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I remember hearing your guys' music for the first time
and just being completely blown away. I mean, I knew
James Brown, I knew Parliament Funkadelic. I even knew to
some degree, Fela Kuti, But just like the way you
guys had this original sound that was I mean, those
(02:08):
those three off felt similar to me, like, and you
guys too, like, but you could tell that Fela in
Parliament Funkadelic were doing like a version of James Brown,
like a very good version of James Brown. But you
guys just had this whole I don't know, it was funk,
but it also was these really complex melodies and it
was just guys. I don't know what was your guys'
(02:30):
musical upbringing, Like Stephen Patrick, what were you guys listening
to growing up?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Well, I left I left the Caribbean pretty late. I
was thirteen when I left the Caribbans, so I was
pretty much into Calypso's obviously as the indigenous misic of
the Caribbean, and at the time, you know very much
you had lots of Natkin Cole and Brooke Benton's and
(02:57):
those those those guys were really big in the Caribbean
at that time and the sixties, and I think that
might still be big in the Caribbean because you know,
that music just connected with the people, with the people there,
So that was the music I was listening to, the
indigenous Calypsos and so on, and on top of that
(03:18):
the stuff from America. A lot of that that of
that period, you know, to say, Napkin Code and those
guys there. So when I went to the State, when
I went to the UK at thirteen and sixty three,
I still had that very much with me, but then
gradually started listening to the other stuff that was happening
happening in the UK at the time, you know. So
(03:43):
there there was Solomon Burke, I think was mid sixties.
I really got into Solomon Burke, very much into into
what he was doing. So I was still very much
into the soul, you know, of that of that period.
But at the same time I also started listening to
a lot of jazz around the mid sixties, you know,
(04:03):
Miles Davis and Coltrane and and those guys, you know,
but on top of that also Jimmy Henjacks, you know,
So it was varied. I wasn't kind of stuck in
one particular groove and just listening to that, you know,
whatever struck me, whatever took my fancy. I didn't have
(04:25):
any any elitism, you know, real music is concerned.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
What were some of the calypsos growing up that you
listened to? You remember any specific songs.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, one was very important for the image of the
band and the name of the band, and that was
a calypso that was called Dove and Pigeon. It was
a big hit in the Caribbean and I think around
nineteen sixty two. And it was about a competition. The
(04:57):
eclypso itself was about a competition between a dove and
a pigeon as to weis could eat the most pepper?
Who could eat the most pepper peppers? Yeah, peppers, hot pepper,
raw hot peppers. So they had this competition between them
to say who is the better pepper? Eata and uh.
(05:20):
And the dove the dove was smart. So the dove
had this it was. It was the kind of hook
of the eclypso and it went something like, what the
dove did is that it found a way to ease
the eating of the pepers. So while the pitcher was
(05:41):
continually eating the peppers, the dove found the way to
ease that bag. So it used to saying this this
refrain in the ECLIPSEO which went something like, I think
didn't go again. Oh yeaht Nettie, Yeah, Nettie, Nettie ban
simande wyo wyo ban simande. And you mustn't say, you
(06:07):
must not say, you must not say. And that is
how the dove is the pressure of the heat from
the pepper barb ca.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah. And all the time the dove was doing that,
the pigeon was continually eating. Wow, it was that the
pigeon had so much just eventually it just collapsed because
it just collapse from eating too much peppers. You know,
but you would have heard that refrain I just did. Nettie,
(06:43):
Nettie band Simandi. What's familiar there? Wow, that's the clipso
it came from. That's the clips from which we took.
We took, we took the name from. We don't know
what Simandy needs Really you don't know, no, never know
what seman they means. It was just a refrain that
was sung by the Dove. We liked the song of
(07:06):
it and it connected us with that were roots in
the Caribbean, so we said let's go with that for
the name of the band. Patrick.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
So, Patrick, you remember the song as well growing up?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Sure, sure, I mean I left the Caribbean quite early,
but yes, it was a popular It was a popular
song and we you know, as the years went by,
we kind of translated or found it, I feel like
a way to express the to utilize the name to
(07:39):
mean other things. So it's like, you know, you would
say Simander, which is kind of if you like Jamaican linguo,
instead of just associating it with that one no Shell
Lord Nelson's song. But Steve Brightley says that it reflects
our Caribbean heritage and so it should.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Are you two both from the same place in the Caribbean?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yes, Guyana.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
What what was the Caribbean community in London in the sixties, Like,
were you guys spread out throughout Like where did you
guys all live in a specific place where you spread
out throughout the city?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Like, what was the diaspora of.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
The Caribbean community in London in the sixties when you
guys got there.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
What was that like?
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Yeah, just back a little, because some Caribbean people went
to London. Caribbean people from other places went to different locations,
So you'd find petitions for example in Leeds, it'd find agwillains.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
For example in Slough.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
But our community, and it was a tight community when
we when we were there in those days, Guyanese, Trinidadian,
to a lesser extent, Barbigian and Jamaicans.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
So it was it was mainly Guyanese and.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Jamaicans in our community, but it was our community was tight.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
It's a I can't say that I see the.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Same thing nowadays, but we had the privilege of living
through a period where that sort of thing happened.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
You know, our street, Steve and I left five doors.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Our families lived about five doors apart from the time,
well I was there before him, but from the time
he came in an event, we lived very close. His
parents knew my parents, his family knew my family, and
we've lived that way kind of.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
You know, for all these years.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Which of you got into music first or were you
both in the music.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
I got in the first, I used to play soul
music with a band, you know, do little trips through
German basic American bases in Germany and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That was a bit of a you know, a travel.
It was not quite a popular location for there, so
for the bands at that time, certainly the the young bands,
the bands, the developing bands, if I can put it
that way. I used to play a lot on the
American basis. We toured.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
When we did, I can't even call those things tours,
you know, it goes spend too much a month or
what have you, playing American bases in different kind of places,
and then make a few pounds or dollars as the
case may be, and.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Then go back home. But I started quite early.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
You know, natural fact, I must have been tender sixteen,
just going into my seventeenth year.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
That's when I started to do it. Were you doing
American soul music or was it? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Absolutely, I mean that I think that's probably the music
that I grew up on.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
The difference between Steve and I is probably that I
liked a lot of.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Rock music as well, and his rock music range is
probably narrower than mine.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But you know, all guys were rock rock people. Yeah,
what was the first rock and role you started getting into? Patrick, Well,
I wouldn't, I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I wouldn't say rock and roll, more more more rock
guitar like you know, led Zeppelin ten years after Jimmy Hendrix,
my all time favorite Claire main Maine kind of guitar
guitar music, not.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Not not the Jerry Leine Lewis and Little Richard that
I mean. I like that, but it wasn't the kind
of stuff that I was into. It was nice to
listen to, not not for doing That's right. The other
stuff was a little more fun, I guess.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Right, at what point do you two decide to put
a band together yourselves, like to say, like we too,
we should do something together.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
First of all, had to develop some skills on on
on an instrument. I mean Patrick had been playing the
guitar for a while, so he was quite skillful on
his on his instrument. And I experimented with a few
instruments before I actually settled on the base. My first
instrument was I I purchased a harmonica, and I still
(12:26):
wonder what was the attraction of the harmonicas, But I
think I think it might have been because TV was
very much into the harmonica at that time, so it
might have had something to do with it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I was gonna ask if that because that sounds more
like maybe where your inspiration would have been from, rather
than like a blues harmonica, more of like a Stevie wonder.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah, yeah, it might have been. You know Stevie's I
really like Steve how Stevie used the harmonica, you know,
the way it is phrasing, and it was almost like
like a sex in the way that he utilized the harmonica,
you know, really really attractive for me. So I think
that might have been an influence. But I didn't the
(13:09):
kind of skills that Stevie yet, so that do didn't
last very long. Patrick's laughing.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I liked that you didn't sound.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Like Stevie Patrick, I remember his efforts. Then after that,
I I I I like the trumpet. I was attracted
to the trumpet skill of me, so I purchased a trumpet.
(13:48):
But it was it was I mean, I couldn't buy
anything at that time, you know, in my mid teens,
I couldn't buy anything significant, no big name, brand, brand new,
or anything like that. So it was a second hand trumpet,
and I think it probably needed a good service in
before I started use it, so the pads and everything
(14:11):
were all born, so that didn't last very long. And
then I tried the guitar a little bit more, and
actually it was still still bit that and then to
spatch it, he said, well, listen, why don't you try
the bass. I'm on the guitar. If you get on
the bass, then we could try and maybe try and
put something together. So that was when I bought my
(14:34):
first bass guitar. It was around maybe seventeen or I
was around maybe seventeen or eighteen something like that. I
did connect rate it pretty quick that way. I did
connect with it pretty quickly. And maybe my style of
my style also was very unique, even right from the outset,
because I wasn't really listening to bass players as I
(14:56):
suppose many people would do, trying to learn techniques and
basic things from bass players who were around at the time,
and right from the outset I developed my own arm
style of playing.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I always wondered about that because the interplay between YouTube
between the bass and guitar is always even on the
new record, from the very first record, all the way
through until the newest record is always seems to me
it have been the key to the music. You guys
sound very much like you guys are are playing off
one another when when you're playing, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Not possible, because I mean we started together. I mean
the band really started with me and Patrick, even before
we started thinking about get adding drums and other instrumentation
was me and Patrick used the child basic ideas. And
Patrick was always a kind of guitarist who didn't seek
to fill every space. You know, you got guitarists who
(15:54):
with every gap, every space, they would want to put
something in. But Patrick has always been a guitarist who
would seek the compliment. And you'll find out with my
style of plan I use a lot of syncopatient with
my BA explained. I developed that from very early, so
I used that syncopation. And then then we got the
(16:15):
band together. You know, we got a drummer who was
also complimentary, you know, so that's three those three elements.
I think we're foundational in terms of the sound the
song that Simanda developed self, Patrick and Sam. You know,
(16:37):
Sam was a was a complimentary is the drummer you listened,
He was very much trying to play with the.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Bass right, almost maybe more like like a ringo, more
than doing like a backbeat, almost like a ringo. Like
he was coming up with interesting parts, you know, like
and really seemed like he was following what you guys
were doing, and very very unique, unique parts.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, you'll find that those three albums, they're very spacious. Yeah,
you know, very specious.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
We'll be right back with more from simon day after
the break we guys first got together. What were some
of the early efforts you got. I mean, were you
guys at first doing covers or were you guys starting
to write original stuff at that point.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
We had a band before we did Simande, which is
called Meta, and once again, you know, the focus was
doing our original music. But we did a couple of
covers with that Forgot, which was a Rollin Kirk track
one Rolling Kirk track, one Miles Davis Thing Footprints and
well look slavery if my memory serves me well, and
(17:45):
that was about it. Because we always wantd to create
our own original sound and our own original have our
own original style, and we sort of achieved that with Mita.
It was a four piece Na Steve really wonderful English
drama and Saxon polk player god Ress is so called
(18:05):
Pepsi Delgado.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Did you guys ever record meter? Well if we did, none,
I either think we did. But the tip, the tips
wouldn't have survived in those days. It was it was
your your real to real stuff. So it was unless
it was properly it wouldn't It wouldn't have survived, man,
because that's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
If you guys doing fascinating you guys were doing Roland
Kirk and volunteers, I mean that is that's that's a
bugged out toune, you know, like that would have been
incredible to hear.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And you know, we did get some recognition. We started
to get some recognition, not not not not from the public,
but from within the music industry because I think it
was probably unusual at that time kids have owed it
to be so into jazz and not just and not
just jazz, but really complicated stuff. You know, we were intimized.
(18:59):
There is a lot of the time signatures that was
going on, you know that Miles and Cold Train and
those guys used to do. That's why we called the
band meter because we were specifically focusing on different time signatures.
Time signatures not just your four four, but you know
your six faith, three four, five four and that kind
(19:20):
of stuff. So I think a lot of the older
musicians at the time were fascinated by these these kids.
You know that. I'm so involved with this type of jazz.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
With calypse and a lot of the music from the Caribbean.
It was a lot of that, and four four was
that stuff also in a little bit of a different meter.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
But mainly four four what I know of Calypso Calypso.
It's another thing I love about Calypso is the lyricism.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You know, I don't know how much.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
You know about some of those songwriters or their music,
but the lyric writing is absolutely fabulous.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And you know storytelling, Yeah, I think it's just incredible,
kind of like Chuck Bay or something like that.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Like the stories they tell.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Well, let me tell you to what to do. You
don't have to be a cabby a person to enjoy it.
Listen to Sparrow, you know, listen to old Calypso and
you will see and old Calypso is different from the
stuff you have today, which is more popular, which is
like Soca Eclypso storytelling stuff and you got some great
(20:33):
stories there.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
M hm.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So the meter stuff, so the odd times stuff that
really came from your guys's love of jazz.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Were you guys going out to see a lot of
music at the time, because London had, you know, there
were a lot of as I understand, a lot of
a lot of American jazz musicians coming to Europe to play,
and of course London itself had like a pretty vibrant music.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Still, you guys going out to see a lot of
stuff or mostly it would be the American musicians. When
I when I, you know, went out, it was mostly
American musicians, but there were there were there were some
are popular venues in our locality. There was one called
ram Jam and a lot of musicians use American musicians.
I think I saw James Brown there, if I recall correctly, Patrick,
(21:22):
you used to more. Patrick was more outgoing in terms
of going and listening. Way, babe, did you see Jimmy
was not in the Western Marquie Mark Mark Marquee. That's
what I was looking for, Yes, But tell me about
that experience seeing Jimmy.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I saw Jimmy when he first came to England at
what was then the most famous rock club, which is
the Market Club in Ward the Street. It's his you know,
are you experienced trio kind of thing and it's a
long time ago. And the thing I remember most is I,
(22:00):
I don't know who.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Believes me now, but it's true. Shook my hand. So
that was a great great you haven't watched that hands since? Right,
I was an Ardent fan. I've been an Ardent fan
of you know, from then to an hour.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Actually, it's really hard to beat, it's really hard to
be Tell me about how the first the first album
came together, the self titled album.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
You see.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
What you have to remember is that we rehearsed every day,
I mean every day and much of the day and
from the from meter days all the way through when.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
We finished meeting.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
We didn't work with Ginger Johnson, but we we were
constantly creating what what eventually came to many music.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
We were absolute musicians. That was that was our life.
Raison death. Yeah, that's kind of all we did, or
we did.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
It was like one long stream of creativity that turned
into Semandi music nineteen empty like nineteen one empty two.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
In the first album, it's the it's you know, the
message ricks incredible, incredible stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah, we were fortunate with having John Shoeder as our
producer in the sense that he never saw t interfere
with the music. He was fascinated with the music. School
was quite unusual, I mean, looking back on it now,
because we've only been together for about a year before
we went into the studio, you know, and and to
(23:52):
have that kind of how can I say, a rapid
access to you know, to high quality recordings at that
time was you know, it was unusual. Normally it'd have
to be you on the road three four or five
years building a profile before you get that kind of opportunity.
(24:13):
We started to develop a following, you know, there was
a following that you still come and listen to us
whenever we were playing. But we were certainly not what
you might call a big you know, a big name band.
But John Shoeda liked the music and he wanted to
get us into the studios as early as possible, and
(24:33):
that's what he did. And he took us into the
studio and just left us really to you know, to create.
There was no real pressure on us. Okay, guys, start
recording and that kind of thing. But we had a
lot of freedom in terms of you know, or building
our interactions and getting the right atmosphere, go in, et cetera.
(24:58):
So that was my recollection. Well, I will put one word,
you know, you ask us what it was like. It
was very exciting.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
First time returned it to do any real recording of
our own. John was in house producer for five records
and it had all sorts of you know, hits with
various people. So the fact that he saw us like
us and loved the music I wanted to do something with.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Us was fortunate us. So it was a good bit
of fortune that we were introduced to him and.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
He to us and rapidly moved from there to chest
Janus Records in America and touring America with agreed.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
What was that tour like? Really excited I. I mean,
we've been on the road, as I said, we've been
existed for about a year, and and to be moving
from small venues and I can't even cause some of
them were just very small clubs in the UK, yeah,
(26:02):
you know, and then to be going in the States
and being playing in football stadiums, you know, twenty to
thirty thousand people. Yeah, to be playing a week at
the Apollo. I mean the Apollo was even in the
UK that was like the holy grail you know for
soul music and that that that kind of stuff. And
(26:25):
to have the opportunity of going and played that for
to do a week there was was something. You know,
It's just it was a mind blowing experience. Really. Yeah.
How was Al as a performer on that Well, I
was into his element at the time. You know, I
love it. The guys used to be throwing the girls
(26:50):
were throwing their things at him.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You know, you got shock seeing that stuff, Like how
the girls are responding to Al.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
We got shot now we we We finished with Church
long before that, man.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Great, got you got you man? That's wild. Yeah. But
I was big, man, I was big. The girls would
do anything to get the moment without I mean anything.
They were offering anything to if you could get the
maccuster out because it was really that big. It was
(27:28):
just a ginormous It's probably difficult to imagine now you
know just how big how big he was at the time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, when you first went into the studio for that
first album, was it then, like Dove is almost eleven
minutes long. Were all your songs at that point like
that you would play like in your sets, were they
all pretty long like that? And when you got to
the studio you thought, I'll bring them down or or
(27:57):
I was.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Just everything in the same way we had been doing
it before. And because it's so much improvisational stuff and
you go divide in a sense, I do I think
we knew it was that longer we were cutting it.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
But we never enough. Yeah, we never operated in with
the kind of commercial restrictions on on on on songs.
You know, your three and a half minutes. We never
worked a three and a half and a half minute
kind of limit for the songs. However, the songs developed,
that's how we we went with them.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
So like with with the message, for instance, you guys
didn't have a longer version that you get in the studio.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Dot, let's get it closer to four. That's just kind
of what it was. So we did it.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
John just captured what we were doing on the on
the table.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Those were the songs.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
There were some that we you know, there was some
improvization going on, so they might be a little longer here,
a little shorter there, but those are the songs.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Mm hmmm. I think it's because of the jazz element
and the music. You know, we always wanted to make
space for the sex players, you know, we Devil wanted
our sax players to be just accent accent players, and
that's why you'll find a leader of them. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, as much as part of the I feel like
the sound of Sinandi was like the way you guys
played together. Steven Patrick as a bass playing guitar player,
there were wonderful songs that would just be drum, you know,
and it sounded almost more Jamaican in that sense, you know,
like NAVINGI kind of where it wasn't even reggae, but
(29:40):
just with the kind of spiritual with the drum. Was
that something you guys were also listening to or was
that more of the Jamaican members of the group or what?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
How did how how did that enter the sound.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
From That's more from Pablo and Mike at the time,
and I know it was at that time. It was
really quite important because that gave us a slightly different
tilt to our music that rasted are.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Underpinning.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, and I think maybe it was the first album
or first and second album. We have about four raster
songs on there, and.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It was very important on music.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Pablo as a as a percussion players, a bungka player
had is a really original style. It would we interacted,
you know, musically, and they brought to Bablo and Mike
book much of the Rastafarian element that Simandi was to it. Yeah,
that was all part of Samandai's make up. The percussive thing,
(30:46):
the styling of the guitar and bass.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
It was better what we did. You know.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
It wasn't it wasn't it wasn't contrived, you know it
it was organic with that way so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Even in hindsight, you listen to these records and you guys,
I want to talk about the new record because you guys,
I feel like you guys have figured out how to
keep that. But you guys, really I don't know how
you guys did it. But even just the way the congas,
that the just the sound of those so crisp and
just like you guys really captured something just magical, you know.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
So yeah, John John John just allowed us to He
allowed us to be ourselves in the studio.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
After the flast break, we're back at the rest of
my conversation with see Monday. Were you guys shocked over
Over the years, after a while, you guys kind of
just retreated into civilian life. But you know, through the
nineties and two thousands, you guys' music became revered, you
(31:49):
know in a sense, and it would just pop up
in movies or in other people's music. How did that
feel when that sorted to happen?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Well, I mean, never, we never ceased being musicians. You know,
It's just for a while because nothing was happening for
the music, we decided to go down another avenue and
something to some extent that probably you know, we always
felt we'd do at some point, But we never ceased
being musicians. But certainly with the interest the new interests
(32:20):
in the music, I think started in the eighties or
it might have been the nineties. Certainly, the first the
first sampling and I heard of the song was brought
to my attention by my my older children at the time,
was the Della Soul sample. And then after that, I
think was the Fujis And then you know, I became
(32:45):
aware that something was happening with the music. I think
I told Patrick also that something was happening with the music,
and you know, we saw the development. Unfortunately for us prior,
just prior to that, when all the activity with the
music that was being generated by the younger generation, we'd
(33:06):
also got all our copyright back for our songs, so
that that that coincided nicely with what what was happening
with the music.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Wow, that's great. Was that like a pretty tough processing
the copyright back?
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yes? That well?
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I think I think we had to just have sufficient
nows to know what to do, and sufficient interest to
realize that something had gone terribly wrong with the music
that we had written and seemed to be owned and
divided up, you know, between all kinds of people except us.
(33:46):
Was that what we got to that point, you know,
it was kind of time to go just take it,
take it back because it was ours, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yeah, yeah, got to clean that up a little bit.
We didn't have to, fortunately, end up in any big
hearings before the courts or things like that. I think
people recognized pretty quickly after we had instruct did attorneys
to you know, to represent us and communicate to them,
(34:15):
you know, how we felt about what was happening. I
think people recognized pretty quickly that they didn't really have
a lectus stand on and it was best to get
the thing resourced. Let's talk.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Let's talk about renaissance guy. I mean I was saying
a bit earlier, like the new album. I was shocked
because in some way I thought it sounded a lot
like the classic lineup. Even the drums sounded so similar
to to Sam Kelly and and and the way that
you guys still create that space which doesn't exist in
a lot of modern music. It's still present in your guys' music.
(34:53):
When did you guys start collecting these songs? And when
did you guys decide to go record a new project.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
I think it's it's kind of an ongoing process. We
never stopped writing. We never killed off the Simandi project.
We were always working in some form or fashion. The
hardest thing was deciding what Samanda twenty twenty four was
going to be.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
But much of what we did.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Is if you liked the end product of a lot
of work coming towards at that time and that space.
We didn't write to go into the studio to record.
We've been writing, and we could seelect material from the
stuff that we had written, and we selected about maybe
there was a from about a bunch of shortlists of
(35:46):
maybe fifteen twenty songs.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
And I must say that the ani Man and Gene
was really very helpful in, you know, in our latter
process of deciding which tract to go on the album,
because he was he was openly enough to say, I
really like this, I think it's good that sort of thing,
and not something and I'm going to just not they
(36:11):
shouldn't be faid any money doing.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
But it was from being Patrick. Patrick passed over it
pretty quickly. But it was a difficult it was. It was.
It was not as as easy as Patrick probably makes
it sound, you know, because there were lots of things
we had to be thinking about, you know, the band
that that at that time, and now, you know, people
(36:39):
were now exposed to the three albums, they knew what
the sound of the band was, you know those days.
What would they expect now, Yeah, you know, are they
going to expect us to try and recreate something that
we did in the seventies, or are we going to
do something now that maybe so far remove from what
they're expecting that you know, it disappoints them. So it
(37:04):
was it was quite a difficult process for us. Actually,
even Patrick and I had a differences with all of
the some of the material in terms of what we
think would be correct for the album or and so on.
You know. So it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't uneasy.
It wasn't an easy process. We wanted a connectedness bit
the seventies, but we didn't want it to appear as
(37:27):
were we're trying to recreate the seventies because we're in
different places now forty years the past. You know, we
different people. You know, we are not kids anymore. We're
were big, grown men. So all of those those considerations
played into the into the selection process.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
We've always gone in the same direction. Really, that's that's
my old Yeah, he has his writing style.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
I have kind of my writing style.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
We don't write as much together s ifing down as
we did in the past, but our direction is, especially
to Semantha's, much the same, you know, to that extent.
It wasn't that that had a task to achieve a
body of sums that we go both.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
We're all happy with.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Have your guys's taste, I mean, you're listening habits changed
from the seventies to now, Like I guess when you
go to listen to music now, what are you listening
to and has it changed since you know, the seventies.
I'm still very much into jazz. Jazz is still my
favorite medium for listening to music. I don't listen to
music that much anymore, to be honest, I don't don't
(38:40):
get the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Really. The most might be now if I'm traveling, you know,
in the air, then I might take out my phone
and put a couple of tracks on. But most of
most of the albums on my phone would be jazz,
and mostly it would be the traditional jazz stuff, you know,
not not the not the modern too much of the
(39:04):
modern stuff. There's a lot of you know, musicians now
even based play now you know, they're they're into this,
displaying their skills. It's almost like beast players are now
guitar players, you know. And I when I when I
hear some of them, and it's nice stuff. It's great stuff,
very technical and whatever, but it doesn't have that I
(39:29):
mean like ron KRT and some of those guys, they
play one note, yeah, put it in the right place
and it just hits you. It's you more than than
twenty notes that some of these guys would would now
be playing so these guys know, they display their skills,
they display their techniques and their abilities and so on.
But I find that that knowing where to just land
(39:50):
the note or put or put a particular groove there,
I find that lacking much with some of some of
what I'm hearing. I don't listening enough listen. I'm gonna
listen to more.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
But when I do listen, you know, I'm a I'm
a big fan of good song, right thing, and I
like to hear stories, so.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I kind of will listen to that.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
So like if you like, when you say you want
to listen to more, like, what's something you want to
you might mis listening to that you if you had time,
you throw it on.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
When I go home.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
The albums I listened to generally are the two Herbi
Haandcock albums, the one that he has, the Johnny Mitchell.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
The Johnny Mitchell songs Yeah the River, Yeah yeah yeah,
River River River, Yeah it's river, and the one would
Imagine on it. So I listened to that. I listened
to there's.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
This compilation there's not really a compilation, but Bob Marley
songs played by other artists and now it's simply listened
to that a great deal with India.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I Rea, I think it's on it. Maxie Priest.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
I really don't listen enough, but I listened to to
those things when I when I'm home and get the
listening opportunity.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
M hm. How did you guys select the new personnel
in the band when you had to put some new
people around you? How did you guys figure out who
the right people would be?
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Monday?
Speaker 4 (41:21):
Most of these guys we have known for ages, and
they have known each other for ages, you know, and
it's a very It's actually, when I think about it,
it's quite strange. Ray who is our singer? Now, this
is a funny looking story. He was a kid coming
to watch us rehearse in Brixton when he for a
(41:43):
sex help.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Really had his own career as a solo singer, did
some and he's also a good songwriter.
Speaker 4 (41:51):
I worked did some work with him in the mid
mid mid eighties. Going towards the nineties, he worked with
Jazzy b. He worked with many other people. Then the
piano player I've known since the mid eighties. First time
I encounted him, Jian Reid. He used to work be
in a band with a guy that used to play
(42:13):
drums with me, and in other places the rest of
people either agent and brought them or we knew of them.
For example, the drummer Richard Bailey, he's been around almost
as long as us. He's a bit younger than us,
but he's almost because we had there were some really
nice bands in England in the early days, and you
(42:36):
know he used to play with some of them. We
are very pleased to say that we think we have
the cream of the crop.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Well, you know, that goes to show I mean, really
is that you guys really are the key to the
sound I mean. And then it's like, no matter what
era of the group I'm listening to, it's like, what
the way you guys sound together. It sounds like you
guys aren't even writing so much together anymore. From from
Patrick was saying, but you guys still have a interplay
between one another. That's just it just sounds like the band.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
You know, well, we formed the band. The band is
the band, our creation.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
The music that you know that the band plays to
a great extent is decided upon between us. And you
know the thing about the twenty fifteen albums, Steve might
have a different view, but for me, the important thing
for the twenty fifteen album was bringing the original six
(43:31):
players back together to do that album. Very important that
we could do that, and I mean every man was
ready to do.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
It, and we did it.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
And in fact John also came back on board, John Troda,
and the original engineer also came back on board, Alan Florence.
So that's the original Semandic project. It's not exactly the
same as it was in the first three albums, but
that to me is a very important thing. And Steve
(44:04):
mightn't have to write together in the way sit down
in the room any longer. We know what it We
both of us know what it is that we want
some Mandy music to be. And we each have a
and and what is crafted at the end of the day.
That's just how it's always been, I suppose how it
(44:26):
always will be.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
We might not have that long, but that's it. But
a lot of the songs, you know, although the developmental
process is when the band comes together, so you'll have
the ideas, the genesis of the ideas and whatever. But
the real can I say, the completion of the songs
(44:48):
or when the band comes together and we start, because
lots of changes take place in that process. I mean
a lot of the songs on the album when we
presented them as demos, you know, they're in a form
that is different how they were presented as demos. Yeah,
a number of a number of the songs. Because when
you start, when we when the band is together and
(45:10):
everybody is putting in there a little bit, you have
the drama it is isn't put the keyboard players so
you know, and that all comes together, it impacts the
song and it it sometimes also dictates the direction of
the of the song. So although myself and Patrick will
be there, I have my my style of plane obviously,
(45:31):
which will remain an influence on on the sound. Patrick
will have his style of plane also that isn't remains
an important influence on the sound. But the audio instrumentation
also has an impact in terms of the direction and
the flow of the of the minister.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Tell me about bringing in some of the get jazz.
You mentioned Jazzy B earlier. I think you were saying
that your singer Ray with jazz B. He's on the record,
Celeste on the record, incredible, incredible singer.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
I agree with you. Guys familiar with her before, I
only she she did the TV Edward that that plays
a lot. But I hadn't seen or heard much of her,
but I yet see her.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
Being interviewed one time on Jules Holland's show a couple
of years.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Drew Holland might get to explain to you, Fami a little bit,
jews Holland down.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah, I mean somehow that his stuff ends up I
know it's a BBC thing, but somehow it ends up
here all the time.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, yeah, I've seen plenty of jewels. I just assumed
it was, you know, everybody kind of knew about it.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
But he did a kind of series where we interviewed
artists and she was one that he interviewed, sat down
and discussed the work and stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
I've seen her do that.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
And our management and her management had gotten together some
way Former Passion.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Sheest did that.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
We link up, and so we did while we were
in New York and we started the same song, started
working on that, and when we came back to the UK,
we completed it and then she recorded it with us.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
And you were quite right. She's a she's a wonderful singer.
Speaker 4 (47:19):
She's she's an artist, you know, she's not.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Yeah, yeah, a wonderful voice. Wonderful voice.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
But yeah, Ray worked with Jazzy quite a bit, and
I like, I love that linkage when we did how
we wrote and the issue of Jazzy joining us came up,
you know, there was a kind of a direct link there,
and they worked together for Quinn.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, I think those are really great too. I mean,
I like that it wasn't it was nice to have
a couple of those touches. But I like that it
was wasn't you know, full of features. It's just these
really you know, Jazzy b which made sense, and Celeste
was just like a really wonderful addition. And I love
I love and the song. I love that you guys
did a Cold Train. So the Cold Trane is a
(48:08):
great it's quite such a great song. And now I
was gonna ask, I didn't really know that you guys
were such jazz fans. It makes sense to me now
that you guys did that contribute to to John Man.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
That's a tribute to.
Speaker 4 (48:22):
Great musicianship, leadership in our community. You know, it's a tribute.
It's it speaks the Cold Train. But you know, we
had so many people that are honored metaphorically through through
that I remember.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
The days as a young fellow.
Speaker 4 (48:42):
He and Steve well remember this too, and we'd sit
down and watch TV and Mohammad Ali would come to
England and be interviewed.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
I mean you would, you would leave.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Your job and go sit down to what's to tell
you for that?
Speaker 1 (48:53):
What an inspiration? What an inspiration?
Speaker 4 (48:56):
And it's in that kind of vein that you know,
I would approach col trade something that we said, Jesus,
this is all mine, this is all.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
My community, and this is it's just fabulous.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
To have that amazing. Well, guys, I'm so excited. I'm
excited that you guys are coming back to La. I
was telling Steve before we got on Patrick that I
saw you guys in La back in twenty sixteen. I
lied to my wife to get out of the house
to go see you guys. So I'm excited excited to
come back. I won't lie this time though. I'm going
out for all confidence and all right.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
Yeah, man, thanks thanks for the to us, Thanks you guys,
Thank you for the music. Come on, y'all, thank you
for the music.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Thanks so much to original Semon Daid members Steve and
Patrick for talking about their legacy and their new album
with Me. Here some of our favorite Semon Day tracks.
You can find a playlist and episode description or on
our website at broken Record podcast dot com, and be
sure to follow us on Instagram at the Broken Record Pod.
You can follow us on Twitter at broken Record. Broken
(50:07):
Record is produced and edited by Lee A. Rose, with
marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer
is Ben Tollinay. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries.
If you love this show and others from Pushkin, consider
subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription
that offers bonus content and ad free listening for four
(50:28):
ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple
podcast subscriptions. And if you like this show, please remember
to share, rate, and review us on your podcast app.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Our theme music's by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.
Pushkin.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The British funk band Simonde released their self titled debut
in nineteen seventy two. The album's deep calypso and reggae grooves
are inspired by its members West Indian roots, and decades
after its release, samples taken from Simnde's albums would find
their way into songs that now define hip hop's Golden
era from artists like Day La Soul, Gang Star and
(00:42):
the Fujis. While the band had found a second life
through sampling during the late eighties and nineties, its primary
members bassist Steve Sippio and guitarist Patrick Patterson also found
second lives as lawyers, but the desire to make music
never left them, and last month Simonde released a new
album called Renaissance, a project their label describes as a
(01:03):
spiritual and sonic follow up to their nineteen seventy four
album Promised Heights. On today's EPISO, I talked to Steve
Cipio and Patrick Patterson about their early band days in
London and about the early calypso track that helped launch
Simonde's sound. They also reminisce about touring the US and
opening for Al Green in the seventies, and how they
came to collaborate with artists like Jazzy B and Celeste
(01:26):
on their new album This is Broken Record, Real musicians,
real conversations. Here's my conversation with Simandae.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I remember hearing your guys' music for the first time
and just being completely blown away. I mean, I knew
James Brown, I knew Parliament Funkadelic. I even knew to
some degree, Fela Kuti, But just like the way you
guys had this original sound that was I mean, those
(02:08):
those three off felt similar to me, like, and you
guys too, like, but you could tell that Fela in
Parliament Funkadelic were doing like a version of James Brown,
like a very good version of James Brown. But you
guys just had this whole I don't know, it was funk,
but it also was these really complex melodies and it
was just guys. I don't know what was your guys'
(02:30):
musical upbringing, Like Stephen Patrick, what were you guys listening
to growing up?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Well, I left I left the Caribbean pretty late. I
was thirteen when I left the Caribbans, so I was
pretty much into Calypso's obviously as the indigenous misic of
the Caribbean, and at the time, you know very much
you had lots of Natkin Cole and Brooke Benton's and
(02:57):
those those those guys were really big in the Caribbean
at that time and the sixties, and I think that
might still be big in the Caribbean because you know,
that music just connected with the people, with the people there,
So that was the music I was listening to, the
indigenous Calypsos and so on, and on top of that
(03:18):
the stuff from America. A lot of that that of
that period, you know, to say, Napkin Code and those
guys there. So when I went to the State, when
I went to the UK at thirteen and sixty three,
I still had that very much with me, but then
gradually started listening to the other stuff that was happening
happening in the UK at the time, you know. So
(03:43):
there there was Solomon Burke, I think was mid sixties.
I really got into Solomon Burke, very much into into
what he was doing. So I was still very much
into the soul, you know, of that of that period.
But at the same time I also started listening to
a lot of jazz around the mid sixties, you know,
(04:03):
Miles Davis and Coltrane and and those guys, you know,
but on top of that also Jimmy Henjacks, you know,
So it was varied. I wasn't kind of stuck in
one particular groove and just listening to that, you know,
whatever struck me, whatever took my fancy. I didn't have
(04:25):
any any elitism, you know, real music is concerned.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
What were some of the calypsos growing up that you
listened to? You remember any specific songs.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, one was very important for the image of the
band and the name of the band, and that was
a calypso that was called Dove and Pigeon. It was
a big hit in the Caribbean and I think around
nineteen sixty two. And it was about a competition. The
(04:57):
eclypso itself was about a competition between a dove and
a pigeon as to weis could eat the most pepper?
Who could eat the most pepper peppers? Yeah, peppers, hot pepper,
raw hot peppers. So they had this competition between them
to say who is the better pepper? Eata and uh.
(05:20):
And the dove the dove was smart. So the dove
had this it was. It was the kind of hook
of the eclypso and it went something like, what the
dove did is that it found a way to ease
the eating of the pepers. So while the pitcher was
(05:41):
continually eating the peppers, the dove found the way to
ease that bag. So it used to saying this this
refrain in the ECLIPSEO which went something like, I think
didn't go again. Oh yeaht Nettie, Yeah, Nettie, Nettie ban
simande wyo wyo ban simande. And you mustn't say, you
(06:07):
must not say, you must not say. And that is
how the dove is the pressure of the heat from
the pepper barb ca.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah. And all the time the dove was doing that,
the pigeon was continually eating. Wow, it was that the
pigeon had so much just eventually it just collapsed because
it just collapse from eating too much peppers. You know,
but you would have heard that refrain I just did. Nettie,
(06:43):
Nettie band Simandi. What's familiar there? Wow, that's the clipso
it came from. That's the clips from which we took.
We took, we took the name from. We don't know
what Simandy needs Really you don't know, no, never know
what seman they means. It was just a refrain that
was sung by the Dove. We liked the song of
(07:06):
it and it connected us with that were roots in
the Caribbean, so we said let's go with that for
the name of the band. Patrick.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
So, Patrick, you remember the song as well growing up?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Sure, sure, I mean I left the Caribbean quite early,
but yes, it was a popular It was a popular
song and we you know, as the years went by,
we kind of translated or found it, I feel like
a way to express the to utilize the name to
(07:39):
mean other things. So it's like, you know, you would
say Simander, which is kind of if you like Jamaican linguo,
instead of just associating it with that one no Shell
Lord Nelson's song. But Steve Brightley says that it reflects
our Caribbean heritage and so it should.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Are you two both from the same place in the Caribbean?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yes, Guyana.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
What what was the Caribbean community in London in the sixties, Like,
were you guys spread out throughout Like where did you
guys all live in a specific place where you spread
out throughout the city?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Like, what was the diaspora of.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
The Caribbean community in London in the sixties when you
guys got there.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
What was that like?
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Yeah, just back a little, because some Caribbean people went
to London. Caribbean people from other places went to different locations,
So you'd find petitions for example in Leeds, it'd find agwillains.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
For example in Slough.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
But our community, and it was a tight community when
we when we were there in those days, Guyanese, Trinidadian,
to a lesser extent, Barbigian and Jamaicans.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
So it was it was mainly Guyanese and.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Jamaicans in our community, but it was our community was tight.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
It's a I can't say that I see the.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Same thing nowadays, but we had the privilege of living
through a period where that sort of thing happened.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
You know, our street, Steve and I left five doors.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Our families lived about five doors apart from the time,
well I was there before him, but from the time
he came in an event, we lived very close. His
parents knew my parents, his family knew my family, and
we've lived that way kind of.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
You know, for all these years.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Which of you got into music first or were you
both in the music.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
I got in the first, I used to play soul
music with a band, you know, do little trips through
German basic American bases in Germany and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
That was a bit of a you know, a travel.
It was not quite a popular location for there, so
for the bands at that time, certainly the the young bands,
the bands, the developing bands, if I can put it
that way. I used to play a lot on the
American basis. We toured.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
When we did, I can't even call those things tours,
you know, it goes spend too much a month or
what have you, playing American bases in different kind of places,
and then make a few pounds or dollars as the
case may be, and.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Then go back home. But I started quite early.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
You know, natural fact, I must have been tender sixteen,
just going into my seventeenth year.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
That's when I started to do it. Were you doing
American soul music or was it? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Absolutely, I mean that I think that's probably the music
that I grew up on.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
The difference between Steve and I is probably that I
liked a lot of.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Rock music as well, and his rock music range is
probably narrower than mine.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But you know, all guys were rock rock people. Yeah,
what was the first rock and role you started getting into? Patrick, Well,
I wouldn't, I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I wouldn't say rock and roll, more more more rock
guitar like you know, led Zeppelin ten years after Jimmy Hendrix,
my all time favorite Claire main Maine kind of guitar
guitar music, not.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Not not the Jerry Leine Lewis and Little Richard that
I mean. I like that, but it wasn't the kind
of stuff that I was into. It was nice to
listen to, not not for doing That's right. The other
stuff was a little more fun, I guess.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Right, at what point do you two decide to put
a band together yourselves, like to say, like we too,
we should do something together.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
First of all, had to develop some skills on on
on an instrument. I mean Patrick had been playing the
guitar for a while, so he was quite skillful on
his on his instrument. And I experimented with a few
instruments before I actually settled on the base. My first
instrument was I I purchased a harmonica, and I still
(12:26):
wonder what was the attraction of the harmonicas, But I
think I think it might have been because TV was
very much into the harmonica at that time, so it
might have had something to do with it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I was gonna ask if that because that sounds more
like maybe where your inspiration would have been from, rather
than like a blues harmonica, more of like a Stevie wonder.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah, yeah, it might have been. You know Stevie's I
really like Steve how Stevie used the harmonica, you know,
the way it is phrasing, and it was almost like
like a sex in the way that he utilized the harmonica,
you know, really really attractive for me. So I think
that might have been an influence. But I didn't the
(13:09):
kind of skills that Stevie yet, so that do didn't
last very long. Patrick's laughing.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I liked that you didn't sound.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Like Stevie Patrick, I remember his efforts. Then after that,
I I I I like the trumpet. I was attracted
to the trumpet skill of me, so I purchased a trumpet.
(13:48):
But it was it was I mean, I couldn't buy
anything at that time, you know, in my mid teens,
I couldn't buy anything significant, no big name, brand, brand new,
or anything like that. So it was a second hand trumpet,
and I think it probably needed a good service in
before I started use it, so the pads and everything
(14:11):
were all born, so that didn't last very long. And
then I tried the guitar a little bit more, and
actually it was still still bit that and then to
spatch it, he said, well, listen, why don't you try
the bass. I'm on the guitar. If you get on
the bass, then we could try and maybe try and
put something together. So that was when I bought my
(14:34):
first bass guitar. It was around maybe seventeen or I
was around maybe seventeen or eighteen something like that. I
did connect rate it pretty quick that way. I did
connect with it pretty quickly. And maybe my style of
my style also was very unique, even right from the outset,
because I wasn't really listening to bass players as I
(14:56):
suppose many people would do, trying to learn techniques and
basic things from bass players who were around at the time,
and right from the outset I developed my own arm
style of playing.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I always wondered about that because the interplay between YouTube
between the bass and guitar is always even on the
new record, from the very first record, all the way
through until the newest record is always seems to me
it have been the key to the music. You guys
sound very much like you guys are are playing off
one another when when you're playing, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Not possible, because I mean we started together. I mean
the band really started with me and Patrick, even before
we started thinking about get adding drums and other instrumentation
was me and Patrick used the child basic ideas. And
Patrick was always a kind of guitarist who didn't seek
to fill every space. You know, you got guitarists who
(15:54):
with every gap, every space, they would want to put
something in. But Patrick has always been a guitarist who
would seek the compliment. And you'll find out with my
style of plan I use a lot of syncopatient with
my BA explained. I developed that from very early, so
I used that syncopation. And then then we got the
(16:15):
band together. You know, we got a drummer who was
also complimentary, you know, so that's three those three elements.
I think we're foundational in terms of the sound the
song that Simanda developed self, Patrick and Sam. You know,
(16:37):
Sam was a was a complimentary is the drummer you listened,
He was very much trying to play with the.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Bass right, almost maybe more like like a ringo, more
than doing like a backbeat, almost like a ringo. Like
he was coming up with interesting parts, you know, like
and really seemed like he was following what you guys
were doing, and very very unique, unique parts.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, you'll find that those three albums, they're very spacious. Yeah,
you know, very specious.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
We'll be right back with more from simon day after
the break we guys first got together. What were some
of the early efforts you got. I mean, were you
guys at first doing covers or were you guys starting
to write original stuff at that point.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
We had a band before we did Simande, which is
called Meta, and once again, you know, the focus was
doing our original music. But we did a couple of
covers with that Forgot, which was a Rollin Kirk track
one Rolling Kirk track, one Miles Davis Thing Footprints and
well look slavery if my memory serves me well, and
(17:45):
that was about it. Because we always wantd to create
our own original sound and our own original have our
own original style, and we sort of achieved that with Mita.
It was a four piece Na Steve really wonderful English
drama and Saxon polk player god Ress is so called
(18:05):
Pepsi Delgado.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Did you guys ever record meter? Well if we did, none,
I either think we did. But the tip, the tips
wouldn't have survived in those days. It was it was
your your real to real stuff. So it was unless
it was properly it wouldn't It wouldn't have survived, man,
because that's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
If you guys doing fascinating you guys were doing Roland
Kirk and volunteers, I mean that is that's that's a
bugged out toune, you know, like that would have been
incredible to hear.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And you know, we did get some recognition. We started
to get some recognition, not not not not from the public,
but from within the music industry because I think it
was probably unusual at that time kids have owed it
to be so into jazz and not just and not
just jazz, but really complicated stuff. You know, we were intimized.
(18:59):
There is a lot of the time signatures that was
going on, you know that Miles and Cold Train and
those guys used to do. That's why we called the
band meter because we were specifically focusing on different time signatures.
Time signatures not just your four four, but you know
your six faith, three four, five four and that kind
(19:20):
of stuff. So I think a lot of the older
musicians at the time were fascinated by these these kids.
You know that. I'm so involved with this type of jazz.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
With calypse and a lot of the music from the Caribbean.
It was a lot of that, and four four was
that stuff also in a little bit of a different meter.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
But mainly four four what I know of Calypso Calypso.
It's another thing I love about Calypso is the lyricism.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You know, I don't know how much.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
You know about some of those songwriters or their music,
but the lyric writing is absolutely fabulous.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And you know storytelling, Yeah, I think it's just incredible,
kind of like Chuck Bay or something like that.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Like the stories they tell.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Well, let me tell you to what to do. You
don't have to be a cabby a person to enjoy it.
Listen to Sparrow, you know, listen to old Calypso and
you will see and old Calypso is different from the
stuff you have today, which is more popular, which is
like Soca Eclypso storytelling stuff and you got some great
(20:33):
stories there.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
M hm.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So the meter stuff, so the odd times stuff that
really came from your guys's love of jazz.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Were you guys going out to see a lot of
music at the time, because London had, you know, there
were a lot of as I understand, a lot of
a lot of American jazz musicians coming to Europe to play,
and of course London itself had like a pretty vibrant music.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Still, you guys going out to see a lot of
stuff or mostly it would be the American musicians. When
I when I, you know, went out, it was mostly
American musicians, but there were there were there were some
are popular venues in our locality. There was one called
ram Jam and a lot of musicians use American musicians.
I think I saw James Brown there, if I recall correctly, Patrick,
(21:22):
you used to more. Patrick was more outgoing in terms
of going and listening. Way, babe, did you see Jimmy
was not in the Western Marquie Mark Mark Marquee. That's
what I was looking for, Yes, But tell me about
that experience seeing Jimmy.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I saw Jimmy when he first came to England at
what was then the most famous rock club, which is
the Market Club in Ward the Street. It's his you know,
are you experienced trio kind of thing and it's a
long time ago. And the thing I remember most is I,
(22:00):
I don't know who.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Believes me now, but it's true. Shook my hand. So
that was a great great you haven't watched that hands since? Right,
I was an Ardent fan. I've been an Ardent fan
of you know, from then to an hour.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Actually, it's really hard to beat, it's really hard to
be Tell me about how the first the first album
came together, the self titled album.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
You see.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
What you have to remember is that we rehearsed every day,
I mean every day and much of the day and
from the from meter days all the way through when.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
We finished meeting.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
We didn't work with Ginger Johnson, but we we were
constantly creating what what eventually came to many music.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
We were absolute musicians. That was that was our life.
Raison death. Yeah, that's kind of all we did, or
we did.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
It was like one long stream of creativity that turned
into Semandi music nineteen empty like nineteen one empty two.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
In the first album, it's the it's you know, the
message ricks incredible, incredible stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah, we were fortunate with having John Shoeder as our
producer in the sense that he never saw t interfere
with the music. He was fascinated with the music. School
was quite unusual, I mean, looking back on it now,
because we've only been together for about a year before
we went into the studio, you know, and and to
(23:52):
have that kind of how can I say, a rapid
access to you know, to high quality recordings at that
time was you know, it was unusual. Normally it'd have
to be you on the road three four or five
years building a profile before you get that kind of opportunity.
(24:13):
We started to develop a following, you know, there was
a following that you still come and listen to us
whenever we were playing. But we were certainly not what
you might call a big you know, a big name band.
But John Shoeda liked the music and he wanted to
get us into the studios as early as possible, and
(24:33):
that's what he did. And he took us into the
studio and just left us really to you know, to create.
There was no real pressure on us. Okay, guys, start
recording and that kind of thing. But we had a
lot of freedom in terms of you know, or building
our interactions and getting the right atmosphere, go in, et cetera.
(24:58):
So that was my recollection. Well, I will put one word,
you know, you ask us what it was like. It
was very exciting.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
First time returned it to do any real recording of
our own. John was in house producer for five records
and it had all sorts of you know, hits with
various people. So the fact that he saw us like
us and loved the music I wanted to do something with.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Us was fortunate us. So it was a good bit
of fortune that we were introduced to him and.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
He to us and rapidly moved from there to chest
Janus Records in America and touring America with agreed.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
What was that tour like? Really excited I. I mean,
we've been on the road, as I said, we've been
existed for about a year, and and to be moving
from small venues and I can't even cause some of
them were just very small clubs in the UK, yeah,
(26:02):
you know, and then to be going in the States
and being playing in football stadiums, you know, twenty to
thirty thousand people. Yeah, to be playing a week at
the Apollo. I mean the Apollo was even in the
UK that was like the holy grail you know for
soul music and that that that kind of stuff. And
(26:25):
to have the opportunity of going and played that for
to do a week there was was something. You know,
It's just it was a mind blowing experience. Really. Yeah.
How was Al as a performer on that Well, I
was into his element at the time. You know, I
love it. The guys used to be throwing the girls
(26:50):
were throwing their things at him.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You know, you got shock seeing that stuff, Like how
the girls are responding to Al.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
We got shot now we we We finished with Church
long before that, man.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Great, got you got you man? That's wild. Yeah. But
I was big, man, I was big. The girls would
do anything to get the moment without I mean anything.
They were offering anything to if you could get the
maccuster out because it was really that big. It was
(27:28):
just a ginormous It's probably difficult to imagine now you
know just how big how big he was at the time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, when you first went into the studio for that
first album, was it then, like Dove is almost eleven
minutes long. Were all your songs at that point like
that you would play like in your sets, were they
all pretty long like that? And when you got to
the studio you thought, I'll bring them down or or
(27:57):
I was.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Just everything in the same way we had been doing
it before. And because it's so much improvisational stuff and
you go divide in a sense, I do I think
we knew it was that longer we were cutting it.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
But we never enough. Yeah, we never operated in with
the kind of commercial restrictions on on on on songs.
You know, your three and a half minutes. We never
worked a three and a half and a half minute
kind of limit for the songs. However, the songs developed,
that's how we we went with them.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
So like with with the message, for instance, you guys
didn't have a longer version that you get in the studio.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Dot, let's get it closer to four. That's just kind
of what it was. So we did it.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
John just captured what we were doing on the on
the table.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Those were the songs.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
There were some that we you know, there was some
improvization going on, so they might be a little longer here,
a little shorter there, but those are the songs.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Mm hmmm. I think it's because of the jazz element
and the music. You know, we always wanted to make
space for the sex players, you know, we Devil wanted
our sax players to be just accent accent players, and
that's why you'll find a leader of them. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, as much as part of the I feel like
the sound of Sinandi was like the way you guys
played together. Steven Patrick as a bass playing guitar player,
there were wonderful songs that would just be drum, you know,
and it sounded almost more Jamaican in that sense, you know,
like NAVINGI kind of where it wasn't even reggae, but
(29:40):
just with the kind of spiritual with the drum. Was
that something you guys were also listening to or was
that more of the Jamaican members of the group or what?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
How did how how did that enter the sound.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
From That's more from Pablo and Mike at the time,
and I know it was at that time. It was
really quite important because that gave us a slightly different
tilt to our music that rasted are.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Underpinning.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, and I think maybe it was the first album
or first and second album. We have about four raster
songs on there, and.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It was very important on music.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Pablo as a as a percussion players, a bungka player
had is a really original style. It would we interacted,
you know, musically, and they brought to Bablo and Mike
book much of the Rastafarian element that Simandi was to it. Yeah,
that was all part of Samandai's make up. The percussive thing,
(30:46):
the styling of the guitar and bass.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
It was better what we did. You know.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
It wasn't it wasn't it wasn't contrived, you know it
it was organic with that way so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Even in hindsight, you listen to these records and you guys,
I want to talk about the new record because you guys,
I feel like you guys have figured out how to
keep that. But you guys, really I don't know how
you guys did it. But even just the way the congas,
that the just the sound of those so crisp and
just like you guys really captured something just magical, you know.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
So yeah, John John John just allowed us to He
allowed us to be ourselves in the studio.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
After the flast break, we're back at the rest of
my conversation with see Monday. Were you guys shocked over
Over the years, after a while, you guys kind of
just retreated into civilian life. But you know, through the
nineties and two thousands, you guys' music became revered, you
(31:49):
know in a sense, and it would just pop up
in movies or in other people's music. How did that
feel when that sorted to happen?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Well, I mean, never, we never ceased being musicians. You know,
It's just for a while because nothing was happening for
the music, we decided to go down another avenue and
something to some extent that probably you know, we always
felt we'd do at some point, But we never ceased
being musicians. But certainly with the interest the new interests
(32:20):
in the music, I think started in the eighties or
it might have been the nineties. Certainly, the first the
first sampling and I heard of the song was brought
to my attention by my my older children at the time,
was the Della Soul sample. And then after that, I
think was the Fujis And then you know, I became
(32:45):
aware that something was happening with the music. I think
I told Patrick also that something was happening with the music,
and you know, we saw the development. Unfortunately for us prior,
just prior to that, when all the activity with the
music that was being generated by the younger generation, we'd
(33:06):
also got all our copyright back for our songs, so
that that that coincided nicely with what what was happening
with the music.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Wow, that's great. Was that like a pretty tough processing
the copyright back?
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yes? That well?
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I think I think we had to just have sufficient
nows to know what to do, and sufficient interest to
realize that something had gone terribly wrong with the music
that we had written and seemed to be owned and
divided up, you know, between all kinds of people except us.
(33:46):
Was that what we got to that point, you know,
it was kind of time to go just take it,
take it back because it was ours, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yeah, yeah, got to clean that up a little bit.
We didn't have to, fortunately, end up in any big
hearings before the courts or things like that. I think
people recognized pretty quickly after we had instruct did attorneys
to you know, to represent us and communicate to them,
(34:15):
you know, how we felt about what was happening. I
think people recognized pretty quickly that they didn't really have
a lectus stand on and it was best to get
the thing resourced. Let's talk.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Let's talk about renaissance guy. I mean I was saying
a bit earlier, like the new album. I was shocked
because in some way I thought it sounded a lot
like the classic lineup. Even the drums sounded so similar
to to Sam Kelly and and and the way that
you guys still create that space which doesn't exist in
a lot of modern music. It's still present in your guys' music.
(34:53):
When did you guys start collecting these songs? And when
did you guys decide to go record a new project.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
I think it's it's kind of an ongoing process. We
never stopped writing. We never killed off the Simandi project.
We were always working in some form or fashion. The
hardest thing was deciding what Samanda twenty twenty four was
going to be.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
But much of what we did.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Is if you liked the end product of a lot
of work coming towards at that time and that space.
We didn't write to go into the studio to record.
We've been writing, and we could seelect material from the
stuff that we had written, and we selected about maybe
there was a from about a bunch of shortlists of
(35:46):
maybe fifteen twenty songs.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
And I must say that the ani Man and Gene
was really very helpful in, you know, in our latter
process of deciding which tract to go on the album,
because he was he was openly enough to say, I
really like this, I think it's good that sort of thing,
and not something and I'm going to just not they
(36:11):
shouldn't be faid any money doing.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
But it was from being Patrick. Patrick passed over it
pretty quickly. But it was a difficult it was. It was.
It was not as as easy as Patrick probably makes
it sound, you know, because there were lots of things
we had to be thinking about, you know, the band
that that at that time, and now, you know, people
(36:39):
were now exposed to the three albums, they knew what
the sound of the band was, you know those days.
What would they expect now, Yeah, you know, are they
going to expect us to try and recreate something that
we did in the seventies, or are we going to
do something now that maybe so far remove from what
they're expecting that you know, it disappoints them. So it
(37:04):
was it was quite a difficult process for us. Actually,
even Patrick and I had a differences with all of
the some of the material in terms of what we
think would be correct for the album or and so on.
You know. So it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't uneasy.
It wasn't an easy process. We wanted a connectedness bit
the seventies, but we didn't want it to appear as
(37:27):
were we're trying to recreate the seventies because we're in
different places now forty years the past. You know, we
different people. You know, we are not kids anymore. We're
were big, grown men. So all of those those considerations
played into the into the selection process.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
We've always gone in the same direction. Really, that's that's
my old Yeah, he has his writing style.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
I have kind of my writing style.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
We don't write as much together s ifing down as
we did in the past, but our direction is, especially
to Semantha's, much the same, you know, to that extent.
It wasn't that that had a task to achieve a
body of sums that we go both.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
We're all happy with.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Have your guys's taste, I mean, you're listening habits changed
from the seventies to now, Like I guess when you
go to listen to music now, what are you listening
to and has it changed since you know, the seventies.
I'm still very much into jazz. Jazz is still my
favorite medium for listening to music. I don't listen to
music that much anymore, to be honest, I don't don't
(38:40):
get the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Really. The most might be now if I'm traveling, you know,
in the air, then I might take out my phone
and put a couple of tracks on. But most of
most of the albums on my phone would be jazz,
and mostly it would be the traditional jazz stuff, you know,
not not the not the modern too much of the
(39:04):
modern stuff. There's a lot of you know, musicians now
even based play now you know, they're they're into this,
displaying their skills. It's almost like beast players are now
guitar players, you know. And I when I when I
hear some of them, and it's nice stuff. It's great stuff,
very technical and whatever, but it doesn't have that I
(39:29):
mean like ron KRT and some of those guys, they
play one note, yeah, put it in the right place
and it just hits you. It's you more than than
twenty notes that some of these guys would would now
be playing so these guys know, they display their skills,
they display their techniques and their abilities and so on.
But I find that that knowing where to just land
(39:50):
the note or put or put a particular groove there,
I find that lacking much with some of some of
what I'm hearing. I don't listening enough listen. I'm gonna
listen to more.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
But when I do listen, you know, I'm a I'm
a big fan of good song, right thing, and I
like to hear stories, so.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I kind of will listen to that.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
So like if you like, when you say you want
to listen to more, like, what's something you want to
you might mis listening to that you if you had time,
you throw it on.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
When I go home.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
The albums I listened to generally are the two Herbi
Haandcock albums, the one that he has, the Johnny Mitchell.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
The Johnny Mitchell songs Yeah the River, Yeah yeah yeah,
River River River, Yeah it's river, and the one would
Imagine on it. So I listened to that. I listened
to there's.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
This compilation there's not really a compilation, but Bob Marley
songs played by other artists and now it's simply listened
to that a great deal with India.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I Rea, I think it's on it. Maxie Priest.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
I really don't listen enough, but I listened to to
those things when I when I'm home and get the
listening opportunity.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
M hm. How did you guys select the new personnel
in the band when you had to put some new
people around you? How did you guys figure out who
the right people would be?
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Monday?
Speaker 4 (41:21):
Most of these guys we have known for ages, and
they have known each other for ages, you know, and
it's a very It's actually, when I think about it,
it's quite strange. Ray who is our singer? Now, this
is a funny looking story. He was a kid coming
to watch us rehearse in Brixton when he for a
(41:43):
sex help.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Really had his own career as a solo singer, did
some and he's also a good songwriter.
Speaker 4 (41:51):
I worked did some work with him in the mid
mid mid eighties. Going towards the nineties, he worked with
Jazzy b. He worked with many other people. Then the
piano player I've known since the mid eighties. First time
I encounted him, Jian Reid. He used to work be
in a band with a guy that used to play
(42:13):
drums with me, and in other places the rest of
people either agent and brought them or we knew of them.
For example, the drummer Richard Bailey, he's been around almost
as long as us. He's a bit younger than us,
but he's almost because we had there were some really
nice bands in England in the early days, and you
(42:36):
know he used to play with some of them. We
are very pleased to say that we think we have
the cream of the crop.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Well, you know, that goes to show I mean, really
is that you guys really are the key to the
sound I mean. And then it's like, no matter what
era of the group I'm listening to, it's like, what
the way you guys sound together. It sounds like you
guys aren't even writing so much together anymore. From from
Patrick was saying, but you guys still have a interplay
between one another. That's just it just sounds like the band.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
You know, well, we formed the band. The band is
the band, our creation.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
The music that you know that the band plays to
a great extent is decided upon between us. And you
know the thing about the twenty fifteen albums, Steve might
have a different view, but for me, the important thing
for the twenty fifteen album was bringing the original six
(43:31):
players back together to do that album. Very important that
we could do that, and I mean every man was
ready to do.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
It, and we did it.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
And in fact John also came back on board, John Troda,
and the original engineer also came back on board, Alan Florence.
So that's the original Semandic project. It's not exactly the
same as it was in the first three albums, but
that to me is a very important thing. And Steve
(44:04):
mightn't have to write together in the way sit down
in the room any longer. We know what it We
both of us know what it is that we want
some Mandy music to be. And we each have a
and and what is crafted at the end of the day.
That's just how it's always been, I suppose how it
(44:26):
always will be.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
We might not have that long, but that's it. But
a lot of the songs, you know, although the developmental
process is when the band comes together, so you'll have
the ideas, the genesis of the ideas and whatever. But
the real can I say, the completion of the songs
(44:48):
or when the band comes together and we start, because
lots of changes take place in that process. I mean
a lot of the songs on the album when we
presented them as demos, you know, they're in a form
that is different how they were presented as demos. Yeah,
a number of a number of the songs. Because when
you start, when we when the band is together and
(45:10):
everybody is putting in there a little bit, you have
the drama it is isn't put the keyboard players so
you know, and that all comes together, it impacts the
song and it it sometimes also dictates the direction of
the of the song. So although myself and Patrick will
be there, I have my my style of plane obviously,
(45:31):
which will remain an influence on on the sound. Patrick
will have his style of plane also that isn't remains
an important influence on the sound. But the audio instrumentation
also has an impact in terms of the direction and
the flow of the of the minister.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Tell me about bringing in some of the get jazz.
You mentioned Jazzy B earlier. I think you were saying
that your singer Ray with jazz B. He's on the record,
Celeste on the record, incredible, incredible singer.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
I agree with you. Guys familiar with her before, I
only she she did the TV Edward that that plays
a lot. But I hadn't seen or heard much of her,
but I yet see her.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
Being interviewed one time on Jules Holland's show a couple
of years.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Drew Holland might get to explain to you, Fami a little bit,
jews Holland down.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah, I mean somehow that his stuff ends up I
know it's a BBC thing, but somehow it ends up
here all the time.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, yeah, I've seen plenty of jewels. I just assumed
it was, you know, everybody kind of knew about it.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
But he did a kind of series where we interviewed
artists and she was one that he interviewed, sat down
and discussed the work and stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
I've seen her do that.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
And our management and her management had gotten together some
way Former Passion.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Sheest did that.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
We link up, and so we did while we were
in New York and we started the same song, started
working on that, and when we came back to the UK,
we completed it and then she recorded it with us.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
And you were quite right. She's a she's a wonderful singer.
Speaker 4 (47:19):
She's she's an artist, you know, she's not.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Yeah, yeah, a wonderful voice. Wonderful voice.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
But yeah, Ray worked with Jazzy quite a bit, and
I like, I love that linkage when we did how
we wrote and the issue of Jazzy joining us came up,
you know, there was a kind of a direct link there,
and they worked together for Quinn.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, I think those are really great too. I mean,
I like that it wasn't it was nice to have
a couple of those touches. But I like that it
was wasn't you know, full of features. It's just these
really you know, Jazzy b which made sense, and Celeste
was just like a really wonderful addition. And I love
I love and the song. I love that you guys
did a Cold Train. So the Cold Trane is a
(48:08):
great it's quite such a great song. And now I
was gonna ask, I didn't really know that you guys
were such jazz fans. It makes sense to me now
that you guys did that contribute to to John Man.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
That's a tribute to.
Speaker 4 (48:22):
Great musicianship, leadership in our community. You know, it's a tribute.
It's it speaks the Cold Train. But you know, we
had so many people that are honored metaphorically through through
that I remember.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
The days as a young fellow.
Speaker 4 (48:42):
He and Steve well remember this too, and we'd sit
down and watch TV and Mohammad Ali would come to
England and be interviewed.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
I mean you would, you would leave.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Your job and go sit down to what's to tell
you for that?
Speaker 1 (48:53):
What an inspiration? What an inspiration?
Speaker 4 (48:56):
And it's in that kind of vein that you know,
I would approach col trade something that we said, Jesus,
this is all mine, this is all.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
My community, and this is it's just fabulous.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
To have that amazing. Well, guys, I'm so excited. I'm
excited that you guys are coming back to La. I
was telling Steve before we got on Patrick that I
saw you guys in La back in twenty sixteen. I
lied to my wife to get out of the house
to go see you guys. So I'm excited excited to
come back. I won't lie this time though. I'm going
out for all confidence and all right.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
Yeah, man, thanks thanks for the to us, Thanks you guys,
Thank you for the music. Come on, y'all, thank you
for the music.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Thanks so much to original Semon Daid members Steve and
Patrick for talking about their legacy and their new album
with Me. Here some of our favorite Semon Day tracks.
You can find a playlist and episode description or on
our website at broken Record podcast dot com, and be
sure to follow us on Instagram at the Broken Record Pod.
You can follow us on Twitter at broken Record. Broken
(50:07):
Record is produced and edited by Lee A. Rose, with
marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer
is Ben Tollinay. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries.
If you love this show and others from Pushkin, consider
subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription
that offers bonus content and ad free listening for four
(50:28):
ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple
podcast subscriptions. And if you like this show, please remember
to share, rate, and review us on your podcast app.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Our theme music's by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.
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