SKYE | ROSS in UK tour this Autumn
Spring, 2014, and Skye
Edwards and Ross Godfrey are standing at the side of
the main stage at an
Australian Gold Coast music festival, coming down from
their own set there a short while ago. “The headliners were playing a raw,
gutsy set,” Ross recalls, “and we both thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be really fun to
make a record that had this sort of intensity to it?’” For over a dozen years,
he and Skye had been playing across the globe as Morcheeba, but
Ross’ brother, Paul – their co-producer, with whom they’d founded the band –
had stayed at home. During this time, the inevitable separation between what
happened in the studio and what happened live had become increasingly
pronounced, and, as they observed the band beside them with delight, the singer
and guitarist shared an epiphany. “Why don’t we make our records feel more
live?”
The result of this revelation is SKYE
| ROSS, an album that pursues its own musical path while returning to the
roots of the sound that made Morcheeba a household name back in the late 1990s.
It is, Ross explains, “what Skye and I do naturally when you ask us to make
music together, and yet not necessarily a continuation of what we’d been doing
with Morcheeba. It therefore felt only right to give it a new identity.”
The album will be released September 2nd on Cooking Vinyl.
Coinciding with the new album, SKYE
| ROSS will play a series of UK concerts starting 30th October
in Birmingham, taking in Bristol, Brighton, London and finishing in Manchester
on 4th November. Tickets go on sale Friday 22nd July. SKYE
| ROSS will premiere new music from the album, as well as play fan
favourites from Morcheeba.
It’s not the first time either of
them has stepped outside of the safety of their familiar, long-term musical
environment having each released solo projects. For a while they toyed with the
idea of making an ‘unplugged’ record, but soon realised it would be possible to
write something more ambitious.
“We merely rejected the more modern
recording techniques where you can literally edit the f***ing life out of
everything,” Ross elaborates. “That just completely drains the soul.” So they
made most of the record at their homes, much as they had before the big budget
days of Morcheeba, and when they say that they kept things ‘in the family’,
they’re not exaggerating: the only other musicians to play significant roles in
the album’s making are Skye’s husband, Steve (bass); Skye’s 19 year old son,
Jaega (drums); Ross’s wife, Amanda (backing vocals); and Richard Milner,
Morcheeba’s keyboard player for the last five years. “One of us just needs to adopt
Richard,” Skye jokes, “and then everybody in the band will be
related!”
What emerged recalls the spirit of
Morcheeba’s international, platinum selling Big Calm, while
boasting a revived spirit and the mature experience that comes with two decades
of making music. Some of it, especially the quieter numbers, may be surprising:
‘Clear My Mind’ offers a hint of Brazilian tropicalia, notably Milton
Nascimento, while ‘Medicine’ – which features a gospel choir of multi-tracked
Skyes, and a Hammond Organ solo from Milner that, Ross argues, could have been
played by the E Street Band’s Danny Federici – sounds like an Al Green number.
The blissful opener, ‘Repay the Saviour’, even provokes Ross to talk of Miles
Davis’ In A Silent Way, Mahavishnu guitarist John McLaughlin and
Merry Clayton. They approached Skye’s voice in a new light, too, on tracks like
‘Light Of Gold’. “It was all very organic, and I was able to push myself
vocally,” Skye confirms. “Everything Ross sent inspired a melody and lyric
almost immediately, whether it was a heavy fuzz guitar riff or intricate finger
picking on an acoustic. I’ve always got a real buzz from Ross's playing: it's
an absolute joy performing live, so it was great to be able to capture that
energy on record.”
Of course, Ross has long been an
outspoken fan of leftfield acts from Dinosaur Jr. to Aphex Twin, and talks
about how, in their early days, “we could bring in anything: minimal beats,
country music, blues, whatever we wanted. It was a pretty blank canvas, and I
feel like this record has gone back to that. Because if it feels right for the
song…” And amongst the things that feel right for these songs are big guitar
solos, with Ross at last embracing the opportunity to place his fluid skills
higher in the mix, just as they are during Morcheeba’s celebrated live shows.
Still, that’s hardly surprising given that the baby sitar-soaked ‘Feet First’
was inspired by reading Jimi Hendrix’s diaries from when he trained as a
paratrooper.
Ultimately, SKYE | ROSS doesn’t
signify the end of Morcheeba, but rather a purge of sorts, an opportunity for
the two musicians who have represented the public face of their band to exploit
the musical relationship that has developed between them outside of the studio
on stages around the world. “Our intentions are really aligned,” Ross
concludes, “and once you have that synchronicity with someone everything falls
into place.”
30th Oct: Birmingham Elgar Concert Hall
31st Oct: Bristol The Lantern
1st Nov: Brighton The Old Market
2nd Nov: London Electric Brixton
4th Nov: Manchester Band on the Wall
Tickets via ticketmaster.co.uk or
venue box office
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