I had the occasion of meeting Swayzak last August when they stopped for 2 gigs in Montreal. After 2 days off in the country, so they could get some rest, we met at Laïka lounge around vodka cranberry, gin & tonic and wine. Behind the good music that they made, I discovered 2 nice and sweet guys.

Marie-France
November 1999

The following interview was conducted by DJ Soul Sistah in August 1999:

Where do you come from?

James Taylor: I'm from London, England.

David Brown (aka Boone): Glasgow, Scotland.

When did you meet?

JT: We met about 10 years ago, we used to work at a record company together.

B: YEAH! That's it, that was how we met.

Which record company?

JT: I was doing TV promotion, Boone came to work there while I was there. They were mutual friends, that was how he got the job. We lived and shared a flat for a while and than he went to Scotland and I went traveling, then he moved back to London. And, we kind of started making music. I just bought a little studio and that's it. We just made tunes for 3 years, 4 years didn't do anything really, just made tracks put them on tape and kept working. Eventually it got to a state where friends of ours said "You must put out one of your records!" We got stuff together, so we decided to make the record.

B: I started doing things in Glasgow, and I was really into chill-out and really ambient, hip hop, sort of thing.

JT: ... deep house, I moved back to London.

B: We met often, I used to go out to "Garage Paradise" in London, just a couple of times and then I moved back to London, and then... I'm glad I did, really...

So you've been working together for 4 years?

JT+B: No... No, as Swayzak since about 3 years.

JT: Yeah, before that we were call "Language Lab," we used to do much more slow beats. We did a couple of gigs and never really...

Produced?

JT: No, we were not really confident anyway. We didn't, really, know how to make records. We didn't really hang out in DJ record shops, we just used to go to parties and buy a lot of record. Not really in the scene.

B: We weren't totally immersed. So many days, buying records week in, week out. We kinda made tracks and played them for people. They said: "Oh, you've got to put this out" and we were like: "You know, not sure." And then, yeah, we finally got round to putting one out and we got such a good response. It just gave us a boost of confidence. And there was no big plan there, it just happened.

JT: One thing leads to another, really.

Where does the name Swayzak come from?

JT: I'm not sure really...

B: It's a pharmaceutical company [laughter]

JT: Yeah, we own it as well. We made it up.

What are your projects for the future?

JT: We got a lot of things planned, we just don't have any money to do them.

B: We get enough money, we make a record, and then we sell enough to make another record. That's the way we do, we don't want to borrow money from people.

JT: We do music full time, we don't have other jobs. Because we don't DJ as well, we can't really subsidize. A lot of people DJ, 3 or 4 days a week and then are producing at the same time so they're subsidizing their income.

B: We don't do that...

JT: We have a LP coming out, a new album, hopefully in January.

Will it be on Pagan?

JT: No, on the Medicine Label and it will be hopefully released all over the world and people will buy it! Woo Hoo!!!

JT: Some people, my Mom will buy it for sure...

B: My uncle...

You have done something for Larry Heard; how was it?

JT+B: YEAH!

JT: We remixed it.

B: That was the most, hmm, money we've been paid for a remix. It really helped, you know. It was really nice, the guy that ask us to do it, he was really doing us a big favor.

JT: Yeah!

B: He wanted us to do well, when he said: "Do this remix, I'll put it out, and I'll give you this much money and..."

JT: It was more the fact that he found out and said "You want to remix Larry Heard?," and it was: YES! YES!

JT+B: Of course...

JT: Even though the record, the original, was one of his best tracks, we just tried to use bits of it and make something that has the feeling of his works, you know, the timeless stuff. That kind of soulful, melancholic vibe. I don't know if we got there but we put a lot of effort into it. It was like, this has got to sound good. We've done other remixes that, maybe we spent less time on them, and you know, this one that was, like, special.

As we notice on your Internet site and on your album you got a sensibility for picture, who is the art lover?

B: We are both, we are both totally into photography and art.

JT: Leisure, architecture...

B: ... and we are just walking around, look at that sign or look at that highway or, you know, there's always a detail everywhere. And a lot of people look at them and go "You know, you're fucking crazy!"

JT: What's the big deal about that?!

B: We see something else in it. I wanted to be a photographer for a while. I studied that and I wanted to be a professional photographer but I thought that the business is just hard, a really hard business.

JT: We like to... We made the music and then we know what... Cause we know the music, we made the image as well. It's all coming from us. I think, if you make an album and give it to someone else, they design a cover, it is their interpretation, whereas with us, it is sort of a complete package. On the new record it's the same thing, it's all our imagery. Hopefully it will be just as good as the last one.

B: Yeah, it's hard to do though. The first one is easy to do and then you have a reputation for the music, style and the artistic content. The second album is much harder because people would expect much more of you, you know, so...

JT: People know you... You do your first record; no one knows who you are, no one knows who did it. It just goes out there and once established something then you're known as that so we're coming with something a bit, it's a lot more different than the other album, a lot denser and more varied as well.

B: ... better produced.

JT: ... better produced!

B: We spent about 8 months making it. The first album just kinda fell together, because we made like, three 12 inches on our own label and then this guy said to us, who's an old friend of ours and who also used to work for Island records... He ran a label in New York, the Medicine Label. We met him totally by accident one day and he says: "What you guys doing" and we said "Oh! We're making music now," and he said "let me hear it!" So we gave him a record and he said "I love it, make an album and I'll put it out." That's how Swayzak kind of developed.

What's the name of the guy?

B: The guy is Kevin Patrick, he runs Medicine Label and...

JT: He's our friend.

B: He's a really good friend and we trust him and he's totally into what we do.

He's the first one who believed in you?

B: Yeah, yeah!

JT: He's not a dance music person really. I mean his background is Rock'n'Roll and he saw something there I guess: fair play to him.

He can appreciate good music?

JT: Yeah, I guess, I guess...

Reading your page on the Internet, I noticed that you are involved in many projects. Is it important for you to be on the scene and give a chance to new artists?

JT: Yeah a lot! Most of it comes from traveling, you know. We visit lots of places and meet lots of people. More and more people have been giving us music as we go around: some of it is really good! We have a label and we want to put some of them out, so it's simple as that.

B: Yeah, there's people that we met who want to come DJ in London. Whatever and they say to us "Can you guys help us work in London?" We're like "No, we can't. London is just too much going on." We're trying to do a little club in London, it's really hard to get people there and...

JT: So much competition!

B: Yeah!

JT: We're doing a midweek thing and that's really hard. London is so big and everything is so spread out.

B: Doesn't really matter.

JT: We haven't enough places to play...

You have to come here more often!

JT: Yes!

B: We just want people to hear music that we like.

JT: So that people, when we travel around, turn us on to a lot of music that we don't know about. You go visit record shop, they're like "Have you heard this? No what is this?" You know, is like they play you stuff, talk about it. So we get stuff like those people too, so...

B: They influence us.

JT: Yeah!

There's a lot of things going on right now with a sound that have been called Tech-House. Do you think there's a new definition for this sound or is it just a sound that already exists and now they gave it a name?

JT: I think it's the second one.

B: I think it's just a blend of people listening to House music now and they're like, not very old. It's more like original house music but you add more, sort of, Techno sounds to it that's just make it a bit tougher.

JT: To me, it's all house music. When it first started, it was all house music and then everything else was coming from that. So a lot of the sounds and a lot of the records that are coming out now have got a definite foot in the past and they know the history and they're quite similar to a lot of the early house records. There was very little going on 'cause they really didn't have much equipment and it was really similar to the Tech-House thing. People in bedrooms banging out tracks whenever they can. So that, by it's nature, makes it. Sounds a little bit like the old stuff and it's got feeling. There's a lot of spirit into it and in the same time, you know, there's wicked things going on in the Electro stuff coming out in Germany, Belgium and France.

It's making a come back?

JT+B: Yeah, yeah, yeah!

JT: It's been 20 years!

B: It's really retro but I think it works a lot there now.

JT: It's got better production. People are using more hip sounds with it. You know, taking on to, I mean when the Electro thing first kinda started there wasn't really much house music around then, it was mainly hip-hop. So now, we kinda mix hip-hop with house music. It is good to mix stuff like that together... Not that I can mix [laughs].

You're on tour now?

JT: We started in Vancouver, we arrived there and we spent two days there, resting for the journey. Then we went to Victoria (BC) and we played at the Jet Lounge. Which was wicked, really good, nice little scene over there. Lots of young people really into it, mellow. Then we took the boat down from Victoria to Seattle and we drove down to Portland and played there. Which was... God... What was Portland like? Mumble Mumble, it was really good [laughs]. No, it was alright, it was like a Wednesday night so it was really quiet. And we were really tired. You know knackered.

B: Exhausted!

JT: Just knackered, beat, bushed...

B+JT: Fatigués, très fatigués!

JT: Waxed, definitely waxed. No, it wasn't the best show...

B: Then we played Seattle, at a festival...

JT: That was good...

B: Good crowd, good people...

JT: Candy ravers...

B: Yeah! Candy ravers...

JT: But it's good for us to play to them cause we don't normally get to that kind of audience. It's a challenge for us, so we just play really loud. They seem to get into it. It took a little while. We got them at the end, once we started dancing. We left Seattle, went back to Vancouver and then flew to Montréal. And we played at the Vibesensor Studio, living bedroom party.

B: A lot of freaks there...

JT: Yeah... [laughs] I was hot, c'est chaud. It was a wicked gig, really good. My hair was standing up, I had the shivers, 3 times, it's good for one gig!!!

What was your favorite gig on your tour, 'til now?

JT: Montreal and then Seattle. I liked Ottawa, Ottawa was good.

B: I had fun last night...

JT: It was a relaxed vibe.

B: Everyplace is different. There's always something special...

Thanks a lot...