JAS
“This felt like an opener. I started with these raw musical sketches, but they needed vocals. I didn’t really want to go down the sort of top-line route and get singers in, so I just dug for acapellas and I came across this one from Barbara Ann Teer [Black
Theater]. Mood II Swing had sampled it years ago. And Mark Farina used it in his DJ sets.
“It came from a recording that’s a half hour sit-down interview, and I literally just sat there in my studio and played it from start to finish. I’d only ever heard little snippets, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing’.
“What she said resonated with what I was trying to say. The sentiment of it. I didn’t want to be one dimensional. She was saying that for me. Then we jammed a sort of free jazz thing over it, like soundtracking movie dialogue.”
Feelings
“This one has my friend Ben Onono doing an impression of Nina Simone on it. He’s a diva [laughs] and Nina is his favourite musician.
“I actually got him to sing it in a different key and then pitch it down and stuff. So we had a little play around with techniques on that one just in order
