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Interview
by SashaS
9-7-2001
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| Public Domain - Hard hop-ing superstars |
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An exclusive public domain
Scots crew rope in legendary rap-head Chuck D for their album's brash fusion of hip hop, hard house and intelligent beats...
Public Domain's singer might be called Mallorca Lee but the band, that served us infectious singte 'Operation Blade (Bass rn The Place)' few months back, is based in a Scottish coastal town of Ayr, 35 miles southwest of Glasgaw. And, it was one of the house parties in the town that started the whole disc spinning; Atistair McIsaac met James Allen in 1995 and both went to study sound engineering in Glasgow.
Mark Sherry was a radjo jock (on Glasgow's WestFM), had a band The Casio Brothers with DJ Trevar Riley (of Trevor & Simon 'Put Your Hands Up') but after one album, 'Anthems', things fell apart; Lee was part of Ultrasonic during the early 1995, then the Bikini State project which barely left a studio. The four got together in 1998. and started working on sounds that would eventually turn out to be 'Operation Blade', now succeeded by 'Rock The Funky Beats' and the debut album 'Hard Hop Superstars'.
"The title of the album simply states what we are all about," Sherry represents the views on the band's behalf, "a mixture of Hard House and hip-hop. There are 10 tracks on it and six or seven are hard house/trance/underground cuts and three hip-hap songs. It is a diverse sounding album because we didn't want to make ten versions of 'Operation Blade'. There is a track on the album, 'Too Many MCs', which is like a Limp Bizkit song, and there is a very good underground track, 'Just A Groove'..."
"We've created a new genre of music;" Sherry has his Scots tongue firmly stuck in his cheek, "and had to invent a new name for it."
Fight for your right
The first day of Public-Domain's showcasing the album took place at the London's Institute Of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and the background to it were the Mayday riots. Having Chuck D guesting on the track and appearing onstage that evening, they appear to be moving in the right circles...
"Well, not really," Sherry laughs. "We hadn''t met Chuck D before he arrived at the ICA. It was a complete honour for us to have him appear on the record which is down to Alex Gold, from our label; he called Chuck's manager and asked if he could do a vocal, appear in a video and do some gigs with us in the UK. He was interested and we sent him a DAT of the track, Chuck did the vocal and we only needed to remix it. We all have been great fans of Public Enemy for such a long time and to have him on our album... It's tike (Wayne's Warld's) 'We are not worthy!'"
To keep partying...
Public Domain liven the ICA event with banks of machines but in a few instances they revert to guitars. They cut a fine figure live, with Lee an energetic and personable frontman. Soon after their formation Bournemouth-based Xtravaganza records signed them up and created a special imprint for them, Xtrahand, which must have been ego-boosting...
"We had no idea about it," Sherry states. in his resonant Glasgow accent, "and it was very pleasing. But, I don't think: we'll ever become big headed because we live in Scotland. Down here, in London in particular, people are more pretentious about music. Th club scene in Scotland is much more open-minded and demands to hear different kinds of music and not only one type all night long. I think that's reflected in our album and we are a Scottish band, proud to be Scottish, and there's no one else in Scotland doing what we do. Hopefully people will realise that."
"We all are party animals," he concludes the party political broadcast, "and only want to get through to the weekend and have a good time, have laugh, party with people."
"We ara just four boys-next-door," Lee adds from the background, "who basically want to have good time and get the feeling across."
SashaS
9-7-2001
Public Domain's album 'Hard Hop Superstars' is released 09 July on Xtrahand/SINE
Guest editor: Deirdre Molloy
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