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Sweet Baboo Interview!
Stephen Black (aka Sweet Baboo) has had an amazing year so far, making his way across the UK playing at every festival going, as well as touring with Cate Le Bon, Slow Club and H. Hawkline. We managed to grab hold of him in between shows to quiz him about his upcoming release, and how he plans to spend the rest of 2011.
Be sure to check out the track "The Day I Lost My Voice", which is available as a free download. You can also watch the video for the track on Vimeo.
Your influences seem to be pretty varied. Who did you have in mind when you were recording the Girl Under A Tree EP?
At the time I think I was listening to a lot of music by a band called Woods, and stuff associated with them like Ducktails and Real Estate so I tried to rip these records off best I could, unfortunately I'm not quite as cool and American as them so it turned out like it did. I'd also done some recording with another band, Wickes, just before recording the EP where we tried as best we could to mess about with as much of the sounds as I we could, so I took a lot of inspiration from that too.
The record is availiable on Download and Vinyl, a nice mix of old school and new school. What was the thinking behind cutting out the middle ground of CD?
Um, I don't think there was much thinking behind it really, the record label Shape, only make limited runs of vinyl. It's great 'cause it's easily manageable, you can see them going down and there are a lot less boxes in the house than if you made a 1000 cd's. To hold as well, Vinyl is so much nicer than cd, the artwork always looks better big. As for download, I think it would be silly to ostracise (right word?) people who don't have a record player. Most people I know now only buy records and mp3's, I hope the cd is on the way out really.
You're touring with Slow Club straight after the EP's release. What will you be doing to make sure their audience remembers the name Sweet Baboo?
I'm not sure, a stage outfit?
How was the festival season for Sweet Baboo? Any highlights or lowlights to share?
I've done a fair few festivals this year. I don't think there's been many lowlights, highlights were playing with Jonny (Euros Childs and Norman Blake) and Gruff Rhys at Glastonbury, making a serious racket at Green Man Festival playing in my friend Huw's band called H. Hawkline, playing in Daniel Johnston's backing band at Wilderness Festival and the whole of the Fence Collective's Home Game up in Fife, where I was fortunate enough to play as Sweet Baboo, as well as in Cate Le Bon and Slow Club's bands.
You've worked with some famous names in the past. Will any of them be returing the favour on any of your live dates or future releases?
I don't know, if any of them ever wanted to that would be great.
How is it pursuing a career in music from the North Wales countryside? Are there pros and cons to being outside of the big city?
I don't actually live in North Wales anymore (maybe I should change my press release) I live in Cardiff now. I did live there for over a year though before moving back. I loved it, peace and quiet, loads of space and where I lived no neighbours around for a good 100 yards so I could make as much noise as I wanted to really. The only con was that it took an awful long time to get to London and back.
You've already done some BBC sessions for 6 Music. If you were invited to the Live Lounge, what would your 'quirky' cover version be?
Freak Me by Another Level
Girl Under A Tree will be released via Shape Records on 19th Sept 2011 on limited 10” white vinyl / Download.
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