Dan Morelle

Following on from my interview with Talvin Singh, in May 1999 I spoke to Ollie Teeba and Jake Wherry AKA The Herbaliser in who were releasing their new album ‘Very Mercenary‘. I had learned my lesson to let the interviewee speak and not make the interview about me. It helped that they were very chatty and I had their records in my box. Here we go:

After a hiatus of two years The Herbaliser, a crew led by Jake Wherry and DJ Ollie Teeba, have emerged from their home made studio in Twickenham to unleash their third album. Jake took time out of his busy schedule of rehearsing for the forthcoming tour and spoke to Dan Morelle.

After playing over 250 gigs when touring your last two albums Blow Your Headphones and Remedies don’t you get a bit bored?
It is fun and stuff, it is better than having a normal job and shit but at the same time when you’ve got to be going away from home, if people don’t sort you out and have drinks and shit. When it goes below that standard people in the band start losing their temper. You can understand why people get a reputation for being difficult.

Are you trying to say anything with your music?
We’re instrumentalists and we’re not expressing anything verbal through our music. Sometimes people intellectualise us and ask us what’s the meaning behind a particular song, when there isn’t one.

You do use MC’s though, how do you find them?
On our first album we had one MC, that was Fabian and on the next one we had Fabian and Big 10, Then we got together with What What and that was just through one of our coproducers, a guy called Malachi, he puts jazz compilations together, he knew What What’s mother who sang with Duke Ellington, she’s an old jazz singer who lives in New York. She mentioned her daughter was a rapper. She was in England a few years ago and was doing a session a few years ago for US3, they basically tried to pull some move on her and she wasn’t into the music so she blew the session out and
Malachi got her money and sorted her out, just before she flew home she popped into the studio and hung out with us. She said “yeah, I’ll do some stuff for you,” but we never heard her rap and then she sent us one of her 12 “s. It was wicked so we got her over.

How long has it taken you to put ‘Very Mercenary’ together?
In October me and Ollie took alot of time out and worked right up until two weeks ago every day and every night since October to make that album and we’re really f**ked, stressed out and tired.

How did you get signed to Ninja Tune?
I was at school with PC who’s one half of Dj Food and we had a band in 1984. In 1991 I saw him at a Digable Planets gig in London and he said he was working for Ninja Tune, they didn’t have any artists then, they were just a breakbeat label. About a year later we had put together two or three instumental beats, there was no one else who would sign it really. I sent the same tape to Mo Wax but they never responded. There weren’t many labels that would have put it out, the whole label grown since then.

Do you do many gigs at student venues?
To be honest through doing gigs with myoid Funk band, I try to steer clear of Student gigs. They’re just the most bureacratically challenged gigs you could ever imagine. I did my first ever Herbaliser Dj gig atYork University three weeks ago and I just couldn’t get on because of the rules, they were like “oh yeah, the stewards, they’re gonna come looking for The Herbaliser and they’re gonna search them for drugs and shit”

Can it change?
It’s understanable that there is so much bureaucracy in the Universities: Education boards, Local Councils rules and shit. We’re not saying we’re not going to do any but I’d prefer not to do too many because I’ve already done them with my Funk band. The crowds are always good but it’s better to play a proper venue.

What sorts of music are you into?
Lots of jazz, soundtrack music, Lalo Schifrin, Quincey jones, David Axelrod, Freddy Hubbard, not so much traditional jazz, more the experimental and funky stuff.

How do you go about putting an album together?
Just start with a sample that sounds good go with that and keep adding to it. It’s a full time job but I like fu**ing around with Apple Macs and playing video games and buying records.

Do you use computers alot?
We did both of our last albums on a Mac 2 Classic, a 1984 one and then just before we did ‘Wall Crawling Giant Insect Breaks’ I got a Power Mac. That still took 6 days of day and night editing to get all those samples together I got 70 or 80 records to loop at I 10bpm all being able to play on top of each other really tight and chopped up.

Are you surprised at The Herbaliser’s success?
Herbaliser was never meant to be as successful as it was. I think the band certainly helps us get more places in the world, everywhere we go I’m always surprised at how many people know us.

Do you ever get much bad press?
We’re not really lining ourselves up for it, we’re not industry darlings like Fat Boy Slim whose in every magazine you read at the moment. We’re just serious people trying to make serious music.

The Herbaliser’s Very Mercenary is out now.