British electro-hop pioneers Massive Attack have never failed to deliver conscience, dark, deep, sexy tunes wrapped warmly in their dense experimental vibe. The duo’s fifth studio record Heligoland is no exception. However, they’ve kept us waiting for another taste of their live LED screen, political stream, pulse-groove for the past four years. Well we can now push past that yearn as the duo launch their nine-date U.S. tour tomorrow in Toronto. URB caught the band’s Grant “Daddy G” Marshall by phone from his basement in Bristol to chat new collaborations, ’70s influences, and money saving.
URB: What state of mind were you in when creating Heligoland?
A good state of mind. We made it sound like…maybe the person who is listening to it is in the same room as us, like sitting on the couch. There are a lot more collaborators involved. There is a lot more of a harmony vibe. It’s slightly warmer. We wanted to strip it down to its easiest common denominator, which is simple music. We wanted it to sound a lot more direct and live. We’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re maybe just changing the shape of it a little bit.
When working on collaborations, do you and Robert “3D” Del Naja already have someone in mind when you’re creating or song or does that element come into play later?
It is two fold really. We can be working one night and go ‘hold on, this is the track for…’ But sometimes we have a body of tracks together and we’ll send like four or five to somebody like Hope Sandoval and have them listen and see which ones they like.
What are your roles now, or does it shift with each song – someone writes the other creates the beat? What’s your system?
It’s very selfish actually. With us we’ll initiate tracks individually and then take it to the studio. Sometimes we’ll take it through to fruition and [Robert] will ask me to come on board at that stage. We’ll bring each other in when we think we need them. We usually start with a simple loop and then maybe get someone in to play bass lines and drums and build it up from there.
Has anyone ever turned down a collaboration offer?
Only Patti Smith. It’s her loss not ours.
What was her reason for not wanting to work with you?
There wasn’t a reason. She just never got back to us, which I thought was rather rude.
Maybe she didn’t get the message.
Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she’s got a manager who didn’t pass it on. If he’s reading this tell him he’s done his client a real disfavor.
Noted. So who else would you like to work with? Robert’s mentioned Aaron Neville and Tom Waits.
Someone like Annie Lennox would be great. Polly Harvey. Even George Michael. [Robert's] been doing some things with Mike Patton. You know Faith No More. But the Tom Waits thing is a done deal. We were going to work with him, but it never quite happened.
[...] Whole interesting interview you can find on URB Magazine site. [...]