Red Bull Studios threw some production based questions at the picnic stealing duo who took over the Studio back in July 2010 and late 2011 to record tracks for their album Be Strong and work with Jam Factory. 2 bears is Joe Goddard from Hot Chip and badman DJ Raf Daddy from London Town. The grizzlies chatted to us whilst thrashing it out over table tennis lifting the lid on everything from cow bells to Sequential Circuits.
How do Bears sample?
Raf: It doesn’t have to come from anywhere particular, if you are making a house record it wouldn’t be a good idea to take a new house record that you really love because you are making the same thing. You are better off taking a Mongolian nose flute record and trying to make it into house music.
Joe: You can sometimes get the best samples from unexpected places like library records. House music has always been about taking samples from unusual places. People get more excited in the dance when they hear something they’ve never heard before. If you can find something like that then you’re onto a winner. For instance the vuvuzelas have been appearing in loads of tunes because it’s an interesting and unusual sound.
How do you arrange beats in the studio and split responsibilities?
Raf: Sometimes it starts with a sample that I bring - like the tune we’ve been doing here [Red Bull Studios] Joe has a beat and a tune and I had a song that ‘almost’ fitted so we piddled around to put it together.
Joe: It can come from either one of us and from a lot of different methods. There have been some [songs] where Raf has just written a nice country ballad and I have helped him produce it. It’s drums, then bassline and then on top of that chords.
Raf: You will quite often sit there and put loads of bits and pieces in and then its too busy. It’s the process of taking bits and pieces out that you find something else.
How do Bears in the city like their drums?
Raf: Heavy!
Joe: Like Phife Dawg from a Tribe Called Quest says, ‘I like them hard like two day old sh*t.’ [laughs heartily]
Bear plug-ins?
Joe: Me and Raf have been using these really good samples of a 909 and 808 drum machines made by a company called Gold Sounds [an Australian company]. They are samples from the drum machine recorded onto tape and have this nice crunchy sound.They sound like old house records basically, which is what you want. The synths I use are often this company Autechre they make lots of plug in version of old synthesizers, old Moog’s and things like that, I use them loads.
Tell us about your little black box?
Joe: Well I bought a Doefermodular synthesiser, I like that.
Raf: That’s good, is it that the box?
Joe: Yeah, that’s the box that made all the synthesizer sounds on the tune Work It Out. I like the Moogerfooger pedals like delay, mirth and fazer which they’ve got in the [Red Bull] Studio as well. I love all the Dave Smith stuff basically the dude that started Sequential Circuits, he used to make the old Profit synthesiser and he is still doing that, making new versions that are wicked. When we were in San Francisco he comes to the [Hot Chip] shows and he is a lovely guy. His family come along they are very nice and they give us his new products before they are released. We use loads of them in our live show and when we are recording.
You play the kalimba (thumb piano) in the tune Church, what is the weirdest piece of percussion you’ve laid your paws on?
Raf: Cow bell, a really nice cow bell.
Joe: I’ve actually got a proper cow bell of a cow, a rusty old one..
Raf: Did you rob it off a cow [motions to feed cow] ‘come on Daisy, come on.’
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