Pop music: soundbites

Soundbites: Paul Godfrey, songwriter/DJ/beeps and loops man of Morcheeba

Paul Godfrey, songwriter/DJ/beeps and loops man of Morcheeba

What does Morcheeba stand for?

Cheeba is slang for marijuana, and more is because we want more of it! We dropped the e, because we don't like E's as a chemical substance, the behavioural patterns of getting high and then miserable all week.

Where are you now?

Off to America to do a promo tour in April. It should be fun out there: women are very up front about their sexual intentions.

Easy women are touring entertainment then?

Of sorts. Our new keyboard player, who is only 24, has just jacked in his management consultant career to become a musician. Anyway, he went to Marks & Spencers' to buy a pair of pants, and didn't realise that he had brought a very small pair. He is not used to buying his own pants, and thought that the staff should be trained to know on sight.

Apart from not being able to do things people consider normal, what is the best thing about touring?

When you arrive in a town and are under the false opinion that you own it for the evening. That, and sleeping on a bus with 10 men!

Where would we find Morcheeba in a record shop?

It should be positioned in the front window with a sign saying "thank god, they are here at last". It's trip-hop, and I am more than happy with that label. Call it what you want, it's only the indie music press that has an obsession with the here and now, rather than just music. Ours is laid-back music, a multi-cultural blend of a lot of styles, with influences as diverse as Joseph Spence, a blues guitarist from Bahamas, Nick Drake, Run DMC (but not their recent collaboration with that bloke who ruined their record), and Sky likes country and western. Big Calm is really different from our last album. Every track is a different adventure or journey, from darkness to light.

Is there somewhere and someone who you would most like to play with?

Joanne Guest (geddit?). Musically I would most like to play with... I dunno actually, I don't really have musical heroes anymore. But I would like to perform in the Royal Albert Hall, just 'cos it's a beautiful place, and my mum could have a box and loads of champagne.

And the future...

I am not sure how things are going to develop. We are in the process of writing a sci-fi book. Just flipping around experimenting with art forms, and proving to ourselves that we are capable of anything.

Big Calm has just been released on Indochina.

Jennifer Rodger