Producer Jamie xx has spoken about working on his new Gil Scott Heron remix album.
Stepping out from the shadows of The xx, Jamie xx has emerged as an extremely talented producer and DJ. Releasing only a few remixes thus far, the London beatsmith has earned a stunning reputation.
Chosen by XL to remix Gil Scott Heron's moving comeback album 'I'm New Here' Jamie xx has risen to the challenge. Re-tooled as 'We're New Here' only a handful of tracks has thus far emerged.
Now dubstep commentator Blackdown has published an interview with the producer focussing on the project. A Rinse FM mainstay, Blackdown is one of the most articulate spokesmen for the bass music scene.
Asked to deliver sleevenotes for 'We're New Here' the DJ embarked on an in depth interview with Jamie xx. Publishing the entire interview on his blog, the entire article makes for fascinating reading.
Reflecting on how the project started, Jamie xx recalled his remix of Florence And The Machine's 'You've Got The Love'. "It came about because of the Florence remix that I did, Richard Russell and people at XL were into it, and the Gil Scott Heron album was his project, the first thing he’d done in a long time. So I was really honoured to be asked to do it."
"It was daunting but I felt like I could do it because I’d been listening to Gil for ages anyway and it’s something I really wanted to be involved in, because of the history and because it was one of the first things my parents played me when I was little."
Continuing, Jamie xx revealed that he employed some older Gil Scott Heron alongside the recent album. "We used some unreleased stuff that was recorded in the 1970s. They sent me that half way through making it because I wanted to use some of his old stuff… you can tell the difference in his voice, it’s changed so much."
"The older stuff is much more vocal rather than speaking, singing and more melodic I guess. And it was slower in tempo. So I didn’t have a plan for the older and newer stuff, I just wanted the whole album to sound like one piece of music. We tried to do that with the XX album too."
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