Exclusive interview!
After 30 years in the music industry, we welcome the original Acid Jazz musicians, Brand New Heavies, coming back to their hometown of Ealing for Ealing Jazz Festival. We are grateful to bring you this exclusive interview ahead of their headlining slot on Saturday 2nd August.
This year you’re celebrating a milestone of 30 years, what does it mean to you to still be making music?
To be still making music and still touring all over the world after 30 years is a blessing. We still can’t believe it ourselves. I think we made a big statement in the 90s by standing out from the crowd, sticking to our own style of dance music, Acid Jazz, when everything else was Acid House.
We also wrote some great songs which have stood the test of time and we love our jobs as you’ll see on stage when we play our hometown Ealing for the first time ever.
How has the band changed over the years?
There’s always the saying that if it ain’t broke. And I guess we’ve been unconsciously keeping everything as close as possible to what we were doing in the 90s in terms of energy on stage and delivering the songs as authentically as possible. We’ve recently added an orchestra version of our show which completely reignited interest in a lot of our original fans from the Brother Sister days. This will hopefully be coming to a stage near you very soon.
What have been some of your highlights from the past 30 years?
We met a lot of our musical heroes and got the opportunity to support James Brown at Wembley Arena where he stood and watched a whole soundtrack rehearsal. That was an honour because we all learn how to play funky music through listening to his music. Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Lenny Kravitz… with some of the names we had a pleasure of meeting when we were recording in Los Angeles and New York.
From Ealing originally, how does it feel to be performing this year at the Ealing Jazz Festival?
It’s gonna feel very special and we can’t quite believe it’s taken 30 years to come back. We all used to play in Walpole Park in Ealing Broadway, Simon sends apologies to the park keepers for getting them to chase him and his mates in the 70’s! It’s gonna be fun to reminisce once we’re there on stage.
What can we expect from you at the festival?
Expect a lively fun show and definitely wear your dancing shoes!!
What else can we look forward to?
We have some festivals throughout the summer in the UK, including two shows with Niles Rogers from CHIC, plus a European tour starting in October. Check our website out for detail details. There is also something very special coming next spring which we will be announcing very soon.
Over the years, you’ve worked with lots of amazing music artists, who would you love to collaborate with if you could work with any artist?
I personally would love to work with Diana Ross, Toni Braxton, Diane Warren, Celine Dion, Mica Paris to name a few…
Thanks to the Brand New Heavies for taking time out of their busy schedule to speak with us.
